25 Reasons I love Crochet...

1) I can make anything I can imagine with a simple instrument (hook) and something that can wind around it (fiber, wire, plastic, roving, feathers, yarn, string, twine, fabric).



2) I love the reactions I get from others when I wear my hats, scarves, sweaters.



3) I love the reactions I get when I gift my loved ones with my "latest" and "greatest" creations.



4) In less than 10 minutes I can mystify a child by making a wiggly worm or a hair scrunchy.



5) I love how my husband watching me as I take yarn and hook, and whispers "It's like magic when you do that..."



6) I love how it eases my stress levels and gives me yoga like levels of relaxation.



7) I love that when I was a struggling single mother of two small babies, I could afford some thread and a steel hook and make their Christmas happen. (I couldn't afford ornaments for the tree).



8) I love that now I can afford exotic fibers and get to use my glass hook with my camel/silk yarn...and it feels orgasmic as the hook slides through the soft, delicate fibers.



9) I love that I am never bored.



10) I love that I can whip up an instant gift when I have a birthday/wedding/anniversary/baby gift I've forgotten to buy.



11) I love that young children ask me to teach them how to crochet...



12) I love that I can make socks that look like socks, feel like socks and act like socks.



13) I love that crochet has helped me meet some of the most generous, creative, talented, and loving people.



14) I love that I am doing something that women have done in my family for more than four generations.



15) I love that I taught my daughter and she loves crochet as much as I do.



16) I love that my daughter and I had the common ground of crochet to get through the worst of the early teen snarky stage without killing each other.



17) I love that each time I pick up a hook, I feel like I'm sitting with the woman who first put one in my hands. My great grandmother.



18) I love that I don't have to use a pattern to have something turn out fabulous.



19) I love that I can use a pattern if I'm feeling lazy.



20) I love that with over 32 years of crocheting experience that I can still learn something new.



21) I love crochet because it taught me patience, perspective, and helped me find my artform.



22) I love crochet because it allows me that "me" time, I wouldn't normally take in my daily life.



23) I love that I can make son laugh by making him puppets.



24) I love the feel of a hook in my hands.



25) I love knowing that I am doing something she did, even though I never got to meet her, her work inspired me to be every bit as good as she was...




Who is she? My grandmother, Grace Rogers, she died in 1956 when my mother was 8 years old. People say I look like her, sound like her and act like her, she was only 36 when she died. When times were hard crochet helped feed my uncles, aunt and mom. I have some of her things, they have always inspired me. She is one of my favorite reasons that I love crochet, because through the hook I have a connection to the woman I supposedly resemble in many ways, but never got to meet.

Crochet ignorance...

You know what really steams me up? (Oh I hear your chuckles loud and clear!)

When people who don't do much crochet, malign our art/craft. Especially people in the needle arts industry, they should know better and their lack of knowledge often mortifies me.

Here are a few of the myths that make me go "Mmmm?"

1) Lace is difficult.

No it isn't. Lace takes time, attention, and the ability to count. Yes, you heard me COUNTING. That's the biggest skill required. In general lace is not difficult to do, it often doesn't require any stitch more difficult than a crown picot or maybe a clones knot, maybe a bullion stitch. All you have to do is is practice a bit before you do a stitch that needs finger flexibility. Lace is about negative space and making holes. Hard to do with the sticks, easy as chaining three, skipping two stitches and inserting your damned hook into the third stitch and single crocheting, with a hook. Yeah you heard me, a hook.

Does no one wish to sell thread? I mean for the love of all that's fuzzy, Doris Chan has shown us what we can do with those marvelous old lacey motifs and stitch patterns and do in bigger yarn. So it works up faster. Faster doesn't mean easier, it means faster. DUH.

2) Only fashion wear is good crochet.

Oh go jump off a tall bridge. All crochet is good crochet when someone pays attention, has even stitch work, and the project suits the needs of the hands that made it. One person's "OMG what is that THING" is another person's precious treasure.

If you start telling me that potholders aren't useful, then pick up a hot dish straight out of the oven or put it on your nice new wood table. If you tell me that slippers aren't of importance come to my house in January and walk around without socks. If you tell me that hats and scarves aren't needed, then walk on my local beach in March when a 30MPH squall is blowing. Pillows, afghans, dolls, and toys all have their places too! My teenage neices still have all the dolly blankets, and toy horse saddle blankets I made them when they were young, they are now keeping them for their kids! (I think that is very cool.)

Jewelry, purses, socks, slippers, rugs, shopping bags, bicycle panniers, Ipod covers, cell phone holders, game system holders, and the ubiquitous hair scrunchy; THEY ALL HAVE THEIR PLACE, in the hands of a hookster.

