Laracroft and the Korsnäs Raiders!

I had the holiday of my dreams this New Year's. A crocheter's dream! I was allowed to teach 2 groups of utterly delightful fibrephiles. I was treated like royalty and generally made much of.

Mostly I coughed at them. I think I might have shown them how to do lined jacquard, between hacking attacks. The day after arriving in Toronto I developed a hideous cold, which I suppose I then shared with everyone I met. Even so, they were very nice to me!

I could kick myself for not taking pictures of the 2nd class. Anyways, I'll start with the first one.

So, the thing about Toronto is that you find the most amazing shops in strip malls. This class was held in one of the most beautiful LYS I've ever been to, Spun Fibre Arts in Burlington, Ontario. This is one very classy LYS. I could have spent days there. It could easily be on some fancy New York Avenue, in fact I doubt if any Avenue in New York can boast a LYS like this. But no, it's in a freezing cold strip mall in Burlington. And despite being in a freezing cold strip mall in the middle of nowhere, it has a lively clientele, and it's no wonder why. If I had been given one more day, I would have taken the GO Train out there just for the chance of seeing it again.

I won't tell you the real names of all those girls, just the Ravelry names ( data protection etc). From left to right, those are bjross, isobel, feyrhi (who finished a cowl in lined jacquard!), moi laracroft, jeaniex, ruthknits, spun (another Danielle like me, and the shop's brilliant owner!) and her delicious baby girl in the best ever crocheted booties, and finally, off to the side ever so modestly, so far off that I can't even get her to fit in the blogger format, is Chatouille, but Chatouille doesn't count, being in another category. She's actually an angel and I will shortly dedicate a small basilica to her.

Then a couple of days later I was invited to give a class at a LYS in Toronto called Passionknit. But the shop itself was being used for something else on the night in question, so Tamaralda who is one of its two vibrant managers, had us all over to her home where we crocheted around the dining room table. Tea, homemade spiced nuts, jolly fire crackling in hearth...castanet playing...I should have paid them for the evening!

I did not take any pictures. I just coughed at them with great abandon. (Finally the only cure was to step out and smoke a cigarette in the snow. Works every time.) I didn't even get all their Ravelry names. But they were really very, very accomplished craftswomen. One woman in particular, I'm afraid will be teaching me crochet jacquard by the next time I get to Toronto. Not surprising I suppose, being one generation older, and Latvian!

So...anyways...this Tamaralda is a live wire and as obsessive once she gets her hands on a craft as I am. She stayed up till the wee hours practicing, analyzing stitch structure, and planning further projects, and I swear she hasn't stopped yet. And she and her equally vibrant colleague Alisamcr came up with this crazy idea to start a Laracroft crochet group! I was tickled pink at the chance to keep up contact with all my new crochet cronies, so we've dubbed the group "Laracroft and the Korsnäs Raiders" and officially inaugurated it on Ravelry. I have to come up with a design for the banner, ISO good pics of Angelina Jolie w/guns. I love my group, it sounds like a rock band.

For all this and more, thank you so much Chatouille.

I could go on and on about my classes in TO but actually I have to be up early to meet with the Municipal Engineering Dept. about the upcoming Fire Drill at my school.

Come on, I have my own Ravelry Group! Can't I quit my day job yet?

Quintessence of Delight

Comparable only to the aroma of baking bread. My Gaia DK from Sanguine Gryphon arrived. No photograph can capture the magic of this yarn. Touching it is like kissing the top of a baby's head. The colours are infinitely complex, deep and compelling. And it shines like gemstones.

O come, let us adore it!

Gryphon

Here's the finished cowl, and I've christened it "Gryphon" after Sanguine Gryphon Yarns. If all goes well, I'll soon be making it again out of her incredible Gaia in silk/cashmere. And then if everything continues to go well, she'll be selling the pattern and kit on her site! I'm so impatient to get started, and having hissy fits every time the postman fails to bring my samples. This is such an exciting gig!


And here it is being modeled by my beloved Jones, who is a 1977 Sakurai guitar, the best guitar in the world.

Vaasa is up!

