crochet

Guest post | Swaddle: Crochet Shows the Value of Women in Art and Society

by contributor on November 8, 2011

in Guest Blogger, knitting+crochet+yarn

Kathryn Vercillo is a crochet blogger, pattern designer, author and fiber artist based in San Francisco, CA. She aims to spread crochet love and information and strengthen the crochet community through her blog, Crochet Concupiscence. She is @CrochetBlogger on Twitter and Ravelry.

Swaddle: Crochet Shows the Value of Women in Art and Society

Crochet art is a terrific niche art form that often doesn’t get the attention that it deserves. This is due in large part to the fact that crochet is considered a feminine craft and still sometimes not taken seriously by the fine art world. However, this is precisely what makes it the perfect medium to express ideas related to femininity, gender and relationships. And that’s exactly what you’ll find with Swaddle, a crochet art project through which I explore the role of women’s communication styles in relationships.

What Swaddle is All About

The premise of this crochet art project is that women have a communication style that is unique from men and that this form of communication both nurtures and suffocates their relationships. Women are raised to be word-oriented problem solvers who talk through issues (or choose to remain silent in strategic ways) in order to maintain balance in their relationships with men. However, their words can sometimes be used as a weapon (intentionally or unintentionally) that harms relationships. It’s called Swaddle because of the immediate nurturing (but sometimes suffocating) image that the name conjures up. Historically women swaddled babies to keep them safe but this sometimes lead to their deaths; similarly women talk through issues in order to keep their relationships healthy but sometimes this is precisely what stifles them. Swaddle is specifically about communication in male-female romantic relationships but also applies on a broader scale to how women talk to their male friends, parents, children and brothers.

Why Crochet

Crochet is the ideal medium for exploring women’s communication roles for a number of reasons. First of all, crochet has typically been considered a woman’s craft and therefore lends itself well to explorations of femininity. It can therefore also be paired with stereotypically masculine things in order to emphasize this exploration. For example, I am using the math-based ‘hyperbolic crochet’ in some pieces. Pairing the traditionally feminine craft of crochet with the traditionally male subject of math makes for interesting pieces. Additionally, crochet can be constructed in both lacy, ‘feminine’ ways and highly structured ‘masculine’ to further express these ideas.

Another key reason that crochet is great for this project is because the repetition of crochet (loop after loop, loop after loop) is similar to the repetition we see in language and communication. Words differ, just like different crochet stitches are unique from one another, but ultimately it’s all the same language and a lot of messages are repeated again and again. Some of the pieces in Swaddle will intentionally explore this. For example, I’m doing a piece called 40 Variations on a Granny, this is a repetitive crochet piece showing how the tiniest shift in a stitch can alter the appearance of your work. It represents how small changes in conversations (using ‘I’ statements is a well-known example) can improve relationships. It also references the way that men sometimes feel like the women in their lives are just saying the same thing over and over and so they stop listening. The piece places 40 granny squares side by side, each one a variation on the traditional granny square.

Crowdsourcing Funding for Swaddle

In order to make this crochet art project a reality in a timely manner, I am crowdsourcing funding through Kickstarter. What this means is that you can contribute to the project to get it off the ground. In turn, you’ll get to be a participant in the project by choosing some colors and stitch numbers that will represent you in a large scale crochet art piece representing how ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, a piece that explores the role of gender-based communication in societies.

If you are interested in supporting this project, you can go to Kickstarter and pledge any amount starting with just $1. I need $2000 before November 14th to get the Kickstarter funding. What I’m hoping to do is to get 100 people to support the project with donations of $20 each – it would be awesome if you can help. You’ll be supporting crochet art, the value of women’s crafts in the art world and even indie yarn dyers since I’m sourcing Swaddle’s yarn from female entrepreneurs with their own yarn shops.

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Guest blogger series | Living the crochet life

by contributor on October 18, 2011

in Guest blog series2 2011, knitting+crochet+yarn

Maya Kuzman is the creative mind behind Little Treasures, she is elbow deep in craft projects, mostly crochet lately, although she loves to jump into other fulfilling crafty activities to satisfy the everlasting urge to capture the beauty in the nature and the world and bring it home.

Currently, I am having an exciting, inspiring and rewarding crochet lifestyle and I love every single minute of it! So when lovely Kathreen invited me to guest a post I knew right away it is going to be crochet as the main topic.

I grew up in a family where traditions were deeply rooted and respected and handwork was highly appreciated and praised. Both my grandmothers were proficient in what I like to call handmade art – one was a professional seamstress, the other masterful crocheter and knitter. I readily accepted the love they shared for sewing and crocheting and started paving the way of my handmade life.

When it comes to crochet I think of it as the means for beautifying my home, clothes and most of all as a tool to create wonderful, eye-catching accessories through which I strive to express my love for the beautiful world, to show the rainbow of my soul and the whims of my imagination.

