Reading Patterns and Charts: September 10 Meeting Preview

Do you love to crochet but feel like you're looking at a foreign language when you try to read a crochet pattern? Have you tried to decipher symbol diagrams but they look like heiroglyphics (or maybe chicken scratchings) instead of helpful  instructions? Or maybe you've struggled through instructions but sure would like some tips to make reading them easier? If any of these ring a bell with you, then we hope you can join us on September 10 from 2:30pm to 4:30pm at our regular meeting spot, Borealis Yarns.

The meeting will be a formal meeting with instruction from Hilary and a chance for everyone to practice their pattern-reading skills on a specific project. The project that will be used for the class is Sweet Lorraine Lace Throw, a Doris Chan pattern that is available in the Fall 2008 issue of Interweave Crochet. This is a wonderful pattern that can be modified easily to make anything from a quick scarf to a luxurious stole.

You'll need to bring the following materials to this meeting:

• A copy of the pattern if you have the magazine.
  (If you don't have that particular issue, there are members who have volunteered to share their copy at the meeting.)
• One or more skeins of a solid or heather yarn (the pattern does NOT work up well in variegated yarn)
• Appropriate size hook for the yarn

Although the pattern is published for worsted weight yarn and size I9 (5.5 mm) crochet hook, Hilary says the pattern scales up and down beautifully. So you could use sport or DK weight for a lighter, lacier scarf or a bulky for a heavier scarf suitable for cooler weather.

Hope to see you at the meeting!

Need help in finding new location for larger group (August 2011)

The good news: Crochet Twin Cities is growing - thanks to the enthusiasm of our members and the publicity of the recent conference.

The not-so-good news: We may soon outgrow our current meeting location at Borealis Yarns.

At a recent program committee meeting, we took stock of the situation and the result is this post, which a request asking all members to help scout-out a new location, keeping these requirements in mind:

• Ample and easily-accessible parking (free preferred, low-cost would be OK)
• Central location - roughly within the area bounded by I-35E east, I-35W west, I-694 north, and I-494 south
• A room that is large enough to accommodate 20 - 30 people
• A room with good lighting and air flow
• A room that is private (as our current location is) as opposed to public (table in a library)
• Free or very low-cost - at this point we don't have a dues system, just suggested $1 donation per person per meeting so our budget is minimal
• We don't think a restaurant or a bar is a good option for our group (it's awkward because people feel obligated to buy food and drink.)

At the recent conference, these were some of the ideas that other chapters offered for meeting rooms:

• Community centers
• Libraries
• Churches

If you have a suggestion for a specific location, please send an email to Maxine or add a comment to this blog entry. I will post compile all suggestions (we actually have some already) and post a google doc that we can use to track our ideas.

There will definitely be an opportunity to "cuss and discuss" this topic at the end of the next meeting. We want to keep our meeting focus on crocheting but also take care of any chapter business if needed.

And a final note: Our current location is securely registered for us as long as we need (thank you Carol) so this is not a crisis situation. We're just being proactive and, if we do find a new location that's suitable to the group, they'll be plenty of notification.

Meeting Highlights: Granny Squares and More

We had an excellent turnout for our August meeting.  Of course, some of us were still coasting off the high of the CGOA Chain Link Conference.  Gail and Carol taught us the basics of granny squares, triangles, hexagons and rectangles.  Three (Kathy, Shelly and Jean) were attending their first Crochet Twin Cities meeting—welcome to all!

As mentioned in the blog post on the CGOA Chain Link Conference, Gail won a $250 gift certificate
by crocheting the most hats for the Northern Illinois Chapter hat challenge.  She agreed to bring in the five skeins she purchased with her winnings.  The skein on the top right is a silk/mohair blend and feels absolutely wonderful--you have to touch this one to believe it.  The middle skein has teeny tiny beads every few inches (click on the image to blow it up and see those little beads). The skein on the bottom left is alpaca, harvested and spun right here in Minnesota.  We all look forward to seeing what Gail will do with these yarns. 

On to the business of the meeting: grannies.

Granny squares are frequently made of groups of three double crochets (dc), with a shell (3dc, ch3, 3dc) in the corner.  You can work from one side only, so that there is a right and a wrong side, or you can turn after every row, resulting in no right or wrong side.  Some things to remember:

• There are many, many variations on the basic granny.  To see some of them, consult a book of crochet motifs, such as Edie Eckman's Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs.
• If you choose to have a right side and use a single color for several rows, you likely will slip stitch across two dc after joining a round. 
• The number of chains between groups of 3 dc can depend upon the weight of the yarn used.  When using a cotton worsted weight (like Sugar ‘n Cream), you might want to use three chains (or more) in the corners and two chains on the sides.
• Grannies do not have to be square, and they don't all have to be the same size.   Different sized motifs can be used together.  Search Ravelry patterns for granny and you will see many different uses.
• Hexagonal grannies can be made to that they lay flat (check out a motif book for examples).  They can also be constructed similarly to squares.  Use the same proportions as for as square, but instead of four groups of three dc in the first row, use six groups of three dc and proceed as for a square.  The result is a motif that will not lay flat, but it will fold up into a flat L-shaped motif.  This flat L motif can be used as the basis for a sweater for babies or adults.  Check out Ravely for examples for an adult shrug or a baby sweater.

Rectangular grannies can be any length you desire.  Carol’s granny did not start with a basic chain, but with a series of connected loops (ch3, dc into first ch, and repeat to desired length).  This is the same method that Red Heart yarn distributed in a recent email.  Click this link to see a YouTube tutorial.  Carol's method of joining rounds used double crochet (where two chains were used in corners) or half double crochet (where single chains were used, as on the sides of rectangles).  This method of joining is familiar to those who make doilies and need to join rounds in areas that use large numbers of chains.   Carol used this method of joining with heavier yarns, such as cotton worsted; using slip stitches across double crochet can result in noticeably denser areas when using heavier yarns.  On Ravelry, you can link to a free jacket pattern by Caron that uses various sized grannies in one garment.

If you want more ideas for using granny squares, check out Interweave Crochet’s free eBook, which contains 8 different project patterns.  http://www.crochetme.com/Crochet-Granny-Squares/

According to our survey, many of you are interested in entering the Minnesota State Fair and other fairs.  For show and tell, Kathy brought a wool crocheted hat and scarf [picture on the Gallery post] that won a blue ribbon at the Dakota County Fair.  Carla brought along the booklet outlining what you need to do to enter your crochet project in the Minnesota State Fair.  You can also view the entry booklet online.  Apparently, not all judges are created equal, with some giving more points to projects in white or ecru (meaning, projects in other colors are downgraded).  If you do enter the state fair, you will receive a document outlining how your project was judged.  There is still time for you to enter the Minnesota State Fair.  Get those entries in!

We had a good number of show-and-tells at this meeting, including Jeanne wearing the dress she had been working on several meetings ago.  Check out the project gallery post for photos.

For the September meeting, Hilary will be presenting a topic that came out at the top of the member survey: reading and understanding crochet patterns and symbols.  The project we will work on is Doris Chan’s Sweet Loraine Lace Throw (or scarf), found in the Fall 2008 issue of Interweave Crochet.  If you don’t have that particular issue, members will share their copies at the meeting.

Project Gallery August 2011

Due to popular demand, Joan graciously brought in a dinosaur hoodie that she had been working on for her grandson several years ago; the idea was intriguing and we wanted to see how it turned out. The pictures don't do it justice. The dinosaur "scales" start at the front of the hood and continue down the back to the bottom edge of the garment. It is so cute!

And because sisters can't be left out, Joan crocheted a princess hoodie for her granddaughter. Every princess needs a crown; this Joan fashioned out of crocheted flowers attached to the hood. A matching flower decorates the hand warmer. She used leftover yarn to make a matching hat and a "princess tiara" headband. Yes, those are "jewels" on the golden "tiara." The cute factor for hat, hoodie and headband was way up there. The wide variety of projects done by our members is truly inspiring.

Several of our members spin as well as crochet. Carmelle is one such person. She also dies her own yarns. She spun and dyed the yarns used in this shawl project. Maxine helped her finish off the project, which has been a long time in the making. The bottom of the shawl is lined with large motifs.

As some of you already know, Peggy recently had surgery. She is spending some of her time at home crocheting bookmarks. Gail, as always, is involved in using crochet to help and comfort people. Through Angels of Hope, she sent Peggy this angel.

Several months ago, Jeanne was working on a dress project that has dogged her for several years. When she says that she's been working on the dress for three years, don't be too sympathetic--she has only been crocheting a little longer than that. Few of us would attempt anything so challenging as a dress when just a beginner, but our Jeanne did, and this is the wonderful result--fits perfectly. Jeanne also finished the doily that she was working on at the Chain Link Conference.

Kathy also brought in several things to share. If you want to know what a blue-ribbon winner looks like, take a look at this hat and scarf set; Kathy won her ribbon at the Dakota County Fair. Kathy used a clever twisted loop closure with the perfect button on this felted purse.

Marilee belongs to a group with a Minnesota hot dish tradition--fifties food with Jell-O. And to serve it up right they use vintage patterned potholders and hot pads. Here's one that she has completed (on the left) and one in progress. You crochet two identical cloths, then single crochet them together with a contrasting color. 'Fess up, we all have potholders like this at home--but how many of us (besides Marilee) know how to make one?

