Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Highland Alpaca and 3RC
















Karen owns and boards alpacas at Highland Alpacas. They had a booth at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival. I made a cardigan last year from Robyn Chachula's book Blueprint Crochet out of 100% alpaca yarn from Highland's apalcas. We all think it was a great combination of design and yarn, so it was on display in their booth.
Over time Karen has pretty much become Highland's yarn designer. She's been helping Fay and Jenny realize their goal of making the farm and yarn shop a destination stop. She's also been mining the talent at Three Rivers Crochet to offer interesting classes at the farm.
On April 17 I'll be teaching a class on motifs and international symbols in crochet. You can see two of the motifs that will be covered. For more classes keep an eye on their website or sign up for their newsletter.www.highlandalpaca.com

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Snow Projects
















What have people been doing while snowbound?
Crocheting, of course!

Carol has a good start on a cover for her grandson's bed. She's working in strips and has planned that when the strips are put together they will actually look like blocks with borders.
You can begin to see the design as Sue and Carol hold up the strips.

Rebecca crocheted up a doily style rug using a large hook and 4 strands of yarn. This pretty item is headed for the Yarn Ball.

This lapghan was crocheted using Wool Ease Thick & Quick and is headed to the VA system in Aspinwall along with the hats. I used this opportunity to learn sc entrelac. This pattern is called around the world (the squares of each color are worked around but the work is turned at the end of each short row.) This 'ghan became rather heavy near the last row or two. So turning it a couple times every minute began to wear me out. The end came slowly as I needed frequent breaks! I thought the outcome was stunning and would make another one.

A Call for Hats


The VA hospital needs hats for movement between buildings for appointments. Hopefully, it won't get as cold as it has been for the past few weeks, but a warm head really wards off the shivers at any time. Natasha crocheted up these handsome examples in 2 days. Chris and I made others. We could use more.The need is now. See how frosty it's been?



Wednesday, February 3, 2010

More Groupies










































I think that in the last three meetings, almost everyone who has ever met with the group previously has been at Panera's. It's great fun seeing everyone and look how busy everyone is! It seems there is a group on Ravelry dedicated to dehibernation: get those projects that have been languishing in some deep dark space of your lodgings and finish them! Several of the group have taken the direction to heart.
You'll find Chris displaying her latest afghan. It will be placed in a Chinese auction to support the programs in the McGuffey School District. Look for the dates if you live in that area.