OOOH It's my turn National Crochet Month

Again the National Crochet Month Blog tour has been a wonderful experience. It is always so hard for me to wait my turn.

Amy and Donna at Crochetville have done a lot of work to make this happen. Thank you .

The tour is supporting the  Halos of Hope  Charity this year. So if you are into charity crochet check them out.
I would also like to mention that I love being a member of the
CGOA  

 I am a Professional member, I am also a junior reviewer for the Masters Of Crochet Program. 
 I am so looking forward to this years 20 Year Celebration of the CGOA.
Manchester, NH  July 23rd - 27th
I hope I get to see you there.
 I love talking and sharing crochet with others

Also

I am posting a free Spring flower motif pattern at the end

and I am also introducing a new pattern The Maricopa Shawl.

It is only available on my Etsy site at the moment. 
 

Being late in the month is a challenge as you want to offer something unique and exciting to finish the month off with a bang. 

But Challenges are what makes me tick.

Most of the blog posts are telling you how wonderful crochet is.

I am going to try and make you think about how Wonderful it can be.

We need to keep growing or we stagnate.

In fact that is my theme for this post.

Challenges

The Challenges for designers,

The Challenges for today's crocheters.

The Challenges facing the industry

For me personally there is more to my designing than just creating patterns to sell either to editors or to my fellow crocheters out there. I have goals in mind of what sort of things I want to offer the world of crochet. What sort of stamp I am going to leave on the industry when I can no longer contribute.

I try and design things that are
1. Beautiful
2. Original
3 Inspiring
My  Mantra  is
A Good design should inspire others to grow with their crochet skills. It is by this growth of skills that the world of crochet thrives and moves forward into the future.
And DON”T tell me it’s all been done before. I refuse to believe it.
It’s admitting defeat before you even try when we think like this.
The number of combinations of stitches is endless.
What we do with these combinations is also endless.
So let our design be truly creative and joyful.

 

Now when I say challenges for today's crocheters, I mean something to take you out of your comfort zone.
Maybe a pattern that takes you past the stitches you know on to stitches you haven’t tried before. Maybe a new technique or a new way of looking at how things are constructed. Never done crochet in the rnd, Try it.  
Try Something to help your skills grow. Something to make you feel wonderful when you have accomplished it.
Don’t worry there is someone out there that is more than willing to help you learn a new skill, and new stitch, a new technique.  The Internet is a great resource.
It is so easy to crochet what we know. The stitches the styles, the tried and true.
But we don't grow with our crochet if that is all we do.
When you find yourself finishing something that made you stop, think, and learn you will be so proud of yourself.
What a great feeling.

I am not just talking about crocheters either, but about the whole world of crochet too.
I believe the industry is at a cross roads. With the world at our fingertips via the Internet the standard fare offered needs to look to the future or be left behind. We now see what is offered throughout the world and some of it is truly inspiring. What wonderful tools are now available to make great designs more accessible than ever before. Hopefully the industry will keep pace with this new world of pattern availability and they can help our crocheters of today and of the future step up and  forward in the wonderful world of crochet. When individual crocheters  grow the whole world of crochet grows.  
We can all grow,

Designers,

Crocheters,

The crochet world as we know it.

 And for me that is what makes it all fun.

Spring Flower Motif

Designed By  Kathryn A White

Skill Level   Moderate
Materials  Thread: Size 10
Aunt Lydia’s Wood Violet ( 7 yards ) Aunt Lydia’s  White ( 7 yards )
Aunt Lydia’s Purple ( 10 Yards ) Aunt Lydia’s Forest Green ( 7 Yards )
Hook: Size 7/1.65mm 

Dimensions: Each motif measures 3 inches across

Spring Flower Motif

With green ch 4, sl st to form ring.

Rnd 1  ch 1, 12 sc in ring, ending with a sl st in 1st sc of rnd. End off, weave ends in.

Rnd 2 attach purple  in any sc, ch 1, sc in same sc, sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc, * sc in next 2 sc, 2 sc in next sc, * repeat from * to * around, ending with a sl st in 1st sc of rnd, End off, weave ends in.

