Book Reviews 4:11 pm
In this review three of Patricia Kristoffersen doily pattern books will be explored:
Click on the images to see the designs within!
Her designs lure you in with their beauty and detail…Here's a secret: they only appear difficult to make! If you can work a front or back posted stitch, work in front or back loops only, then you can make one of these cleverly designed doilies!
Stitch of the Month 12:00 am
All photos in this post are clickable for larger version
Fear not the knots, because once you know which loop to yarn over into the rest is doing a single crochet!
The tricky part of this stitch is twofold. First, knowing what loop to work the single crochet into. When instructions say "back loop" they mean what the arrow is pointing to in the above photo. The second aspect of this stitch that takes some practice is making consistently sized loops. If you are making a wearable that uses this stitch you'll want to make sure you make the required loop size to maintain stitch gauge. (Stitch gauge is a four-letter word!)
Once you are in the loop (pun intended) then go ahead and work a single crochet. Voilà! The knot is completed!
Often you'll be instructed to make double knots and single knots in the same pattern. To make a double knot, just repeat what you did for the first knot.
The knot stitch is often used to create a lace effect. Shawls and shrugs and sometimes doilies feature this stitch. If you are ready to go knots, try these free patterns:
If you would like more resources to help you further perfect your knots, just click these links for additional tutorials.
I haven't decided on next month's stitch and I'd like your input. What stitch would you like to see featured? E-mail me with your stitch suggestion.
Villager Spotlight 12:00 am
Meet Kathy White a.k.a. Katchkan!
Crochetville member since 2005
Brief Bio: Kathy is 51 years young and was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. She met her husband, Marv, during her senior year in high school and eloped with him that spring. That was 33 years ago! Together they have raised two girls, and are the proud grandparents of 3 grandkids.
This interview is done in two parts. The first covers my visitation with Kathy at her house. The second part is a question and answer interview.
Part One: My Afternoon with Kathy
I had the good fortune of meeting Kathy back in November 2005 as we live relatively close (about a 2½hour drive) for lunch. She enchanted me with her Irish crochet pieces and told me the secrets of how to make my own lace pieces. Any member of C'Ville who has been around long enough has become familiar with Kathy's original designs ranging from Irish crochet lace pieces to her recent birthstone themed doilies.
My interview with Kathy was an amazing six hours of not only seeing her exquisite masterpieces but also included time travel!
Swaps & RAOK 12:00 am
There are many opportunies for a Crochetville Villager to make new friends or learn more about "old" friends. I'm going to focus on one: swapping.
Letter from the Editors 6:00 pm
I remember the first time that I visited Crochetville. At first I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy being a part of a community that just discussed crochet. I was new to crochet and I wasn’t sure if I belonged where everyone seemed more experienced in the craft than I would ever be. The most terrifying aspect of it was that most of them had something called a “blog” and used terms like “frog”, “WIP”, and “LYS”. I was sure that I’d entered an alternate dimension of reality.
I have lost count of the number of hours that I have logged on Crochetville. I would never have thought two years ago that I would complete anything other than the basics, that my yarn stash would take over every free storage space in my home, or that I would ever feel comfortable designing my own patterns. Without Crochetville, I would not enjoy my craft as much as I do. I hope that all of you find as much joy in our little village because you are what make it a village– a community– and not just another message board.
On February 16, 2006, Crochetville celebrated its second birthday. In that time, we’ve jumped to 4,748 members, and have had 301,299 posts. Both of those numbers will have grown by the time that you read this message. It is because of the almost 5,000 members that Julie, Donna, and I keep working to make Crochetville even better for our members. I believe that Crochetville has made its mark as the message board for all things crochet.
To celebrate our first issue of ‘Round the ‘Ville, we want you to enjoy a special original pattern submitted by one of our members. Kathy’s (Katchkan) Tissue Tote is an elegant cover for your travel-sized tissue packets. Crochet away!
Tissue Tote (PDF file)
Villager Spotlight 5:00 pm
Meet Faith a.k.a. Faithpa76!
Crochetville member since September 2004
Brief Bio: Faith lives with her husband, four children, and two furbabies in Rhode Island. Faith is pictured with her grandmother. Faith studied music education as a flute major at college, where she met her husband. She left after completing her sophomore year when she married.
Faith was selected at random to be interviewed from the top 10 members with the most posts. Currently, Faith has 6,424 posts to the board. She also is currently serving as the Single Crochet Secret Pal Swap co-coodinator. The question begs to be asked: Where does she find the time to crochet?
Stats 4:23 pm
…but were too scared to ask.
Were you ever curious as to just how busy Crochetville really is? When we moved from the old ezBoard site to the crochetville.org domain on March 18, 2005, Crochetville was home to 778 members. Since then, we’ve been mentioned in at least two national magazines and word of mouth from our wonderful Villagers has helped increase our membership totals to over 4,800 members. Over 4,000 members have joined in just under a year! I think we all can see that crochet and Crochetville are very popular right now, and a big reason for that in my opinion is all of our wonderful members. That means YOU! Thanks!
Book Reviews 11:06 am
Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet : The Happy Hooker
By Debbie Stoller
I think we should get the boring technical details out of the way. This book is 292 pages of pure fun! It’s a nice size to tuck into your project bag and comes in soft cover and hard cover form. Well there is rumor of the hard cover, I have personally never seen it but, of course that doesn’t mean it’s not real, right ? I had been envious of the knitters until now. This book takes a practical and fun approach to the basics and a little beyond. Of course, not every technique is covered and honestly, I don’t see how she could have covered every thing. In my opinion, if you want something to teach you every thing, you might try to find a few good reference books. If you want something fun, keeping you interested, this is the book for you . It contains 40 fresh patterns, a brief history of crochet, and “instructions so clear any one can learn to crochet-even a knitter!” (more…)
Newbie Tips From the 'Ville 11:23 am
Hello and welcome to the first edition of Newbie Tips From the ‘Ville!
I hope you all may find at least one tip of use. What I hope to do is offer a glimpse into how the board works so that newbies (and some not so newbies) might not feel so lost.
Please feel free to email me at newbietipsfromtheville@gmail.com if you have any questions or tips you would like to suggest.
Remember though that I am not able to take suggestions on how you would like the board to be, just tips on how to use the board with ease. Because, you know, we were all newbies once and it can be confusing as all get out trying to figure out a new board.
So here we go:
Book Reviews 11:22 am
Pattern of the Month 11:21 am
'Round the 'Ville 