Here's an example of one of Melanie's garments, done in thread crochet with size 10 cotton thread. Beautifully done and it fits perfectly. Now you can see how she earned her Master's Certificate from CGOA.

Carla brought in two broomstick lace hats. The lighter colored one was supposed to have a border of crocheted cables. After taking a Chain Link class in Tunisian, she decided to do that to the bottom of the dark blue hat. The rim crocheted, folded inside, and the edge attached with single crochet to give the edge a thicker, warmer feel.

Report from Zoe the Pig (August 2011)

Zoe the Pig is our treasurer. She has been collecting donations since last fall. Now she has her own blog page that reports on the amount of donations and how the money is being spent. (Plus her picture is on the page.)

Zoe has been a bit lazy in getting her report on the blog. Mostly because, up to this point, group expenses have been so minimal that members have been directly purchasing / procuring any items needed. And all money that Zoe has collected up to this point is still in her belly.

Thanks to the crochet conference lat month, things are changing. The conference was so successful that members need more of the guild "business cards". We don't want to impose on our donated source again so the group needs to authorize use of Zoe's funds for getting a professional print job. That means that it's time for Zoe to start posting a treasurer's balance sheet - so be sure to check out the Treasury page.

Update: March 11 2012 - Zoe is retiring! Treasury page has been removed. Instead, members will receive information about the treasury at monthly meetings.

Roving Crochet Reporter: Chain Link 2011 Conference Hightlights

What do you call someone who has attended every single Chain Link Conference but one?  Our Chapter President, Gail!

Yes, folks, Gail has attended all but the very first conference.  Her advice to us before the Minneapolis conference was to stay in the conference hotel, as you don’t want to miss any opportunity to meet other crocheters and make contacts.  Nobody heeded that advice, but Melanie and I wished we had.  I bussed to the conference (only a 20 minute trip, with one transfer) but Melanie drove from the far southwest suburbs (a very long drive).  And boy were we tired!  The three-hour classes require a lot of concentration.  Two tough classes in a day, and when it’s time to go home, the butt is dragging and the brain isn’t functioning, making for a tough commute whether you are doing a short bus ride or a long drive.  Consider that lesson learned.

What do you call someone not afraid of a challenge?  That’s Gail, again.  She took up the hat challenge issued by the Northern Illinois chapter.  Gail crocheted 190 hats.  Someone else did 208 hats.  The rules said you have to be present to win, and Gail was there.  So she has another name:  winner!  The prize was $250 to spend in the market place.  Gail spent that on five (yes, 5!) different skeins of luxury, fantasy yarn.  Silk.  A fine blend that has strung with teeny tiny beads.  Hand-dyed.  If you are going to win some money, don’t spend it on average stuff.  All I can say is, now I know what a $50 skein of yarn looks and feels like—it’s pretty darn nice!  We are all eager to see what she does with these yarns.

Lynn was also a winner—of the door prize at local yarn shop, 3 Kittens.  She’s looking forward to spending her gift certificate.  Lynn did not take any classes, but had a great time shopping and visiting with other crocheters on Friday.  What a treat to meet Evie Rosen, who started "Warm Up America".  She was there to teach beginner knitters, and graciously helped Lynn with some questions she had on a knitting project she was finishing up.  Rosen has such a great sense of humor and was very helpful.

One of the best things about attending conferences like Chain Link is meeting like-minded crafters.  The entire place was packed with potential friends, every one enthusiastic and willing to share.  Small talk was absolutely unnecessary—everyone just jumped right in.  As one person said, these were friends just waiting to be discovered.

The place was packed with what I call “walking refrigerators.”  For some people, “art” is what you buy and hang on your walls.  For others art is what you paste on your fridge—or throw on your sofa, or pin on your purse.  There were some lovely pieces thrown casually over shoulders (I remember a lavender alpaca lace shawl that I wish I’d photographed).  Everyone was willing to model or answer questions.  Melanie wore some sweaters crocheted from thread that caused the rest of us to drool.  Carla wore a shell that she had crocheted.

Another highlight was simply getting to know chapter members better.  Yeah, attending the conference is rather expensive, but if you are spending the money, might as well splurge on lunch at the conference hotel.  A number of us did that, and we discovered we enjoyed each others’ company even when we weren’t concentrating on crochet.

Let’s talk about classes.  All teachers aren’t created equal, but it can be a thrill to take a class from someone whose name you recognize from publications.  Julie took a tunisian class that inspired her to return to a lace-weight shawl that she had earlier set aside.  [A picture of that project was included in the 5th Saturday summary.]  Everyone walked away from class with swatches.  The smarter instructors provided attendees with tags to label the swatches.  You think you will remember what you did when you get home, but I’m here to tell you that isn’t always the case.  From some of our own chapter meetings, it is apparent that some (like Gail and Maxine) are pretty religious about tagging swatches.

