Underground Crafter

I’m keeping this update on my craft goals short and sweet.

Since my last update post…

• I’ve been working on several bullion stitch blocks (personal craft goal #1) from stash yarn (personal craft goal #5/Surmount the Stash) for charity (personal craft goal#6).
• I finished the yoga socks for my mom and added four rounds of gold borders to the blanket for my sister (personal craft goal #2).
• I’ve posted on the blog every day (professional craft goal #4).
• I’ve been making swatches for the Craft Yarn Council’s Certified Instructor’s Program in Knitting class, which I’m taking at the Fashion Institute of Technology this weekend (professional craft goal #10).

Reminder: There’s still time to enter the Gothic Knits giveaway here.

I guess it doesn’t surprise anyone that after months of blanket making, I’m now in the middle of multiple small projects.

I can’t seem to settle down with just one project right now.  I loved the Poppy Bullion Block by Donna Kay Lacey so much, I started on three more.

Round one, three times.

I also started another bullion stitch block, Hybrid Peas.

I'm about half way through the pattern, and then I will need to add some more rows to bring it up to 12 inches.

So far, I’m not as excited about this pattern, since it uses some unconventional terminology.  Also, I must have skipped a step somewhere.  (That’s what I get for crocheting during The Walking Dead.)

I’m making all of these bullion blocks with the same colors, which should really help with my stashbusting efforts.  These will eventually be donated to Heartmade Blessings.

I also completed a few more rounds on the knit cable hat for my Dad.

A small bit of progress.

I’m getting a super early start on holiday crafting with this hat (pattern here), so I’m not too worried about the pace.

Not pictured is the blanket I’ve been making for my sister since November (because I vow not to bring it outdoors for photography until it is finished!).  I finished four rounds of gold borders, so I’ll just end with one or two borders in black.  And then, the nightmare of weaving in the ends will begin…

As for reading, I’m planning to start Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg.  It was a birthday present that was on my wishlist for a while, and I’ve heard good things about it.

For more Work in Progress Wednesday posts, visit Tami’s Amis.  For more Yarn Along posts, visit Small Things.

Reminder: There’s still time to enter the Gothic Knits giveaway here.

In the early 2000s, when I first learned to read crochet patterns, there weren’t many good crochet websites.  One that I would visit time and again for help understanding a new technique was Crochet Cabana.  Even now, as a crochet teacher I often refer beginners to this wonderful site.  So I’m really excited to interview Sandie Petit today, the founder of Crochet Cabana.

Besides the Crochet Cabana website, you can find Sandie online on her blog, her Facebook page, her YouTube channel, her Etsy and Ravelry shops, and on Twitter.  She is less frequently seen on Crafty Corral, her first crochet blog, and Tumblr.  You can also buy Crochet Cabana items at Cafe Press.  All pictures and logos are used with her permission.

Sandie Petit.

Underground Crafter (UC): How did you first get started crocheting?
Sandie: In the summer of 1980, I went on vacation with some girlfriends in Mississippi. They pulled out their hooks and started crocheting and offered to teach me. That got the ball rolling. When I returned home the local TG&Y became my primary source for patterns, yarn, and hooks. The yarn was Sayelle at the time. For many years I thought Boye was the only kind of hook manufactured! With the advent of the Internet a whole new world opened up to me and I now have quite a nice hook collection! My house is often overrun by yarn and I have more patterns than I could complete in several lifetimes!

First Crochet Cabana banner.

UC: What was the original inspiration behind Crochet Cabana?
Sandie: Crochet Cabana began in 1997 as a couple of pages on my personal website, Sandra’s Backyard. The original purpose was to have an area where I could jot down what I knew about crochet for my own reference. I also wanted to provide information for those just learning to crochet. I wanted to write it all down, with pictures, in a way that I hoped could be easily understood. All of my first tutorials were written with the new crocheter in mind. As I learned more myself – both in the field of crochet and also in web design – more was added.

In my wildest dreams I never imagined the site would get so large. As I got requests for information on this or that topic, I would add those topics also to the site. In 2001, my husband purchased a domain name for Crochet Cabana as a gift for me. Then in December 2004, we decided to purchase hosting space so I wouldn’t have to keep moving the site as it grew too large for the present host.

Current Crochet Cabana banner.

UC: Where do you generally find your creative inspiration?
Sandie: For designing, inspiration is everywhere. The world around you. Television. The Internet. Sitting in a doctor’s office or in traffic I might notice a particular color or pattern that is intriguing. Quite often it is a matter of need. I need a gift and I have xx amount of time (usually a very short window). It’s actually quite difficult to come up with something new and I always wonder if someone else has already done it. There are so many wonderful designers out there! I don’t feel that I do that much designing really, but when I post a picture of something I’ve worked up I know someone will ask for the pattern as soon as it’s posted.

