Saturday, February 26, 2011

A New Crochet Design!

A peep into a struggling designer's diary:

"Don't Quit, if you're a beginning crochet designer! You may not be a knit-wit...but you are a crochet wit! LOL! At least I keep telling myself that! ...after 5 attempts, to get just the first 3 rows right, i am well on my way to completing my first original crochet design.

I wouldn't be so overtly exited, but this is no "ordinary" design...this is a fun, silly, yet practical creation! Well, we have to love ourselves and what we do, and right now I am rolling in it! I didn't know designing could make me so happy! I am thanking God (from Whom all good ideas come from), after the almost no-start with the first three rows at t the start gate!

The finished product will remain,"under wraps" for awhile, while I work out alternate finishing techniques...but...

...Wow!...after 5 Years of working on various crochet projects...and learning how things are constructed, AND trying a lot of various stiches and techniques...AND having multitudinous failures, I am feeling really satisfied to FINALLY be creating a wearable fun original!

Studying "THE CROCHET BIBLE" (Sue Whiting, author), and watching "Knit and Crochet Now!" (Bret Bara, host), has been a huge help!

I am so exited and SURPRISED...this design thing is ACTUALLY working for ME!

Thank you, BRET BARA, for showing us how to un-complicate crochet during your appearances on "KNIT AND CROCHET NOW!" You have been an amazing encouragement! You make us crocheters feel special, too!

No time for more silly prattle back to the "drawing board"..well, graph paper, literally!

Designing Blog today...

Mmmmm...fun and WORK! :)

A Crochet Heritage

Grandmother Margaret Venus was born on a starry night in Oklahoma USA in 1910, the oldest of ten brothers and sisters, and gifted as a seamstress beyond any of her siblings.

Grammy always had a size 7 steel crochet hook, and a ball of Aunt Lydia's Cotton Crochet thread (usually in white) on her coffee table, along with her Holy Bible, a glass of fresh brewed iced tea, and the latest crochet pattern that had arrived in the mail from Laura Wheeler or several copies of The Workbasket magazine. A classic snapshot of Grammy's living room also included a vase full of giant homegrown roses in vivid pinks, oranges, and reds. Besides her needle and hook talents, she could grow the biggest vegetables west of the Mississippi, and cook 'em up with a chicken fried steak that family and friends drove for miles on a Sunday to enjoy.

I have many vintage crochet patterns I would like to find a way to share with you on this blog.  One pattern book in particular that I cherish contains a toddler dress she crocheted for my older sis, and I inherited 2 years later. I am looking for the right thread so I can duplicate the dress the way an heirloom should be made.

Thank you for spending some time with me today.  I will be back with more about Grammy's crochet and all that hooks and thread mean to me and hopefully YOU!

Soon to come ... more about Grammy and Grammy Clyde and how their gardens GREW and how they worked with their neighbors and family to keep everyone fed in the 1930's and '40's!