3) You're only good a needle arts if you use sticks...

Explicative, Explicative, and BLEEP. Rolling my eyes here. No, you are good at needle arts if you do any kind of needle work with attention, patience, and proficiency. And who said you had to be good at it? Doesn't everyone have to start somewhere? I don't know many people who started out making perfect projects.

4) If they can't do it, it's obvious it's not a good craft.

Get over yourselves. People who think that way belong back in elementary school. I cannot use sticks beyond swatching. Does it mean I think knitting and knitters suck? Nope, I think I suck at knitting. Am I a lesser form of crafter because I crochet? Hell NO! In fact most of the people who malign crochet couldn't do half of what I do with a hook with their sticks, and the other half may be talented but are rather short sighted and don't bother to look past their own feeble crochet attempts.

5) Crocheters love ugly colors.

From what I see in many a magazine and from the big yarn brands you'd certainly think that. Thank the FUZZ GAWD that some of us actually do have an understanding of color and color theory and can see past the "Oh my god that color combination inspires my stomach acid to react to my lunch" color choices they foist on us.

I mean really. And some people do like the color choices, color is subjective dependant on cultural tastes of the beholder. (But I still say they have it out for us.)

6) You can only really be loyal to one craft.

Bull puckey. I know so many crafters who do so much more than one craft. We may have our favorites, but really most of us have dabbled in many forms of crafting. I, for example, am into crocheting, embroidery, rug making, spinning yarn (on a wheel), and have done some weaving (though it's not my thing), I also felt and make coiled baskets. But because I don't use sticks, why none of the rest of that can possible count...dripping sarcasm aside, I'd love to ask the folks who think that way to come warp my Jack loom. It's only 48 inches wide, with four harnesses, I bet they could manage it cold.

7) Crocheters are old, fat, lazy and stupid.

They may not say it, but man they sure act like that's what we are. I'm not saying there aren't old, fat, lazy and stupid crocheters out there, but I've met some pretty skinny, hyperactive, very young (thinking of my 15 year old) crocheters. I've met kids as young as five who crochet, and women as old as 98, most of us fall in between that gap. In fact in one my own online surveys, the average age of a CLF member was 34 years of age.

8) Crocheters are cheap/low class.

What ever. You should see the emails flying from the Free Form Crochet list as The Knit and Crochet Show approaches. People are strategizing about how many bags they can bring to the show so they can get all their yarn purchases home. There are stories of people getting ready to ship their laundry or yarn home, just to fit it all in to the trip! Yeah, that's real cheap.

As for low class. Folks, the US Census Bureau has the US Median Income at $40,000 per house hold. We have over 300 million people in this country, you are in the top 20% if you make more than $50,000 per year. I don't know where you live, but where I live that doesn't go very far. The majority of people ARE worker bees, and these folks should be respected, and the companies and magazines should think about what it takes to get their business. We all love the bottomless wallet, but there is only a scant percentage of the population with that kind of income. Sorry to burst your bubble, not all of that scant uses sticks.

I'm sure I'll think of more things that cheese me off, but this should do for today. Industry people, RETHINK how you treat us, cause we're getting REAL organized.

Craft Marketeers & Suppliers Listen Up!

Ok, there is a general misperception in the world of marketing and the craft supply industry. Crocheters feel this a lot because we are constantly being maligned by the industry we support in our purchases. Yet, it's not just we who wield the hook who are so maligned, it's all of us who craft.

If they would a) stop working off myths and actually do some real marketing research (aka get out from behind a desk and go talk to people) and b) pay attention to supply/demand the craft market would be a better place for all of us.

Myth 1: People who craft are older, retired, or poor, or have too many kids to count.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? What the hell is that about? I mean for goodness sakes we are not living in a Dickens novel. Here's the real world. Crafters come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, all kinds of interests.

Why just in crochet alone you have many different genre which appeal to different kinds of people. Amigurumi is a super trend that's getting more and more interesting all of the time! Younger people are into it, though they aren't the only folks who like to make these trendy dolls. There are blanket/afghan makers, pillow puff stitchers, and others who like to make socks, slippers, hats and scarves, others work with beads, make tapestry or curtains, others still make fashion items. Some folks are poor, some are rich, some are old, some are grannies, some are grampies, some are young, some are rich, most are female but not all.

Dudes and dudettes who do the marketing, my hand is on my hip, and I'm shaking my head in dismay at your lack of attention to detail.

Pay someone to do market research for you. Crap if you paid me to go to the conventions, and do marketing research I'd do it in a heart beat. Unbiased, honest to goodness research. Because, lordy these myths are what is busting the craft industry as a whole.