As to inspiration for tutorials and videos, that generally comes from visitors to the site who inquire if I can show them how to do this or that. If enough people seem to be having the same problem or are interested in a particular technique, I consider adding it to the site. I do fairly often get requests for me to do a video or tutorial on how to work a particular pattern. That is something I cannot do because of copyright issues.

(One of Sandie’s videos.  We start our foundation chain the same way!)

UC: You are a true pioneer of the DIY/craft scene on the internet. What were the benefits of establishing yourself online early, and what are some of the changes you’ve had to deal with in recent years?
Sandie: How nice of you to say! When I first began, I had no clue how to put up a website. My husband created the original site and showed me how to update it. Since then, I’ve done most of the work myself though my family, who are much more computer literate than I, have been a great help over the years. My daughter created the logo presently on the Cabana.

One of the benefits of being established so many years ago is that I can appreciate the technological advances available today. I clearly remember having to move the site over a dialup connection! What took many hours then would take mere minutes now. I am still using the same program to update the site (Microsoft Front Page). It is no longer supported so I will eventually have to find a new program to use – which is something I dread.

In those beginning days, way back when, one didn’t have to worry about Internet theft. In recent years, there has been a problem with people taking the work of others and claiming it as their own. Just a few months ago I found photos lifted from one of my tutorials on which the person had placed her own name right on the photos and put them on her site as her own. It was a foreign site and though I requested she remove them, that didn’t happen. You really have no recourse in these situations and it is quite discouraging since it is a lot of work to take photos, edit them, and add all the text to a tutorial, as well as making videos. Sadly, this has also happened to other designers. Sometimes you will even find people selling your patterns on Ebay, particularly if they are free patterns. They just copy them and sell them. It’s really terrible. In fact, I removed all the patterns I had on the site after one such incident. Since then, I’ve put a few back and opened Etsy and Ravelry shops. There are still quite a number I haven’t put up anywhere again. I am really torn about what to do as I love sharing my work with others. (UC comment: What a shame!)

Another change is that people are more and more moving to video teaching. I LOVE video teaching. It is amazing to me that I can create a video demonstrating how to do something, giving the tips I’ve learned through the years, and have someone in another country watch it and learn the technique. I guess I am showing my age here, but it just fascinates me. I often wish I had my own video studio and staff! I still have much to learn. I hope the industry doesn’t change too much while I’m learning!

Yet another change I have seen is the availability of e-books and e-patterns, both free and for sale. Being able to get a pattern you want immediately certainly has its up side. One thing I like about this is if I sell a pattern this way, I know exactly who purchased it and if I update it or find a significant error, I can let them know quite easily. Along with this is the self-publishing industry, such as Lulu, which has grown tremendously in the past few years.

The problem with all this availability is that much of it is free. This hurts the designers for whom crochet sales are a significant part of their earning power. I think this may be why we are seeing more complex designs as magazine publishers have to find a way to entice people to spend their discretionary income. It’s a dilemma I’m sure we will be addressing for some time to come as the industry works to find a balance between paper publishing and e-publishing.

One of Sandie's charity scarves, donated to Knit Your Bit.

UC: You do a lot of charity crochet. Can you tell us about some of your favorite charity projects, causes, and organizations?
Sandie: There are so many worthy organizations out there. I find that people generally gravitate toward a cause that is in some way meaningful to them. For example, I have lost many loved ones to cancer so if an opportunity arises I might donate to that cause. I had two preemies so I will occasionally donate preemie hats and afghans.

I also like to help out organizations that are based in my own state when I can. I also love to make scarves and squares. Those things came together for me in Scarves for Special Olympics where I could donate to the Louisiana branch of their organization. I was even able to deliver the scarves and meet the people there. That was rather exciting. They do require you to use particular brand and colors of yarn and there are size specifications, but I find that a challenge. I like to try and find different ways to make the scarves unique within those boundaries. This is an annual project so if you haven’t participated in the past you can always pick up and join in the next go round.

Then there is the National WWII Museum’s Knit Your Bit which is also located nearby and accepts scarves. I have had many family members in the military, including my son, and I am happy to be able to do something for the soldiers who put their lives on the line for us. Knit Your Bit gives a bit of a thank you to those soldiers. They accept any pattern, any color so it’s very easy to participate. Most of the vets are men so colors tend to lean in that direction.

I also like to be sure my work makes its way to the people for whom it was intended. With that in mind, I am cautious about sending to people I don’t know. I have known Sandy Holladay for many years and have no qualms about sending items to her for The Bridge and Beyond Project, which helps the homeless. She accepts many different items including scarves, mittens, and socks. She does amazing things with donated squares, putting together afghans which are then given to one of several local missions. Each day I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, clean clothes, and food to eat. It’s a shame there are so many who don’t have these basic needs met.

