TNNA Recap Part 1

So, I just got home from a few lovely days in Columbus Ohio at the The National Needlework Association's Summer Show.  Yarn companies, hooks/needles, book companies come from all over the world to show off their new products and colors.  It's an industry event and it's big business and great fun.

The ever talented and entertaining Marly Bird, designer and host of the Yarn Thing Podcast, organizes a dinner every year. Companies sponsor the event and give the designers "Swag" of great products to try out and use in our work. O MY GOODNESS, there are so many great yarns and products that I'll be telling you about probably for WEEKS.  It's so exciting.  The list is LONG of companies who shared their new stuff with us.  AND I'll be looking into doing a GIVEAWAY next week, because, it's simply too good not to share.

Here's a few of the sponsors and products
For the second year in a row....Namaste bags was a sponsor!  I STILL use my ZUMA bag that I received last year and I LOVE it.  They make bags specifically to meet the needs of fiber folks.  Animal friendly, PVC-free materials, great features that help crocheters and knitters keep track of our little tools while offering great spaces for snag-free yarn storage.  Not to mention the bags come in a variety of cool styles.  This year, I received the Skinny Mini bag in Eggplant. Gorgeous!  The perfect size for many crochet hooks, a pair of scissors, my tapestry needle, etc.  really, a great piece to go inside my Zuma bag. It comes in many colors so you can match it to your project bag or get a contrasting color.

(this is Namaste's photo) THANK YOU Namaste for making consistently great products.

Another sponsor from Last year who continues to support designers is... XRX books, Knitter's Magazine and Stitches Expos (All the same people).
They provided a variety of books from their line-up!  This year, I received:


Swing, Swagger Drape Knit the Colors of Australia by Jane Slicer Smith  and last year I received Gwen Bortner's Entree to Entrelac.  This weekend, I was able to take a class from Gwen about the business of teaching. 

The third sponsor for today's list is the Simplicity/Boye group who have some awesome new hooks and needles out!  Drew Emborsky, the Crochet Dude has some ergonomic crochet hooks in his line of tools. I'm looking forward to trying them out. Follow the link to check them out. I haven't take a photo of mine yet.

Left to right, Marly Bird, Kristin Omdahl, Mary Beth Temple, me, Jill Wright.  We were all contributors to Robyn Chachula's Unexpected Afghans book. The blanket shown is Linda Permann's blanket from the book. You can't see Robyn, because she was busy signing for LYS owners, but it was great fun.

Brilliant Bolero Revealed!

Red Heart is offering my Brilliant Bolero sweater pattern as a free download! It's a raglan top-down construction in one color-changing yarn to get this landscape effect!  Generous and roomy it's ideal for layering.

Spider Web Throw Revealed!

The folks at Red Heart blogged the other day about my new Spider Web Throw.

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Here's the link to their blog post where you can get the details on this pattern and dress-up crochet patterns for kids. 

What was I thinking? Serene Meadow

The lacy edged Serene Meadow blanket is in the current Summer issue of Crochet! Magazine. It is stitched in Red Heart's "With Love" yarn.  The blanket itself is an easy meditative double crochet field.  The edging is where it shows it's pizazz.

I was thinking that I wanted to do a blanket where the EDGING was the focal point for a change. Generally, my work tends to focus on the interior of the blanket and I often don't want to call too much attention to the border because of all the interesting goings on in the middle.  This time, I wanted to play with the reverse.  Because of this, I planned the edging first and calculated the math of the interior based on what I needed for the first row of edging. If I could do anything differently, I would have done the edging BIGGER.  On the swatch the edging seemed huge, but compared to the finished blanket, I wish I had made it a good 2-3" bigger. 

What do you think? Which is the feature you focus on when choosing a project to make? ... the interior or the edging/border?  Do you love a great edge or is the edge an afterthought?

Girl Scouts Rcok the Mall

We're back! Chickee, her Girl Scout troop, and I joined about 250,000 other Girl Scouts in DC this past week to "Rock the Mall"  We saw all the sights before the big main event on Saturday at the Washington Monument.  Here is her troop (in blue, Chickee in green shorts) and a troop from Hawaii (in brown).  The girls swapped pins that they made to give to the other scouts. She even brought home one that had been crocheted!  I'll photograph it and show it later. 

Here's Chickee in front of the Capitol building.

But now, there's a huge backlog of work waiting for me. Totally worth it though. Chickee had a great time with her friends.

Photo Friday: Separated at birth?

Chickee's friend's parents took a bunch of girls to the zoo and got them "back stage" at the bird show, where they had a close encounter with this penguin "Penny".      A DOR A BLE

 Separated at Birth?

