My Crochet Adventures in 2014!

This year was my best crochet year yet! Today I have been thinking about all of the wonderful things that have happened, and that I was so fortunate to have had so many wonderful opportunities this year!

To start off the year, I was asked to lecture and teach at a crochet group in Kuwait, called Only Crochet. This opportunity led to me writing an upcoming magazine article about how they created the Largest Crocheted Blanket in the world. I even got to witness the blanket being certified as the largest, by the Guiness Book of World Records. It was so exciting watching crochet history being made!

The first book I co-authored, "Crocheting Clothes Kids Love" was released. It was such a thrill to go through the entire process of writing the book, see it all come to life when it was released in February, then finally get to promote it.

I had the honor of judging 2 competitions in Kuwait, one for crochet items related to Kuwait's National day, and one for members of Kuwait's Textile Arts Association, who had made pieces for the art and fiber category for their 15th annual exhibition.

The next big highlight of the year was attending the Chain Link Conference in Manchester New Hampshire, and getting to meet and sign books with my co-author Ellen Gormley, and meet so many friends I only knew online. It is a strange feeling to know several people in a room, but have to walk up and introduce yourself, because you have never met in person before! I hope I will have the chance to attend a conference again, because there are still more people I would love to meet!

During the conference, my husband and I launched our eWoodStory line of wood products and kits to stitch. Our kits are the first of their kind to offer instructions in English and Arabic. Since then we have been selling worldwide, and are planning to expand our line of products and our market in 2015.

 

I had designs published in Interweave Crochet, Interweave Crochet Home, Inside Crochet, Crochet!, "It Girl Crochet", and I also created designs for Premier Yarns, and Kreinik. One of my most popular necklace designs, the Crawford Necklace, was translated into Italian!

We were so thrilled to win an Awesome Blog Award for Best Mixed Media Business, for eWoodStory.

To end off a marvelous year, yesterday me and my husband were featured in an article the newspaper for our eWoodStory collaboration and my crochet design work! 

May this next year be a happy, healthy, prosperous, and creative year for all! Thank you dear readers for visiting my blog throughout the year. I hope you will continue to follow my crochet adventures in 2015!

The Golden Prim Wristers!

Remember in my last post about making the Prim Wristers from "Crocheting Clothes Kids Love",  I mentioned that my daughter wanted a pair of gold gloves. I had a skein of beautiful "Moonlight" yarn by Nako in my stash, and luckily these mitts take less than a skein to work up! The real bonus of using a pattern again, is that you are familiar with it, and you can work it up faster. I was able to make these in my free time in one day, so it was a great surprise for my daughter to have new gloves to wear to school the next morning!

She calls them her "golden gloves" and loves to switch off wearing these with the first purple variegated pair I made her. 

Now I am in search of the perfect pink/ coral yarn, to make a pair for her to match the ones her American Girl doll Isabelle has.

I also mentioned in my last post about the wristers, that they also look good inside out. I took a photo of her wearing the left one inside out and the one on the right is the actual right side out so you can see what they look like both ways. I love a reversible stitch pattern! Which side do you like best?

Petals Collar Pattern, Now Available in US Terms!

The Petals Collar originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of the UK magazine, Inside Crochet. I have translated the pattern into American crochet terms, and it is now available to purchase as an individual pattern.

I originally designed this collar for children, but it was worn in the magazine by a woman as well, and it looks beautiful on her. It would look quite different, and suit different ages depending on the colors you choose.

Photo By Britt Spring

Made in a finer yarn, it could be more of a delicate necklace. There are several versions, I would like to try. I am in hopes that some different versions will appear on Ravelry to inspire others, as well! 

The pattern is now available to download on Craftsy, and on Ravelry.

We Won an Awesome Crochet Blog Award!

Yesterday, Crochet Concupiscence awarded me and my husband, an Awesome Crochet Blog Award for the Best Mixed Media Crochet Business for our eWoodStory collaboration. We are so honored and thrilled! I really love mixed media, and the fact that eWoodStory allows us to combine our crafts! We are enjoying each new project we do together and we have many plans for new items and kits for the future! Thank you so much Kathryn Vercillo, Crochet Blogger, for your support and encouragement! Things like this really inspire us to take our business to the next level!

First Workshop for eWoodStory's Mini Masterpiece Frames

This week the crochet group, "Khayt" held a workshop featuring our exotic wood Mini Masterpiece Necklace Frames at the Sadu House in Kuwait. The instructor, Suad Murad showed the class how to make a granny square to fit the frame of their choice, and how to stitch the square into the frame.  Everyone brought their favorite color thread to use, and they created some beautiful pieces. Now that they know how to stitch pieces into the frame, they can create more frames using any craft they like! It is so exciting to see a group of people working with our frames! We sell the frames in the Sadu House gift shop as well as online in our Etsy shop.