Heartmade Blessings has been around quite a number of years. They accept 12” squares which are put together into comfortghans. Several people I know personally have benefited from this effort.  (UC comment: I’m actually working on several squares right now to donate to Heartmade Blessings as part of the Crochetlist March charity challenge.)

Crafting for a Cause is a wonderful group that supports our Native Americans. Most of the items made are sent directly to the reservation so you can be sure they are getting where they are needed.

In addition to official organizations, I like to donate where I can locally. As time goes on, postage costs for mailing packages has gone up so anything I can deliver is a plus.

That said, I occasionally like to send to SIBOL, way across the pond from me. I just love to go to Sue’s blog and Flickr page and see all the beautiful things. Everything is so artfully shown. She accepts 6” squares which are joined into lapghans for nursing homes in her area. Her challenges are fun too!

One of Sandie's charity scarves, donated to Knit Your Bit.

UC: You are a CGOA Master of Advanced Crochet Stitches and Techniques and a CYC Certified Crochet Teacher. Tell us why you decided to pursue these certifications and how/if they’ve been helpful to you.
Sandie: I am going to share with you my REAL reason for taking these courses. Shhhh. I never think my work is good enough and I thought that if I took these courses someone else could tell me if I was doing things correctly and, if not, I could learn the proper way. Having the certificates does not mean that I am a wonderful crocheter, but it does mean, to me, that I’ve run the course and persevered to complete it successfully. I may have a tiny bit more confidence than I had before since I did pass the courses.

I also thought that having the certificate would give a bit more weight to my qualifications as an instructor if I decided to teach community education classes or even paid classes through a craft store.  (UC comment: I am also a CYC Certified Crochet Instructor and Teacher, and will actually be attending classes this weekend to become a CYC Certified Knitting Instructor and Teacher.  For more discussion on the pros and cons of certification, see this post.)

The two courses are very different. I did learn some new techniques through my work on both courses, particularly the CGOA course because it covered more of a variety – like hairpin lace, which I’d not done a lot of before.

I find that every step you take is one step closer to your goal. You mentioned knitting. I’ve been trying to learn to knit for many years. I can cast on and I actually can knit, but if I drop a stitch, that is it for me. However, every time I try I get a little bit further in my understanding. It is the same with crochet. When I did the CGOA course, I did not work much with thread and I had to complete a filet thread project with thread, which I did successfully. I did not pick it up again until recently, but those things I learned at that point have come back to me and I find I just love filet!

I don’t know if the certificates mean anything to those who look at my work. I think your work really has to speak for itself. When I pick up a magazine or look online at a pattern I may purchase, I don’t know if that person has a certificate or not. I just like the pattern, the colors, and the way it was photographed, perhaps the stitches used or the yarn. I think taking the course was for me more than anything.

I would dearly love to take Pauline Turner’s course. I understand it is difficult and I think if I passed that one I would really feel like a crochet master.

UC: What are your favorite crochet books in your collection?
Sandie: There are so many! Those that jump right to mind are Quick and Cozy Afghans which I use quite a bit; the Vanna books, particularly Vanna’s Afghans A to Z; Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Crochet; and Margaret Hubert’s The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet. I have dozens of pattern and reference books and leaflets though. That just scratches the surface. One of my recent purchases was Super Finishing Techniques for Crocheters by Betty Barnden. Her Filet Crochet book is great also.

One of Sandie's charity scarves, using the "V for Victory" pattern by Rachel Vives, donated to Knit Your Bit.

UC: Do you have any favorite crochet websites/blogs to share?
Sandie: I don’t get around to the blogs as much as I used to, but here are a few that I visit often:

• Crocheting with Dee,
• The Crochet Dude,
• Crochet Concupiscence, and
• Sandy’s Space (and her other blog, The Bridge and Beyond, listed above in charities).

Generally, I look at my blogroll to see who has updated and I will visit the top five or ten of them and sometimes the sites they recommend in their blogroll.

After reading other interviews on your blog, I also started following Vashti.   (UC comment: Thanks Sandie!  I am honored to have you as a reader.)

Thanks so much for stopping by for an interview, Sandie!

Reminder: There’s still time to enter the Gothic Knits giveaway here.

I’m delighted to interview Fiona McDonald today.  I’ll also be reviewing her new book, Gothic Knits, and hosting a giveaway of my review copy, courtesy of Search Press.

Fiona McDonald was trained as an artist and is known for her oil-painted, needle-sculpted, life-sized cloth figures, as well as her fabric dolls and dragons.  In recent years, she has returned to knitting and is using her skills to create interesting knit dolls.  You can find Fiona online on her blog, her Ravelry designer page, and her Twitter page.  (All pictures in this post are used with Fiona’s permission.)

