Tag: natcromo

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CGOA’s Lotus Yarn Pattern (Last Day Free!)

My swatch in Crystal Blue DesigningVashti Lotus yarn, and sketches of scarf and yarn amount options

Happy NatCroMo! (National Crochet Month)

Designer Andee Graves featured our Lotus yarn with her new Shining Day Wrap crochet pattern. She’s one of CGOA’s 2018 board members. At her blog she explains,

“There will be 3 other patterns available free for CGOA members only, each only for 1 week. Be sure you’ve renewed your membership or joined CGOA before you miss out!”

Today is the last day you can get this pattern for free.

Why? It’s part of the 2018 CGOA NatCroMo celebration and this one is free for everyone—CGOA members and nonmembers.

Shining Day is crocheted in a lacy stitch pattern that is flowing wonderfully off my [pink] hook. I think it flows so much because you crochet into chain spaces at an easy gauge.

A Flowing Foundation Row

This wide lacy rectangle is worked from the center out on both sides of the foundation row. You’ll have matching ends, each with a pretty picot border.

For a design like this, you wouldn’t want the foundation chains to look noticeable or feel tighter than the rest of its flowing lace. No problem! Andee uses a great type of foundation row. It’s not only stretchy, it has a nice texture that blends in.

About Yarn Amounts

Andee used four 100g. balls of Lotus to get a wrap that is 16.25″ X 68.5″. Four balls is 1,024 yds (4 X 256 yds).

The Cone Idea

Some folks have wisely been ordering Lotus Z-Bombes, which are value-priced one-pound cones. One pound of Lotus is a bit over 1,100 yds, or about 4.5 balls. (I always allow a Z-Bombe to go a bit over a pound after subtracting the weight of the cardboard. I write the exact unique weight of each Z-Bombe on its tag.)

The Lotus Snacks Idea

A floral six-pack: Orange Luxe, Grenadine, Pink Sugar, Peachy SHeen, Rose Red, Lala Yellow.
One of several springtime color combos!

In my recent newsletter issue #90, I mentioned a multicolored Shining Day using a six-pack of Lotus Snacks. I think spring fever made me do it. I kept picturing a riot of floral colors like I do every spring.

Unfortunately I miscalculated the yarn amount for that in the newsletter. The mini Snacks are one-third the size of a regular Lotus ball: 85 yds per 33 g. Not one-half.

CORRECTION: A Six Pack O’ Snacks totals 512 yds, not the 768 yds I stated in the newsletter.

My 512-yd. Shining Day

Andee Graves aka Mamas2Hands produced a lovely PDF to match her pretty lace wrap design.
Page one of Andee’s pattern. Isn’t it pretty? 

See my drawings above in that photo of my light blue swatch? That’s me figuring out that a two-ball (same as six Snacks) Shining Day would come out to 12″ X 51″ (or a bit longer).

My swatch is 11.5″ wide. I needed 46 foundation stitches to do 4 stitch pattern repeats.

Andee’s Shining Day pattern is definitely worth paying for if you miss the free version. It includes stitch charts and a photo-tutorial on making the picots.

Join the CGOA MEGA CAL group in Facebook!

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Happy [inter-]National Crochet Month

This is my Crochetville NatCroMo blogging day.

Larger wrap size of DJC Curaçao Wrap in Emerald Deep Lotus yarn
New pineapple crochet lace wrap pattern for Lotus by Doris Chan in Emerald Deep Lotus yarn.

Thanks for stopping by! It’s certainly a big weekend for us crocheters.

Tomorrow is a very green holiday (St. Patrick’s Day) so check out our DesigningVashti Lotus yarn in the new Emerald Deep color. This is a rich, satisfying, inspiring green to take you from winter to spring.

Want to feel warm and cozy quickly? 

I’ve just returned from teaching “Big-Hook Slip Stitch Crochet” in icy Chicago. I urge everyone to gather up their jumbo crochet hooks and super bulky yarns! Some of my slip stitch projects take only an hour or two this way.

Expedient Cowl Took Only Two Hours to Make.

Beginner slip stitch crochet with a big hook!
Cozy Expedient Cowl: Use beginner slip stitches and a big hook. (Add a third ball and more rows for a trendy skirt!)

Warm up a big hook (size P/11.5 or 12 mm) for this toasty, speedy item. I named it “Expedient” because it took me just two hours tops to make one during LAST year’s surprise cold snap.

No super-bulkies handy? Create your own: just crochet with multiple strands held together of whatever’s in your yarn stash.

