Sunday, March 31, 2013
Blessings to those of you who observe Easter and Passover!
Do you love to crochet? Can’t get
enough? Do you say, “Just one more row?” even though your eyes are bleary and
it’s way past your bedtime? I hope you have shouted about your love of crochet
from the rooftops this month during the annual National
Crochet Month.
I am the founder of The Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) www.crochet.org , a Past President and a
Professional member. I have just celebrated five years of blogging and am
delighted to have been invited by Amy & Donna over at Crochetville www.crochetville.com to
participate in this blog tour to celebrate!
CGOA started
National Crochet Week back in 1998
as a promotional effort to celebrate our beloved craft and to let others know
about the guild. Its popularity has
grown exponentially. It is now a whole month long and we call it National
Crochet Month. Now many other associated groups have jumped on the
bandwagon and have found creative ways to celebrate crochet and have fun with
other crocheters. There’s so much to celebrate!
As CGOA prepares to celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 2014, my thoughts have turned to the history of the organization. From humble
beginnings, it has grown, thrived and set a high standard for serving the needs
of people who are passionate about crochet. With that said, I have prepared a Narrative History of CGOA and placed it
here on the blog in a page: http://crochetqueen-royalramblings.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html Read it at your leisure; it’s long so skim through it to see, some
never-before-seen photos that are sure to bring back fond memories!
I’m very
excited to announce that the manuscript for my newest book, The Fine Art of Crochet – Innovative Works
from 20 Contemporary Artists, has
been submitted to the publisher. I expect it to be on sale by June 2013. No book like this that
focuses on crochet as art has been published before, and I hope you will enjoy
it as much as I have enjoyed bringing you 20 fascinating stories about 20
amazing artists! I have written about crochet art and artists for the past
twenty years and I will continue to feature crochet art on my blog, as well as
post updates as the book goes through its publishing journey. Please follow its
progress at gwenblakleykinsler.weebly.com and click to follow on my blog. I'd love to have you as a follower.
My latest
pattern, Gwyneth Cable Cowl, is just
finished and I am happy to offer it to you at a 20% discount for TWO DAYS only
at my Ravelry store. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gwyneth-cable-cowl Use the coupon code 13NATCROMO AND The offer ends on April 2 at midnight.
To work
independently and at home as a designer has both its joys and its challenges.
One tip that I offer up to anyone thinking of becoming a designer is that you
must be organized! My goal is to become 100% paperless in the near future. By
doing so, it is critical that I organize my documents so that they are readily
available and labeled logically. Only you, the designer, can know what
“logical” means, but the key is to set a standard and stick to it. Here is a
peek into my studio where it all happens; and I must admit, hard as I try, it
is still sometimes organized chaos!
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| Yarn stored in chest and computer central |
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| Yarn Stash |
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| Printer/Scanner and files full of designs and design inspiration |
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| My collection of approx. 300 crochet books |
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| The comfy spot where most of my crocheting is done |
During this month-long Tour
of Crochet Country. www.crochetville.com I
personally have enjoyed checking in each day and reading about my fellow
designers. I think I can speak for my colleague, Karen Ballard, http://www.threadwinder.info/ when I say that we are pleased to
be included in the Tour and to be featured as it comes to an end. If you
checked in after the tour started or didn’t have time to visit each blog, it is
not too late. Check this list and visit the designer’s blogs often. We always
have crochet goodness to share with you! http://crochetville.com/a-tour-through-crochet-country-natcromo-blog-tour/
Thank you so much to Marcy Smith,
Editor of Interweave Crochet magazine who gave my Crochet Anonymous video
on YouTube a shout on on her tour day, March 24. If you missed it, it is always
clickable from my blog here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egkseJR-DGQ
We designers on the tour voted to
support Project Night Night as our
charity of choice.
www.projectnightnight.org This organization provides
Night Night packages free of charge, to homeless children from birth to
pre-teen who need our childhood essentials to feel secure, cozy, ready to
learn, and significant. We hope you will check out this wonderful
charity and consider making a donation.
I hope you have enjoyed the blog tour and will click to follow my blog
and come back to visit often! I also hope to see you at the 2013 Chain Link
Crochet Conference in Indianapolis, IN where I will be teaching five crochet
classes. Click here for photos of what I will be teaching http://crochetqueen-royalramblings.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-deed-is-done.html and
here to register for the conference: http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com/summer-classes.asp?i6s1
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