The newest offering from Straight From the Designer’s Hip group has just been released.

copyright Straight from the Designer's Hip

It’s Strapped for Bags Volume 3,which can be seen and ordered at Ravelry or at

Straight From the Designer’s Hip

It includes my design for a very cute little  crocheted copper wire bag.

When I was thinking about the bag that I wanted to design for the book,

it was important to me to come up with a unique and fun little bag that would

be an invitation for the readers to try something new.

I love crocheting wire and have made lots of jewelry with it,

so it was the natural choice for me for this book.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The other designers in the book are Amy O’Neil Houck, Tammy Hildebrand, Vashti Braha,

Dee Stanziano, Doris Chan and Marty Miller. What a great group!

We didn’t set limits or themes when we decided to put our work together for Book 3, so, it’s always neat to see how the bags somehow, magically all work together.

And what fun bags they are…. each of them definitely carries the signature style of the designer that came up with it.

But how did we come together to make this series of books?

Well, as well as being designers and authors, most of us are also workshop teachers. And, we are all professional members of the Crochet Guild of America.

A few years ago, we got together for lunch at one of the national conferences of the Crochet Guild of America. Naturally, we were talking about our experiences with publishing. Someone said: You know…. we should publish some booklets ourselves…..

and one thing lead to another. So, here we are, with our 4th booklet.

We are lucky, in that we have some extremely gifted people in the group, who handle the wide diversity of chores that publishing a series of books  entails.

We are still in ‘beta mode’ so aren’t accepting submissions from other designers at this point. BUT, if we can do it, then why not other people, too? Go for it!

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I got all excited and finished it up-

I was so inspired that I crocheted one for Jim, too….
No, that’s not Jim…. it’s one of our furkids who was insisting on being in my lap while I worked on the cap, so whaddya gonna do?

It’s his way of paying rent.

Anyhow, Jim wore it to his gig today. (At our friend’s bistro)

I was all excited about giving Harold his new cap. He put it on and said:

‘Nope….. it’s not quite right…. ‘

And then he showed me what wasn’t quite right.

Which is really quite helpful, as Jim’s isn’t quite right yet, either….

You can see him wearing it in this pic.

If you look at the lower right hand corner, you can see my table, which as always, is covered with yarn!

So, it’s back to the crochet hooks for these two caps, and then ~hopefully~ I will have a pattern for you!

By the way, I just levitated when Jim’s trio played one of his newest compositions, ‘Gypsy Girl’. It’s unbelievably gorgeous- I was utterly gobsmacked by it. And guess who he wrote it for?

yup.

me.

I hadn’t heard it with the trio playing it, as this was only  their second time playing it in public.  (I heard it being composed, but that is an entirely different kettle of fish, as each bar of music is polished like a genie’s lantern. And, I didn’t hear them practice, as they practice in the city, not out here at the farm.)

I can hardly wait for them to record it.  wow.

photos by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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I have carried it around in bags, moved it from table to desk and back, taken it out, put it back, taken it out again, sighed, and put it back …. and  just haven’t been able to finish it.

Why, why why, I snivel? It’s a simple little cap!

Alright.

Yesterday, I read a note about March being crochet month. I even joined a Ravelry group in celebration of Crochet month!

I decided- this is it!

Crochet Month is here- I am gonna finish that cap in honor of Crochet Month! (actually ALL months are crochet month for me, but that’s just being pickie pickie)

This cap is for a friend. He shaves his head and gets cold, so he likes to wear neat little caps. BUT, he owns a bistro (where my husband’s jazz trio plays all the time), so the caps have to be light enough to not make him uncomfortable when he’s making magic in the hot hot kitchen.

I made him a cap a few months back and it was too heavy, so I said, ‘No problem…. I’ll whip you up a light weight one’.

He can’t tolerate wool and cotton gets too floppy really quickly (I crocheted elastic thread into one of the caps he loves so he can wear it again) so it’s synthetics for him.

I just wrote up a tute on how I split the yarn for his cap

I took out the unfinished cap and glared at it, demanding to know why it was being so reluctant to come together.

Tahdah! the answer presented itself!

It wanted a spool knitted edge!

I whipped out my trusty little spool knitter, and whipped up a cord. I used more of the Caron Shadows, but didn’t split it.

I spool knitted a 22 inch long cord on all 4 pegs, then sewed the ends together.

Then, the cap just flew along!

The only problem was, that I had started at the center of the crown of the cap, and adding the spool knitted cord was, pardon the pun, a corker!

I ended up making the most complicated manoevers to  join the spool knitting to the cap, that I could never write the pattern out.

My husband tried it on and we decided it was quite fetching on him, so I am in re-design mode now.

I am designing and working on  another one – going in the opposite direction from the first one.

I’ll be able to write out a vunderbar pattern for it.

Here’s the finished Version #1 of the Jazz Cap

This is Babette, my new model.

Isn’t she wonderful? I bought her in a hat shop last summer when Jim and I were buying sunhats.

The shop owner had bought out a millinery business that had been going for 50 or more years.

She had several of these lovely ladies languishing without hats, so I was thrilled to adopt her.

Please welcome Babette to her new life as a blogmodel.

And, now, it’s back to work on Jazz Cap #2….. more later……

(image source: photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay. Copyright, not to be used without permission)

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I had some discontinued Caron Shadows that I had used in another project that was rejected, so I figured I would be eco friendly and recycle and upcycle the yarn.