Rnd 3  attach white in front lp of any sc, ch 1, sc in same sc, working in front lp only around, ch 2, holding the last lp of each st on the hook, 3 dc in next sc, yo, draw through all lps on hook, [ 4 dc cluster made,] ch 3, sl st in top of cluster just made, [ ch 3 picot made, ] ch 3,* sc in next sc, ch 2, 4 dc cluster in next sc, ch 3 p in last cluster made, ch 3, * repeat from * to * around, ending with a sl st into 1st sc of rnd, End off, weave ends in.

Rnd 4 attach green in back lp of a sc on rnd 2 that is between the petals on  rnd 3, ch 1, sc in same sc, working in back lp only around, ch 3, holding the last lp of each st on the hook, 3 tr in same sc, yo, draw through all lps on hook, [ 4 tr cluster made, ch 4, sl st in top of cluster just made, [ ch 4 picot made ]  ch 4, sl st in same sc, * ch 1, sk next sc, sc in next sc, ch 3, 4 tr cluster in same sc, ch 4 p in last cluster made, ch 4, sl st in same sc,  * repeat from * to * around, ending with a  ch 1, sl st into 1st sc of rnd, End off, weave ends in.

Rnd 5 attach wood violet through the 2 lps at top of cluster behind the ch 4 p of any cluster of previous rnd, ch 1, sc in same st, 5 tr in back lp of the sc behind the petal on rnd 3  * sc in 2 lps at top of cluster behind the ch 4 p in next cluster, 5 tr in back lp of the sc behind the petal on rnd 3 * repeat from * to * around, ending with a sl st into 1st sc of rnd, End off, weave ends in.

Rnd 6 attach purple in the 3rd dc of previous rnd, ch 1, sc in same dc, 4 tr in next sc, ch 4 p in last tr made, 3 tr in same sc, sk next 2 dc, * sc in next dc, 4 tr in next sc, ch 4 p in last tr made, 3 tr in same sc, sk next 2 dc, * repeat from * to * around, ending with a sl st into 1st sc of rnd, End off, weave ends in. 

I also am releasing this pattern today:
This is my .

Maricopa shawl

A fast working lacey stitch pattern makes this a fun piece to crochet. With three variations for edgings and stitch counts for size 5 thread and Paton's Lace yarn. The design incorporates the lover’s knot stitch to create this shawl. Light lacey and can be worn in several ways for different looks.

For now it is only available on my Etsy site as I am up grading my Website to new software. Trying to keep up with today's technology. It should be up on my website within 2 weeks. But I couldn't wait to share it with you so put it on Etsy now. 

 

I hope this year will be a year of growth for everyone!

and may your hook fly.

 

Winners

 

It has been wonderful reading all the comments this week. Thank you everyone for your kind remarks.

I wish you all could have been winners of my book.

But alas I only had 2 copies to give away.

The winners are

Brenda 
Who posted this on January 10, 2014 at 11:59 AM

I love doing Irish Crochet. Your book looks great. Would love to win a copy!

and

Anita Easton 
Who posted this on  January 10, 2014 at 1:18 PM

I was looking for crocheted flowers for my grandson's wedding cake I crocheted but none I really loved. Now that I have seen a sampling of your work, I think I have found at least one I love. I hope I am one of the lucky ones. Thanks, Anita
Beautiful work.

Congratulations to both of you.

I need both of you to get hold of me at kathyawhite@centurylink.net  so I can arrange to get your books to you.
Please contact me as soon as possible.

 

I hope all of you will have a chance to enjoy Irish Crochet now and in the future.

It's a lovely art form.

 

I want to Thank you all for taking to the time to share my joy of this book.

 

 

 

 

A Blog tour for my book: The Go To Book for Irish Crochet Motifs

The Go To Book For Irish Crochet Motifs.

I don’t promote myself or my work all that often. But I am so proud of this book I decided to do a blog tour. I asked some fellow lovers of crochet if they would look my book over.

You can find the book at

Annie's
Their write up for the book

If you have ever tried to make an Irish crochet motif using vintage pattern books, you most likely ended up confused, frustrated and a bit bewildered. In this book, we have taken these lovely motifs and written them in a manner where they make sense to the modern-day crocheter. Now these stunning motifs will be preserved and used now and in the future.

To make this fun
I will be giving aways 2 signed copies of my book at the end of this tour.

