Monday, December 10, 2007

HHCC Ends Year with Lily Chin!!

Lily Chin showing how she balances designing AND her beautiful yarn lineYesterday was the last meeting of the year for the Happily Hooked on Crocheting Club, Connecticut Chapter of the Crochet Guild of America.  And what a celebration it was! 

For those of us who had dared to venture out on a day "doomed for heavy icing" as predicted by our weather stations, we had a most fantastic time!  I, along with 22 other members and guests, enjoyed sharing the afternoon with knit & crochet designer, crochet speed queen, media master, teacher extraordinair Lily Chin!  Yes, THE Lily Chin!

Lily ventured north, leaving the comfort of her home in New York City, to come to Danbury, along with Andrea of Seaport Yarns.  Lily did a fantastic presentation, showing off her garments & accessories fom her new book, "Couture Crochet Workshop: Mastering Fit, Fashion, and Finesse; and Andrea brought along Lily Chin's Signature [yarn] Collection (and a few other quite yummy items) for us to pet & purchase.

Lily explained why she named her book "couture:"  She wants crocheters to know that yes, we can create garments that fit us -- and drape upon us -- beautifully, as one would expect hand-made (tailored really) garments to be.  It is our attention to detail to our proper body measurements, yarn selection, hook selection, gauge & stitch selection that will make or break our project, and that is where her new book takes us.   She created the book to educate us to making the right choices from the planning stage to techniques to refine the fit.   Really, this book is a "must have" for those interested in learning how to get rid of that "boxy/heavy" look crochet has a reputation for!Mini~Dee gets in on modeling Lily's fashions!   If you're creating a Wish List for the holidays, I suggest adding this book to your list!!

After Lily's presentation we were turned loose to purchase goodies.  I selected four of Lily's yarn line to try:  Gramercy, Park Avenue, Times Square, and Greenwich Village.  I also bought a "square" crochet hook to add to my growing hook collection, and the book, "Crochet Inspirations" by Sasha Kagan -- already autographed.

Then, as we munched on homemade goodies and had Lily  autograph our books and patterns, our Chapter President, Grace, handed out raffle prizes to everyone.  She's really amazing; everyone was delighted with their goodies; I received yarn that I instantly decided to put in my "chemo" category (and in fact worked up two chemo caps earlier today during our power outage).

As we were winding our meeting down, I was handed a mysterious package to open ... why the face?  What was in the box???  You'll have to tune in tomorrow for those details!

 

Thank you Lily, Andrea & Grace for a fantastic year-ending meeting!! 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was very lucky to take a class with Lily earlier in November.  She is a fantastic teacher and so full of energy!  I learned so many cool techniques and she autographed my copy of her book without me even having to ask!  It was a great day.  I'm glad you guys had so much fun.  :)