What you've been missing

Wow, it is so difficult to keep up with the blog when I can't post 'sneak peeks'. :)  And, I've been very busy.  Work has been incredibly busy. I can think of a few blankets, a hat, a bracelet, a necklace, a scarf, a couple shawls that I have made in the past month.  I can't wait for you to see them!

On my to-do list, a shawl, a shrug, a women's sweater, a scarf, a baby dress....so you'll be getting a wide variety from me in the next year.

Today is the kids' first day of summer vacation!  (yay! First Honors for both kids, and various reading and conduct awards for both!) A 5k run for me, Chief is getting waffles for breakfast, and Chickee is sleeping in. It's fine that she is sleeping in because she is getting braces on her teeth later today.  Luckily she is very excited to improve her already beautiful smile.  (Looks like we'll be having soft food for dinner!)

I hope to get back to 'what was I thinking' Wednesdays and 'Photo Fridays'.  It will be turbulent around here though until at least the 11th, then hopefully I'll get back into a rhythm of posting. In the meantime, I'm working with some really fantastic yarns.  Tahki Cotton Classic Lite, Patons Lace, Omega cotton, Universal Nazli Gelin thread, Universal Swiss Mohair.  Check them all out by clicking the Annie's link in the right side bar, they are all on that site.

Here's a new headshot of me. It might give you some clues what I've been up to.  Don't even guess though, cuz I can't say. Let's just say that this fall is going to be FULL of reveals.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Reveal: Mod Blanket

My Mod Blanket is in the new July/August Issue of Crochet Today!

It's a join-as-you go motif construction. The Red Heart yarn is available at Annie's.  See the link in the right side bar to go shopping! Wouldn't this look great in black and white?  What combination would you choose?

Follow me by email

Did you know you could follow my blog by email using Feedburner?
On the right side bar of this blog page is a dialogue box, near the top. That's all you need to get started! 

Also, there is now a link to Annie's for yarn, books, supplies and notions on the right side bar. Click it and it will take you there! 

Thanks!

thanks to Haley for sending me the 'pansy' inspiration photo!

Thursday

Today is Thursday, right? My days are all mixed up.  Work is booming. So much excitement in the crochet world right now. All will be revealed in the fall.  In the meantime, I have a couple more urgent deadlines, then I'm hoping I'll be in a nice leisurely but consistent pace. The word for the second half of 2012 will have to be 'Balance'. :)  I'm so grateful for the work though. To be able to crochet for the support of the family, is really a dream come true.

We lost another chicken this week. :(  We're down to 11.  I know it sounds like a joke, but... one of our chickens got spooked ran across the road and fell down our cliff.  We couldn't find her and it's too steep/dangerous to go looking for her. Go ahead, insert your "why did the chicken cross the road" joke here. Still, we are sad. I have been keeping an eye out for her in case she somehow, miraculously finds her way back home. 

Let me see if I can find a photo for you... Here's a photo of Piglet. I let her roam around on the hard floor occasionally just to give her a change of scene.

Mission Possible

Don't cue the Mission Impossible music, I'm calling this super secret massive project 'POSSIBLE'. I'll need to keep a positive attitude to make it through!  Likely, you won't hear from me for about a week. All super good fun things are happening. All will be revealed in August and September.

See you next week-ish. Wednesday hopefully, Thursday probably.

Reveal: Serene Meadow

in the Summer 2012 issue of Crochet!

Photo Friday

Last weekend, the kids and I ran in our first 5K. They would have blown me away but I made them stay not too far ahead of me, where I could still see them.  Have a great weekend!

A Step-by-Step Guide to Tunisian Crochet

Learn Tunisian Crochet with Interweave e-book

 More than just 5 great patterns for $6.99, it's a tutorial for all things Tunisian including increasing, decreasing and Tunisian enterlac.
It includes my Tara's Tunisian Scarf

Crochet Me store link Click the link to see the details and purchase.

Giveaway Winner!

And the winner is....

 Kareena K. Assiniboia, SK Canada

Kareena, Congratulations! Please email me at:

Ellen @ GoCrochet dot com 

and I'll pass along your email to the Bijou Spun Publishing person to get your digital copy of Kristin's book to you!

Reveal: Lacy Beret, Bruges Lace Hat

LOOK!  I made the cover of Brett Bara's new book, Clever Crocheted Accessories!  WOO HOO!

It's not scheduled to be published until November.  (And who knows, a cover could change by then), but my hat is on the cover NOW. :)  Here's the Interweave link with the latest information. 

Photo Friday

First, don't forget to check out yesterday's post for a chance to win Kristin Omdahl's new digital book, Complements Collection.