All you have to do to have a chance to win it is leave a comment on my blog.  At the end of the Blog tour on the 18th I will do a random drawing for the winners.

 

I think all the participants of this tour will be giving away books also.

I know that Susan Lowman’s has a signed copy as I delivered hers personally last week.

So to see what they have to say about the book and to enter their drawing be sure to visit them on these dates.

Susan Lowman on Saturday the 11th of January.

http://thecrochetarchitect.com/irish-crochet-book-review-giveaway/

Amy Shelton of Crochetville on Tuesday the 14th of January.

www.crochetville.com

Andee Graves on Friday the 17th of January.

http://mamas2hands.wordpress.com/

 

I respect and value these people and their opinions and look forward to hearing what they have to say about the book.

I will do my drawing on Saturday the 18th of January so you will have a week to make your comment.

Now about how this book came to be:

I have a love affair with Irish Crochet.

Just look at my work and you can see it reflections in my designs

There is something special about combining motifs and crochet to create works of art that appeals to me.

So I was thrilled when I got to realize a dream of mine

To make Irish Crochet motifs patterns

more assessable and doable for the average crocheter.

When I first discovered there was a whole world of Irish crochet most of the Irish crochet motifs patterns were in antique pattern books and the style of pattern writing was iffy at that time. Some of the patterns just made no sense what so ever. So unless you were good at looking at a piece and creating it that way a lot of the Irish crochet motifs where frustrating for a person to make. Some nigh on to impossible.

So When I mentioned that I dreamed of doing a book that would have better written patterns for the motifs so today's crocheter could enjoy making these motifs to an editor, and she told me to go for it,I did with relish and enthusiasm. This book is the results.

The hardest part of the book was to decide what to include. There is so many wonderful and lovely motifs and I had to make choices. I knew I couldn’t include it all. Wish I could have but there are limits to what I could accomplish in a given amount of time. I must admit a few motifs that are my own originals slipped in. I couldn’t help myself, the book got my creative juices flowing.

I tried to give a good cross section of the different motifs one might want to use.

I decided to break it down into types of motifs, Flower, leaves, fill in motifs,overlays and so forth. So that motifs could be easily found.

I did not do any projects in this book as it is intended to be a reference book when someone needs a motif to use in creating an Irish crochet piece. They can be used as embellishments also. Adding a special touch to everyday items. There are a myriad of uses for these motifs. Just let your imagination run wild.

I also tried to set it up with traditional motifs that use padded rings and padding cord. But I also included a more modern version of as many motifs as I could that are a bit less intimidating as I realized that not everyone is comfortable with the traditional techniques. The best of both worlds.

I did do a section on how to do the true Irish crochet with the fill in lace background. This is one of the most rewarding ways to create truly artistic pieces of crochet work.

Work these motifs in yarn, thread, or whatever your hear desires. Use them any way you can think of and I will be a happy designer.    

I was so pleased when I actually saw the book as it turned out as I envisioned. I will tell you we worked very hard to try and make these patterns as error free as possible. I thank the tech editors for the patience with me and the good job they did. They helped make the book what I dreamed of. 

It is my hope and dream that this book will fill a niche that has been sadly unfilled and make these motifs useable now and for the future..

This was a labor of love for me and

I hope you use my book to enjoy the world of Irish crochet.

 

The winners are

Brenda 
Who posted this on January 10, 2014 at 11:59 AM

I love doing Irish Crochet. Your book looks great. Would love to win a copy!

and

Anita Easton 
Who posted this on  January 10, 2014 at 1:18 PM

I was looking for crocheted flowers for my grandson's wedding cake I crocheted but none I really loved. Now that I have seen a sampling of your work, I think I have found at least one I love. I hope I am one of the lucky ones. Thanks, Anita
Beautiful work.

Congratulations to both of you.

I need both of you to get hold of me at kathyawhite@centurylink.net  so I can arrange to get your books to you.

Please contact me asap. 
 

Time to reflect and dream.

My New Years Wish!

I will try and greet the new year as

A dream not yet realized,

A design waiting to be created,

A ball of thread full of promise,

A pattern not yet written,

A song not yet sung,

A wish not yet granted,

A picture not yet taken,

A flower not yet sniffed,

A trail not yet followed,

A dance not yet felt.

