The KnitKit (for Crochet, too)

I don't know about you - but I am constantly looking for my crochet tools - my scissors, stitch markers, tape measure, and everything else I like to keep with me. They keep falling down to the bottom of my crochet bag. And I would dearly love to pack some in my purse (I already have a bunch of crochet hooks, just in case I see a yarn that I HAVE to try!). But, until now, I just didn't want to put ANOTHER organizer in my purse, to get mixed up with all the other organizers I already have for everything. Really! Enough is enough! But, I just came back from TNNA - the National Needlearts trade show, in warm San Diego, and saw a product there that I absolutely MUST have. (By the way, I left San Diego and the temperature must have been near 80 degrees. When I arrived home, I saw from the plane that it was snowing! And when I walked out, I realized that it was cold! What a shock to my system!)
But, back to this product that I covet! It's called the KnitKit, and you can probably get it from your local yarn shop really soon, because it was the big hit of the TNNA show! Everyone was talking about it! Barbara Berry, who created this, introduced herself to us when she saw us crocheting and knitting in public at our hotel. She told us how and why she came up with this - it was because she was always looking for her knitting stuff, and wanted one place to keep everything. As soon as we saw the KnitKit, we knew it would be a hit!
Here's a picture of it:



You can also check out their web site: theKnitKit

The Glamorous Life.........of a Crochet Designer

Some people think that the life of a crochet designer and teacher is really glamorous! Crocheting all day long, whenever and whatever you want to, traveling to different conferences to teach classes, meeting all the crochet "stars", getting published in books and magazines, getting to do what you love to do - crochet! What could be better?
Well, there is nothing better! I love what I do - I love to crochet, I love to design, I love to write patterns, I love to teach crochet, I love to plan my classes, I love to tech edit! I love everything about crochet and being a crochet designer and teacher - except one thing! Weaving in ends! As my students will tell you - I don't like that part! If I could, I would forever banish ends from my projects. Or figure out some way to make them disappear.
I am always telling a story about a baby Granny Afghan I made a long time ago - for a friend's baby. It had 100 granny squares - 3 rounds, 3 different colors. 6 ends to weave in for each square. And 6 x 100 is 600 ends! I never finished it. I never wove those ends in. I never gave it to the baby. I still have the blanket, and use it as a throw in my family room. The ends are still there, and I call them a "design decision". :-)
Well, I now have another story to tell about how I hate weaving in ends. But I can't tell it yet - you'll all have to wait awhile for that. But I can tell you that I had MORE ends to weave in. About 658 the way I figure! And I did it! I wove them all in, and I saved most of them. I even took a picture of them, so you can see how many there were. (And how glamorous this designer's life really is!)
Don't bother counting them, just trust me! There were a gazilliion of them. But I did it! I wove them all in!
I think I'm going to save these and put them in a safe place, so that whenever I have ends to weave in, and I'm not looking forward to it, I can look at these ends, and tell myself that I did it once, I can do it again!