Author: Vashti Braha

I love to promote crochet as many things: an art, hobby, learning tool, and practical medium. I do this with designs and classes. I try to write about what I don’t see others writing about crochet.
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Crochet Mini Skirt Hem Tests

Crochet mini skirt in dark grey "Carbonite" Lotus yarn color: 2 lacy and 2 solid hem tests

I’m working on a crochet mini skirt! The last time I crocheted a mini skirt was in 2006 for Crochet! Magazine (March 2007 issue). Today I completed the third and fourth ideas I have for a decorative hem.

Finally a Crochet Mini Skirt for Fall!

It may be a trendy item this year, but every fall I want a crochet mini skirt to wear with leggings and boots. This dark grey is a perfect neutral color for me.

I’m calling this design Carbonite after the name of this newest color of our Lotus yarn.

Crochet Stitches for Skirts

My goal was a solid stitch pattern with a brocade-like texture and a nice drape.

Does the stitch pattern look familiar? It’s a modified “Catherine Wheel”, a.k.a. “sunburst stitch”. This popular crochet stitch pattern is often used for thick wool scarves and afghans. I tweaked it a bit to prevent gaps that commonly happen between the tall stitches of the “wheels”.

I have a few more idea for hems I’d like to try but I don’t want them to slow me down too much. Each time I try a hem idea, I block it, let it dry, style and photograph it. Then I have to edit each photo a bit so that the tones and light levels match ok. I take each photo on a different day and time of day. A few were taken during Hurricane Hermine!

Next I’ll make decisions about the waistband.

This Carbonite crochet mini skirt design has a Ravelry project page that you can check to see more updates.

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Crochet Conference Prep, the Aftermath

Lacy Tunisian crochet swatches crocheted together to form a Mexican 'papel picado' style bunting. It's hung in the car during our road trip to the CGOA conference.
I crocheted together lacy Tunisian Lotus swatches in the car. It reminds me of Mexican “papel picado”. Worked out well for teaching! View full size.

 

This past June and July I blogged fifty days of crochet conference prep. I returned home from the conference on July 17. Today is August 18. What happened between then and now?

This is the first day that I could imagine sitting down to compose a blog post and enjoy it. That’s a full month of recovery from having a booth while also teaching several new crochet topics.

Here’s how the past 30 days went:

  • I needed an immediate inventory of what I came home with, so the first thing I did was unpack a gazillion boxes of booth and teaching stuff.
  • After counting everything, I put away what I could. This left me with five big heaps to sort and pack up carefully for future events. It took two weeks to work through these heaps step by step.
  • It also took about two weeks to completely unpack suitcases and get through all the laundry only because I felt like such a zombie.
  • Filled lots of orders that continued to come in every day from my website. (I love this about conferences: so many visitors to my website!)
  • Discussed new color #20 of Lotus yarn with our mill.
  • Slept and slept. Slept some more.
  • Sat still happily without my mind racing. No adrenaline rushes, worries, or multitasking. Enjoyed what others were posting about their conference experiences.
  • It took days to go through all of my emails.
  • It took a full four weeks to settle all incoming and outgoing booth and teaching monies. (This would surprise me except that it took longer last year.)
  • Thoughts: “I could maybe blog this. Or, tomorrow.” “What do I want to crochet next. No idea.” “What about next year? Not sure.”

Crochet Conference Prep Results

How it was better than last year’s:

I was careful to keep a more accurate and readable list of starting inventory. This way, after returning home, it was easy to compare with the ending inventory (and trust the numbers!). I had to force myself to be disciplined about this. While packing up the merchandise to ship up to the show, I could see when my starting amounts got fuzzier last year.

This year we shipped by UPS to a nearby UPS store, not to the event or show management company. It worked great this time: fast, cheap, and convenient.

Thanks to a tip from Doris who used to transport and manage the entire CGOA Design Contest, I purchased some giant clear blue zippered storage cubes. These are perfect for loading up every inch of a car with soft items (yarns and crocheted items).

Last year I felt like a zombie for months. A 2015 creative slump lasted for so long that I started to fear I was done with crochet designing altogether. This year I took endurance-building tonic herbs and vitamins for the weeks before and after the event. Maybe they worked! The creative slump only lasted 3 weeks this time. (Last year I also had jet lag.)

I like the pattern info tags I created at the last minute for the three shawls that George Shaheen of 10 Hours or Less designed in my Lotus yarn.

The “papel picado”-style swatch buntings (pictured above) that I crocheted on the way to Charleston worked out really well for me in classes because I could group them by technique and theme. I’m going to do this with more Lotus swatches.

*Blogging those fifty days of prep kept me focused on the present next step while also accountable to an observer (my blogging self). Plus it leaves me with tips for my future self.

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Pineapple Lace and the CGOA Conference

Doris Chan's pineapple lace jacket and wrap design shown here in 3 sizes and Lotus colors.

Pineapples are the theme for this year’s crochet conference (2016). CGOA’s Hall of Fame Award winner happens to be a pineapple lace queen!

You know these are freshly crocheted because the colors are the new ones we just received from the mill. Even my husband is amazed. (Not shown: Lavender Ice. That’s for another day.)

