The crochet sock pursuit continues

I've dedicated this summer to the pursuit of the ultimate crochet sock and with my first sock underway I decided to source more patterns that I could try out.

My first port of call was the Craft Yarn Council Certified Instructor's Program private Facebook group. Students, graduates and teachers all frequent this group so there are some extremely knowledgeable folk on there. My wonderful master crochet teacher, the always helpful and super friendly Barbara Van Elsen suggested I try Karen Whooley. I put her on my list.

 

Looking on Amazon.com I discovered Karen had written two crochet sock books. I ordered the first one I Can't Believe I'm Crocheting Socks published by Leisure Arts. What a great name! And then I looked for the most recently published crochet sock book. Crochet trends change and techniques do tend to improve over time.I found New Methods for Crochet Socks by Rohn Strong which was published by Annies' Crochet, another reputable crochet brand. 

Checking Rohn out online I discovered he is a Craftsy instructor teaching Crochet Socks: Essential Techniques Sold! I placed my order. Coincidently, one of my favorite American crochet podcasters Mary Bird was interviewing Rohn that same week. Socks came up A LOT in the interview and Marly is always great to tune in to so it is well worth a listen!

Rohn had also just set up a brand new Facebook group Crochet Sock Addicts! with a July Sock CAL (crochet along). What perfect timing! There is actually a scientific name for this phenomena when one thing leads to another "correlated novelties".

 

So while I was waiting for my two books to arrived I started on my second crochet sock ..... pictured above is the gauge swatch already underway.

Until next time, hook on everyone!

April is the month to #stitchawaystress

Interrupting my knit or crochet Texan series to tell you that April is Stitch Away Stress month. I must actually get around to scheduling these sorts of events into my calendar rather than realizing it's happening a few days into the month!! Maybe I'll get more organized next year or maybe not!

In observance of National Stress Awareness Month, the Craft Yarn Council have created the #StitchAwayStress campaign with knitting and crochet. All this month on their Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter pages, there are fun and unique ways to use these crafts to unwind, learn more about their stress reducing and mood boosting effects. There are also giveaways and more. Yay!

They recommend unwinding by stitching and squeezing away stress with an adorable Lemon Stress Ball pattern from one of my favorite all time designers Twinkie Chan. There are pdf patterns of crochet and knit lemons and a video tutorial here on the Craft Yarn Council Website. How handy! Here is a crochet lemon I made earlier. The pattern was excellent of course!

 

In New York City on April 18 the Craft Yarn Council will drop over 2,000 lemons made by knitting and crochet guilds across the country on people filing their taxes at the James A. Farley Post Office in Manhattan.  Pam McKenzie in My Central Jersey writes

"Personally, I'm not sure I'd appreciate being pelted with knitted lemons at any time, but especially if I am filing my taxes. I find taxes incredibly stressful as it is. If someone handed me a knitted lemon, though, it might make me smile."

I love the campaign. I'm going to be following the hashtag #stitchawaystress for sure. I'm feeling motivated to get hooking so I can join in the pelting fun!

Are you bistitchual?

I think the term bistitchual is rather fabulous. It's defined along with a great example in the Urban Dictionary as:

 

The ability to create stitches in two crafts, e.g. knitting and crocheting.

 

Alena is bistitchual; she can both crochet and knit.
Penelope is not bistitchual; she can only knit.

 

I am one of the 49% of crocheters who also knit* and it's time for me to devote a little more time to improving my knitting skills now that the holiday gift-making is a distant memory.

I am embarking on the Craft Yarn Council's first knitting certificate. Hurrah! It's a six month long distance-learning course and my career in the yarn industry really began when I started my first CYC crochet certificate almost two years ago. Back then I didn't plan to actually get a job teaching crochet at that time. Read about it in my earlier post "How my crochet career began".

 

I have run a knitting and crochet workshop at my local yarn store every Friday afternoon for the last 16 months. I certainly knitted more frequently than crocheted in my younger years. The height of my knitting prowess was a sweater with a multicolored intarsia countryside scene (so twee!). In short, I'm not a beginner. Pattern support is the most common requirements at the workshop and I am pretty good at deciphering the symbols. However, having gained so much knowledge undertaking my two crochet certificates I feel that I have a duty to my knitting attendees to up my game to the same level. I want to be able to talk authoritatively about knitting best practice in the same way as I can for crochet and I know that the certificate will do this for me.

I just received details of my assignments today and my master teacher is the knit and crochet guru Edie Eckman. I own two of her books and I am totally in awe of her skills. I am so excited and albeit rather nervous about having her assess my work. Better get stitching!

*The State of Specialty NeedleArts Survey 2013, National Needlearts Association (TNNA)

How to substitute yarn

One of the most frequent questions we are asked in the yarn store is "What yarn do I need for this pattern?" and we don't always stock the specified yarn so we need to recommend a similar one.

Fortunately, the Craft Yarn Council publishes a set of yarn standards (see www.yarnstandards.com) so first of all I refer to the top of their handy dandy chart of standard yarn weight system (see below) to figure out as much as I can about the recommended yarn.

Sometimes the pattern will specify the type of yarn e.g. DK weight. If this isn't given I look at the recommended needle/hook size and also the gauge for knitting patterns (i.e. a certain number of stitches per 4 inches / 10 cm) which often appears on yarn labels.

So armed with this information, I'll look on our shelves at similar weights of yarn and scrutinize the labels for something to suit. If the pattern doesn't give a weight, hook/needle size or gauge I'll look it up on the yarn page of the always helpful Ravelry site.

I'll also try to make sure the fiber content is similar e.g. cotton will not drape as well as wool. Finally I'll look at yardage so that they have a sufficient amount. And of course if you don't fancy going through all this palaver, just ask the yarn store staff for advice!

For further reading on matching yarn beyond gauge see this fantastic guidance on how to substitute from newish website Yarnsub. And you've guessed it, they provide a really useful tool to look for yarn substitutions on their site so if you're not in the yarn store but at home you could take a gander at this. I could spend quite a few hours typing in different yarns and looking at the substitutions "wow, how fascinating - I never knew those two were a 93% match". It's almost like dating for yarn, but perhaps that's just me!

Still on topic, I bought the magazine Love of Crochet for the first time and just love the fact that for every pattern they provide three additional yarn substitutions based on whether you want to save, spend or splurge. Marvelous!

Swirling broomstick lace

Have been making further swatches for the CYC certificate 2 (broomstick lace, crohook and hairpin lace all involving unfamiliar additional tools and mastery of new techniques). The broomstick lace is so so pretty and pleasing with it's repeating swirls...... I may have to make some gifts for my girlfriends although the inevitable seasonal surge in projects at this busy time of year is wearing me down somewhat!

Crochet Certificate 2

Here I go again. Have registered for the Craft Yarn Council's second certificate. Have been working my way through the crocheted samples. Tunisian crochet is new to me as is filet, cro-hook, hairpin and broomstick lace. Of course, I'm hard at work on Christmas crochet gift making too so my coursework must compete with this.

Blocking ahead of me since Tunisian curls. I'm not a big fan of blocking but it's best practice for producing polished items.

Latest make BOO

Simply Crochet had a pattern for this cute ghost. Couldn't resist it.

Have signed up for the Craft Yarn Council's crochet 2 certificate. Looks like I'll be learning some fun new techniques.

Still doing Nimblefingers' Facebook page and teaching their Friday afternoon workshop. Now I'm doing knitting as well as crochet.

Attended the Hearts and Hands event today. My friend bought my crochet cowl for her mother-in-law and I bought the knitted one which I'll give to my sister-in-law, both for Christmas presents.