The Interview

Underground Crafter (UC): How did you first get started knitting?
Fiona: When I was about 8 years old, my mother began to teach me to knit. I wasn’t too bad for a little girl but I had no idea what to do if I dropped a stitch and would have to wait for mum to attend to it. I must say she was very patient. I ended up doing crochet instead; I felt I understood it better. I haven’t done any for long time now.

UC: What inspired you to begin designing?
Fiona: I trained as an artist at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney after I left school. It was a rigorous programme which included anatomy and life drawing and modelling the nude figure in wax. I knew then that I wanted to work with the human form.

From art school, I went to live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, and there I began designing cloth dolls. I made dolls and taught how to make them at workshops all over Australia. I took a break in 2000 for a few years while I studied literature at university.

Then a while ago I bought Sandra Polley’s Knitted Teddy Bear book and it was love at first sight. I got out the knitting needles and made a little bear. Knitting was suddenly no longer difficult, I could manage to recover lost stitches and I could see the mathematical basis of it.

Of course, I am never satisfied with just making someone else’s pattern, the designer within must have its say. I began to experiment with knitted dolls. When I made cloth dolls in the ’90s, I tried to get more and more sophisticated, wiring the fingers and making 3D faces and painting them with oil paints. I decided I’d try pushing the boundaries of knitting as well.

Thinking I’d done pretty well, I set about looking for an agent who might help me sell my designs to a publisher. Isabel Atherton of Creative Authors in the UK scooped me up and got me a whole string of commissions including four knitting books and four history books.

UC: Your latest book, Gothic Knits, includes designs for variations on a basic body and different ways of modifying the dolls in terms of hair, faces, and accessories. What was the design process like for this book, and was that different from or similar to your previous books?
Fiona: The biggest challenge for me with this book was the embroidered faces. I hate trying to embroider on knitted fabric. I feel it is too difficult a surface to get the fine detail I like in my faces. I decided to build on the felt eyes I’d used for the Babes and the Fairies. This time the colour was applied through embroidery thread not paint or texta.

The other difference was the male vampires. I had designed the male fairies but their size meant they didn’t have to be too different from the females. With the vampires I wanted to try getting some rippling stomach muscles and those chest plates. I was tempted to go into further anatomical detail but felt the publishers might not be very impressed.

UC: How does your fine arts training influence your knitting?
Fiona: It is very important. I use my knowledge of proportion and facial anatomy all the time. I can also visualise in my mind’s eye how to create a flat piece of knitting that will, when sewn up and stuffed, become three dimensional. This was always what I loved about the cloth dolls. With the knitted dolls I’ve gone a step further and have taken a line and transformed it into a three dimensional piece, not just a plane.

Knowing how an eye works and what kind of structure a nose really is is essential in designing my dolls. I admire stylisation and simplification in other people’s work but I am not comfortable doing it myself.

UC: Where do you generally find your creative inspiration?
Fiona: Books, books, and books. Also films. I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer when knitting the vampires and then Angel as well. I love old fashioned things and especially children’s picture books. I’m a Lord of the Rings fan, books and movies, a Narnia girl but only the books (the first big books I ever read by myself). I want to enroll at Hogwarts, too.

UC: What are your favorite knitting books (besides your own, of course)?
Fiona: I adore Claire Garland’s books, I look at them a lot; she has such a great sense of design. I’d love her to do a story illustrated with photos of her dolls and toys. I really like Sandra Polley’s books, too; she got me started on the knitted toy bug. Alan Dart is very impressive: his mice are gorgeous.

I collect old craft books, mainly toy making ones and a lot of them are knitted toys. I think Noddy in Toyland by Enid Blyton has influenced my taste in toys; it was a favourite story when I was a very little girl and when I was about three my mum knitted me the sweetest little Tessie Bear who is tucked away safely from moths and dust.

UC: Do you have any favorite craft or design blogs and websites to share?
Fiona: There are lots, I’m a design blog junkie. I always check out:

• By Hook, By Hand by Beth Cameron, I even swapped a knitted doll for one of her little crocheted cuties.  (UC comment: Check out Beth’s recent blog post with pictures of Fiona’s dolls here.)
• Dot Pebbles (with the help of her creator Claire Garland), especially her blog.
• Jess Brown, who makes very simple cloth dolls that I could never make myself, but I really want one.
• One of my Ravelry fans started this gorgeous blog, An Experiment in Knitted Dolls.

The year before last, some lovely ladies started a fan club for me on Ravelry, Fiona McDonald Fans. I was so chuffed by it.

UC: What are your plans for the coming year?
Fiona: I have lots of knitting plans for this year. At the moment I’m designing some knitted stump dolls based on medieval clay dolls. I hope to have a stall at the Abbey Medieval Festival near Brisbane in Queensland this year. There are no known examples of knitted or cloth toys from medieval times, but knitting was practised at the time. I want the dolls to have the medieval look but still be attractive to a modern audience.

