Sunday, August 31, 2008

STRAPPED FOR BAGS

Good Morning Everyone,

Exciting news this morning.  Our second on line book has just been posted and is ready for downloading now.  Those of you who are familiar with our Belt Book know that we are a group of designers, who pooled our expertise to publish our own designs.

The bag book will be in 3 installments, and the first is ready now. You can order the belt book at; 
http://www.SFTDOnline.com.

Enjoy!



Here's a picture of my entry.



Other designers participating in the book are:

Carrie Sullivan - Casual Mosaic Shoulder Bag

Christie McMahon - Felted Fringe Bag

Gwen Blakely-Kinsler - DIY Art Crochet Bag

Myra Wood - Echo Shopping Stash Bag

Noreen Crone-Findley - Filet Dancing Lady Market Bag

Pam Gillette - Suede Bag



Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Margaret

Friday, August 22, 2008

CROCHET - THE NEXT GENERATION

Good Afternoon Everyone,

As most of you know, I teach a Monday morning crochet class and have been doing so for about 10 years now.  My local yarn shop - The Yarn and Craft Box, in Pawling, NY, has always been very supportive of crocheters.

It is always so rewarding to see a new crocheter learn to handle a hook, but when the student is a young child, the rewards are really great.

Three weeks ago I met Jaime.  Jaime had never held a hook before, but she really wanted to learn how to crochet, so we arranged for some "one on one" lessons.  The first fifteen minutes or so, she thought that it would be really difficult for her, but I encouraged her to give herself a little more time.  Before the end of the lesson, she was handling the hook like a pro and doing single crochet very quickly.  Unfortunately, I had to cancel her next lesson, and when I saw her last week, she was halfway through a scarf.  I taught her 2 more stitches, and told her that we could add the new stitches to each end of her scarf.  Today she came in with a finished scarf, we added a fringe and
it was beautiful.



Jaime modeling her not quite finished scarf.  Last week
Jaime told me that she felt as if her brain really did
not know what she was doing, but her fingers were
just doing it.  Truly amazing to watch.




Fringe is done and it looks beautiful  The scarf is
a birthday gift for Jaime's little sister, Emily.  Emily
came in with Mom, to pick Jaime up after her lesson,
and left on this hot summer day, with the scarf
wrapped around her neck.  What fun!  Great job
Jaime, thanks for allowing me to share your work.

The Crochet Guild of America promotes teaching and
encourages "Each One Teach Two".

Crocheting is something Jaime will have with her the
rest of her life and I am sure that she will pass it on,
sometime in the future (maybe even to her Mom).

Enjoy the rest of the day,

Margaret

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Portland Classes and Project sharing

Good Morning Everyone,

On Monday morning I mailed off all my booklets for the conference
in Portland, OR.  With all the airline restrictions, and the weight of
the booklets, I decided it was best to ship them ahead of time.
It will also make my luggage easier to handle.

I am teaching several classes, and I understand there is still
room to sign up.  I hope to see some of you there.

I will be teaching a Free Form Knit and Crochet Combination class.
I love this class because it is friendly to knitters, crocheters or those
of us who are "bistitchual" (this word was coined by Jen, while we
were at a dinner while attending TNNA, last January, and I love it).

In addition to the Free Form, I will be doing Crochet Intermeshing.
This is a new class which I have only just developed and taught
for the first time in NH.  I learned the method from James Walters.
I met James, and took a workshop from him, while on a trip to
Australia.  James gave me permission to develop the workshop,
using methods that I learned from him.

Another fun class is Spectacular Slip Stitches.  The intricate
designs that can be created with these stitches, without having
to carry different colors behind your work, is amazing.

Patchwork Knitting and Crochet Embellishment round out the
classes that I will be teaching.

On another note, the most fun for me as an author and teacher,
is when people send me photos of their finished projects.  I
always encourage students to let me see what they have been
doing.  Now that I am a "seasoned" blogger, I can share
the photos with you.


I'm sure that Zach will love his sweater!

I have a free pattern on my website
http://margarethubertoriginals.com
for this little sweater.  Its blue on my
website, and it looks so totally different
made with an ombre yarn. 

On of my greatest joys, is I constantly hear
from readers who are still using my first book
ONE PIECE KNITS THAT FIT.  This book has
both knitting and crochet projects, and has been
out of print for a long time, but is still available on
the web.  While some of the styles are dated, (it
was done in 1978), the classics still hold up and
the concepts are still so usable with todays yarns.

Just a few days ago, I found out that this book was
in the ravelry library, and that it was also available
in braille at a braille library.  A reader sent me a
photo of her newly completed tunic. 
It is the cover sweater of the book.


She used different colors and changed the look.

I love it!  Thanks for sharing Martha.

Suzanne took my Free Form Workshop about a year
ago.  She finished the bag and sent me a photo.
Its terrific Suzanne, better late than never.


 Thanks for sharing Suzanne, I really love your bag.

