Captn's Log: Crochet Date; Thurs May 14

The morning came far too early for this night owl. Husband, transported daughter and I to the Mt. Vernon Train Station (Mt. Vernon, WA State), where daughter & I boarded the Amtrak to Portland.

It is about a 5 hour journey, so we brought our hooks and yarn to keep us company!

Please note the very cool skull cap I crocheted, most of it in Bernat Glow in the Dark yarn. It's a cool cap, which doubles as a night lite :) (Just kidding it doesn't glow that long, but it does glow brightly!)

We met some lovely ladies from Bellingham, WA along the way, most of them older than I, and most mystified by crocheting, or knitting, a few were quilters. We decided we could all live in the sisterhood/brotherhood of textile love.

We had a few stops along the way, first was Everett, then Seattle, then Tacoma and a few more. I missed a couple cause I was taking a well earned nap! Sara got a neat shot of the Seattle stop.

We arrived in Portland in good time, the rain having turned to beautiful blue skies. We met up for dinner with some very good friends. I won't say how long I've known by dear sister/friend and her hubby, but let's put it this way, it makes us feel old to say it! Then, I got back in time for the Market Show Preview! WOW some really great stuff folks! More on that later...but here's what I've gotten so far:

Several skeins of Newton's Country Yarn, one of them a lovely bamboo/brushed cotton, 950 yds! WHOOT. I also picked up a Laurel Hill Ebony hook, looks like an M to me, love it! The gentlemen from Laurel Hill are really neat folks, good to meet them and hear the story behind this really cool company!

After that we free formers started to "hook up", and I got to see dear Mel from Connetticut, Bonnie & Bill Pierce from Washington State, as well as Jacqui from Australia who I got to meet in 2007 in Oakland, she looks great! and a new addition to our little cadre of crochet madness, Sarah who works for Crown Mtn. Farms!

Tommorrow I have my first class in the afternoon with Jennifer Hansen looking forward to that, and this should just be fun! Ooooh and tomorrow night is the Free Formers official party. Hoping to hook up with more folks. I'm hear hanging around the hotel...I'll leave a note in the hospitality room so folks can find me ;)

Anyway, goodnight and sweet fiber dreams! Capt'n out! (Sorry, I'm exhausted and I was feeling all trek-ish :) )

This is my view from the hotel...wish you came now doncha!?

Grammar Police Where Are You?

Dear Grammar Police,

I would like to entreat you to accost those who list handwork out of alphabetical order. You have no problem letting me know when spell check has missed my homonyms, or typos, or my over use of commas, and semi-colons. You, the Grammar Police, love to point out incomplete phrases, and run on sentences, you have skills, and I wish you to put them to good use. You can correct me any time you want, and often do, but why oh why don't you get a hold of yarn companies, and catalogues for writing "Knit and Crochet" instead of "Crochet and Knit" ?

A list should be in alphabetical order: point blank.

Now, here are my reasons: I recently contacted a yarn company regarding their use of "Knit and Crochet" and politely asked them to revise their website to reflect the alphabetical listing. I wrote stating that it was obviously an oversight, because they have not ignored crochet as a market, but that we (the consumers) often feel like we're getting second billing.

Their response was less than desired; I felt talked down to, I felt like was I was patted on the head, and frankly I was really annoyed.

To paraphrase what they wrote me; they use knit and crochet because of how the phrase flows.

Hmmm... I had years of voice lessons, classical voice lessons; if you've ever studied classical voice then you will understand that learning to enunciate while singing is a skill that requires years of practice. In fact, "electrocution" (elocution) lessons were a great part of my classical training. Did you know it's easier to sing in a Latin root language than in English? Did you know why?

Vowels and consonants. Sound is carried on vowel sounds, and soft consonants (m, n, s,z), hard consonants end sound, (t, p,k,d)...So I want you to pronounce with me...let's say this together phonetically, and if you think I'm wrong, that's okay. I just think if they are going to say it's a word flow issue, we should test it out :)

NihT anD croshay

Croshay and nihT

Which has the smoother flow?

See I find when I pronounce the "t" in knit that the t is a hard sound which breaks up the flow of the sounds in the phrase. When I say crochet (ay) this flows with more liquidity with two consecutive open vowel sounds and you'll find you may pronounce the d of "and" softer too, with the t at the end of knit softer but still final. T is always a final sound when you pronounce words in English; It's a hard, staccato, versus and open legato... :)

So next time someone says, it's for the flow of the sounds and not about billing, I'll just have to point out how very wrong that is....

You can fool part of the people, part of the time; but you can't fool all the people, all of the time.

I think saying crochet and knit sounds more equal and less of a billing issue than vice versa...not because of the alphabet even, because of how the word sounds flow.

But pronounce it yourself and see what you think for yourself.

Tune in to Getting Loopy!

Hey Monday Sept. 29, 2008 I will be on Getting Loopy with Mary Beth Temple...First I am honored to be invited to be a guest on her very cool show ;)

You can join in the action via chat! Ask questions, feel free...So tomorrow night at 9:30 eastern (that's 6:30 pacific) ! I'm really excited and looking forward to this interview! I have a huge amount of respect for Ms. Temple, and I have enjoyed listening to her shows...sadly I never get to listen to them live, because my internet options are limited on Monday nights...sigh...Remember the bad dial up situation...GRRRR...

So, tune in...what's going to happen in the interview? Oh heck, you never know, but I pinky swear to be my honest, irreverant, and silly self! Oh and I solemnly swear to shamelessly promote our book too!

How can you join in? Go to GETTING LOOPY

I'm sooooooooooooooooo ready to get LOOPY!

Crochet Liberation Front Manifesto

CLF manifesto

We are the Crochet Liberation Front!
We are both male and female, all races, creeds, and nationalities.

We hook and we are proud.

With our hooks we make lace, household items, dresses and sweaters, socks and slippers, tablecloths and bedspreds, we make jewelry and sculptured art.

We are limited only by our creativity and imagination.

That which we make is beautiful!

We refuse to be pigeon-holed into any single category.

We refuse to accept the myth that we are less than other arts and crafts.

We will not apologize for our love of all that is hookable.

We refuse to continue in the need to have other crafts to make us valid.

We are valid in and of our own nature.

We refuse to accept the stereotypes that keep us down trodden and unsupported.

We are the Crochet Liberation Front and WE hold our hooks high!

If you are a person who uses the great hook to create wonderful art, cozy clothes, practical household items, fun and entertaining toys and dolls, if you just like the feel of the hook in your hand, if you have a mother, daughter, aunt, grandmother, father, grandfather, uncle or son who crochets...join us!

How? Just give us your

Name (you can make one up)

Rank (Please make one up, it's fun!)

and Yardage (some people take this to mean how much they have made, how much in their stash, how long they have crocheted).

Just post a comment below and you are officially part of the CLF...

HOOKS RAISED! CLF SALUTES!