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.

Veritas, Equitas FO!

All Done! Yesterday Mr. Croft and I went for a walk and he took great pictures for me, so I'm posting them all.

I'm so in love with these buttons I found! Actually, they're cufflinks. Miniature turk's-head knot cufflinks.

And now, I get to wear them!

SEX (Stash Expeditions!)

SEX, as anyone knows, is the best known cure for the existential malaise that arises from excessive dealings with politicians. Being a victim of said malaise, I felt in need of a cure, and hey: I'm cured! Double-cured. Yarn and a swift!

Veritas, Equitas

That's the name of an exquisite 12th-century song I'm listening to, and also the name of this new FO. These are for submission to the CLF (Crochet Liberation Front) book, but I get to keep them! And I get to post pics to my blog! (Thank you Camanomade!)
Well, not really FO: they need to be laced up, trimmed and ends woven in.

Crochet for Guitarists

This gorgeous gal is the concertmistress of my orchestra. She made the mistake of admiring the hat I made for my niece: now she has to be seen in the one I made for her! Actually, she looks totally awesome in it I must say. It's a pleasure to make stuff for her, a privilege to conduct her and a delight to play with her. Maite is a grace to my blog and my life.


Now this wee mite is also a guitarist, but he doesn't know it yet. He's looking at his Dad. Every time he looks at his Dad he has a fit of giggles. Most of us have a similar reaction to his Dad, and we keep on playing guitar for the sheer pleasure of being his friends.
This happy kid was born at Christmastime, so I made him some warmies. I'm really excited about this technique I invented ( I think...at least, I've never seen it done before). It's just the same old Crochet Jacquard, but instead of weaving in the super-bulky 100% wool, I left it in floats on the inside of the work, then felted it.They're very warm and woolly on the inside, to protect this future guitarist's wee hands.

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

Mira mira mira!!!!

Lookit what I got! My GUANTAZO! Aren't they amazing?


These were made by Azaharania who lives in Sevilla. Azaharania, you are so awesome! These are just what I like best: Nordic, complex, and Red!

And look what else she sent me:


Soap, and a candle, pretty tissues and a lovely card written in English that's frankly better than mine.

Gracias Azaharania eres la mejor! No me los quito ni para cocinar!

Paradise Lost

Blech. Back to work day after tomorrow which means No More Crochet for Lara Croft. Anyways, here's what else I did and finished for today's deadline Jan. 6th Three Kings:

Stone Path Hat by Lisa Naskrent, from Interweave Crochet Winter 2007. This has been my first attempt at crochet cables. I found it terribly difficult at first, but finally figured it out about halfway down. DS actually likes it!


Another Russian Hat, this one for my favorite Niece.

We were both surprised to discover that it matches a scarf I made for her back when I was starting to crochet!
Well, that's that, I'll be back sometime in June I guess. Grr this sucks.

She's Back!

Oh, holidays! I was born for holidays! After a week off work I actually have the mental bandwidth to post to my blog! Well, that's one excuse: the other is of course Ravelry, which is the fiber lover's new DRUG, extremely addictive.
Despite the annoyance of having to actually work ugh and worse still, think about work problems even when not working, I have been crocheting. Just enough to stay sane. Not enough to make the new Interweave deadline for submissions!
Here's what I did: my Guantazo!
Here's what else I did: a hat! ETA: I forgot to mention something really important: this hat was designed by Annette Petavy! I just added the band of jacquard.
Wow. What a day. I left this post half-finished and sped off to Barcelona where I made a special detour to Persones Llanes. I saw the wonderful, delightful, funny and giggly Tura who I swear said her first word in my presence: "Ball-Winder!" And then, in walks my long-lost Pushka! And as if this were not enough, she informs me that today, which is a Wednesday and not a Monday, there's a Special Session of my even more Long-Lost Barcelona Knits! We braved the drizzling rain and went thither where I saw some old friends and made some new ones.

Lanaterapia

Ack. It's like this: Correos de España lost my yarn from Interweave. So I STILL don't have it, so as you can well imagine I am a nervous wreck. So finally I have given up waiting and started on a new project, and here it is, still in the 6 million test runs stage. The "A" is for Ann, my stepmother.


The cuff is done in a new and utterly impossible technique which me and some girls from Ravelry have dubbed "Mensa Stitch" but which is also known as Backwards Crochet. In the small photo to the left you can see my new version of the cuff, now that I'm a bit more adventurous in Mensa Stitch. On the right is the button band, just waiting for some buttons.




At the same time, I'm sooo lost in Ravelry. What an incredible phenomenon it is. Anyways, I'm back now after the initial headlong plunge into Ravelry, and promise to post more often.



IMPORTANT UPDATE: YARN ARRIVED!

But it's a secret.

It's not like I've stopped crocheting, on the contrary I've been at it furiously since my last post. Only I'm not allowed to show you what I'm doing until it comes out in Interweave Crochet in Spring 2008! Wa-hoo!
It's been an exciting couple of weeks, writing and receiving emails from the amazing Kim Werker and feeling myself to be a Very Important Person indeed. She helps to decide on the yarns to use, and then, get this, she sends the yarn to you! And it hasn't arrived yet! So here I am, all my test runs completed, with my 3.5mm hook poised and ready to go at lightning speed as soon as the loot crosses my threshold.
And I got my Ravelry invite. So I log on and who do I find? Debolsillo, Danni, Ojos Verdes, Mae, Flavio, and Kim Werker too! What a strange sensation. It's like traveling to New York and running into them on Fifth Avenue.










And I ordered this exquisite, unbelievable, sock yarn from Colinette and am having trouble not eating it.
And I'm working on a new design for a vest which if I can actually figure out how to make is going to be beautiful-to-die-for. However, considering the number of test runs I seem to do before making anything, it may take a few years.
And Persones Llanes has announced the Lara Croft Tapestry Crochet Course. Somebody please sign up, so far there's only 2 people on the list. If I promise to bake cookies, will they come?
And I took the lolcat test, with this result:

Your Score: Lion Warning Cat

74% Affectionate, 57% Excitable, 42% Hungry

You are the good Samaritan of the lolcat world. Protecting others from danger by shouting observations and guidance in cases of imminent threat, you believe in the well-being of everyone.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Whatever.

Blechh. Here's me, Lara Croft of crochet fame, so worried about stupid, unwoolly and unworthy issues that I can't muster up the wherewithal to post to my blog, despite the fact that I have much blogworthy news. This Leader of Men thing is not all it's cracked up to be. Distinctly Unwoolly.