Celebrating Worldwide Knit in Public Day - Tuesday June 17th

Worldwide Knit in Public day coming to Orangeville!

Wish I could remember what they were laughing about!
There is never a shortage of laughs!

Tuesday June 17, 2014 is Worldwide Knit in Public day, and I couldn't be more excited that there is an event being held in Orangeville! I'm looking forward to getting together with some of my own public yarn addicts to enjoy the festivities outside the Orangeville Public Library.

Here is the story of my own little group, PUBlic Crochet Orangeville

Knitting (okay, crocheting) in public is something that has become near and dear to my heart.While displaying and selling my BusyLizzy Boutique crochet items at local venues, I often heard people comment that they wish they had learned to crochet, or that they tried it once but just couldn't get the hang of it. I wanted to bring crocheting out of the livingrooms and firesides of our town, and into public places were it can be noticed and enjoyed again! I started an afternoon group each month called Hooking up To Crochet at a local coffee shop. That was back in 2011! Then a few yarn addicts who worked during the day or had small children in the afternoons asked for an evening group. Thus, PUBlic Crochet Orangeville was born! We meet monthly in a local pub and crochet for a few hours while solving the problems of the world over a libation and a few snacks! Here are some random snaps of our group meetings over the years. Come join our PUBlic Crochet Orangeville group on Facebook to follow the dates and progress of the group!

Shiela's finished Afghan - Great masculine colour choices!

Eva is concentrating on her pattern, but once she gets going, look out!

 We currently meet for our afternoon group on the 2nd Monday of each month at 11:00 am at Mochaberry coffee shop in Orangeville.

Knitters are allowed at the PUBlic Crochet meetings too! No discrimination when it comes to the yarn arts!

Petra works with crochet symbols when she follows patterns. That way she can follow patterns in many languages!

First few stitches EVER! Way to go, Janice!

 The evening PUBlic crochet has been taking place at the Mad Hatter/Ruby Pier lately, and we meet on the 4th Tuesday of the Month (new in June 2014) at 8pm. We have also enjoyed meetings at The Winchester Arms and Mill Creek Pub!

Having fun at the Winchester Arms with a crochet hook!

These squares, donated by our members, were made into Lap Afghans for the Seniors for Santa program in Orangeville.

Great times at Mochaberry!

Hats off to a new Crochet Club member!

This is one of the WIP (works in progress) that was brought to our last PUBlic Crochet meeting. Crystal is a new member who came out for the first time to the June meeting. Crystal is a teacher at a local high school and when the head of the ski team found out she could crochet, a small (?) favour was asked of her: "Do you think you could make hats for the ski team?"

Well, it seems that Crystal is not one to back down from a challenge, and having never made a hat before, she came up with this great design using school colours. At last count she had 11 of them finished. I believe she said there were 42 on the team??? Keep that hook flying Crystal -- good thing you have the summer to work on it now that school is out!

Our next crochet meetings in Orangeville are:
Hooking up to Crochet: Wednesday July 11, 11am
PUBlic Crochet: Monday July 16, 8pm

Please click links above for places and details. Show up with your WIP or please feel free to contact BusyLizzy to RSVP if you'd like to join us!

Cheers,
BusyLizzy

Tucking in your Tails

Our Hooking up to Crochet group is working on some squares to donate to a local Senior's Santa Hamper project. Volunteers will assemble the squares into lap afghans, and these, along with other necessities and goodies will be delivered to seniors in local retirement and nursing homes at Christmas!

The conversation over coffee at this month's Hooking up to Crochet meeting was all about tails! There were some seasoned 'hookers' around the table too, so it was great to hear the methods and reasons behind them:

Dale M shared a story from an experience with a similar "squares" charity project. After many hours of volunteers stitching the donated squares together, the final products were washed before being sent out to the needy recipients. To the horror of the volunteers, some of the squares came UNRAVELED in the wash! Some of the creators had left only an inch or less when switching colours or tucking in the ends. This caused them to come apart on the first washing! Dale's advice: Always leave at least 4-6" tail when switching a colour or ending off. When weaving in the tail, use a darning needle and travel along the base of a row of stitches to hide it well and then make a sharp turn (90 degrees or more) somewhere along the length of the tail. That way it can be tugged and stretched in different directions with less chance of unraveling.
After their experience, Dale's group actually requested that tails be "left dangling" on all donated squares. Volunteers felt it was preferable to tuck those pesky tails in securely themselves, rather than do all that assembly only to have a stray square or two unravel in the wash!

Sarah W-L ties a small knot when finishing a colour or ending a project. Many of her items are wearables for babies and children, and therefore subject to many washings! The knot means extra security and durablity. A shorter end is then sewn back through a few stitches to hide it inside the work. She is not too worried about the length of the tail, as it is not going to unravel with the handy little knot in place!

