5th Saturday Outing: March 29

It's time again for a 5th Saturday outing - wahoo! If you're new to the blog, we plan a special get-together for any month that has five Saturdays. This month's get-together is something new: a Yarn Crawl in the Woodbury area. This will be an casual outing.  Here are two locations where you can be sure to find us.

• 8:55 AM - We'll meet in the parking lot of the Hobby Lobby in Woodbury and then on to explore the store when it opens at 9 o'clock (and we promise we won't storm the door before then). This is a brand new store - a national chain that is new to the Twin Cities. They have a great selection of yarn, featuring their own brands.
• 11:00 AM - We'll wander over to Panera Bread in Wodbury on or before 11 o'clock so that can have a treat and then plan our next stop. There are several other yarn shops area - Knit' from the Heart is within crawling distance of Panera - Darn Knit Anyway is just up the road in Stillwater - and Lila and Claudine's is not far away in Mahtomedi. We'll decide over coffee who wants to go where for the next stop - or who wants to just sit and crochet.

All Twin Cities crocheters are invited to join us, hope to see you!

4th Saturday Meetup: March 22

Can you believe it's time for another crochet meetup? February sure flew by past - and March is marching on as well!


If you're ready for some informal crochet time, we hope you can join us on Saturday, March 22 at Bruegger Southtown (494 & Penn, click here for directions) - anytime between 9:00 am and noon. If you can, bring some white, yellow, or purple yarn to work on squares for our banner - or bring another project if you prefer. Or  if you'd rather just join us and chat with a cup of coffee, that's OK too!

Plans are in the works for the the March 29, 5th Saturday outing as a Yarn Crawl in the Woodbury area.  Watch your email for details.

Due to a large event being held at the Textile Center, our April 12 meeting will be at St. Catherine University (Couer de Catherine, Room 495).  See St. Kate's website for directions, campus maps and parking information.  Parking permits for on campus parking will be sent out to members prior to the meeting. Details will be also be included in the preview post. Contact ctclist@gmail.com with questions.

Meeting Hightlights: Substituting Yarn

Happy National Crochet Month!  Joan, Julie, Maxine and others started the March meeting by telling us about their experiences with setting up for the Start Seeing Crochet exhibit showcasing work by Crochet Twin Cities members.  Check out Maxine's blog to read all about it.

Carol attended Leslie Pontz's 3-D Crochet class and shared some of her observations on Leslie's methods and use of math.  Leslie is the visiting artist whose Shaping Space exhibit is being featured in the Joan Mondale Gallery at the Textile Center through the end of May.

If you attended the March meeting, you were also party to a engaging conversation about yarn substitutions. Carol had us considering not only guage, weight, yardage, fiber content and garment structure, but also thinking about how the color effects, care requirements and other factors should be accounted for when choosing a yarn for a pattern.

Julie brought two cowls made from the same pattern in different yarns to illustrate just how much difference a choice of yarn can make in your completed project. These two purses are another example.

Another example can be seen in the gallery show - Theresa & Carla followed the same pattern for the tunisian crochet cat purses, but the resulting sizes vary due to use of different yarn/thread weight. Theresa & Stephanie each brought in skeins of the Lion Brand Recycled Cotton in rose coral and sunshine from the CAL sweater pattern, so others could touch as well as see the yarn and colors in real life.

Due to a large event being held at the Textile Center, our April 12 meeting will be at St. Catherine University (Couer de Catherine, Room 495).  See St. Kate's website for directions, campus maps and parking information.  Parking permits for on campus parking will be sent out prior to the meeting. Details will be also be included in the preview post. Watch for details about the 4th & 5th Saturday meet-ups soon. Contact ctclist@gmail.com with questions. 

Project Gallery March 2014

Our members have been busy and had a lot to show for it this month.

Melanie made this afghan for her great niece using a pattern from Berocco called the Darla Blanket.  She also showed us the new bracelet she had made out of her mom's old knitting needles through a vendor on etsy.com...hmm, you could do he same thing with a crochet hook, I bet.

Linda made this princess teddy bear using the same pattern she used for her state fair bear, adding  the crown, skirt & shoes.

The sweet and fluffy little kiwi bird amigurumi is Erin's work.

Rosemary is working up this scarf for display at the Gale Woods Farm shop.  The wool is shorn from the variety of  sheep that live on the farm and the yarn spun on the farm.  The yarn is available for purchase at Gale Wood Farms.

Peggy crocheted this hooded scarf for her sister using the bulky Lion Brand Hometown yarn and a 10mm, size P hook.

Theresa is almost finished with her Amy Cardigan, a Crochetville CAL project, she'll be shipping down to her sister in FL.  The yarn used in the project is Omega brand Mimosa, a 62% cotton, 38% rayon z-twist yarn.  She also brought in  samples of Lotus yarn, a new z-twist yarn created by crochet designers, Vashti Braha & Doris Chan.