My other major project is to design a range of knitted dragons. I used to make cloth dragons, some quite big, and I think it is time I did some knitted ones. If I can’t convince my publisher to do them as a book, I’ll sell the patterns on Ravelry and Etsy.

Of course I continue to design dolls, ones to be played with by children. I knitted a little doll for my granddaughter for Christmas and bought a travel trunk for her to house her clothes and accessories. I just love the idea of a doll who can travel with you. I always take one of my dolls with me when I travel, it is company.

My biggest daydream which I’m going to try hard to make a reality this year is to get a toy shop up and running. I want handmade toys and old fashioned things. I want the shop to look like something out of a Dickens novel.

And lastly I’d like a holiday where I can take my knitting and relax.

Thanks so much for stopping by for an interview, Fiona!

The Book Review

Gothic Knits is an interesting book.  It is a collection of 9 Goth doll patterns, along with tips and tricks for making knit dolls.  It is one of the few niche knitting books I’ve seen that is quite clear that it has a specialized audience and doesn’t attempt to be all things to all people.  You won’t find illustrations for casting on or instructions on how to do the knit stitch in this book.  The book assumes that you have basic knitting skills (cast on, bind off, knit, purl, k2tog, p2tog, and increasing by knitting in the front and back loop of the same stitch) and an ability to read simple patterns.  And that specialization is a large part of what makes the book work.

Additionally, Gothic Knits is well organized into several sections.

• Before you begin… reviews materials and pattern terminology.  This includes both standard knitting tools (needles, yarn) and specialized doll making materials (e.g., hooks and eyes and press studs, chopsticks or plastic straws for the necks).
• Hair is probably my favorite section.  There are three techniques for attaching hair that Fiona explains: stitched-on hair (described individually in the patterns), the rooted method, and using fake hair.  Even if you aren’t interested in making Goth dolls, these techniques could be applied to other types of amigurumi.
• Assembling the bodies is very thorough and uses detailed descriptions and photographs to explain the general assembly and shaping techniques used on all of the dolls, including sculpting breasts or chest muscles, forming detailed facial features, and proper stuffing technique for the different characters.
• The next section includes patterns for 9 Goths (three vampires, a siren, a bride of Frankenstein, and four other creepy types).  Each pattern includes instructions for the body, the face and hair, and clothing and accessories for the character.

There are detailed photos throughout, and Fiona’s instructions are very thorough.  She also provides several warnings about how to adapt the dolls to be safe for small children.

This book is an excellent primer for learning how to make sculpted, knit dolls.  You could either follow the patterns exactly or use the techniques to design your own dolls.

As for what could be improved about the book, I think some step-by-step photos would have been helpful, particularly in the hair section.  There are close up pictures of the dolls and detailed written descriptions of the process, but it never hurts to see the person actually doing it.

I give this book 4 stars for a knitter with basic skills who is interested in improving their doll-making skills, is into Gothic characters, or who makes gifts for lovers of Gothic characters.  It could also be an interesting book for people who make other types of dolls and are interested in knitting clothing and accessories in a Goth style.  Since this is a niche book, if none of these categories describe you, you are probably best off buying something else that is more appealing to your interests.

The Giveaway

I’m giving away my review copy of Gothic Knits, courtesy of Search Press.  This giveaway is open to any of my blog readers.  I will choose a winner at random.

To enter:

• Leave a comment on this post, telling me about your first, best, or worst experience making a doll, by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, February 25, 2012.  Be sure to include your email address (which won’t be displayed) so I can contact you if you win.  (Please note that my comments are moderated, so if you are a new visitor, your comment will not appear immediately.)
• For another chance to win, join my Ravelry group.  Then you can either post a comment on my Ravelry group or here again so I will give you another entry.  (If you already are in my Ravelry group, just post a comment for another chance to win.)
• For another chance to win, share the link to this giveaway via Twitter, Facebook, or your blog.  Then post a comment here with the link to your Tweet or blog post, or leave a comment on my Facebook page so I will give you another entry.

Good luck!

I mentioned that I’ve been participating in a blogger swap through The Blog Hub group on Ravelry.  The blogger that I sent to, Chrissy from Stitched Together, has been revealing one item from the swap each day, so now I can share some more pictures from my secret day of shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket Farmers Market.

First, I stopped at 3-Corner Field Farm‘s booth.  I originally came to the Farmers Market to buy yarn from this booth, since several people on Ravelry recommended it as a wonderful New York State yarn.

You can probably see that there is only undyed yarn in the basket.

I didn’t think undyed yarn would make such a great swap gift, so I decided to buy some of the soap (which was also well reviewed on Ravelry).