Liz (me) was experimenting with a couple of techniques recently learned online:
First I tried the Russian join. Thread the new yarn onto a darning needle and thread it through your last loop. Then splitting the yarn as you go, splice back through the length of your new yarn a few inches. Remove the needle, give the yarn a tug, then just cut off the small remaining end very close. Advantages: it is neat and quite invisible and conserves yarn. Disadvantages: it's a bit time consuming and fiddly for those who avoid the use of a darning needle, and can add a bit of bulk to the few stitches where the yarn is double thick from the join. (This is not very noticeable on most projects, though). I like this method, and will definitely use it when joining same colour yarns, as well as when I'm looking for that "extra neat" finish.
I also experimented with a simple 'invisible join' I found and re-pinned on my "Crochet Love" board on Pintrest. This one is a single knot, slipped down to the right of the last loop of the old yarn. You just continue crocheting with the new one and the knot slips neatly inside. This method doesn't address the 2 tails that are left hanging, but one assumes you could still "work over" them or weave them in later with a darning needle with whatever method you favour.
My favourite tail tucking method with finer yarns, is simply to crochet the next few stitches while tucking the new tail this way and that through the work (basically tangling it up neatly inside the next 5-10 stitches in the row - following whatever pattern I'm working on).

Care to join us for a Hooking up to Crochet (daytime) meeting? Or our sister (evening) group PUBlic Crochet? Here are some links to upcoming events!
Wednesday April 11th, 11 am, Mochaberry, 177B Broadway, Orangeville, RSVP on Facebook
Monday April 16th, 8 pm, Winchester Arms Pub, 171 Broadway, Orangeville. RSVP on Facebook

The Rainbow Rug

Crafters build relationships with their handiwork. It sounds odd, but it is true. Take the Rainbow Rug, for example. This was one of my first T-shirt Rug creations. I chose the colours to be bright, fun and happy! Working on it made me feel that way, even when it wouldn't lie flat and I had to rip it out and re-work it a bit. When it was finished people smiled when they saw it on my table at the market, it was marked "favourite" with a little heart on my Etsy Store and it was even included in a treasury list. It's a nice rug. I liked it, others liked it, and my daughter had her eye on it (she was angling to beg for it if it didn't sell!).

But sell, it did! It was on display at Access Fitness during the weeks approaching the holidays, and it happened to sell on a day that I was not at the club. Cash sale. Great! I was glad someone chose it. Someone, somewhere. Maybe a member of the club? Man, woman? I didn't know. I was glad it sold, but it was one of the first things I've ever sold and NOT known to whom I sold it!

Crafters build relationships with their customers too! One of the things I really enjoy about selling BusyLizzy Boutique items at markets, craft fairs and festivals is the contact I have with the shoppers. I love to chat with the patrons as they select a unique gift for a special person, hear their comments as they linger over the table, and watch their excitement as they pick up something that "spoke to them" from my table as a little treat for themselves. Perhaps it is a little easier to "let go" of my unique handmade creations when I meet the people who will enjoy them.  Even with online sales, I often have a chance to have some dialogue with the buyer via email, and I know where my creation is going to live. I am thrilled to know that refashioned T-shirt Tank is being sported in Dublin Ireland, those Barefoot Sandals are being enjoyed in Brooklyn New York, and that slashed up Zumba® T-shirt is "joining the party" in Texas. I always send a hand-written thank you along with their package when I send it, and quite often receive an email back with thanks and comments; the personal touch means a lot to me.

Back to the Rainbow Rug.... A few months have passed and I've often wondered where it is and who is enjoying it. In fact, we were chatting about that very subject during our recent "Hooking up to Crochet" meeting at a local coffee shop. As the meeting disbanded, I turned to notice a woman I know from the gym sitting with another lady, who was not familiar to me. We had a quick chat about the crochet crowd and the new friend asked for my card. She might join us to learn to crochet next time we meet. I was floored when she took one look at my card and said, "Oh, BusyLizzy Boutique... I bought your Rainbow Rug!"

There she was, sitting right there in the coffee shop while we discussed that very item! (Insert "Twilight Zone" theme music). I learned that the rug was a gift for her son, and is sitting by his woodstove, brightening up his first apartment.

<Sigh> I feel better now!

Cheers!

P.S. If you'd like a rug, there are a few more of my rugs on ETSY or I can make you one in your colour selection... just be sure to say "hi" when you purchase it! :o)

Hooking up to Crochet - February 2012

Working on a Barefoot Sandal

I just realized with some embarrassment that my last post regarding our Hooking up to Crochet (January 2012) gathering was still sitting in the "draft" folder unpublished! It has a great list of online resources for yarns and patterns, so do check it out! Better late than never, right?