Tomorrow we're planning to run in the Flying Pig (Cincinnati) 5k with the kids and their school "team". (The marathon, the 10k, the relay, etc are all on Sunday, so it won't be nearly as crowded tomorrow for the shorter events). I've been fighting a stomach bug the last few days so I'm praying that I'm at 100% tomorrow.  I usually run with my phone, but I got a new phone and my new phone won't fit in my old armband. So, I whipped up a new one.  This one is made of Vickie Howell's Sheep(ish) yarn.  The blue is for relaxation and breathing, the red is to go fast ;) and the magenta is for having fun.  The button you may recognize from last summer. The kids made the polymer clay buttons so I snagged one for the pouch.  I used sticky back velcro for the straps (so convenient). I'm excited to run in my first "race" but I'm not sure how it will go with the kids. I'm pretty sure Chief will beat me handily. I may have to hang back with Chickee. We'll see.

Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Complements Collection

Bijou Basin Ranch yarn has kicked off it's new 'Bijou Spun' publishing division with the Complements Collection by Kristin Omdahl.  The collection is 7 knit and 6 crochet projects in a 28 page booklet that is available in both hardcopy and digital formats.

Chevrons and shells both knit and crochet are well represented in this collection.  The count includes 2 shawls (one knit, one crochet), 1 unisex hat & mitts set (knit), 1 hat and scarf set (crochet), crochet wristlets, 2 short ascot scarves (1 knit, 1 crochet), 1 knit shawlette, 1 knit cowl, 1 crochet cowl, 1 knit capelet. Did I get it all? It's a bunch!  And considering accessories are among the quickest and most universally wearable projects, you will definitely find something to love in the collection.

Teaming up with Bijou Basin Ranch Yarn must have been a real jackpot! Kristin was given free reign to create with some of the most luscious fibers on the planet. These extravagant fibers may seem out of reach and yet, Kristin designed with 3 balls or fewer of each of the company's exotic blend fibers. The smaller projects and using sock yarns with generous yardage makes the yarns much more accessible.

My favorite crochet project in the bunch is the Protea textured hat and keyhole scarf set. It's just lovely, looks so warm and elegant. It looks like it would have good stretch for comfortable wearing. Though most of the projects in the book have either knit charts or crochet stitch diagrams to accompany them, this particular pattern does not. At less than one page for both the hat and scarf together, perhaps the pattern is easy enough without the extra support of a diagram.

Oh!  I see in the little bio of Kristin on the back cover it lists one of her books as "The Finer Edge"  HMMM? I didn't know about that book!  Is it new, (running over to Amazon real quick to look....) Oh yes!  This is her newest book scheduled to come out in January 2013. Crochet edgings and trims.  Here's the Amazon link to all of her lovely books.

I'm Intrigued by the knit Gladiolus XOXO Hugs & Kisses knit hat and wristlets set.  On the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird, Kristin said that even people new to "in the round" knit might enjoy this pattern because the beginning part of the hat is worked on straight needles before transitioning to circulars!  That in itself made me take another look at this unisex pattern. Get the book or listen to Marly's podcast to hear the funny story of the subliminal? message Kristin stitched right into that hat! 

To see all 13 knit and crochet projects, find them on Ravelry, here's the link.  

To enter for the random drawing for a digital copy of Complements Collection, leave a comment including your first name, last initial, and city on THIS post by Sunday May 6, 2012 11:59 pm EST.  Because this is a digital prize, the giveaway is open to everyone, not just US residents.  You may enter only once and a winner will be chosen at random.  The winner will be announced on Monday, here on the blog. The winner will need to write me with your email address at Ellen @ GoCrochet dot com  (take out the spaces, trade the word "dot" for and actual dot. If the prize is not claimed by emailing me by Tuesday night, 11:59 pm May 8, 2012, another winner will be chosen.

If you are following Kristin's blog tour, tomorrow's stop is...Shannon Okey at www.Knitgrrl.com

Here's a photo of me with the fine folks at Bijou Basin Ranch at TNNA 2? years ago?  Starting left front, Designer, Simona Merchant-Dest, Carl, owner of BBR, Marly's Momma is behind Carl, in the white in the back and moving forward is Eileen, owner of BBR, Kristin Omdahl, me, and Marly Bird, Creative Director for BBR.

Gray day

Are you keeping track? The green project is done.  I ran out of supplies for the purple project. I started the gray project. I'm almost out of supplies for the gray project.  Today, I double check that I have the supplies for the raspberry and the Black & white project then make a run to every craft store in town to get what I need.   Come back tomorrow for a GIVEAWAY.

Gone green, going to purple

I finished the green project enough to move on. The purple project is the only yarn that arrived yesterday, so it's next!  I put in a few hours on it before I changed my mind and had to go back and tweak.  I have to see how far I can get on the purple project today before UPS (hopefully) brings the rest of the yarn. The plan is to do the gray project and the raspberry project BOTH on Wednesday.

Let me see if I can find a photo for you...