Having been surrounded by wonderful crochet creations that leapt into life through the magical hands of my grandmother I became deeply entranced by the world that could be created with the simple ‘twist and turn’ dance of the yarn with the hook. And I was truly hooked. To be honest I find it quite rewarding. Thus for example, when I get tired of (the plainness) my clothes I settle this by adding a crochet detail or a trim and voila! My garments shine with a new sparkle.

Then I plunge into creating amazing, eye-catching accessories. The palette can be immensely varied:  headbands and lariats, scarves and chokers, necklaces and rings; or if I happen to come across old bangles I give them a facelift immediately. These make my style unique, distinctive and sometimes whimsical.

For me crocheting is not simply a hobby or a recreational activity. It is the tool for preserving tradition, making my own clothes and accessories, embellishing my home. It also contributes to my pledge to live an environmentally conscious life. The yarn I use is mostly organic and when something loses its attractiveness or I just get bored with it I can unstitch it and re-use the yarn to make another lovely thing. In a word – it makes my world richer and more meaningful.


I do hope you get inspired by the boards I’ve prepared for you and crochet yourself a fine stitch.

Here are some tickles for you:

  • If you want to make a necklace yourself with some crocheted beads – I have a tute for that here
  • How about a sweet home project? Here is a free pattern for a blanket you would certainly love to make!
  • Or a rug maybe?
  • You can surprise your kids with wonderful crochet toys. You can make a pony, a dragon, or an octopus.

Thank you whipup.net for letting me be part of your fabulous guest series!!

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Guest blogger series | Crocheting through life’s seasons

by contributor on October 11, 2011

in Beauty+Health, Guest blog series2 2011, knitting+crochet+yarn

Francesca has been steadily and passionately crocheting through life’s seasons since then. She blogs at FuoriBorgo from a little village in northern Italy where she lives with her husband and three children. She writes about family life, sustainable living, her vegetable garden, family-style Italian cooking and the things she makes. She is a co-author at the Simple, Green and Frugal and Co-op, a contributor to Getty Images, and contributed to the upcoming ‘Mend it Better’ by Kristin Roach. You can see her most recent crochet work on Ravelry here or browse her crochet set on Flickr here.

I stopped knitting the day I gave birth to my first stillborn baby. At first, during the hours, days and weeks I spent lying in bed staring at the bare and wintry landscape outside, all I knew was that I’d now never finish the blue and white outfit I’d been making for my baby, with so much love and anticipation. Later, giving up knitting became a conscious decision. I collected all the knitting needles lying around in the house, put them in a bag, and stored them away at the back of my linen closet.

As the new spring leaves began to sprout on the trees outside, I found that I didn’t miss knitting at all, even though I’d never sat with idle hands before. Neither had my mother, my grandmothers, or the other women in my family – to this day, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mother just sit, without needle work, mending or knitting to keep her company.

By summertime, though, I’d begun to miss that company. I walked into a yarn store one day, and looked at the yarns. Nothing felt right. Then I noticed the crochet hooks. My grandmother had taught me crocheting as well as knitting when I was a child. I loved knitting from the start, but even though crocheting was my grandmother’s true passion, I could never really remember which of those many loops I was supposed to stick the hook through.

Now, though, things seemed different. I walked out of the store with a large size crochet hook, some white cotton, and a little booklet explaining the basic crochet stitches. To my surprise I didn’t need the booklet, because I still had those crocheting skills my grandmother had taught me: the crochet hook in my right hand, my work and the thread comfortably wrapped around my fingers in my left, felt right, just as they had when I learned crocheting as a child. Those loops finally began to make sense to me, as well as the puzzling charts, and I rapidly grew past the simple skills my grandmother had taught me. Soon I could chain, make slip stitches, do single, double and treble and reverse crochet stitches, and join these together in clusters and shells and puff stitches.

Counting loop after loop, stitch after stitch, motif after motif, before long I’d completed my first crochet piece. Winter came around again, and when I felt that familiar pang in my heart, I found that sitting and concentrating on this craft, quietly and slowly turning loops into motifs into finished pieces – the meditation of hand-crafting – helped to empty out my mind by engaging it fully, and to lighten my heart. A little.

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Book: Blog tour: Granny Square Love

by KateG on October 8, 2011

in Home+Decor, knitting+crochet+yarn

Granny Square Love: A New Twist on a Crochet Classic for Your Home by Sarah London. North Light Books (September 2011).

With a riot of gorgeous colour, Sarah London’s book Granny Square Love is for anyone who loves crochet, and loves granny squares in every room of the house.  Welcome to the Whipup.net stop on the Granny Square Love blog tour!

Reviewed by Kate G

Quite often, when someone talks about crochet, they are talking about a granny square.  Granny squares are virtually the foundation of crochet motifs.  In Granny Square Love, Sarah London, a great lover of granny squares, shows how to take the most basic granny square, add fabulous colour combinations, and to add a granny square project to every room of the house.  I know so many people who love the rhythm of making granny squares, and who make them by the dozen.  Most of these squares are destined to be stitched together into afghans, and now crocheters have so many more options for their grannies.