Here are the highlights of February's Hooking up to Crochet ...
We met Monday, February 13th at Mochaberry 11:00 am.

Stash-busting with Granny Squares!

In attendance for this month's gathering were: Beckie M, Sarah L, Sarah S, Elizabeth G (me), and Sheila, who joined us by chance. Sheila knits and crochets, and often enjoys stitching away at the coffee shop (or wherever she is). In fact, we've spoken casually several times but today our crafting brought us together further... a chance to exchange names and welcome her to the group. That is what it is all about, right!

Sarah and Sheila

Sarah S - knotting a shopping bag.

As a group, we bounced around several topics over our coffee including the 'street art' known as "yarn bombing" or "guerrilla crochet." It is essentially a public act of covering a natural or man made item in crochet or knitting - here are some photos for reference). Of course I can neither confirm nor deny whether we actually hatched our own plan for a local bombing.

PUBlic Crochet - the evening chapter! 
Winchester Arms, Orangeville, 7 pm Wednesday February 15th
This was the first attempt at an evening gathering of Hooking up to Crochet. As it turned out, the date and time fell off the radar for some, and others had last minute duties that prevented them coming. I spent about an hour in the local pub feeling a bit like I'd been stood up... until Virginia arrived! Virginia is actually a knitter, but I wasn't about to be picky about my company considering hanging out at the local watering-hole by myself is not exactly my usual Wednesday night activity! We chatted away while Virginia worked on a long-term project -- a tunic that she's hoping will be done in time to wear this season! Tiny yarn, tiny needles... I was certainly impressed! I have a bit of a commitment issue with my projects. I tend to favour those projects that can be tucked in a purse, and completed in a few sittings. I sometimes venture into those that could last a week or even a month or two (afghans and the like) but that is much more rare! Joining us about a half hour later was Kat A. She was sporting a new "baby bump" so with all of us being moms, the conversation turned to plans for baby and our 'war stories' about birthin'... and we won't get into the details in this forum! Despite a slow and low-key start, I believe the PUB-lic Crochet nights will also become popular over time. Again we'll aim for a monthly gathering and see where it takes us!

Bottle Tags: available on ETSY

Upcoming Events:
(Just a few shifts in "regular" days and times to avoid "March Break" and to adjust for some less busy times at our coffee shop... let me know how these work for you! Please RSVP by adding yourself to the group on Facebook. Just follow the links below!
Hooking up to Crochet (PUBlic Crochet) - MON MARCH 5th 8pm at Winchester Arms 171 Broadway, Orangeville
Hooking up to Crochet (Coffee Club) - WED MARCH 7th 9-11am, at Mochaberry 177b Broadway, Orangeville

We'll talk soon!

Hooking up to Crochet - January 2012

January's "Hooking up to Crochet" meeting was held at Mochaberry (one of our local coffee shops) and we boasted a 56% increase in Hookers if my math is correct! Okay, so I'm spinning the numbers a bit... but we've gone from 3 to 5 to 9 participants with each month, so we are definitely on to something with our little group!  In attendance this month: Dale M*, Sarah L, Beckie M, Paula S, Kate B*, Sarah S*, Basia, Donna W* and me!

This month there was a lot of banter about supplies and patterns: where to get them, and at what cost! Some of us are real "stash" junkies, buying up yarn at specialty stores, online and at yarn outlets, and others (like me) tend to keep to local department stores and thrift stores for bargains! Here is a great list of online resources that Dale M put together for us! Thanks Dale!

NOTE: Not all the patterns are free, but some are! www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory.php   (tons of free patterns) www.herrschners.ca   (mail order patterns/yarn and other crafts)  www.e-patternscentral.com www.crochetgarden.com www.maggiescrochet.com www.gourmetcrochet.com www.freepatterns.com www.stitchnationyarn.com www.coatsandclark.com www.redheart.com www.karpstyles.com  (Canadian mail order site for patterns/supplies) www.caron.com www.anniesattic.com  ( US mail order for patterns, yarn, supplies & other crafts) I'd like to mention that I'm very proud to have sold my first crochet pattern on ETSY, just before Christmas. I have posted 2 patterns on my Etsy Store now, and am very happy to have someone crocheting up one of my original creations: Texting Mitts http://www.etsy.com/listing/84644268/crochet-pattern-for-fingerless-and Texting Mitt Pattern by Elizabeth Glenday, BusyLizzy Boutique As always, it was great to gather, hook, chat and share some great resources. We welcome any local crocheters to join us for the next meeting(s):  Hooking up to Crochet - daytime meeting DATE: Monday February 13th, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm (2nd Monday of each month) LOCATION: Mochaberry, 177b Broadway, Orangeville Facebook Hooking up to Crochet Event ...and introducing an EVENING gathering... entitled "PUBlic Crochet"...at a local pub ... get it? DATE: Wednesday February 15, 7pm - whenever! LOCATION: Winchester Arms, 171 Broadway, Orangeville Facebook PUBlic Crochet Event Contact me via a blogger post or respond to our Facbook event to get involved! Or you can just show up and introduce yourself, we'd love to see you! We'll talk soon!

