Crochet Queen: Royal Ramblings

Crochet is my life; it is how I define myself. I am a Gemini, okay, so do give me credit for having a "life." I really hate to admit that there could be anything negative about the crochet about which I am so passionate. I am not stranger to having 3 or 4 projects going at one time. There's usually the complicated one that takes concentration. There is the one that is repetitive and is good for just keeping the hands busy in front of daily tv sessions; and there is the "traveling project" kept in the car for using those moments as they appear to stitch a row or two with no deadline to get the project finished. So, why oh why, am I feeling such pressure? Let's explore....

Monday, January 6, 2014 This topic came about from the title of my article recently in Fiber Art Now magazine.  "Crochet As Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists." Yes, the 5 artists I wrote about, all of which are in  my book  The Fine Art of Crochet , are free-thinking when it comes to their creativity. They are free-wheeling with the hook and use unique fibers in many cases. Once you read the article, tell me what  you think? Are these artists doing free-form crochet? In order to define free-form crochet, we must look way, way back to it's origins: Irish crochet. A brief history of crochet, including the Irish method, written by Ruthie Marks is available through The Crochet Guild of America . Unfortunately, there are no images on the site. On her blog, Nancy Nehring has a beautiful montage of Irish Crochet in reference to a class she taught in 2013 at Lacis . I wrote an article in Old Time Crochet Magazine (Spring 1998), "History of Irish...

Tuesday, September 10, 2013 My crochet library, which includes  over 300 volumes, is very personal to me. My books are my friends and that’s because I personally know so many of the designers and authors with books in my collection. A sizable number of the books are even autographed and that increases their value!  Crochetqueen's crochet book collection of over 300 books! Deciding on which five books to highlight here was an enormous, close to impossible, task. Because crochet is so diverse, there is a wide variety of offerings in the books that grace the shelves of my large bookshelf. I started out trying to pick a book that would be representative of each of five decades. However, I quickly realized that my oldest book is from 1916 and I have one from the 1920s, but  there is a gap in which I don’t have any books from the 20s, 30s or 40s. Booklets were common in the 1940s and probably very few books were published. I began crocheting in 1971 and as my skill...

Tuesday, August 27, 2013 I'm pleased to announce my guest blogger for this week, Marie Segares whose blog is The Underground Crafter . I first got to know Marie when she asked to interview me for her blog posted on July 14, 2011 which is Bastille Day and also happens to be my daughter's birthday! Besides our love of crochet, Marie and I have a love of collecting vintage books and patterns in common. Please enjoy her survey via her favorite books through the 1960s to the 1980s in search of artful design inspiration. I’m an avid collector of crochet books.  While contemporary books can’t be beat for crispy color photos, I find that books from the late 1960s to early 1980s tend to provide the most information about design and exploration with crochet fabric.  Even the wearables and home décor projects were often so creatively designed that they were more artistic than functional. If you like vintage crochet books, you may want to check out my occasional blog series, ...