More on crochet/knit figures

Hi Everyone,

A friend read my blog about the crochet Teddy bears, and she reminded
me that, quite a few years ago, I made several of my grandchildren a
Jean Greenhowe knitted doll

http://www.jeangreenhowe.com
It was at a time
when I was spending a lot of time in Florida
and had lots of free time.
I had truly forgotten about them, so
I guess I have done more in figures than I remembered. Of course, they were
not original designs, though I did fudge on the instructions a little. They turned
out to be a really big hit with the kids, but they were a tremendous amount of work. The kids are all
young adults now, I'll have to ask if they still have
the dolls.

I only have a picture of one, the golfer, but each one was a work of art and
the instructions for these dolls are wonderful and the attention to detail is mind boggling. The only reason that I changed them a little was because
they called for a sport weight yarn, and I wanted to use a worsted weight yarn,
so it took a little fudging.

On another note, the CLF Group on ravelry is conducting a vote for
several crochet categories and I am one of the nominees, along with
a lot of other very talented crochet designers. The voting is open to all
CLF BLOG POST Please check it out and cast your ballot now.


Have a good evening

Margaret

Happy Sunday

Happy Sunday Everyone,

February is almost over and I will be happy to see this snowy, cold month behind us. The forecast was for more snow starting last night. I woke up to a really bright morning and thought "Oh well they were wrong", but a few minutes ago, the snow started and its coming down fast and furious.

I am busy working on my new book, and I am a about three quarters of the way done. I always get so immersed in my work, surrounded by yarn covering almost every surface, mostly me. My son called last night and asked if it started snowing here yet, and I told him that I could not get up to look, because I was covered in yarn :-).

Another reason that I have not been posting much is that I have not been doing
anything really exciting this winter. I opted not to attend TNNA, in January or The Knit/Crochet Event in Mn, last week. Travel in the winter is not fun, and extremely stressful from where I live. Those two events always gave me lots of "blog food".

On the other hand, two of my things have been having much more fun than me.
My friend, Prudence Mapstone of Australia knotjustknitting.com
has been teaching all over the place. Prudence asked me if she could borrow my CONNECTIONS soft sculpture and a garment to bring along with her for "show and tell". CONNECTIONS was a piece that I did for an exhibit in an Israeli Museum. Mirjam Cohen was mounting the exhibit and she asked several US crocheters to submit entries. When I heard that the exhibit was to be "figures" I wanted to back out. I am a fashion designer, never did figures (except for two Teddy Bears for my grandchildren). Mirjam encouraged me to try. I hated my finished piece, thought it was too child like, but I sent it to Israel. Well that little sculpture has been to more countries than me, and now is traveling with Prudence. Wish I was traveling with
Prudence!

Since I mentioned the Teddy Bears, I thought I'd show a photo of them.


Have a great day

Margaret

This and That

Good Morning Everyone,

A few things happened this week that
make me feel very positive about the
needlework industry. There has been
a renewed interest in both my entrelac
patterns and my tutorial DVD/Video's.
This may be a direct result of the release
of my newest book KNIT OR CROCHET-HAVE IT YOUR WAY and its review on the Lion Brand News Letter,

or it may mean that people are staying
at home more, and are once again turning
to the needle arts for comfort. I did discover that I do not note on my web site
that the entrelac patterns are for entrelac crochet. One customer did think
that they were knitting patterns and was so disappointed when she received crochet patterns instead. I am trying to fix this oversight.


The renewed interest in my free form tutorial Videos/DVD's (I don't have a photo of the DVD's, but both have the same content) is very rewarding to me. Every so
often a new group of knitters and crocheters discover free form and it is immediately reflected in my sales. I love it because, even though I do all kinds of knitting and crochet, free form continues to be my favorite thing to do just for the sheer joy of it. What ever the reason, I love it.

Have a great day,

Margaret

THE PINK PROJECT

Hi Everyone,

The Pink Project Auction is up and ready. All the items up for bids
and all the information can be seen here

http://pinkprojectauction.blogspot.com/

Over 200 contributors from all over the globe, including me,
contributed the scrumbles that went into making all the items.