Hooking up to Crochet - December

BusyLizzy

In chatting with a fellow crochet enthusiast at one of the craft fairs this year (a slow event that lent itself to  vendor chat) we were both lamenting that there are not a lot of young people taking up the fine art of Crochet anymore. At least, neither of us could think of any!

I'd been thinking about that very thing of late and we hatched a plan! Bringing crochet out in the open with acts of public "hooking" might just be the ticket! We decided to meet in a local coffee shop with our latest WIP (work in progress) to boldly perform our craft with the eyes of the public upon us! I know what you are thinking: "What brazen hussies!"

November Meeting:

Beckie M

The first gathering happened Monday November 14th, and was very casual with only 3 of us in attendance: Sarah of Sarah's Knit Bits (she does crochet too!) and Basia (my cohort from the quiet craft show) and myself. It was last minute, so we were happy to start with a few of us. We met at a lovely local coffee shop (Mochaberry) in Orangeville, grabbed some coffee, and sat on the couches with our yarn and hooks flying! Quite a few people stopped to chat with us about our projects and commented how lovely it was to see us crocheting.  We decided to gather each month on the 2nd Monday -- a random choice, but something to start with! Our crochet group was born!

December meeting: Entitled "Hooking up to Crochet"
So that brings us to today! This time I set up a Facebook event, and while the original group had some things to attend to this week, there were 4 new participants, including a fledgling Crocheter in her early 20's (we're guessing, we didn't ask!) who heard we'd be there and stopped by for advice on getting started. Success! It was incredible to have this mandate (bringing crochet to the next gen) already showing some promise of being fulfilled!

Dale L

Here is a bit about each participant, and what we got up to:
Beckie M- Has been crocheting about a year. All her housemates are hand-crafting their holiday gifts this year! I can't reveal her project, or who it's for, but I'm hoping she'll send pics when it is done and delivered Christmas morning. Trust me, the recipient won't find one of these at WalMart any time soon!
Dale L - Very experienced in both crochet and knitting, and a sock monkey maker (sewn, not knit/crocheted, but they're oh so cute!). My favourite quote from today's meeting was Dale's: "Anyone have scissors? I left mine in my monkey box."
Paula S - Taught to crochet by Beckie this year. She's working on a glove to match the one she lost! Apparently she's remade herself this lost glove before... so Dale suggested she crochet a long chain that she can string through her coat and attach to each glove to avoid further MIA mitts!

Paula S

Liz G (Me) - Crocheting since I was a teen. Also working on matching a mitt today! I made a real "novice mistake" a few weeks back: I ran out of yarn bought more to whip up a second glove, but only weeks later (in a good light) did I notice the brown was off! I had to make another glove with the new yarn. I still have ONE mismatched glove... so I have the perfect Christmas gift for any one-armed people on your Christmas list!

Candice

Candice - Our newbie, working on her first projects: A single crochet dish cloth, and a Granny Square dish cloth. We were able to help her solve two issues. A misprinted bracket in the pattern was causing confusion in getting the 2nd dish cloth started, and Dale caught that she was wrapping her yarn in the wrong direction, making all the stitches really tight and twisted. Good catch, Dale!

Topics of discussion included:

• Best ways to do "ribbing" in crochet: Liz likes the crochet in the back loop method (Here is a YouTube video I found using my fav technique).
• The business of Crochet/Handcrafting... how to set prices when you sell your stuff? By how long it takes to make? Materials used? Obviously this have to be accounted for in some way. Nobody came up with a definitive answer, so I'm thinking this will be an ongoing discussion!
• Use of patterns vs making it up as you go along! Most of us "just crochet" out of our heads, but admit we started with patterns, and that they are a great way to learn new techniques, and essential for beginners! Liz equates a pattern with a recipe in cooking. A new cook needs to work with a recipe until he or she learns what flavours, combinations and techniques go together well. Then the pantry and the skills are just "let loose" to create new dishes. It is the same with crocheting. Use a pattern as a guide and an inspiration, but not always to the letter! Liz has started writing out her own patterns and just sold her first one for fingerless gloves on ETSY last week!

If you are a "Happy Hooker" and live in the Orangeville area, please look us up on the 2nd Monday of the month for our Hooking up to Crochet group... we'd love to see you!

Cheers,

BusyLizzy

Elizabeth Glenday