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Newport and it’s Namesake

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I wanted to share this story the day that it happened, but couldn’t, because it would have given things away for Classic Elite, and they like their surprises.  But now that the design is out, I can tell you about it.

I wrote the Newport design nearly ten months ago.  By October, I had put the design out of my mind, and was working on other things.  I got an email from Classic Elite; they needed me to resend my pattern and, by the way, here’s some of the pictures from the photoshoot for the sample.

The pictures, which you can see on Ravelry, or in the previous pictures in my blog, were stunning.  I could hardly contain myself.  I went to call my mother, after forwarding her the email (probably against the rules, as I’m not supposed to make public the details of my design until they publish it, but I thought my mother could be… mum. heh.)  I’d forgotten that my mother and my two grandmothers had taken a trip that weekend TO Newport.

You can’t see it so clearly in any of the pictures used for Newport, but in Bondi, pictured at right, you can see some of the resort/hotels/condos that are typical of the Newport Beaches.  While I didn’t know for certain, I mentioned to my mother and grandmothers that I *thought* they had done the photoshoot in Newport.

I should have known that was dangerous.  Before I could say more, my grandmothers had declared that they were going to look and see if they could find the stretch of beach where the pictures were taken.

My poor mother knows not to protest when my grandmothers go off on a tear.

Me?  I could hardly contain my laughter.  Mostly because had I been with them, I would have been searching the beaches too.

Inspirations and Influences: Newport

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Newport is one of the few designs that didn’t start with a stitch pattern, which is how I mostly design.  I get an idea for a pattern, and then I pull the shape of the thing around it.  Instead, Newport was directly inspired by Mary Jane Hall’s Cap Sleeve Top.  My room mate at the time had just created one in Ty-Dy Cotton, and I responded by creating my own in Ty Dy Wool.  I liked it, but I began wondering what would happen if I…?

About the same time, I had been admiring the patterns in New England Knits, specifically the pattern on the cover, the Middlefield Pullover.  I loved the asymmetrical line going down the side, I loved the open neck that showed the collarbones.  But… I wanted something in crochet.  And I wasn’t sure I wanted something quite as warm, or quite as fitted.

You can see where this is going, right?

The clincher was I had just finished a knit-along in Classic Silk, and after I had managed to pick the right size (I had forgotten I had lost so much weight, and used old measurements… silly me), I had a ball knitting the top up.  It just simply flew off the needles.  I had some classic silk left over, so I worked up a swatch in that, and sent it in.

The rest?  Well that’s another story that you’ll have to wait for.

Newport Classic Elite #9213, Surf’s Up

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Newport

by Jennifer Crowley

Published in: Classic Elite #9213, Surf’s Up
Craft: Crochet
Category: Sweater → Pullover
Published: February 2013
Yarns suggested: Classic Elite Yarns Classic Silk
Yarn weight: DK / 8 ply (11 wpi) 
Gauge: 16 stitches and 8 rows = 4 inches in Sc-blo with larger hook
Hook size: 3.5 mm (E), 4.0 mm (G)
Yardage: 945 – 1485 yards (864 – 1358 m)
Sizes available: S (M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL)
Finished Measurements: 36¼ (38¼, 40¾, 43¾, 45¼, 47¾)”
Yarn Requirements: 6934 Plum MC 6 (7, 7, 8, 9, 10) balls, 6910 Soft Violet 1 ball

Ravelry Link

This pattern is available for instant download for $6 through Ravelry
You can also buy it on the Classic Elite Website.
It is also part of the pattern booklet #9213, Surf’s Up, by Classic Elite Yarns.  You can buy it in print at your local yarn store.

Debating if this pattern is for you?  Got questions?  This is the place to ask them.  Over the next few days I’ll be talking about the design process for Newport, including a great story about when I first saw the shots of the sample on the model.

See the Pretty?

Cleaning up the Links

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Since I’ve been putting out fires for the last two weeks – there’s been links piling up of things I’ve wanted to share.

I’ve got some new classes that I’ll be teaching over the summer at Fibre Space – a more detailed post is forthcoming, but you can take a look at them here.

Anne Merrow, one of the editors at Interweave, wrote a great post covering the blog tour the Sockupied Spring 2013 designers.  My favorite line? “Jennifer Crowley even created a series about the process of proposing and designing her Totem Socks for the issue, a great resource for knitters interested in designing for future issues of Sockupied.”  *does a little dance here*


In line with the Post Mortem of Totem I did, Stefanie (Chaoscat on Ravelry) has taken my idea and added her own spin: creating a debriefing of her own design, Marching Band Gloves.  Take a look at it here.  I’m hoping this will catch on – I’m going to have to create some type of graphic for it now.

On Saturday I had a friend of Micahel’s come over to let me try his DSLR camera – and specifically, the lenses that I was planning on buying.  He’s loaning it to me for a couple of weeks until I can get my own.  As a result, whenever I complete a “work chunk” and get a break, I’ve been “playing” with the camera.


It’s amazing what you can do when you have the right resources at hand.

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This was going to be a post about how I desperately hoped that spring was around the corner, because I’m reading for this cold to end.

Then I got distracted by a picture of Sweetness, when she turned six, and I spent a good 15 minutes realizing that Light is the age of Sweetness when I first started watching the both of them.

Then I thought I’d do a recap of what has been going on the last few weeks – since it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

But I decided that all that can wait.  I want to tell you a story of some boxes in an attic.