"Scrumbles", by the way, are the little sections of crochet or knit that are made
individually, then put together, like a puzzle, to make the larger item. The
word was coined in the seventies by James Walters and Sylvia Cosh
http//crochet.nu/ Who were pioneers in the free form movement.

Prudence Mapstone, knotjustknitting.com
author, teacher and designer, from Australia
assembled all the items. They are one of a kind, truly spectacular,
shawls, bags, and hats.

On a recent trip to New Zealand, Prudence kept us busy during
free times, making scrumbles.

Please check it out, the money raised is for a truly wonderful cause,
and you will end up with a work of art.

Have a great day,

Margaret

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Hi Everyone,

Happy Valentine's Day!

I started the day with lots of day brighteners. My mail box was filled with lovely
Valentine Cards (I wish I knew how they did that) and I saw that my new book
KNIT OR CROCHET - HAVE IT YOUR WAY, is
featured in the Lion Brand News Letter.

Then I checked out the books status on the
amazon best sellers list for crochet and knit
books. I was amazed that it was #4 on the
Crochet list, and #15 on the Knitting list. These
lists change hourly, but it was still great to
see the new book up there.

All in all a great start to a long holiday weekend. And the weather is even
cooperating.

Have a great day and a great weekend,

Margaret

WE'RE HAVING A HEAT WAVE

Jen's felted bag, still a work

in progress.
Nancy's beautiful dress and top.

Jen's lovely Shawl
Celeste Preemie Blanket

















HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUTH



GOOD MORNING EVERYONE,

It reached 45 degrees yesterday, wow, it is finally happening, we got above the freezing mark.

Sunday was the monthly meeting of The Happily Hooked on Crocheted Club.
We had a great meeting, lots of members showed up and we had a birthday
cake for Ruth, one of our founders. Ruth was 80 and proud to tell us her age.
Our January meeting was canceled twice because of snow, so it was good to
see everyone. We have been working on chemo caps for the hospital and we
collected 104, outstanding group.

In addition to birthday cake and other goodies, we had show and tell, lots of
chatter and exchanging of ideas. Oh, and we did have a meeting with selection
of officers, lots of exciting plans revealed for our group, including workshops
with Lily Chin and Kim Kotary. Grace, our president, did get a word or
two in, although there was a time or two, she wished she had a gavel.

Have a great day,

I have to get some work done.

Margaret

ps; I am totally frustrated with my blog this morning, photos and text have a mind of their own and no matter how I arrange them, they just keep popping up the way that they want. No more time to work on it now, so hope you can figure out which caption goes with which photo :-)

longing for Spring/exciting news

Good Morning Everyone,

I know, I have not been keeping up on my promise to post
more often. Truth be told, I am working on my new book
full time. Being house bound so much, due to snow, ice and
bitter cold weather, I have been getting lots of work done
on the book. I am longing for the greening up of Spring to begin

On the other hand, I just received word that I will be teaching
in Buffalo, at the CGOA/TKGA conference. No word on what
classes have been accepted as yet, but I will be there in early
August. I will also be teaching at the Sqam Lake Art Festival
in early June (don't have the dates in front of me right now),
but my summer workshops are beginning to firm up.

Last week KNIT OR CROCHET-HAVE IT YOUR WAY started
shipping, and I have had a bunch of positive e-mails so far,
which I love to receive.

Almost forgot, my publisher encouraged me to join Face book.
Well, I did not know any thing about Face book, so its been a
journey of learning yet another new process. There are not
enough hours in the day to keep up with all this stuff. Any way,
I barely pressed the "join" button, and I received my first
message, instantaneously. I will never get used to all of this.
Within ten minutes, I had a slew of friends, granted I knew most
of them, but had no clue that they were on face book. How much
can an old brain hold??? I guess I will find out.

Hope all of you are warm and cozy, and those of you in the
warm climates, think of me all bundled up, sitting by the fire
knitting and crocheting away, yearning for Spring to get here.


Have a great weekend

Margaret