The folks at this booth were quite delightful, and I’ll definitely be returning for some soap once my stash of handmade soap runs out.  (See Chrissy’s post here with pictures.)

I also stopped by the Wood Homestead Maple booth to pick up some yummy treats.  (See Chrissy’s post here with pictures.)

Yum.

Of course, I planned to get something with apples in it for a hometown treat, but nothing seemed strong enough to survive the trip to the U.K.  (I had visions of Chrissy opening her package to find shards of glass and apple sauce smoosh all over her yarn.)  That’s why I went with maple candies.  Tasty and easy-to-mail!

Chrissy also worked up a delightful Tunisian crochet moss stitch swatch using my Beginner’s Guide to Tunisian Crochet and took a picture of herself wearing a crocheted scarf that I sent her in this post.

If you’re in the mood for a Knit-A-Long, she is hosting one for her stunning Lily’s Slice of Pi Shawl.  You can find more details about the KAL here.

Seeing her pictures just makes me even more excited about my swap package, which will be shipped from someone else.  I’m looking forward to seeing the amazing goodies inside.

(This post is part of my Year of Projects: Crochet Master Class series. You can read the other posts in this series here.)

With my woven crochet clutch finished, I was ready to embark on a new chapter in Crochet Master Class.  I had the desire for texture, so I moved on to the bullion stitch chapter, which features crochet master Bonnie Pierce.  Bonnie learned the bullion stitch about 30 years ago when she decided to use a vintage pattern (with over 100 bullions) to make a Christening gown for her daughter.  After that, she saw that there was a lack of bullion patterns so she began to write her own.  Bonnie’s website links to 25 of her free square patterns, and she also sells some of her books, patterns, and bullion crochet hooks here.

I first experimented with the bullion stitch in 2006-7, when I crocheted this hat.

This hat is made with TLC Heathers yarn that I purchased on my very first trip to Smiley's in Queens!

Since that hat, I haven’t done much with bullions.  If you aren’t familiar with the bullion stitch, check out this YouTube tutorial by Margaret Hubert (which I learned about when I took her freeform class last year).

For some reason, this week I had a great need to “kill three birds with one stone.”  So I tried to pick a bullion project that I could also make from my own stash and for charity.  After a bit of searching on Ravelry, I came across several bullion stitch blocks by Donna Kay Lacey.  I started with the Poppy Bullion Block.

The sun glare on the white washes out some detail on this "in progress" picture.

Here's the finished block. I assure you that the wonky sides are not a design feature. Let's just say you shouldn't try to read a complex pattern while crocheting on the subway if you are aiming for perfection.

I really enjoyed the pattern.  A lot of crochet square patterns are pretty predictable, but this one kept me guessing – in a good way.  I’m planning to make at least a few more of these blocks before moving on to my next bullion stitch pattern.

This block will eventually end up going to Heartmade Blessings as part of the March 2012 Crochetlist charity challenge.  I’ll have to add a few more rounds to bring it up to 12″.

In other bullion news, I started to check out bullion crochet hooks on Lacis and Etsy (Sistermaide listing here).  If I’m still feeling excited about this stitch in another 30 days, I may even buy one.

For more Year of Projects posts, visit When Did I Become A Knitter.

I recently received a review copy of Custom Crocheted Sweaters: Make Garments that Really Fit by Dora Ohrenstein, of Crochet Insider fame, from the nice people at Lark Crafts.

Like most crocheters, I’ve been waiting a long time for a book like this.  Although I personally have little interest in actually making a sweater, I would love to have a greater understanding of how to make a crocheted sweater that fits and looks great.

Knitters have (seemingly) thousands of books about sweater designs (I’ve written about 7 in this post).  On the other hand, until January, crocheters seemed to have Modular Crochet: A Revolutionary New Method for Creating Custom-Design Pullovers (out-of-print and for sale on Amazon for $50-$260) and the first section of Couture Crochet Workshop (also selling for $100-$300 on Amazon).  (Yes, there are many crochet books of sweater patterns, and some even include tips on fitting and customization, but few seem to be primarily designed to teach the reader to design and customize her/his own sweaters.)

As soon as I heard that Dora Ohrenstein was working on Custom Crocheted Sweaters, I began eagerly anticipating its release.  Surprisingly, the book actually managed to live up to my high expectations.

Structure

The book opens with a 42 page overview of sweater design, divided into these sections:

• The Art and Craft of Making Garments,
• Overview of Sweater Construction,
• Choosing Yarns,
• Measuring Your Body,
• Understanding Fit,
• Demystifying Patterns,
• Reading Schematics,
• Shaping and Alteration 101, and
• Finishing with Care.

In these pages, Dora covers the different types of sweaters (“Oh, so that’s what a raglan sleeve is!”); provides incredibly detailed instructions for taking your own measurements as well as measuring beloved/well fitting sweaters in your own collection; and shares tips such as the best approach to altering an existing pattern to create a sweater that fits your unique measurements and preferences.