If you do not market well, your business is a bust.

Getting Down To Crochet Biznez

Internet Buzz is an interesting phenomena, one little linky in a forum and masses will flock to check out the newest, latest, greatest thing on the block.

Recently such an event happened on the CLF Message Board on Ravelry.com. One of the many minions and ring leaders put up the link to a new "Crochet Site". Anime sounding "WHAAAAAAAA?"

So, like everyone else who saw the link I popped over to take a look at this "CROCHET SITE"...

Leisure Arts has launched it's own site called "Crochet Soiree" I have joined and am CLFFearless there if you feel like friending me. I'll keep my eye on the site, I see it has some interesting potentials.

It's not exactly a social networking site, though it has a little of that aspect. It's a lot more like CrochetMe, only it's propietory to Leisure Arts. I did like that I could find Aunt Lydias crochet cotton in their store though, because finding it locally has been difficult as of late. I like that company, and can't find anywhere close (within 35 minutes) to purchase it. Nice to have a place I can find it.

I'll let the public decide what they will think of this site, for now I'm pleasantly sitting at warm :) I don't think it's the hottest thing ever, but neither do I think it completely sucks and blows. Let's see how they do. I like, no, I adore, Leisure Arts publications, not just because of their dedication to crochet, but beause I have heard absolute love stories from designers about how they are treated by that company.

So we'll give it a chance.

But I want LA to understand if the site isn't everything they hoped it would be, it has a lot more to do with a proprietory approach to social networking (never works all that well) and a lot less to do with "cheap crocheters"...My worry is that if it doesn't meet expectations they will blame the crochet community. Thanks for marketing to us, I think that's cool, but remember you have to know your audience. The same audience on the street and online may be two separate animals.

Crocheting Hats as fast as I can, PLUS More results...

Hey there!

Well, I've gone on a crochet hat binge. I decided I need a whole bunch of hats to wear in Portland. I can crochet up a basic hat in 45 mins, but these are taking up to three hours due to color changes. I've made a "Dutchboy", and now working on a Beret, I made daughter a glow in the dark Skullcap. That took all of an hour, because I actually took a break. Am I getting wiser with age? Or more easily distracted? Shshshsh don't answer that...

So, I've been keeping an eye on our Charts/Don't Care poll, new results:

99 For having charts included in patterns
26 don't care
1 really really hates charts

Hmmmm...Next question of those 99 how many buy Crochet World?

So, don't forget to look for your crazy "Fearless Leader" in Portland, I'll have my shadow and gorgeous 15 yr old daughter with me. She's in it for the yarn and an obligatory trip to Powells Bookstore ;)

I'll post pics of the hats soonish like ;)

Come on crocheters, get with it!

Ok, crocheters, hookers, babies, dears: Listen up.

We need more of a web presence. Don't leave it all up to your beloved folks on the blogosphere, and on twitter...Come out, come out where ever you are: Stand up loud and proud, be counted.

I mean really it's not that big a deal. Get a Twitter account, and tweet away about your pretty projects and fun things. I would love you to outnumber the weirdos selling weird things with not real photos of "models" (or porn stars, at least that is what they look like to me)... Join and then follow me, I'll follow you I promise and we can sing great crochet music online together! I'm Camanomade on Twitter as well as on Ravelry.com.

Don't forget to join us on Ravelry either!

Oh and one more thing, I want to see mega hookin' representin' in Portland! Let's show em a good time folks!

Some results...and FROGGIN'

Hey there minions and ring leaders!

Today I was checking out our "Charts/No Charts" thread on Ravelry, and so far we have 151 readers (so um...if you haven't checked in wanna do it), and so far here are the results:

77 are for
24 are in the against/don't care camp.
1 person feels strongly enough to disagree (which wasn't really an option, but we get your point. You don't like charts :) )

Now down to doughnuts...I have to FROG...

I don't mean a little frogging, but a lot of frogging. I have to take a part my "stupid" Fearless Leader Vest. The front panels aren't going with the back at all, the shaping is not working...and I'm just annoyed. I won't have it done for Portland, but I have a cute little bolero number that I finally finished to make up for it.

SIGH....The front panels will end up in a different sweater entirely. The back will be a SUPER FEARLESS LEADER CAPE! Cause dang it, it's too cool to just leave unfinished. But, I only have about two weeks until Sara and I hit the rails south to Portland. I may take it to work on, though it's pretty heavy.

I think I'll just leave it home. I mean when you have to carry your own luggage you start thinking about things like that.

Back to the bolero...ooooh it's cute :) I put brass bells on the bottom of the vest, so if you hear jingling in Portland it's me :)