Have a great day,

Margaret


Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Tatyana Mirer


Good Morning Everyone,

A few years ago I met Tatyana at a New York City
Crochet Guild Meeting.  I was immediately taken
with her lively personality and her beautiful work.
Tatyana is a most talented
crocheter, and if you are not familiar with her work
you soon will be.  Among her many talents is her
masterful use of Bruges Lace.
  Bruges is an old European lace-making
technique, and Tatyana
gives it contemporary style in her lovely set,
that made the cover of CROCHET! magazine.
Tatyana also teaches the method at guild meetings.



Me and Tatyana, wearing another of her gorgeous
creations.  Thanks Barbara M, from the NYC guild for
the photo.




Tatyana accepting her award from Rita Weiss.,
president of CGOA, at the awards ceremony at the
crochet conference.  Sorry I don't have a picture
of Tatyana's entry.




Here's Tatyana's design on the cover. 


Here's the inside view



The NYC Crochet Guild

Have a great day everyone

Margaret

Monday, August 11, 2008

HAPPILY HOOKED ON CROCHET AUGUST MEETING

Happy Monday Everyone,

Yesterday was a very special meeting of our
Happily Hooked on Crochet chapter of CGOA.
  We always have fun at our meetings,
but yesterday was special.

We had an "away" meeting.  Our member, Chava,
hosted a meeting at her lovely home, tucked
 away in the Ct hills.  As a special treat we had
a trunk show of Feza Yarns USA, given
by their Creative Consultant, Nancy.
 There was an array of beautiful yarns and
samples for us to see and touch.





Nancy, Me and Chava and a beautiful skein of yarn.




Some of our members enjoying great food and  great
company.



One of our members, also Nancy, showing
off the sweater she made from my new book
KNITS FOR MEN.  Nancy is a beginning
knitter, so she was thrilled that she could
follow the instructions.  The sweater is for
her husband, but she was a good sport and
modeled it for me.  Great job Nancy!



Oh, Oh, wonder who invited him.






Dee http://crochetwithdee.com
loves to get in close with the camera, (go away Dee)!


Chava captured our visitor, its her bunny
Caboose, come to visit all of us invading
his space.



Jen was asking my advice about a
sweater she is knitting.  There's Dee
with the camera again, always getting my
worst side.  (I guess I could always delete)



Feza yarns provided a great door prize,
a yarn holder, filled with goodies, and
Elaine was the lucky winner.

Have to run, I teach on  Monday mornings.

Have a great day!

Margaret


Saturday, August 9, 2008

HOOKED FOR TODDLERS

Good Morning Everyone,

A short while ago, I received a letter from a reader
 who had a question about the "grow-a-year"
jumper which is the cover photo of my toddler book.
 Sure enough, she found an error.  On page 30,
Foundation row, should say, rep from * 16 (18, 20)
times more, end with 19 (21, 23) ch-1
spaces, instead of 18 (20, 22).  Thanks Fey, for
catching that error.

I loved doing this book, so much fun making
cute little things for children.




Fey's Jumper, she did a great job!


Have a great weekend,

Margaret

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

More photos from New Hampshire Conference



Between classes and evenings you could always
meet up with friends in the lobby.  Here are friends
Phyllis Sandford and Sharon Mann, working away
on their projects.  Sharon and Phyllis are co-authors
of Crochet Kid Stuff



Thats my friend Rina with ?


The contest results were announced at the
General Meeting.  Here are photos in
no particular order (I cannot figure out how to
change them)

Kim, receiving her award from Rita


Its Christi's turn


My turn, don't you love the size of the check



Rita presenting Tammy with her prize


Shari's turn (Shari is a member of our free form group)



Rita wearing a magnificent coat of antique
lace.  Rita tells everyone that she found it in a
garbage pail.  It takes her a while to tell
everyone that the garbage pail is in Jean's
garage, and that Jean stores her precious
treasures in brand new, sealed, plastic
garbage pails, so that they are safe and
protected from the elements and little critters.




The Ravelry group arrived just as I was walking by.
I was able to get a closeup photo before they
were mobbed by the crowds.



Have a great day

Margaret

Sunday, August 3, 2008

classes at the conference

Happy Sunday Everyone.,

I hope that you are not tired of all the conference photos,
but I still would like to get the rest of my workshops in.

I think that the most challenging class that I taught was
Intermeshing Crochet.  I learned the method from James
Walters, of Wales http://www.crochet.nu, while I
 was on a Fiber jaunt in
Australia.  I took James' workshop, and he gave me
permission to teach a class in the US.
James even gave me permission to use
 his worksheet.  I made a small bag, and I also
documented, in photos row by row, as I did it.
 I also wrote out row by row instructions in addition
to the photos.  Included in the booklet were
 instructions for a few projects. 

I was not able to give out a lot of homework for this class,
because it really needed to be shown, but before the end
of class, everyone was intermeshing like crazy.


No one was able to finish their bags in this class
but we did have two students who were well on
their way to finishing.









Below are some of the works in progress from
the embellishing class.  By the
end of the class.  Everyone had a bag almost done.
It was really great to see everyone's imagination
at work.










This was the last class of the day, my smallest class.
One attendee did not show up, so there were only 4
students, but we had a lot of fun and a lot of individual
attention.  I started them off with a little tricky stitch,
but hopefully they all got it before the end of class.

Enjoy the rest of the day

Margaret