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Newport all worked up!

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I’ve got a few more lengthy blog posts in the works, but while those are marinating, I wanted to share something exciting.  Textilemagician  from Ravelry just finished Newport, my crochet design
from Classic Elite.  You’ve got to take a look, it’s gorgeous!

She chose to do a yarn substitution, using Tilli Tomas Rock Star and Pure and Simple, both in Moroccan blue.  She says of Newport, “Fairly easy project.  I am hoping that the silk will drop when washed.”

It’s so exciting to see the pattern all worked up and on somebody!  It’s one of the best feelings to know someone took your thoughts that you put on paper, and then was able to construct what you envisioned.

Outrageous Orange

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By Jennifer Crowley

Published in: Tinking Turtle Designs
Craft: Crochet
Category: Softies → Plant; Food
Published: May 2013
Yarns suggested: Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd’s Wool Worsted
Yarn weight: Worsted / 10 ply (9 wpi)
Gauge: 13 stitches and 12 rows = 2 inches in Single Crochet Through Back Loop
Hook size: 3.5 mm (E)
Yardage: 50 – 100 yards (46 – 91 m)
Sizes available: finished strawberry is 2.5″ tall and 2″ wide

Have questions?  Ask them here!

5 Ways to completely Mess up your Knitting or Crochet

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The other day I was giving a private lesson, and my student mentioned she couldn’t wait for the day when she stopped making mistakes in her knitting.  I laughed.  When I stopped, she asked me what was so funny.  I told her, “You never stop making mistakes.  You just figure out how to make worse ones.”

Fixing mistakes kit.
Today’s been one of those weeks where mistakes just keep happening.  I finally had to put my work down, but I can say with confidence here are 5 really good ways to make mistakes with your knitting or crochet:
  1. Watch something entertaining while stitching.  It’ll get you every time.
  2. Knit or crochet while in a dimly lit pub with friends.  Bring your lace work, with lots of yarn overs.
  3. Bring the project where you need to repeat each row to yourself as you make it to sit and stitch.  Start talking about whatever with your friends.  Look down. Realize you started working your last repeat halfway through the row.
  4. Pull the wrong DPN completely out of your sock. Neglect to pick up one of your stitches.
  5. Decide that you don’t really need a lifeline.  Mess up and have to pull back completely to the beginning.
What are some of the best ways you’ve made a mistake with your work?  Share, so other people can learn!

Carrying Davidson With Me

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I’ve been talking a bit the last few days about Davidson College (my alma mater), which has been on my mind since Michael and I are currently driving our way from Washington, DC to Davidson, NC.  As previously mentioned, we’re going for Michael’s brother’s graduation.

I’ve been talking about how Davidson College played heavily into the designing I do today.  From resources like The Needlecraft Center to the art program at Davidson, this town and college started the transformation from a casual stitcher to fiber-arts professional.  There is, however, one other major thing I’ve taken with me away from Davidson that has been instrumental in leading me where I am today.

My husband.  Michael.

Back then, of course, he was my boyfriend, whom I had been dating for three years.  As a freshly minted graduate, I had an English Degree in hand, a job working for my alma mater (which I was very happy about, as the job market had just plummeted), and a plan to live with Michael and two other friends in a house off campus.  Michael and my friends were all seniors, and a year younger than I.

Early design project that has been revised,
and will be published later in the year.

I found myself with a profusion of free time.  Having no course load and a job that lasted from 9-5, I had evenings free for the first time in my life.  It was amazing. I was doing more spinning than I had ever been able to do, and was knitting and crocheting up a storm.  I quickly tired of other people’s patterns, and began to work patterns of my own.

There was one such time, working on a pair of socks, that I began to write things down, so I could remember what I did for the second sock.  And it was about that time that Michael began to say, “You could make money from that.”

At first, I scoffed at the idea.  There aren’t many entrepreneurs in my immediate family, nor did I run into many people where I lived who ran their own business.  In contrast, Michael’s father has run a successful small business most of Michael’s life.  What seemed inconceivable to me seemed obvious to him.

Michael kept at it, though, asking thoughtful questions and encouraging me to learn enough about the industry to make an informed decision.  It was there
where I began to seriously think about what it would take to be a designer.  I wasn’t ready yet to take the leap, and I had a lot of learning to do, but it was at Davidson that the seeds were planted.

Reminiscing about Davidson

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As I mentioned yesterday, I’m heading to Davidson College (my alma mater) over the weekend for my husband’s graduation.  It’s got me thinking about how my experiences at Davidson have lead me to where I am now, designing knit and crochet.

Yesterday I told you about the Neelecraft Center, my very first LYS.  Today I want to tell you about the second of three things that heavily influenced where I am now.  The first was the Neelecraft Center, and the second would be Davidson’s Arts program.  You see I was an english major and my senior year I had fulfilled most of my general requirements.  That meant I was taking classes mostly toward my major.  As things happened, my first semester Senior year I found myself taking three reading-heavy English classes.  There were weeks where I was reading nearly three books a week, plus associated articles with the text we were studying.

It was right about that time that Lauren Cunningham, one of my close friends and an art major, told me I should take a sculpture class.  (She said this, actually, as we were sharpening pencils for one of her really cool sculptures.)  I was dubious, but a few weeks later we were working on another one of her sculptures and it was so much fun I decided ‘what the heck?’

