Packing Up & Listening In

I'm busy going through all my crochet projects (that might give the illusion that it's a LOT of projects, but if you're anything like me and millions of other crocheters -- we tend to give a lot of our work away, so really it isn't!) ... I'm selecting those projects I used natural fibers for, such as alpaca, cotton, bamboo, silk, and wool. These items will be on display at the upcoming 101st Connecticut Sheep & Wool Festival taking place on Saturday, April 24th.

Initially I thought I wouldn't be attending the Festival; my plans have changed! So, not only will I be able to go, but I will also be demonstrating how to crochet with roving (also known as unspun yarn)! Thus far I've selected a hat I crocheted using incredibly soft roving, and a scarf I crocheted a while back using the Waffle Weave technique (not to be confused with the Waffle Weave Stitch). Hmmmm. What else should I bring? Oh, yes, yes, I should bring the scarf I'm knitting up with my crochet hook. That's always a mind blower crowd-pleaser! :)

Come see me! I'll be in the White Barn with my fellow CGOA Chapter members!


I also want to mention that tonight is the Live Broadcast of the FLAMIES Awards. It will be exciting to tune in to hear from all the winners. I think I'll wear my crochet hook earrings while listening in. :)

Is it vacation time yet? :)

I cannot believe it is April already! How did this happen?!? Apparently I've been so busy working on the Fiddler on the Roof Shawl drive (and other activities) that time just got away from me. Hey, it happens!

I did manage to:

• Register for the 2010 Chain Link Conference -- what classes did you sign up for??
• Attend the local Coffee, Crochet & Chat sessions held at Borders book store in Danbury.
• Hang out with the ever fun Mary Beth Temple when she was visiting Ridgefield.
• Finally figured out the Tunisian positive/negative spacing concept from the Forest Petals Shawl featured in the 2010 Spring issue of Interweave Crochet magazine (my practice piece is pictured below) ...
• Read all 4 of the Twilight books (in 4 days!)
• Read the latest crochet murder mystery by Betty Hechtman...can you believe her 5th in the series is out!?? :)

I still need to:

• confirm a new home for the HHCC meetings
• write up some new crochet patterns you all have been madly passionately emailing me for
• send out the prizes I offered on Ravelry.com for National Crochet Month
• take down the library display that was featured for National Crochet Month; I hope you got a chance to see it.
• prepare to attend the Connecticut Sheep & Wool Festival on April 24th with the HHCC
• start some new local crochet classes for the spring/summer months
• get my cell phone & computer issues resolved once & for all!
• work up something delicious with the Tunisian positive/negative spacing concept...

Whew! Is it vacation time yet?! :)

The 2010 CLF Flamies Awards

It is that time of year again ... time for the
2nd Annual 2010 CLF Flamies Awards!

CLF stands for the Crochet Liberation Front, a very active crochet group on the Ravelry.com website. The leader of this group, Laurie Wheeler, created this group to "liberate the [crochet] hook." With nearly 5,000 members strong, that's a whole-lotta liberating! :)

Last year Laurie started the Flamies. Flamies is short for "the Flaming Hook of Justice," an award that the CLF group bestows upon to those lovin' on crochet for a variety of reasons.

Laurie decided that if the movie industry has the Grammies, then crochet should have a glamorous & prestigious award ceremony too! The CLF members nominated the people, projects, and companies they thought were BEST for a variety of crochet categories, and then the world was offered the opportunity to cast votes for their favorites (go here for more info). Then, on a special night, the nominees with the most votes were announced to the world on The Getting Loopy Show. Cool, right?!!

Let your voice be heard! Go HERE to vote! You have until March 22, 2010, 11.59pm PDT, to cast your vote. Then, tune into The Getting Loopy Show on April 19, 2010 to listen to the winners.

I am very honored to be a nominee of the 2nd Annual CLF Flamies! I am nominated for Best Crochet Instructor 2009, and Best Crochet Designer (for children). Congratulations to all the other nominees!

All Hands on Deck!

There I was this morning, attempting to steam block my second completed shawl for the "Fiddler on the Roof" school musical. Being home alone, it was pointless to yell out, "All hands on deck!" to my family to help me steam block it as they did for the first shawl. (Mr. Dee is busy working at his new job, and the kids are at school.) I could pin it, but my pins went MIA after a crochet demonstration I did awhile back; I was meaning to replace them, but you know how it goes: you get busy, you forget.

So there I was this morning, trying to pull & stretch this shawl into the shape I wanted it to take while steam blocking it. I simply do not have enough hands. And, it was killing my back (not good when you have 2 ruptured disks!) What to do? What to do?

I stopped steaming ... as a youngster I was a Girl Scout AND (unofficially, thanks to having many brothers) I was a Boy Scout too ... motto: Always Be Prepared, or in my world, Always Think Creatively. I looked at the shawl. I thought about the wire hangers I've been collecting (they work great, when cut, as extra holders for the weed control paper used in flower & veggie gardens). I thought, Do I really want to tangle with wire hangers? Yes, Joan Crawford's image did pop into my head on that one. What about PVC pipes? Hmmmm, I don't have any small enough (PVC pipes work great as banner holders!)

Think woman, THINK!!! And then it occurred to me! Hey, last year while at the CGOA Conference I purchased those blocking wires ... where did I put them, and better yet, WHY haven't I been using them ALL year???

I quickly found them, inserted them into the shawl, and as I steam blocked one-handed, with my other hand holding my morning cup of coffee, all while listening to archived Getting Loopy Shows by Mary Beth Temple, I thought, this is the way it should be! Life is good!

