Month: January 2010

GRANNIES!!!!!!!!!! This is how Julie Holetz and I have felt lately talking about granny squares.  Julie and I are working on a new project: A small book of granny square and granny inspired projects that will have you running for your hooks and your scraps of yarn.

What is it about grannies that are so appealing? Maybe it’s because they’re small, self-contained and take only a few minutes to make each one. They allow you to play with color.

“Grantastic” by ChocolateGirl64 on Flickr CC, some rights reserved.

We’ve been brainstorming and coming up with ideas and trying to limit ourselves because the possibilities are endless. So I’ve been thinking a lot about how granny squares are designed and I thought I’d share a bit of my process here.

First the important bit: Granny Squares are not *really* squares. When you’re making a granny square, you’re working in the round and your artfully placed chain spaces determine the ultimate shape of the thing. (Note in the photo above, that the first two rounds are, indeed, round, but the ultimate motif is square).

You can design your own granny squares! You just need to be consistent. Just like when you’re working a hat in the round, making a granny square involves using a consistent number of increases. In a traditional granny square, like the one in the chart below, there are 20 new stitches per round.

So, if you wanted to play around with the look of the square–you could alter the arrangement of the stitches and chain spaces as long as you kept the number of stitches and the rate of increase consistent.

A first round like this one:

Establishes the corners right away, but one like this:

Would work just as well. Sort of like this one:

The way they get to square is by concentrating the increases in the corners in the final few rounds.

I love how this one by KnittyCent turns the square on its side, then back again.

Julie is working on a great post about planning the arrangement of your squares in a project. Stay tuned to the Skamama blog to see it.

James told me today that the Coast Guard Cutter Oak (out of Charleston, NC) is on its way to help with the Haiti earthquake response. I’ve been meaning to make an additional donation to Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) since I heard about the disaster, but this news made me sit down and actually do it.

Have you heard of other ways to help? Please let me know in the comments.

Thanks.

Congratulations to Caitlin of Running With Needles. She’s the winner of our little Japanese crochet book. I’ve been spending the last week working on a writing project that has kept me away from blogging. Hopefully I can talk more about it soon.

Today over at Crafty Pod, Sister Diane has a great post on her blog about Japanese craft books, and there’s a good discussion going in the comments, too. I agree with her–US craft books need to take a look at what works in the Japanese model and adopt more of it into our own publications.

My brother proposed a theory to me the other night on the phone. He said that the Internet had slowed cultural change. Specifically, I think he said something like, “Things haven’t changed much since 1995 when everyone got online.” His feeling was that people are spending their time on the Internet and participating in online culture, and they’re not out in the world developing new trends in fashion, music, film, etc.

You know, I felt skeptical the moment he said it, I thought–well, things are certainly different than they were in 1995. Then the last couple of days I’ve paid a little more attention to songs on the radio and to fashion in the media, on blogs, etc, and I started to question my own skepticism. Some things may be different, especially if we go back as far as 1995. But what if we consider say, just the last decade when many more people have been actively participating in online culture.

The music I was hearing called “new” and “innovative” on all of the year in review shows and new for 2010 shows on the radio didn’t sound all that “new” to me. Granted, my tastes may have changed, but I’m not saying I didn’t like the music, I just wasn’t struck with a sense of newness.

When is the last time you saw a new fashion trend that seemed really different? I know fashion is often about revisiting popular ideas of earlier times and re-invisioning them, but I was just reading a round-up of various “favorite” fashion blogs and while I liked a lot of what I saw, I was struck mostly by their sameness.

I’m not actually advocating change for change’s sake, I’m just curious–do you think that the Internet could have caused a cultural slowdown?

It’s amazing the energy that seems to be happening this new year. The few listservs I am on are abuzz with ideas, it’s exciting to hear about new technologies and trends in publishing and the web new books coming out in crochet and knitting. (I’m particularly excited to see Dora Ohrenstein’s new book Creating Crochet Fabric, and I’ll post a review as soon as I can get my hands on it.) Right now I’m reading Myra Wood’s Crazy Lace, An Artistic Approach to Creative Lace Knitting. It’s a wonderful book that teaches how to knit lace without patterns. I loved Myra’s first self-published book Creative Crochet Lace, and this book does not disappoint either. It’s a groundbreaking new look at lace with fabulous techniques and ideas.

I want to thank everyone who participated with me in making ornaments in December. I’m sorry I only got to 18! I would love to try again next year for 24, so I’ll start looking for ideas sooner.

We spent our Christmas holiday in San Francisco with my brother and his family. It was fun to be in the city, and do big city things–I got to go to a real bar with live music including my sister-in-law Sara’s best friend Kristen who sang some great holiday tunes and a visit by one of my favorite singers Jonathan Richman:

We went to the movies and saw Avatar (fun, but we were sitting too close for the 3-D effects, and it made the print look blurry), and took the kids to see The Princess and the Frog which was great! I loved the music and the actors and the story, AND the “old-style” animation.

After leaving the theatre, we were wondering through downtown looking for a Japanese restaurant that was open on a Sunday afternoon and we walked right up to the Museum of Craft and Folk art. It was true serendipity. I had e-mailed Sara in November to say I really wanted to see their current exhibit, but then I forgot about it. The exhibit is called Open Source Embroidery and it is a great intersection of craft and technology, and it really appealed to my geekier side.

I loved the quilt of web colors.  (Little known fact: a million years ago before I was a knit and crochet designer I was a web designer!) Each hexagon was embroidered with it’s HTML color equivalent:

The kids enjoyed the more hands-on pieces in the exhibit including a chair that played music while you embroider on it, and graph paper where you could draw a pattern which would then be interpreted by a computer and turned into music.

Here’s a slide show of our visit to the exhibit which continues at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art until January 24th.

Now that we’re back I’m quickly throwing myself into a slew of new projects I had been saving until the new year. I’m preparing to teach, take classes and work on an upcoming book project at Cat Bordhi’s visionary retreat in February.

For the first time in years I won’t be attending the winter TNNA show. I’m sad I won’t get to see friends, but I’m excited about the new things that are brewing within the Stitch Cooperative. We have TWO collaborative books coming out this year and much more exciting stuff in the pattern department.

I’m working with Julie Holetz on new issues of Inside Crochet magazine and we’ve got some great designs in the works there. In fact issue 6 will be out pretty soon with a great cardigan by Robyn Chachula among other things. (Oh, and Julie made the trek to our airport hotel to visit when we were stopped over in Seattle on our way home to Alaska, and I can prove it with a cheesy self-portrait!)

I made a fun hat for my sister-in-law for Christmas which will certainly end up being published sometime this year, and right now I’m working on a little scarf in 100% Yak yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. I will post pictures as soon as I’m done.

During the crazy ramp-up to Christmas I took Stefanie Japel‘s class on Teaching Online Classes–and I plan to start offering my own online classes soon. I have some fun class ideas lined up but I’d also love to hear what YOU would like to take a class on. Leave a comment on this post letting me know your thoughts and I’ll enter you in a drawing to win this adorable little Japanese crochet book full of cute accessories that I picked up during my mad rush through Daiso–a Japanese store in San Francisco which is GREAT for buying stocking stuffers.

The book has amigurumi toys, cute little purses and flowers and even a lipstick cozy. All the patterns are done using charts so there’s no need to know Japanese. The contest will be open until Friday January 8th. I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas!