Destash Swap Meet: December 8 Meeting Preview

It's the most wonderful time of the year - and not just because of jingle belling and mistletoeing and parties for hosting, marshmellows for toasting. It's wonderful because it's time for our second annual Destash Swap Meet!

If you missed last year's meet, you're in for a fun time - we're ready once again to prove the old adage that one person's trash is another person's treasure. In fact, this picture shows some of the items that one member will be bringing - yarn and books rescued from the trash can at the last minute. (No, Mr. Nat the Cat is not "swap-able", he's just curious about what all that stuff is doing on his bed.)

So mark your calendars for Saturday, December 8 from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM at Prospect Park United Methodist Church.

There's only a few rules / guidelines:

• The swapping will begin after our normal business meeting and project show-n-tell. Before we start swapping, we'll put everything on tables and give everyone a chance to look over what's available.
• Each person gets to decide whether they want to barter or give away their own items - so think about which option you'll take with any items you bring and, yes, you can give away some and barter others if you wish. If you're giving items away, we'll put them all in a designated area and have some blank raffle tickets to use to decide who gets any items that are wildly popular. If you want to barter, then you decide what's a fair trade and how to choose between competing bidders.
• We encourage you to bring something if you come, although it's certainly not required. If you don't have any crochet-related items to barter, you could bring something like a plate of Christmas cookies, we bribe easily!
• If there are any leftover items, we'll pass them on to an appropriate local charity that will accept craft and yarn items so you be assured that items you no longer want will go to a good cause.

We hope to see you soon!

Meeting Highlights: Joining Motifs

The November meeting was dedicated to methods of joining motifs.  Here are some points to remember.

Jeanne's motif samples

The method used to join individual motifs can be a design element.  Whether sewing or crocheting individual motifs together, you have three choices:  bottom loop only, top loop only, or both loops.  You can even join motifs with chains that zigzag between motifs.

When doing join as you go, you have several choices:  slip stitch or single crochet into a loop, or crochet directly into one chain of the loop. 

Some patterns require the unraveling of part of the last round of a motif.  When doing so, leave a long tail so that you don’t run the risk of running out of yarn when completing the join.

Motifs don’t have to be discreet elements.  Some lace patterns create the illusion of motifs; one row creates the bottom of the “motif” and the next creates the top.  The book “Seamless Crochet” specializes in such designs.  Robin Chachula’s Madison Scarf, another example of this technique, is a strip of linked circles that appears to be joined motifs.  The main problem with this type of construction is that if you make a mistake in one “motif”, you must frog an entire row to fix the error.

No matter how you create your motifs or join them, weaving in all the ends can be a big pain.

There will be two December meetings.  The regular meeting will be our annual stash buster.  Trade books, magazines or yarns that you don’t want for something else.  Someone’s unwanted stash is someone else’s treasure.  Last year’s hot items were vintage copies of Decorative Crochet and Magic Crochet.  We will have a special Fifth Saturday meeting at the American Swedish Institute, with an opportunity to view a special lace exhibition.  Check the blog for more information on these special events.

Our membership year runs from January to December.  Membership renewal forms were distributed at the November meeting and will be available at the December meetings.  If you have not received your renewal form, one can be emailed one to you.

Give some serious thought to being an officer.  We’re a pretty collegial bunch, but it still helps to have some established leadership.  The current Board is putting together a description of our duties, since some of our tasks are nontraditional and probably unexpected.  For example, the Secretary doesn’t take minutes, she produces the blog.  If this intrigues you, let us know.

Project Gallery November 2012

Jeanne has been very busy.  She knit up a pair of socks from her own handspun yarn, made some fingerless gloves, and crocheted up a bunch of motifs (see the meeting summary post for a picture of these).  She also made this thread tapestry technique purse; a number of our members have made this purse pattern, but none used such a fine yarn.  Jeanne is a fan of Jojoland yarns.  This wave scarf (in Jojoland Melody) is yet-to-be blocked, but you can still see how well the yarn works with this pattern.

Jen attended her first meeting and brought this scarf to show her skill.  Like many of us, she learned to crochet as a child and returned to it later in life.  The subtle color shift in this yarn works well with the simple stitch pattern.







Erin is doing some stash busting with this afghan.  You would

never know it by looking at this example, but Erin is a newer crocheter.  She's doing very well, don't you think?  She also received some great feedback on the wire crochet bracelets she made for the PPMUC art fair (pictures of these can be found in the October Project Gallery).

Marilee is a fan of vintage crochet. She picked up the vintage pink hotpad at a garage sale and copied the design to produce the lavender hotpad.




It is really, really hard to photograph dark colors when you have your camera set on automatic.  The yarn is llama and the color (which doesn't show very well here) is a beautiful midnight blue.  Joy's broomstick lace shawl is still in progress and yet to be blocked.  Joy is using an interesting technique:  she places the knitting needle between her knees and works vertically instead of horizontally.  She is making this rectangular shawl long enough to wrap twice around her body.

Julie made a baby blanket using a chunky yarn, the colors of which are brighter than appear here.  Although it is fun to make lacy blankets, many parents prefer more solid ones so that the baby's fingers don't get caught in the holes.

Oh boy, another case of the camera fooling the eye.  Would you believe these cute fish mittens are made from the same yarns as the hat and scarf?  The hat and scarf are a good illustration of how differently variegated yarn works when knitting or crocheting.

On the left we have a close-up of the stitch pattern Joan used in a
circle shrug.  The bulky alpaca yarn is a cushy soft dream--everyone who touched it simply said "ooooooh."  This garment is very deceptive.  Folded in half and held up by the sleeves, the body seems extremely wide and the sleeves too small.  But flip up the bottom edge and insert your arms into the sleeves and you have a large shawl collar and a rounded bottom edge.  The pattern is by Carolyn Christmas.

Joining Motifs: November 10 Meeting Preview

This month Carol and Maxine will lead us through an exploration of the good, the bad, and the ugly of joining crochet motifs.

• The good - see and try your hand at lots of lovely and interesting joins
• The bad - some methods we wouldn't recommend
• The ugly - some down-right awful looking joins

We invite you to join us on Saturday, November 10 from 2:30PM to 4:30PM at Prospect Park United Methodist Church. You'll get a chance to see lots of different joins and then practice some new techniques.

To participate in this class you'll need to bring:

• Several ounces of light-colored worsted weight yarn (2 to 4 ounces)
• An appropriately sized hook to work with the yarn; for most people, size I9 or J10
• A tapestry needle with an eye that can accomodate your yarn
• Optional. Bring any motifs that you've made but not yet joined.

We hope to see you there!