If you’ll be attending the conference this month, come by our booth #203 (on the right after you enter the market). Lots of pineapple lace to see and try on!

Pictured: Three sizes of Curaçao —a wrap with jacket option—in Carbonite (dark grey), Emerald Deep, and Dark Roast colors of Lotus.

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Custom CGOA Conference Calendar

Screenshot of my public conference calendar (orange) and private conference cal (purple) is on the right. Print window is opened to the left and I’ve selected “Landscape”.
At left is my public conference calendar (orange). My private conference cal (purple) is on the right. The print window is open on the left and I’ve selected “Landscape”. As we get closer to July 13, I may find more items to schedule. 

 

This year I created a public, sync-able CGOA Conference calendar. Anyone can add it to their own calendar if they’re using Google Calendar, or an application that supports the iCal format (iCal link is at the end of this post).

For years I’ve used a private version of this. It’s so handy! Besides using it on a mobile calendar app, I print it out and depend on it heavily at the conference. It comes home with important notes written all over it. (In case you don’t know, the CGOA conferences are as important for professional crocheters as for hobbyists.)

You Can “Subscribe” to it

Conference attendees can easily merge this calendar with their own calendar. If you use Google Calendar, look on the left for “Other Calendars”. Search “CGOA Conference” or use the link in this post (above). Check the box next to it to add its events to your own calendar. Any new items I add to the calendar will automatically update on your app if you “subscribe” to this calendar.

Print your CGOA Conference calendar like I do

I’m using Google Calendar. First make sure you’re in the month of July 2016. Then:

  1. If your calendar is not in a weekly format already, click “Week” along the top. Click “Wed.” to start the week at July 13.
  2. Then click the “5 Days” tab along the top so that the 5 days starts with Wed the 13th.
  3. Click the “More” tab in the top right and select “Print”. Once the print window opens up, find the drop down menu for Orientation and choose Landscape. Then click “Print” at the bottom. (see my screenshot).

iCal link

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/gi85adpe6u2tngfd6kg4qgo08s%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
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Conference Prep Crazy Zone

Sorting class materials into a box per class topic (total of 5) on a big white sheet.

Conference Prep Frenzy: A Two-Week Zone

For Future Vashti‘s reference: I shifted into conference prep frenzy at a specific time three days ago: end of the night on Monday, June 27th. It’s like stepping into the cockpit of an airliner, flicking on all switches and activating ‘all systems go’. (Like in the movies, anyway.) It’s obvious when it starts.

The next morning I did my teacher’s conference prep ritual: put on a pot of coffee, spread a big white sheet on the floor (because it helps me focus), lined up a row of empty boxes, and labeled each with a class topic.

Completing the Teacher’s Conference Prep

I rounded up everything to bring: first the completed designs, then the handouts, yarn and other materials for students to use, optional materials like printed patterns, key newsletter issues, visual aids like class swatches etc., topic-related teaching aids like a “blocking demo kit” for the Weightless class, and a “beading demo kit” for the love knots class.

Doesn’t it seem like with a pot of fresh coffee, one could just whip through this? The reality is that it does start this way, but my completed designs are spread all over the house and I forget about some. Not only that, each of the five class topics is distinctly different. It takes focus to keep all five in my mind at once.

It’s as if the white sheet cordons off an area of the house (and my brain) for 24-36 hours. That’s what makes it a ritual, really. I get through the first layer so that I can see the next layer.

After that time I can condense it all into 1 or 2 shipping boxes. That’s the quick and easy part.

More Show Booth Conference Prep

Here’s what else got done since I blogged 2 days ago:

  • Wound new Lotus colors in a few 100 gram balls—so that I could label and take photos of them—so that I can add them to the website. (This automatically means I committed to color names for them, too: Carbonite, Lavender Ice, Orange Luxe, and Emerald Deep.)
  • We build our booth with grid panels. Found out how hundreds of them will get to the show floor! Thanks to Linda Dean whom I can’t wait to finally see again.
  • Placed final order for crochet hooks I’ll need for the booth and classes.
  • Finalized arrangements and logistics for how everything and everybody gets there and gets back!
  • Formatted several crochet patterns for kits, classes, etc (printed):
    • a fun new one-ball pattern for Lotus that Doris designed for the booth (a printed crochet pattern). More on that later.
    • My Mesmer patterns (scarf, stole, sized vest variations on a steeky theme and with double-ended hook option) as one printed pattern set for the class, and extras for booth.
    • Did the same with my Starwirbel pattern.
    • Still have 3 more patterns to do if I can.
  • Back-&-forths with tech editor on edits of class handouts and patterns formatted for printing and kits.
  • Delegated my distress to my husband over both of our home office printers breaking within weeks of each other! He’s got that now.

?I know from last year that there will come a point when I won’t be able to focus on pattern formatting or class handouts, so I’ve done as many as possible these past few weeks.

Woke up the next morning to emails from others who were now also ‘all systems go’ with their conference prep too. And now today is Thursday June 30: twelve days from lift off. I predict these blog updates will get posted more erratically but I’ll keep trying. It forces me to find a peaceful moment to collect my thoughts.