You see, when Michael and I decided to move to the DC area nearly 3 years ago, we weren’t sure how much room we would have in our next place.  Living in Davidson, space was pretty cheap, in a way it isn’t in DC. We would be downgrading space.  So we took many of the non-essentials, and put them in the attic at Michael’s family vacation spot.  Once we move in, we could sort and figure out what else we wanted.

Fast forward three years.  We’ve occasionally gotten some boxes down from the attic (like Christmas decorations and a few things Michael wanted) and we still hadn’t brought home the boxes filled with my books, papers, and things from college.  Last weekend when we were at the farm, I’d HAD ENOUGH.

I carried them down from the attic, and began sorting them, right in the kitchen.

It was a blast from the past.  Letters I’d saved from Michael and my family.  The My Little Pony pictures my roommate and I had colored and put on our door.  Bank statements, and best of all, some of my writing which had been lost in a computer crash.  Here was all my work from my memoir class.  Hallelujah!

And books.  Books that were old friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.  My favorite books from college, some that I wondered if I lost, were there.

Also, when I couldn’t find the glue Michael, and you told me I lost it?  That was there too.

This is where I would normally show a picture of the weekend, or at least a picture of the books, or something, but all the pictures of this last weekend turned out a blur.  I had my settings wrong, and forgot to change them… and well, it was like a blast from the past, when I’d develop a roll of film, and there would be ONE picture that was good.

So I’ll give you the view from the farm porch, not this trip, but it doesn’t change much.

https://www.tinkingturtle.com/2013/03/this-was-going-to-be-post-about-how-i/

Feline Friday

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I loff you – you’re so fluffy.

Awhile ago, we had our friends bring their kitten, Cat, to play with Peake and Watson.  It was mission socialize cats – and for a first playdate it went really well.  Very little hissing, and by the end of the night, they were tolerating each other fairly well.  Watson so wanted to be friends with Cat, but Cat wasn’t too keen.  It resulted in some pretty cute pictures.

About a week or two later, Cat died suddenly.  Our friends were pretty broken up about it.  They now have two new kittens (and we’re still planing to try and do playdates in the future – don’t worry, we were safe about it before, and will be safe about it later if it comes to pass).  I finally feel I can post these pictures without it being too painful.

Snow Day? And stories about Newport

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Today was supposedly a snow day – not that you would know it from where I was standing.  Michael stayed home though, which meant I was super productive – by the end of the day my brain hurt something fierce.  Mostly, my head has been buried as I have several design due-dates, both personal and professional I’m trying to meet before the wedding.  It may very nearly kill me.

On a higher note, yesterday I went to The Yarn Spot for the first time in forever.  I was sick, and planning the wedding and… well, just run down.  It was SO GOOD to see people I hadn’t seen in forever.  I need to get there more.

Much to my surprise I found that Victoria had arranged for the most wonderful gesture for me – I was nearly beside myself.  There, on the table, was my sample (the one I crocheted for Classic Elite).  Victoria had made sure to be the first store in the trunk show when the pattern went out.  There I am, dopey happy grin on my face, copy of the pattern in my hand, and crochet top (which I thought I’d never see again – samples are not typically returned to the designer) in my hands.

I was beyond myself.

Anyway, this is the unofficial way of announcing that my crochet pattern with Classic Elite is now out.  The collection is called Surf’s Up #9213, and it’s available for purchase at your local yarn shop.  The pattern is called Newport.

I’ll talk more about it in the next few days.

For now?  I’ve got a dopey grin pasted on my face.  My LYS loves me.

Barberpole Striping over at FreshStitches

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Stacey Trock is one of my crochet heroines.  I think her crochet animals are really cute – but what I admire even more than her design sense is her business model and brand.  She is really great at making quality: be it posts on her blog, patterns, or items she sells by commission.  Everything she does is well thought out and through.

So a couple of weeks back when Stacey asked for blog submissions for her blog, I put on my big girl pants, screwed up my courage and overcame my fangirlsquee and emailed her.  She was very kind, and accepted two of my blog proposals.

I meant to post about it the day it came out, but I’ve been under the weather, barely able to do the things that keep things running around here.

So anyway, I’m telling you about it now.  The other day I was over at Stacey’s blog talking about Barberpole Striping (or Helix Striping) in crochet.  It’s a fun little tutorial, and as soon as I get my lightbox fully built, I hope to follow up with a series of video tutorials.

Go over and take a look!

What to Do When There’s Nobody to Measure?

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On Saturday I was at Fibre Space again, teaching one of my favorite classes, Dress Forms and Sweater Design.  It’s one of my favorite classes for a lot of reasons, many of which I’ve talked about before.  It’s fun, the people who come to the class are the type that are genuinely interested in learning about this skill.  Most of the time I get to spend some good one-on-one time with each of the students, which is refreshing.

While we were taking measurements, one of the students commented how great it is to have someone assisting with these measurements, because they don’t often get the occasion to be measured.  I know what they mean!  Michael, who is most tolerant of my work, sometimes complains about helping me take measurements.  I also sometimes worry that he’s rounding, measuring too loose or too tight.

Well, just after the class, I came across a UPcload, a startup company located in Berlin.  It uses body scanning technology to take basic measurements of your body.  It’s associated with different clothing companies, the point being so you will know what clothes will fit you, and look best on you – but the measurements they take are really accurate, and are accessible anywhere you have an internet connection.

The website scans your body using a webcam, using a CD or DVD for size reference.  You need to have dark clothing against a light background, and have your hair up.  There’s a flash movie that plays showing you each of the steps.

It’s not perfect – there’s a few measurements I would have liked that weren’t there, but it’s a good starting point and it has the main important ones – which will be more than enough for the average person.

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