The next section, called The Sweaters,  includes 10 sweater designs featuring a variety of construction types.  Each sweater has a detailed pattern and is followed by one to three “lessons.”  There are a total of 17 lessons, including 4 “Master Class” lessons:

• Altering Body and Sleeve Lengths,
• Fine-Shaping Necklines and Shoulder Straps,
• Blocking to Your Measurements,
• Altering Length,
• Widening the Color,
• Altering Length and Waist Placement,
• Master Class in Fitted Armholes,
• Adjusting Size by Changing Gauge,
• Master Class on Armholes and Sleeve Caps,
• Lengthening Sleeves in an Angled Pattern,
• Internal Shaping with a Bust Dart,
• Widening Sleeves with Internal Shaping,
• Master Class in Sleeve Alteration,
• Adding Neckline Depth,
• Bust Alteration in Top-Down Design,
• Length and Waist Alterations, and
• Master Class in Bust Alteration.

In addition to the lessons, each sweater pattern includes a detailed overview of the benefits of that particular construction type, suggestions on what to consider when substituting yarns, and tips for choosing a size to fit you.

The sweater patterns are primarily written patterns in U.S. terminology, but the major stitch patterns or motifs for each design are also shown in international stitch symbols.  The book is cleanly organized and well written.

Sweater patterns

I didn’t expect to love all of the sweater patterns in this book, and I didn’t.  This book is really about the information contained in the opening section and the lessons.  The sweater patterns are almost an extra – if you like them, that’s great, and if not, you can apply the lessons to other patterns in your collection.   As far as I’m concerned, the information in this book is absolutely worth the price of admission, regardless of whether you actually plan to make any of the patterns in the book.  (You can check out pictures of each design on the book’s Ravelry page here.)

And now for the not so good news…

Now that I’ve told you how great the book is, it’s time to discuss the improvements I would suggest for the second edition .

It would be wonderful if a book like this, which requires a fair amount of reading and detailed focus while crocheting, could be spiral bound.  The book is a paperback and doesn’t really lay flat, so you can’t crochet and read at the same time.

Most of the models have long hair and the pictures are lovely.  BUT, often times the model’s hair obscures the shoulder construction.  Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with this, but in a book where there are literally pages dedicated to detailed discussion of drop shoulders versus fitted sleeve versus raglan construction, it would be nice to have a clear view of the shoulders and neckline.

I made a montage of the worst "hair offenders" from the photos provided by Lark Crafts. From left to right, Uptown, Floating Tee, and Double Trouble Shell.

The third issue relates to the discussion of math.  It is well known that, in general, math is not a strength of most Americans.  Dora attempts to rectify this (as it relates to crochet) by talking the reader through the math of making changes related to gauge, stitch pattern repeats, etc.  I think these sections would greatly benefit from a little formula box where you could “fill in the blanks” based on your situation, rather than long descriptions of what to do, using fake examples.  (I foresee many folks with math anxiety being confused about which number replaces which number in the example, and immediately giving up.  Or worse, making a mathematical error leading to a  poor fit, and then thinking the book wasn’t helpful.)

Summary

Run out and buy this book now, before it is selling for $300 on Amazon and you are kicking yourself for missing out.  It’s like having your very own sweater tutor that you can turn to at any moment for help with a project.  I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, even with its (few) flaws, because overall it teaches much more than I expected to learn from it, and certainly more than other books that are currently available.

(And, in case you are wondering, yes, I am keeping my review copy and not hosting a giveaway.  It’s just that good.)

I have two small finished projects to share today.

I finished these yoga socks on Saturday.  Way back in December, I started making my very own yarn stash club kits as part of my efforts to Surmount the Stash along with Revelations of a Delusional Knitter.  I really wanted to find something to do with a skein of Patons Stretch Socks and Pam Daley‘s yoga socks pattern (available at KnitPicks) seemed like it would be a great match.

I made these in my mom and sister's size...

since they both love yoga.

Unfortunately, that means these socks are too small for me, so you’ll just have to imagine how they’ll look on feet.

I was getting really nervous towards the end, because it looked like I might run out of yarn and I really didn’t want to buy more just to finish a few rows.  Luckily, I was able to finish the socks with one skein.

Less than two yards remaining!

Stitch detail.

These worked up so quickly that I didn’t even get to take progress pictures.  As you know, I don’t usually follow other people’s patterns, but I was (relatively) faithful to this one and would recommend it.  I will definitely be making another pair with a different sock yarn from my stash.

My other project to share is my plaid woven crochet clutch.  Unlike the socks, which were a four day project, this piece of plaid has been around since I took a class with Jenny King at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio last October.  I last shared progress pictures on Sunday, and then I finished this off later that day.