By splitting it, I was able to divide out the color shifting sections and use them in the design of the cap.

Splitting yarn is a pain in the neck if you don’t have the secret to doing it painlessly.

Here’s a quick tute on how to split yarn without tearing your hair out:

Take the ball of yarn and unroll a few feet of yarn. Stick a small crochet hook or turkey skewer into the ball to hold it together:

Now, split the strand of yarn into 2 strands and let the ball hang freely. It’ll spin like crazy.

DON’T do this while your cat is watching!

Wind the 2 strands onto bobbins or into their own separate balls, right up to the original ball.

Release more yarn from the original ball and keep on going.  Don’t release more than 2 yards of yarn at a time.

Voila! soon your ball of yarn will be 2 skinnier happy little balls of yarn!

(image source: photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay. Copyright, not to be used without permission)

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so I made a second one:

Because I had a plan…. bangle bracelets look better when there are more than one….

(BTW, the flash does nasty things to the bracelets…. in real life, they look smooth and kind of irridescent. The flash seems to expose their undies. How rude!)

AND, because I love Furoshiki.

What’s  Furoshiki?

It’s an ancient and elegant Japanese solution to carrying things in the greenest possible way.

Here’s a link: FUROSHIKI

I’ve impressed the heck out of all kinds of people by whipping a headscarf out of my purse and tying a couple of knots in it to make a market bag.

I have also been using bracelets  as handles for my version of furoshiki.

Here’s how:

Tie 2 adjacent corners to one bracelet, and the other 2 corners to the second bracelet….

and VOILA!

You have an instant, earth friendly, eco happy market bag, GREEN tote bag, carry sack, re-usable, upcycled, recycled tote!

HURRAH!

(image source: photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay. Copyright, not to be used without permission)

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There was a Blogtoberfest contest on my blog last week.

And here is what the prize is:

Name of prize:       3 Hats of the winner’s choice

Link to the source page:  www.charbridgeknitsandgifts.com

Short description:      Hats are custom made to the winner’s wishes. Any size and colors. Please allow 1 week for completion.

Suggested retail:        $50 which includes shipping

Images:                     Bridgett has attached sample pictures, but the winner can choose whichever ones they like

Bridget Ann Parsell
CHARBRIDGE KNITS & GIFTS
www.baparsell.etsy.com
www.charbridgeknitsandgifts.com

And who was the lucky winner?

the winner was #43 Theresa Shaffer.

Congratulations, Theresa!

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It was for my  new book, The Woven Bag.

Here’s the photo studio at F & W Media where we were working:

There are the tables with 35 woven bags, looms and other equipment:

This is Christine, ace photographer and Jenni, editor extraordinaire, playing ‘Vanna’

Here’s Jenni at her lappy and Christine at her huge screen computer.

The camera is digital, and cabled across to Christine’s computer so we could see the pics up on the screen.

And, here I am, getting ready for a ‘how to’ shot.

Another shot of the tables full of bags…. sorry!

Can’t show you the bags yet…..

We worked reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally hard all week….

but- there were some fun and goofy moments, too:

Our brains got all scramblie, so, suddenly, Christine and Jenni decided to dance the tango!

We got a huge hysterical giggle out, and then got back to work.

More pics tomorrow!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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I’m so excited! They have confirmed that the title is: (drumrolls, puhleeze…….)

The Woven Bag: 30+ Projects from Small Looms

I am publishing it with Krause Books, which is part of  F & W Media. And, yep, the publisher chooses the title of the book.

I am really happy with it because they’ve nailed it. yay!

I am sad though, because the release date has been moved to November of 2009 from July of 2009! boohoo!

anyhow……….

Last week, I was in Cincinatti (finally learned how to spell it!) working with my WONDERFUL editor, Jennifer Claydon, whom I adore, and the fantastic photographer and totally delightful person, Christine Polomsky.

Let me tell you about my editor.

Having a great editor who is smart, funny, feisty, and knows her stuff AND that you really click with is a HUGE bonus!

Happy happy happy happy me!

So, I am THRILLED to bits to be working with Jennifer Claydon.

Not only is Jenni a fabulous editor, but she is also an author.

Her book: Spin, Dye, Stitch  is being published by F&W Media and will be released in June of 09.

She is a spinner extraordinaire – her handspun silk has to be seen to be believed. I swear, you will swoon when you see the pics of the knitted cobweb shawls that Jenni makes…. unbelievable!

She’s just written a fantastic article for Spindlicity on spinning silk.

Check it out: Jennifer Claydon’s article

AND!!!! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Jenni blessed me with a skein of her hand dyed roving…. ohmigosh….it’s too beautiful for words!

I am just squeezing and fondling it like crazy.

I don’t want to start spinning it, because then, I won’t have it as roving anymore.

Know what I mean?

Okay, this is getting really long, so I’ll sign off for now, but will be posting lotsa pics of the photo shoot. Soon!

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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Check out: Friendship Shawls

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She brought back this lovely bag:

The butterfly outline was satin stitched with the weaving behind the cotton. Then the black cotton was carefully cut away to reveal the weaving.

This is a variation on Mola or San Blas appliqué technique.

Terry made a lovely T shirt using this technique….. here’s the link: Terri’s dragonfly shirt

and a neat shirt that has a woven appliqué image of the map of Salt Spring Island: Map shirt

I think that this is a great way to use treasured bits of weaving or embroidery or other fabric fragments.

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay

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