Now, if only I had a blocking board! Hopefully a vendor will be selling them at this year's Conference! :)

Shawl Shock leads to CGOA CAL Participation

Last week I attended a mandatory parent meeting for my children’s school drama club. I sat in the back, quietly listening as I worked on a crochet project. The school has decided that the 7th & 8th graders will put on the play “Fiddler on the Roof” …

As I listened to the long list of wardrobe needs I looked up for a brief moment. Maybe I looked up a bit longer than that. I dunno. All I remember is hearing the teacher in charge say, ”…and Mrs. Stanziano, I put you down for 30 crocheted shawls.” It was like one of those surreal moments where the room suddenly goes long while all faces turn to look at me, many, I suspect, echoing the same shock & fear that must have been on my face upon hearing this.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she continued on, “Mrs. Stanziano does that stuff in her sleep!”

Still in a state of shell-shock, two parents came to me after the meeting and volunteered to help make 1 or 2 of the shawls. That still meant I’d need to make some 26-28 shawls by the end of March.

Doing some quick math, if each shawl took 4 to 5 hours to crochet, that would equate to three weeks of full-time work! YIKES!!!

When I got home I decided to ask my CGOA Chapter for help. I designed a shawl, crocheted it up that night, and then sent it into the school to have it approved. While waiting for the approval I wrote up the pattern. And, to my delight -- and relief -- 8 of my Chapter members volunteered to help me!

What does this mean?
1. No, I will not need to crochet in my sleep. (thank goodness!)
2. CGOA Chapters ROCK!!
3. This will be our participation in the CGOA’s CAL in honor of NATIONAL CROCHET MONTH

Treasures-in-Law

While we were celebrating Mini~Dee's 13th birthday last month, Fred, one of my brothers-in-law, called me over. "Dee," he said quietly, "I have something for you. I know you'll put this to good use." He handed me a metal pencil case which I recognized immediately. It was the pencil case I gave him to house a special crochet hook he had loaned to me so I could send it to PieceWork magazine to photograph for an article Gwen Blakley Kinsler had written.

I held my breath in anticipation of what would be inside. Slowly I opened it, and even more slowly removed the tissue paper. Dare I guess? What if my guess is wrong? Once the tissue paper revealed the gem inside I think it was at that point I screamed with joy. Did someone catch that on film? If so, it might be worth something if it's sent to America's Funniest Home Videos...

Yes! YES! YES!! It was indeed the very hook he had lent me back in 2007!! He acquired it at a flea market (or tag sale) with the hope his wife would take to crochet (she hasn't yet -- I'm still working on that! {{grins}} ). The first time he showed me this hook I snapped a picture with my cell phone and sent the snapshot to Nancy Nehring who is an expert on crochet hooks. She proclaimed the hook to be made of cow shinbone, and dates the hook to the period of 1860-1880: The American Civil War period! Fred was thrilled with his find! So was I.

And so it was, last month, that he handed me this beautiful hook, origin unknown, to keep forever and ever! I have the best brother-in-law!

Or so I thought!

Today, I received an email from Lindsey:

I was with my weekly knit and crochet group at B&N in Waterbury
tonight. This guy stops by and he talks to us and says "Yeah, my
sister-in-law is really in to this. She has this group ..." and I
recognize the HHCC name and ask "what's her name" and he says "Dee
Stanziano". So [Dee] I met your brother-in-law tonight!

That would be my brother-in-law Robert, walking up to complete strangers to help promote the art of crochet!

So I take that back about having the best brother-in-law. I need to change that to plural form: I HAVE THE BEST BROTHERS-IN-LAW -- EVER! :)

The New Apple of my Eye

It's been a very busy time for the Dee family ... mid-terms, special school projects, Geography Bees (Dee Jr. won to represent his school and is waiting to see if he'll be competing on the state level), Mini~Dee's 13th birthday (let the Teen Saga begin), some computer melt-downs, and geesh, before I knew it we were well into the month of February!

Although my hook has not been as busy, and that I have not been on line as much as usual, this doesn't mean I've gone completely MIA from the crochet world. I've been sneaking it in when, and where, I can! In fact I was recently kidnapped, kicking & screaming shouting with glee all the way -- to enjoy a fabulous lunch last weekend with Prudence Mapstone and her husband who were visiting from Australia, Margaret Hubert, Phyllis Sandford, and Grace <--who kidnapped me, er, whisked me away for some much needed R&R to NYC... needlesless to say, although the weather was freezing cold, we all had a blast! It is amazing how time slips through our fingers. Sometimes time is much like a brillo-feeling yarn -- yuck! And sometimes it is smooth, silky -- bliss until you realize the project is done.

Take the pruning of our apple tree two years ago...I set aside some branches thinking maybe I could someday get a crochet hook made from one of the branches. A year passes. I then attend the CGOA Conference that was held in Buffalo, NY, last summer and show Brian of Brainsbarn crochet hooks my branches. (oh, come on, we all tote bits of branches/trees to conferences, right?!? if not, this would be my second time doing so ... but that's another story for another time) I ask if he could someday create me a hook ...

You know how it is, we get busy. Time passes and we forget things that are not immediately in front of our noses, or in this case in front of our yarn stashes...

A few weeks ago I was feeling a little low because my "Birthday Week Extravaganza" is a thing of the past (the kids school has opted to eliminate that week as a vacation, a time I treasured spending with them). I decide I need a new crochet hook to celebrate my upcoming birthday. I sent an email to Anne & Brian asking if they could create a beautiful crochet hook for me ... I barely had time to blink before my eyes wre able to feast upon what just arrived in my mail:

Size I Brainsbarn Crochet Hook made with (REAL AMERICAN!) apple wood from Dee's backyard: Birthday Special containing the birthstone for February (Amethyst), with sterling silver spheres & accents, and a captive ring. Clearly this hook is the New Apple of my eye!! Hugs to you, Brian & Anne! I LOVE IT!!!!