Friday, TNNA

What a day! I took a class with Darla Fanton - Illusion Crochet - lots of fun, great technique. And Darla is such a good, thorough, helpful teacher. The only problem with the class is that it was EARLY - 8 a.m. One thing that was interesting about the class - a couple of us (Drew, Vashti and I, and another class member) who finished our projects (a crocheted washcloth using the Illusion Crochet techniue) compared the sizes of the washclothes we made to each other's and to Darla's. We used the same size hook (except Drew), but all of our projects were different sizes. Just goes to show!
After class, we were able to relax a bit, have some coffee, and then some lunch, and then we helped to set up the TKGA/CGOA booth. The theme of the booth is a soda fountain, and yarn balls are used as "ice cream". The booth design got a lot of positive comments in January at the San Diego TNNA show - I'm sure it'll be the same here.
We set up the booth, then we went to help check in some of the late arriving fashions for the fashion show. After a couple of hours of oohing and aahing over the great fashions that the yarn companies were bringing in, we were finished - so we sat and relaxed and met and talked with some friends. Then it was time to see the fashion show and all those great fashions. There were 126 fashions, but only 2 1/2 crocheted fashions. That was disappointing!

Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

TNNA

I just arrived at TNNA in Columbus - and can't wait to see all the new yarns that the yarn companies will be showing! I've been swatching with some new yarns lately - new to me, and new to the market - and I'll be looking for others and I'll be posting about the yarns soon.
We drove to Columbus - about 8 hours in the car - and of course I used the time to crochet. (No, I wasn't driving!) I worked on a sweater, and a couple of other little projects. Got a lot done, and the time went quickly. Once we got here, we caught up with some friends, other designers, had dinner, and talked until the wee hours. I have a class to go to tomorrow - I love taking classes when I can. I'm usually teaching classes at the CGOA conferences, and don't have time to take any there, so it's a real treat for me to take another designer's class. I always learn something!

The market opens on Saturday - so I'll be posting about the new yarns after that!

Up/Down stitch

Many years ago - I crocheted a sweater in an up/down stitch - it was worked in a soft acrylic worsted weight yarn - Dazzleaire I believe. In Denim, of course! It was my favorite sweater, until I discovered a hole in it - I don't know how it got there. I tried to fix it, but I can still see the hole. Or where it was. It's a fairly easy sweater to make, and I've been looking for the perfect yarn to rework it in. So, in my never-ending quest for that perfect yarn, I swatched Fantasy Naturale in the up/down stitch. Here is what it looks like.

I should have worked this one in denim, because, after all, that's the color I'll make the sweater in. But, it looks good in the light green, and it would probably look good in any of the colors. Even the new colors that look like tweed. I might have to make a couple of these sweaters for me!

It makes a solid fabric, but not a heavy one, and an interesting fabric - not one like a plain sc or dc. This might just have to be my next project!

I have some more projects I want to take pictures of - a couple of tapestry crochet baskets, using Fantasy Naturale. You'll see how the yarn really shows the stitches and the color changes.

I welcome any and all feedback on this yarn - if you haven't tried it, you really should. As I've said before, it's a favorite of mine! It's not expensive - and one skein will go a long way. You can swatch along with me (sal).

I'll let you know the next yarn I pick to swatch - real soon!

Loop Stitch

Usually, I work loop stitches in mohairs or chenilles. (I have done loop stitches in ribbon yarn and regular worsted weight acrylic, though.) I decided to try the loop stitch in Fantasy Naturale - I can't believe I never tried it before. Here's the result.

I just made a small swatch - but I can tell that this would be an interesting fabric. It wouldn't be as soft as mohair or chenille - but it would make an interesting scarf or shawl, or edging for a sweater or purse.

This swatch shows a rib stitch in the denim Fantasy Naturale. (Which color do you think is my favorite?) I used post stitches, one front, one back, to make the rib. I like how this looks, and it gives the fabric a little stretch.

I finally figured out how to upload pictures - so I'll do another one now. And add more later! I still have to figure out how to upload more than one picture at the same time! :-)

This swatch is of a Granny Square - one of my favorite stitch patterns. (The meaning of life is really a granny square!)
I find that the yarn tends to stretch a little at the shoulders of a sweater if there is a lot of material (weight) hanging down, when I use this pattern stitch. But, it doesn't stretch out of shape, and I don't think this detracts from the garment, or the yarn! This swatch was taken from a sweater that I made, and you can see that there is no stretching or distortion here. I will have to do a swatch using linked dc stitches, to see how that looks.

This second swatch is of dc stitches. They are easy to see, and easy to work into. These are worked in rows, so you see the slant of the stitches in each row. This makes the rows easy to count.