Tip: throw in at least one strand of alpaca or angora. These fibers are four times warmer than wool. Add a yarn with a halo like mohair, or a textured novelty yarn, to fill in any gaps between stitches.

Set of 5 Big Crochet Hooks: Perfect for NatCroMo

Set of 5 sizes of jumbo wood crochet hooks, and the crocheted "bucket" caddy for them showing the base that's reinforced by crocheting around a recycled plastic ring.
It’s displayed in my studio and I use it all the time now.

Be ready for the next cold snap with this set of five jumbo crochet hooks—sizes Q, R, S, T, and U—bundled with a free Big Hook Bucket pattern. (It’s already at a discount as a kit so I’m unable to discount it further for NatCroMo readers, sorry.) You can buy these crochet hooks individually here.

Armed with these hooks you’ll also be ready for when I release these new Big-Hook Slip Stitch crochet patterns (links currently go to their Ravelry project pages):

Zumie Lace Vest  I used a size S (19 mm) hook for most of it. This one-skein lace item took only 45 minutes to crochet. Yarn: the fun Hikoo Zumie by Skacel.

SS-Luscious Sampler  Size 12 mm (“P”) crochet hook and two skeins of luscious Berroco Noble.

Pink kitty-ears hat with only 95 yds and an M/9 mm hook. It’s simple back loop slip stitch in rows, then seamed on the top and side. It came out smallish on me and perfect on my friend (she kept it!). No yarn left over so I’m mulling a way to get a slightly more out of about 95 yds of yarn for this.

Slip Slab Neckwrap  It was the first prototype for the Expedient Cowl. I needed only 168 yards and a P/12 mm hook.

Also: Happy Spring Break!

Does it start this weekend for your family? My son’s starts this afternoon.

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National Crochet Month Specials

Sister filet scarves: Antoinette Sparklescarf, Emdash, and Cantina Party Flounces

Welcome, Natcromo Blog Tour Visitors!

In honor of (Inter-)National Crochet Month, I’ve added a lacy spring scarf pattern to my Ravelry shop: the double-flounced Emdash Scarf. It’s free for one week.

I thought I’d show you Emdash’s crochet story in pictures. National Crochet Month is for crochet stories, right? Especially about lacy spring scarves. First, the design sketches:

Emdash has two design sisters.

There they are all together at the top of this post. It’s easier to show some alternate views of them this way.  Antoinette is the eldest (I published her popular pattern in Nov. 2011). She loves lace weight metallic mohair with sequins and other holiday party yarns. Cantina is the youngest, even though her pattern was published before Emdash’s (in Dec. 2015). Cantina is a freewheeling hippie girl who likes color parties, scrap yarns, and beads.

How did Emdash get her name?

While I was exploring special characters on my keyboard, I kept seeing the scarf draped on my mannequin. The columns of tall stitches are grouped with vertical spacers. (I like the slightly different crocheting rhythm of it.) They started reminding me of emdashes, yes—a type of punctuation. It shortens so nicely to “Emmy.”

The last part of her design story is that I learned how to format and print out kit patterns with the Emdash Scarf, for the show booth I had last summer. This means Emdash is also available as a printed pattern while they last.

Happy National Crochet Month!

 

 

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New Lotus Yarn Colors: Help Us Choose!

On this first day of National Crochet Month we’re fantasizing about more colors of Lotus yarn.

Designingvashti Lotus yarn: 15 colors in 2015Help us choose the next colors of DesigningVashti Lotus yarn and you might be the lucky recipient of 512 yds (two balls or 200 g) of it. That’s enough to crochet many of these patterns, and all of the Ravelry projects that came up in this search.

The existing 15 colors happen to fall into a tidy symmetry: there are 5 pastels, 5 neutrals, and 5 deep gem tones. What to add, oh what to add?

2017 Update: See which FIVE colors we added!

2018 Update: Explore albums of all the Lotus colors!

What do you think our 16th Lotus yarn color should be? (You’re welcome to add a suggestion for #17 and 18 too.) Just mention it in the comments below. A one-word comment is fine. Color is very inspiring, and I’m especially passionate about color right now because I’m reading books by indie yarn dyers. So feel free to add why that color, or what you would crochet with it, or other colors you’d combine with it–whatever comes to mind. We look forward to reading every comment.

The gift recipient will be randomly chosen on March 15, and announced here on this blog that same day. We’ll use a random number generator. Commenting more than once won’t increase your chances. The yarn gift can be mailed free to a US address only.