Even if you have never picked up a crochet hook before, Sarah London’s clear instructions will get you started making chains and basic crochet stitches into granny squares in a few minutes.  The stitch illustrations are clear, and the photos of granny square construction are helpful, easy to follow and delightfully retro.

Each project has a clear description, details such as yarn, notions, hook size and measurements of the finished item, row by row written instructions for each round, tips for finishing each project off, and a colour commentary by Sarah London.  So often yarn projects are presented in a dictated colourway, and either the crocheter has to use those colours or figure out another colour scheme without any guidance from the designer.  I really like Sarah’s colour tips, and finding out her motivation for certain colour palettes, and her colour decision making processes.

Another fabulous part of every project is the large scale stitch chart.  For every crocheter that loves to use a stitch diagram, there is another that avoids a pattern with a diagram, with so many people never having had learned to read the symbols that make up a crochet chart.  Here Sarah provides clear diagrams, along with detailed row by row instructions, so that a crocheter of any experience level can follow along with the text and the diagrams at the same time, until reading a granny square crochet chart is second nature.  I personally love using crochet charts, and I’m excited about other crocheters learning to use charts, and doubling the number of patterns available for them to tackle.

The projects in Granny Square Love are divided into projects for each of the rooms in your home.  My favourite projects are the giant floor cushion (loungeroom), stool cover (kitchen), garland (dining room) and curtain (bathroom and laundry).

If anyone ever wanted to move away from the most simple granny squares used in Granny Square Love, to more complicated grannies or to other sizes or crochet motifs, then all of Sarah’s projects would be easy to adapt.  But I bet that anyone who loves granny squares will make these projects, at least once each, and surround themselves in every room with riotous coloured grannies.

About the reviewer: Kate is a busy mother of four with many craft projects on the go, including, but not limited to, crochet, knitting, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

DISCLOSURE: Sarah London PROVIDED WHIPUP.NET REVIEWER KATE WITH A FREE REVIEW COPY. THE AMAZON LINKS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS.

Join in the rest of the blog tour:

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Guest blogger series | Creating amigurumi characters

by contributor on September 26, 2011

in Geek Crafts, Guest blog series2 2011, knitting+crochet+yarn

With a strong streak of nerd and an affinity for crochet Tracey started up Mostly nerdy crochet. She’s happy to be hooking and often finds it an interesting challenge to use what’s on hand for her next project.

It took getting married, being unemployed, and being 1,500 miles from home for me to pick up my hooks and start crocheting. I learned the basics when I was ten, but apparently I had to be lonely and lost before I’d pick it back up.

Of course the first project I started was the dreaded granny square blanket (well, granny hexagon). Two years later I’m still not actually finished with it, but I’ve accomplished a few other things instead.

Mostly nerdy crochet was the product of my own impatience. For some reason I’m great at amigurumi and only ever followed a pattern once. By the second time I was convinced I could improve the pattern (which I did) and after that I just never bothered to follow anything! I wrote my own patterns for a while (some of which can be found at Ravelry) but I hate trying to follow them again to test the designs.

When I decide to turn a character into an amigurumi I start to collect dozens of pictures of them from every angle. Once I’ve managed to compile enough to create a 3D image in my head I start crocheting. It’s really basic; you add stitches to make it wider and decrease to make it thinner and that’s about it. Each character can be broken down into a series of shapes (most often cylinders and ovals) and then attached together. However, the crochet is only half the battle! I’ve found that if you want something to look right it’s all in the details. Faces are especially important and require a lot of attention, which isn’t too hard as long as you’re willing to play around with embroidery and felt.

As for the yarn that I use I’ll take anything. You hear about people being super green and buying recycled yarn or locally spun yarn or yarn made out of dead leaves for all I know. I’m not quite that diligent. I think I’ve bought maybe four skeins of yarn at retail stores in the two years that I’ve been regularly crocheting. I buy yarn at garage sales and thrift stores and I think that definitely qualifies as reusing. It’s about as green as an unemployed thrift store volunteer can get.

Crochet means a lot more to me than just playing with yarn. I started to rely on crochet as a means of comfort after our last move. I have some anxiety issues and use crochet to keep my hands busy and my mind calm. The biggest reason I stopped following patterns was because it required too much concentration! I like to use crochet as a relaxing distraction, so typically I put on a movie and start hooking. Recently I’ve been trying to exercise my patience by using a visual diagram for a non amigurumi project instead of a written version. Something about looking at pretty pictures makes it easier to watch a movie, crochet, and keep track of my stitches.

Someday in the future I really want to own my own sheep, sheer them, and spin my own yarn. Actually, my sister will keep the sheep for me. She wants to have a small family farm and will use them to make cheese and keep the grass down. I’ll use them for the wool. I’ll learn to dye it myself and sell it somewhere neat… or maybe just next to my sister’s cheese. I can dream, can’t I?

Special thanks to whipup.net and all the readers for being constantly supportive of crafters everywhere.

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