Sculpture was amazing.  I’ve always liked to create things with my hands, and here I was being given the tools to be able to do that.  I learned how to work with wood, weld with metal, and cast in lost wax.  I got to play with plaster, and best of all, I was constantly incorporating crochet and knitting into my work.

Some of my sculptures were pretty weird.  I made a hand that’s dressed up like a clown – it was made in a rush on an impulse, inspired my the “hand anteaters” my father used to make when I was a child.

I also made a piece titled “Rebellion against the Sampler.”  The piece was inspired partly by the then incipient Crochet Coral Reef Project, partly by scrumbling, and partly by a desire to see just how far I could push crochet.  It inspired some rather visceral reactions from my peer reviewers, including one student who claimed it looked like something out of “Dr. Seuss trying to eat my foot.”  At my professor’s encouragement  I entered it into the student art exhibition, and won second place – beating people who were art majors!  It was the first time it occurred to me that I might actually be good at the sculpture and art thing, instead of just enjoying the heck out if it.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the third things at Davidson that brought me to where I am now.  Stay tuned!

Going back to where it all started…

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Davidson Mascot, the Wildcat

This weekend Michael and I are returning Davidson, NC, the home of our alma mater, Davidson College.  Michael’s brother is graduating, ending an eight-year run of family members attending the school. (His poor parents) Davidson is a small school that nobody really knows about.  If you’ve heard of Davidson you’ve probably heard of either Stephen Curry or free laundry.  In the fiberarts world Davidson is the alma mater of Ann Shayne ’85, better known as one of the co-author’s of Mason-Dixon Knitting, and the blog by the same name.  While I don’t know her personally – she graduated far before I went to Davidson – I’d like to think that some of her coolness rubs off onto me.

I’ve got mixed feelings about going back.  I’ve been told things have changed quite a bit since I was there last (in July 2010) – and I’m nervous to see what has changed, and what has remained as I remember it.  I’m excited though, because Davidson was a major influence on where I am now.

Davidson introduced me to my very first LYS (local yarn store), in the form of The Needlecraft Center, right across the street from the campus.  God bless them.  I was a poor college student who could barely afford the yarn out of their “Discount Drawer.”  Still, the staff took me under their wing, listening to me cry about classes or homesickness, teaching me to push myself to become a better stitcher, and occasionally helping me fix my mistakes.

Elaine McArn is the owner of the Needlecraft Center.  She’s one of the first people who taught me there are different ways of knitting.  She’s also the woman who pointed out I was knitting with entirely twisted stitches – and that just might be the reason that my sweater had a mind of it’s own.

Then there were the knit-nights at The Needlecraft Center.  Happening every other week, I loved to hang out with the group of women there.  I made some really good friends, like Garret Freymann-Weyr, who later helped me get my nanny job working with Sweetness and Light.  I liked seeing what the women in the store were making, what was happening with jobs and relationships and family.

There’s more to the story about the Needlecraft Center, and how it intersected with Davidson, but I’ll have to share that tomorrow, in another post. Stay tuned for part 2!

Highlights from Maryland Sheep and Wool

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Maryland Sheep and Wool happened this past weekend, and Michael and I attended today.  It was my third time going, and Michael’s first. As always it was a feast for the senses.

Buttons at Maryland Sheep and Wool
How do you explain Maryland Sheep and Wool to someone who hasn’t experienced it? To be silly about it, I’ll tell you what I told Michael today.  Maryland Sheep and Wool is where “my people” are.  Every third or fourth person I passed had on hand-made clothing: from socks, shawls and ponchos, to water-bottle holders, hats and fingerless gloves.  It was a joyous sensory overload; here it is not strange to find someone looking closely at how your handmade garment was put together.
We stopped by to see the people competing in the Sheep to Shawl competition.  It’s interesting to see the festival from a non-knitter’s perspective: while I’m looking at the spinners envying their speed, Michael’s wondering what the optimal ratio of spinners to weavers to carders is.  We went through several of the sheep barns, with me explaining to Michael what I knew of different breeds.  We went to go see a sheepdog demo – which was REALLY cool.  Perhaps the highlight of my day was a free talk about social media for farmers (which ended up being pretty helpful even though I’m not a farmer).
There was fair food, and (of course) dozens upon dozens of vendors to look at.  We didn’t nearly get through enough of them, but what we did see was beautiful and inspiring and fun.
This is the thing about Maryland Sheep and Wool: it drives home where are yarn comes from.  It tells a story from the farmer to the consumer of the finished product, and there aren’t many places you can go and be able to do that.

I’m Married – I’m now Jennifer Raymond

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I’m getting back into the swing of things, two weeks after getting married.  I’ve started the process of changing my name, from Jennifer Thomasin Crowley to Jennifer Thomasin Crowley Raymond. No hyphen, just two middle names.  That means for a while it’s going to be a little rough, as all my worksheets, information, etc. change over from Jennifer Crowley to Jennifer Raymond.  So if you see anywhere on the website that I’ve missed, let me know.

I’m still waiting on the pictures from the photographer, but I thought I’d give you a bit of a sneak peek:

It started raining halfway through the rehearsal the night before.

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