Closed, with the button from my grandmother's collection.

With the flap open.

I’m glad that I finally learned to make plaid crochet so that the woven strands look nice and plump… but… I don’t really imagine myself using woven crochet much.  There are just too many ends to weave in.  Perhaps if I was Scottish (or had a close friend who was very proud of their Scottish heritage), I would want to make a tartan in crochet form to share with the world.  Alternatively, if I loved fringe, I would make a ton of plaid afghans with fringe and never worry about weaving in ends.

I plan to use this clutch as a gift pouch.  The jury is still out on whether I will pick up the other piece of mesh from the class, weave in 22 chain strands and their ends, and then transform it into something useful.

For more Finished Objects, visit Tami’s Amis.

Since January 16, I’ve had a secret.

I’ve been participating in a swap through The Blog Hub group on Ravelry.  Each swapper was tasked with finding out more about their swapee (in secret) and creating a box with at least 7 swap items.  There were several required items (at least 100 g of yarn, a pattern, and a local item) as well as a spending minimum ($40/£25/€30 or the equivalent).  Each item had to be separately wrapped so that the recipient would open one package each day and have a week’s worth of blog material to write.  This is a circular swap so another blogger will be sending goodies to me.  (And yes, I am anxiously waiting for my package to arrive, but I still have a few weeks before the shipping deadline.)

My swapee is Chrissy of Stitched Together.  I went secret shopping for her a few weeks after learning she was my swap partner on January 16.  Since Chrissy has started to reveal what is in her swap box (Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3), I can share some of what I was up to during that mysterious time.

She opened up her yarn in the Day 3 post (and took beautiful pictures of it), and now I can share some pictures from my shopping trip to the Union Square Greenmarket Farmers Market on a Saturday in late January.

I really wanted to find a local yarn for Chrissy, since she is in the UK and I could be pretty sure she wouldn’t have a local NYS yarn.  I ended up choosing two skeins from the Catskill Merino Sheep Farm‘s booth.

Yummy, yummy woolstuffs.

If you like cute pictures of livestock, you should check out their blog.  I particularly love the picture in this recent post about a Corriedale ram.  I would definitely recommend stopping by their booth if you are in New York City on a Saturday – there is a beautiful selection of wool yarns in different weights and colors.

This weekend, I actually got a lot done and I feel very accomplished right now, so it’s a perfect time to share the weekly update on my craft goals.

Personal crafting goals

1. Work my way through Crochet Master Class: Lessons and Projects from Today’s Top Crocheters.  Instead of using the patterns, I’d like to create my own project (for myself and/or for teaching) for each technique/skill in the book.

I finished my woven crochet project.  Expect a big reveal tomorrow during FO Friday.  I’ve also started another chapter in preparation for my Year of Projects update post on Sunday.

2. Make something handmade for my mom and sister for the holidays (or their birthdays).  Possible sources of inspiration include Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks or something from my growing collection of vintage crochet books.

Yay!  All of the squares are joined for my sister’s blanket.

5. Limit new yarn purchases, increase the ratio of natural to synthetic fibers in my stash, and continue to destash any yarn or notions that I won’t be using in the near future.

I returned unneeded yarn in exchange for a set of circular needles and two books.  I consider this an accomplishment!

I also finished my first stash yarn club kit project and started another.  I’ll have pictures tomorrow to share for FO Friday.

And, see #6 below for stash charity project updates.

6. Make and donate more charity crochet projects in 2012 than in 2011.

I am currently working on some 12″ squares for the Crochetlist March Charity Challenge.  The recipient organization is Heartmade Blessings, and the best part of this challenge is that you don’t have to weave in any ends!  (Since I’m currently working on a double bed sized afghan made of 375 granny squares, this is really good news.)  I’m definitely more adventurous with colors when weaving in ends isn’t involved.

7. Participate (however briefly) in a CAL.

Recently, two blog posts have gotten me excited about participating in a CAL again:

• Yarn Dharma (Crochet is My Sanity) recently posted about several CALs she is participating in and shared some great squares she has made for these CALs.
• Minding My Own Stitches shared a finished blanket from Sarah London’s Wool-Eater CAL 2012.

I don’t think I can actually participate in a CAL until I finish my sister’s blanket, or it will never get done.  But I can dream, can’t I??

Professional crafting goals

4. Blog at least twice a week.

I’ve actually blogged every day since my last update.  And Dorothy from Hooks ‘n’ Grannies passed along the Versatile Blogger Award to me.  Thanks, Dorothy!

9. Take better photographs, along with all that entails.

I read and re-read the 7+ Tacky Sins of Pattern Photography on Dull Roar’s blog.  It doesn’t contain anything shocking, but it did serve as a reminder to stop taking pictures with trees emerging from the top of my head.

How are your craft goals coming?