Some tips learned:

• From a Lily Chin class:  don’t just tie knots in the tail to indicate hook size when doing swatches, crochet picots onto the last row crocheted—less likelihood that you will miss a knot and assume the incorrect hook size.
• Another tip mentioned in every class I took:  buy a complete set of hooks from one (each?) manufacturer.  Hooks tend to vary from manufacturer to manufacturer (and some older hooks are not similarly sized and/or shaped with modern hooks from the same manufacturer).  The differing hook shapes between manufacturers can trip you up when you are trying to make gauge.  Making gauge is the biggest problem in crochet.
• Buy one more skein than the pattern requires and swatch swatch swatch.  Since making gauge is such a problem, you need to swatch.  If you are worried you’ll run out of yarn or mess it up too much by frogging samples, give yourself a break and devote an entire skein to swatching.

Another word about classes:  I took three different ones from past president Marty Miller, who believes that if people are taking technique classes at a conference, the manufacturers should provide some yarn to work with.  My entire take of free yarn was fifteen skeins, including one ball of thread; most of it was cotton, including top brands. Not everyone came away with yarn from their classes—I sort of lucked out.

Two of our members participated in the professional development day, Gail and Maxine.  One person might be interested in doing contract crochet, another might be interested in designing, and another might be interested in the editorial side of producing patterns.  The professional development day provides a chance to make contacts with people in areas like this.  After hearing some of the teachers talk about what happened on Wednesday, I wished I had participated, even though I have no goals other than enjoying my craft.

Not sure who attended the banquet, but we know for sure that Melanie did.  She says it was wonderful to receive her Master of Crochet Stitches and Techniques pin on stage.  One of the best things about the banquet was the fact that you could actually sit there and knit and crochet!!  How many banquets/meetings have you been in where you really wanted to be able to do that and couldn’t?  Vickie Howell was a the commentator at the style show – filled with fun fashions!  Would love to have seen those, but will have to wait for CGOA to update their website.

The final bit of goodness was holding our 5th Saturday meeting at the conference and having some

Minnesota people as well as members of other chapters join us.  It was great that some of our members came to the conference even if they didn’t take any classes; some, like Jeanne and Jodi, came specially for the 5th Saturday meeting.  [There is a better picture with the 5th Saturday posting.]

The whole thing was a blast--hope I can go again.  And I hope I'll see you there!

UPDATE: August 13 meeting

We did not have enough interest for a formal StevenBe tour so our meeting location is:

• Meeting room at Borealis Yarns at 1340 Thomas Avenue in St. Paul (2:30PM-4:30PM). As part of this informal meeting, Gail will demo basic granny squares for anyone who needs a refresher.

In addition to the normal project sharing, we'll also allow plenty of time to share tips, ideas, and information from the recent conference. It was a very exciting and informative conference so it will be great to share our experience. We hope you can join us!

Highlights of our Chain Link 2011 Conference Get-Together

Our Fifth Saturday outing was held at the CGOA Chain Link conference. Some of us had been attending classes at the conference for several days before the meeting, and some came specially to the conference for the meeting. We covered some of the conference highlights (Gail’s winning the Chapter hat challenge—more reporting on that in another posting) and spent some time welcoming other conference attendees and potential chapter members to our group. Through Gail’s efforts we added three new names to our email list. 

Remember those stickers handed out at our last meeting? Carol put one on her back, which prompted someone in her first class to ask, “Do you know you have a sticker on you back?” Well, yes, she did—it was there to attract attention. And so it attracted the attention of other class members, including Brenda Bourg, editor of the Chain Link, a CGOA publication within Crochet! Magazine. Brenda came to our meeting to ask if we would write an article summing up the conference, to appear in Chain Link. Yes, we most certainly will write the article! The article will be an excellent opportunity for us to attract new members to our chapter.

As always, there were some projects to share. Some knitters had told me the first rule of attending a conference is never to bring a lace project or anything that requires concentration as you will screw it up. Our chapter members broke that rule royally. Lynn was crocheting a doily in size 20 thread (I was impressed). Julie’s tunisian class gave her the confidence to bring this lace-weight tunisian project to work on at the conference.

Jean, not usually a doily crocheter, brought this project to work on.

But we were all duly impressed that Joy would bring this doily in size 40 DMC Cordonnet (yes, 40!) to work on. Joy is not yet a member, but we sincerely hope she will join us.

A member of a MI chapter stopped by to chat about how we organized our chapter and tell us the process which her chapter is going through.  A member of the Northern Illinois chapter told us that her group meets in a public library—which, of course, is not available for free.  We met a crocheter from Rochester who thought we weren’t too far away and would be interested in attend a meeting.  The interest is out there, we just need to keep working to grow our group.


 [For a closer look, just click on any of the images in this post.]