Today the Spring issue of Black Purl magazine came out, and the pattern for Vaasa is in there, free for anyone with the courage to try it! There's a pretty melange cardigan by "LaVonne" Angela Best(seeing my name beside hers was worth the whole dpn ordeal!), and one of Wanda Blount's (funkycrochetdiva on ravelry) very funky hats. (Carol Ventura has a blog post about this fantastically creative tapestry crocheter, don't miss it.) There's also a good article on Korsnäs sweaters, and another one on the ethnography of Haitian ceremonial flags. This is a really interesting magazine, both scholarly and fashionable, and I have a great deal of respect for L'Tanya Durante, the editor. It's a privilege to be a part of it.

I really do feel for the poor brave souls who take on Vaasa. So I promise 2 tutorials here, one for knitters and one for crocheters. For knitters we will discuss how to do Crochet Jacquard with 3 strands: this is a lesson in Zen self-mastery, as Sriyana who works with 8 strands (!!) recently pointed out. For crocheters we will discuss Double Pointed Needles, Knitting Thereupon. It will be called "dpns and their puta madre".

This is what my blue Veritas, Equitas looks like to date before weaving in. And I still don't quite know how to explain the thumb gusset decreases in a written pattern.

The Unveiling!

The Spring preview of Interweave Crochet is up! I'm in it! If anyone wants to see Troubador Socks no.3: Chretien de Troyes, there they are. Alongside some truly lovely patterns: I'm in very good company. Congratulations to all of us!

I tried to write this post yesterday but I was sick as a dog and off to work as well so it turned out rather gloomy. Today I can really celebrate!

The Choreography of Crochet Jacquard

In the last week or so I've been honoured to within an inch of my life. First I got a rave review in Lime&Violet! Crochetcompulsiv crept up behind me and wrote about me without telling me about it. She calls it "stealth admiration", so I'm warning all you crocheters that she is on the move and nobody is safe. Then I received an over-the-top compliment from Kathy Merrick, the brilliant designer of the Babette Blanket - not to mention all the totally over-the top compliments from many brilliant crocheters and knitters! Then I discovered a mention on another awesome site called Craft & Found. So here's me squee-ing all over the house and trying to decide how to return some of the goodness that's just been poured on me by the crochet community. The result is this tutorial, since I think a lot of crocheters are becoming interested in Jacquard technique. It's already published in Spanish along with the pattern for Bernat de Ventadorn on Tejemanejes. So this is the English version.

I used to get into the most horrendous tangles before I started working this way.


Added on March 1st:

OK, let's not write up any more laudatory reviews of Lara Croft, guys. It goes right to her head.

Look at this post. What was I thinking? Like, did I invent this technique? No. In the state of self-exaltation you guys left me in, I omitted to mention that I learned it from another blog. Whose blog? Why, whose do you think? Carol Ventura's blog, of course! To see where I learned this choreography, go to this page. My crocheting life is divided into a Before and After Carol's page on Tapestry Crochet in Finland!

IMPORTANT: WORKED IN ROUNDS!

1. Let's call red A and white B. Hold A in the normal manner, and B flat over the top of the work.

2. Insert hook in Back Loop of stitch. Pass hook under B and pick up A.

3. Draw through a loop.

4. Now change colours. Pass the hook behind A....

5. ...and pick up B.

6. and pull B through, completing the stitch.

7. Now insert hook in Back Loop of next stitch,
and pick up B from where it's lying over top of the work.

8. After drawing through a loop with B, change colours again:
pick up A....

9. And pull it through, completing the stitch.
Now you can start all over from the beginning!

I find that if I have to do a longer stretch (more than 3 sts) of colour B, it's more graceful to drop both strands and pick them up again with their positions reversed. The strand you hold in the normal manner is faster for most of us to work.

Doggy is optional but happy.

Deux Points pour Crochet Jacquard

I've been blogged! Twice!
Now that I do not crochet, other than my weekend swatch sessions, I seem to be attracting attention as a crocheter. Ah, the irony of it all.
Carol Ventura, Patron Saint of Tapestry Crochet, featured me on her awesome blog! And then Amy O'neill Houck did one too! I am very proud indeed. However, at the moment it's like they're talking about another person.

"Time goes by: reputation increases, ability declines." - Dag Hammarskjöld

Blgn, flgfd flbbl!...

Dlhj oioasd oio??? Voij nikjsp kpo o aoisj, noi djuuu!!!!
translation: I just got a letter from Kim Werker. So you will excuse my squeaky voice and garbled language. She's gonna publish my Troubador Socks in Interweave Crochet. I feel like I just inhaled 60 helium balloons. Unworthy, but happy!!!!!