Meeting Highlights: Altering Patterns

April 14^th was a beautiful day and a big day for fiber lovers—there was the Yarn Hop and the Textile Center garage sale competing for our members’ attention.

The officers have met recently and determined committees and volunteer opportunities available for our energetic and enthusiastic group. Please take a look at the list below and contact the person directly if you can help or send and an email to the CTClist email address.

• Education – We’d like to develop a simple skills test and a basic knowledge test that would help assess skills of beginners; such tests would make it easier to help new members. See Carol if you are interested.
• Publicity / Membership – This committee will determine how to publicize our group more effectively and reach out to new members. Some of the specific projects will be helping design an informational brochure about the group and determining how to maximize our presence on Ravelry and Facebook. If you have graphic arts or communications skills or are just enthusiastic about the group and have ideas about how to reach other crocheters, contact Peggy.
• Community Outreach - Carla has already spoken about some specific projects at an earlier meeting. Maxine will also be on this committee so you can contact her if you have ideas about other community outreach projects.
• Program - The program committee has chosen meeting topics for the rest of this calendar year; we are looking for new members who will help plan 2013 meetings. See Maxine, Peggy, or Jodi if interested.
• Retreat – We're planning a retreat weekend for the September Fifth Saturday meeting; the retreat would be a “sleep-over” with the opportunity to do nothing but crochet for a couple of days (ahh, heaven!!). See Jodi if you are interested in helping plan this event.
• Blog – Our blog needs to improve as we grow with things like search capability and ability for CTC members to easily post project photos to the blog. See Maxine if you’d be willing to test the new version of our blog.

We now have 18 paid members, including one who has never attended a meeting but wants to support the group (thanks, Denise). We have enough money in the treasury to pay our meeting space rental for the year, with enough left over to pay for duplicating brochures.

Julie shared a variety of yarns and patterns (lots of filet) that she picked up in Portugal.

Carol covered the basics of garment fit and pattern alteration, starting with measuring.  The only size-related measurement usually given for a crochet pattern is the bust measurement.  Often the pattern does not specify whether this measurement is actual bust circumference or finished size, and doesn’t indicate the amount of ease built into the pattern.  If your pattern has schematic drawings of pattern parts, you need to compare these measurements to your own measurements.  A good source for information on how to measure and standard size measurements, see the CraftYarn Council.
One important thing usually not noted is the amount of ease in a pattern.  Negative ease means form-fitting; positive ease means the garment has drape and floats on the body.  There are industry standards for ease.  Sometimes a publication will note that a garment was photographed with x-amount negative ease; this means the garment was x-inches smaller than the model's measurement.  Unfortunately, you don't know if the garment was designed with negative ease or only photographed that way.

There are two excellent books on fitting crocheted garments: 

• Couture Crochet Workshop, by Lily Chin
• Custom Crocheted Sweaters, by Dora Ohrenstein

Chin's book focuses on designing your own garment and making it fit.  Ohrenstein's book focuses on making existing patterns fit.  Although these two book cover some of the same territory, they actually complement each other.

Carol demonstrated the method Chin outlined in her book to produce a sloper, or, universal pattern piece for a sleeve and bodice.  The sloper, based on your choice of well-fitting long-sleeved T-shirt, indicates the minimum size and shape needed to fit you.  Crocheted fabric usually does not have a lot of drape or stretch, but it has more than woven fabric does, so the things a seamstress would do to improve fit would not work with crocheted fabric.  You should mark your sloper with the location of the widest part of the bust and with the natural waist.

Important note to those making a sloper from an existing T-shirt:  you need to measure the amount of stretch in the shirt.  Put two dressmaker's pins in the fabric four inches apart; grab the fabric on the outside of the pins and stretch the fabric over a ruler and note how far it stretches.  Do this for the fabric width-wise and length-wise.  Your T-shirt might fit you well but have less ease in some places and more in others.

There are numerous ways to alter crocheted fabric:

• Add or omit stitches at the end of a row (A-line)
• Add fabric where needed with short rows
• Create paired increases or decreases for interior shaping
• Change your gauge
• Change height of stitches
• Change number of stitches in stitch pattern (works for shells)
• Change stitch patterns (such as from regular to blo sc to make fabric that draws in)
• Change hook size

We did not have enough time to attempt all three swatches in Carol’s handout.  The first swatch illustrated the problems associated with short rows.  The second illustrated shaping by changing gauge through the use of a progression of hook sizes.  The third provided an opportunity to experiment with subtle stitch pattern changes to achieve shaping.

Our next meeting will be May 12th.  Hilary will complete our series on garment construction with a class on seaming and blocking techniques.

Project Gallery April 2012

Julie is back from Portugal and had a nice display of the yarns and patterns that she picked up there, including the yarn made from reindeer hair. If you are a fan of filet crochet, Portugal is the place for you!

Carla and Jodi have both completed the baby sweater pattern that Maxine showed us in the March meeting.

Jean's doily was a nice example of creating surface interest, the grapes were in 3-D and looked good enough to eat! We can't wait to see what this looks like when it is blocked, bet the design will really pop!

This is Jean's moebius, very pretty - not only is the yarn variegated but the stitches sizes are also
varied.

Jodi has been doing a lot of experimenting with felting. The blue swatch shows felting with different types of surface embroidery; the red and gray swatches are a comparison of different felting times on the same stitch patterns (necessary if you want to plan the finished size of your project). All this experimenting paid off, look at the cool purse organizer that she made, just the right size to hold all her accessories.

This is a baby blanket that Maxine made for a co-worker using a technique she learned at the conference last summer. It's a technique that allows you to alternate two colors without cutting the yarn.

Peggy is making a variation on the mother-of-the-bride shawl that she's made before, using a sock yarn. This project shows the different looks you can achieve from a simple pattern simply by varying the yarn weight and color that you choose.

Gail is making a lovely scarf from one of the yarns she purchased after she won the hat challenge at last summer's CGOA conference. There are beads scattered throughout the variegated colors. This is another project that will look fabulous when it's blocked.

Altering Patterns: April 14 Meeting Preview

We meet at 2:30 to 4:30 PM on April 14th, 2012, for our April meeting in our meeting space at Prospect Park United Methodist Church.

This month we have the second in a series of three meetings devoted to garments.  Carol will present a variety of information related to altering patterns.

Before you can alter a pattern, you need to know the exact measurements of the person who will wear the garment.  Carol will demonstrate various ways to measure, what the measurements mean, and how to use them.  She will demonstrate one method of making a universal sleeve pattern (a sloper, for those of you who sew) and how to use it when considering a pattern.

We will discuss various ways of altering stitch patterns, including the use of short rows, and everyone will have a chance to practice these techniques.  Come prepared to swatch and to take a lot of notes.  You will have a chance to examine simple changes that did (and did not) work out as planned.

Crocheters of all skill levels will benefit from the discussion of measurements and ways to alter stitch patterns.  Those of intermediate skill level and above can benefit from the swatching.

Materials you will need for the meeting:

• Light-colored worsted weight yarn that shows good stitch definition
• Complete set of hooks ranging in size from F to K
• Tape measure
• Notebook

 If you are a beginner and would prefer to spend the meeting getting some one-on-one help from an experienced crocheter, someone will be available to help you.

Since this is road construction season, be aware that construction might make it more difficult to get to our meeting place at the Prospect Park United Methodist Church.  The Metropolitan Council updates light rail construction goals weekly.  When in doubt, use Franklin Avenue, not University.

Hope to see you soon!