Joan made the seafoam green cowl/hooded scarf out of a worsted weight wool, the pattern resembles Bruges Lace.  She also made a slouchy granny square hat for her daughter and shared a felted bowl containing clothespin & yarn people she found at Bazaar Girls while visiting in Washington.

Mary has been working on this baby blanket with mini 2" granny squares, she's running low on the Lion Brand Jamie Baby yarn needed to complete the project - if anyone knows where she can find some, be sure to let us know.

As part of her de-stash efforts, Maxine has run across several partially completed projects, which she is now completing. The purple tunisian scarf is made from a hand spun silk.  She also shared a large bag she somehow managed to felt all in one piece, it's already in use, so she didn't pass it around.



 

Last but not least, Jen has been busy with these adorable four baby afghans.

Roving Crochet Report: Behind the Scenes at Textile Center Exhibit

If you follow our blog, you know that Crochet Twin Cities became an organizational member of the Textile Center of Minnesota in June 2013 and that we started holding our monthly meetings there in September 2013. But what you might not know (because it all happened so fast) is that this week was the opening of Start Seeing Crochet, our very first exhibit at the Textile Center!

We hope you can come to the exhibit and see the final result - but what you won't be able to see is all the hard work that went into preparing the exhibit. So this blog post takes you behind the scenes of some of the activity that goes into an exhibit installation.

When Kraig (the gallery manager) contacted us, he wasn't quite sure how much of the gallery space would be allocated to our exhibit so he encouraged us to think more items rather than less. Our members really took his advice to heart, this is my car packed with crocheted items. And this isn't even all the items that members lent for the exhibit!

After an exhibit comes down at the Textile Center, the walls get touch-up and repair - patching nail holes - before the next exhibit goes up. The Textile Center has four galleries and all of them were getting new exhibits so walls were repainted as well. One of the staff members told me that the main gallery is usually repainted in the specific color requested by the main artist; one of the details for planning an exhibit.





This is the main gallery, the Joan Mondale Gallery at the start of the installation for Leslie Pontz's Shaping Space exhibit. Leslie is an artist who creates unique sculptures from crocheted wire combined with iron and other materials. The number of boxes is amazing - imagine how much care and precision it takes to pack an exhibit for shipment!

Leslie and Kraig got right to work on Leslie's exhibit. I was very intrigued - I know that Leslie had not actually seen the gallery before she arrived - but she seemed to know exactly where she wanted things to be placed. She and Kraig must have had a lot of detailed emails and other communications in advance.

Meanwhile, in the Studio Gallery, Anna Carlson was busy installing her exhibit, Designing the Self. Anna is a Twin Cities artist and teacher whose work includes apparel design and textile design.

Until I saw both Leslie and Anna in action, I thought that all artists had a "team of elves" who did a gallery installation overnight, like magic. Not so!

So now back to our work, enough roving around to other exhibits with my camera!

We had not had time to see all our items in one place so Kraig immediately found us a room to work in. We called it our triage room and set to work there sorting and grouping items.

We started arranging items in the Library Gallery because it included display areas that did not require pounding nails into the wall. Kraig told us that he would prefer to hang the items that required nails and dowels; we were happy to comply with his request because we knew that the end result would look much better.

Kraig continued to help us out when we needed him. We had two different ideas about what to do with this library wall. One idea was to place large items on the wall; another thought was to place smaller items there. We realized we needed a professional opinion on which option to use and Kraig helped us decide; you'll see result below.






The installation actually continued for three days! All the pictures above were from the first day (Tuesday, March 4). Other members of our group came back on Wednesday - but work time that day was a somewhat limited because a local TV station was there to film some of the artists and activity at the Textile Center. At the end of the day Wednesday Kraig asked to have the items laid on tables in front of the walls where they were to be placed so that he could do the final hanging. On Thursday (the day of the opening), there were still signs to be hung and final placement to complete - so folks from our group continued to work that day alongside the Textile Center staff. Leslie pitched in to help us too - and, wow, the end result was stunning!

Here is a picture of the Joan Mondale gallery on opening night. Doesn't this look different from the picture at the beginning when Leslie and Kraig were starting to hang the work?

This is main wall in the Library Gallery that shows our exhibit sign and items that Joan provided for the exhibit. The center piece is a fillet crochet piece made by Joan's grandmother in 1936, the vest and skirt is a vintage outfit from the 1970's made by Joan's mother, and the tan outfit was made by Joan herself.









Remember the wall space above magazine rack? The team placed a line of purses above the rack and don't they look great!

And this is how the library wall ended up - what a beautiful row of scarves! Since you can't step very far back from this wall (library stacks are very close here), this is the perfect spot for people to get up-close and personal with smaller items.

And here are some more of the items in the Community Gallery: Carla's framed fillet, Jodi's teal vest, and Carol's "Unsquare Granny" cardi wrap.

Make sure you take some time to visit the current displays!

• Designing the Self: Anna Carlson - runs through May 3, 2014
• Start Seeing Crochet: Crochet Twin Cities - runs through May 10, 2014
• Shaping Space: Leslie Pontz - runs through May 31, 2014