A day not yet lived,

Each day will give me chance,

to reach out to friends,

to see the beauty in this world,

to create something beautiful,

to share life with those I love.

My wish for you

is that you find life and the new year

as wonderful as you can dream it.

Full of Peace, Prosperity and Joy

 Happy New Years to All My Friends and Family

 

 

 

 

 

What sort of Business am I ?

What sort of Business am I ?

You know it's that time of year when you reflect on what you have done during the past year.

 

For me it's been reflecting on what I want to do with my designing.

To be truly successful I know I should become more business like.

Push a little harder.

Promote more.

 

But you know what.

I am a designer.

Not a business.

There is a difference.

I take an idea and create something from it.

Hopefully something beautiful.

Hopefully something  that touches others.

and hopefully I can write the pattern so others can have the joy of creating it themselves.

 

I don't want to be a business.

If I have to give away a part of myself to draw people, No thanks.

If I have to use lead ins to get you to buy one of my patterns. No thanks.

If I have to spend hours promoting instead of creating. No thanks.

 

When I was growing I used to say I wanted to be a starving artist.

Well  I guess I have the right attitude for that.

Since creating is more important to me than the almighty dollar.

It's a good thing as unless you spend a good part of your day being a business person a designer can only go so far.

 

I keep getting emails telling me I should do giveaways, games, and such to drive people to my site.

To me that feels like trickery.

I want a person to create one of my designs because it speaks to them.

Not because they got the pattern for a bargain  price.

 

I will be giving away a signed copy of my book next month. But it's only because I want to share my joy of creating something I think has value to crocheters.

 

So I think I will continue as I have been.

Creating first and fore most.

Submitting my designs to others and let them do the big job of promotion, as it's not my style.

It's a matter of knowing and utilizing your strengths.

Mine is to create.

So I will let my dreams and heart fly where they will and not try and be what I am not.

 

As Promised

 

I did promise to post about my book.

I do try my best to keep my promises.

The name of the book is

THE GO TO BOOK FOR IRISH CROCHET MOTIFS

I am so proud of how this turned out.

It is a book I have thought about doing for a long time. I was so thrilled when I got the chance to make it a reality.

What I did was find classic Irish crochet motifs from books and magazines that have long been out of copyright and rewrite them in a manner that is easier to understand.

I know I have heard so many times how difficult reading the antique patterns are.

That they were frustrating and some almost impossible to decipher.  

Well I love Irish Crochet and I want to see it thrive.

So I really wanted to make the motifs doable by any one.

I set the book up for the traditionalist Irish crocheter and the modern day Irish crochet lover.

So many of the motifs have a

Traditional version

Padding cord rings, and padding cords.

and a

Updated version 

No padding cord rings and no padding cord.

I did the book all in size 10 white thread.

Not because that's what the motifs need to be done in, but I wanted the motifs to be the focus.

Not color,

Not the size thread or yarn.

I wanted to provide the patterns for you the crocheter to use in whatever size thread, yarn or color you desire. Not to feel you have to do it in the colors or threads I have chosen.

This project was the longest term project I have ever done.

I first had to choose what motifs to focus one.

What types of motifs to include

And then rework, rewrite and revitalize the motifs

Then I wanted to demystify fill in lace and creating true Irish Crochet pieces.

So I did a section on assembly.

There are some of my own motifs in there. As my creative juices wouldn't be denied.

 So hopefully this will be a nice reference book for anyone who wants to play with and or use the Irish Crochet motifs in their pieces.

That was my goal anyway.

Elsie helping me set up the shot of the book and some of the motifs included in it.

In spite of her help I did get a shot.

This is only some of the motifs.

You can find the book here at

Annie's

I believe it is still preorder only or digital download.

 

That was hard work helping out, time for a rest in the sunshine.

Today was the first day nice enough I could open the door for her so she could go soak sun on the porch. She can't get thru the cat door yet.

But definitely on the mend.

 

 

 

 

 

Letting go.

There has been a lot going on in my life the past couple months. So unfortunately my blog posts have suffered.

See I hate to whine.

And the things in my life have been things I want to whine about.

So I kept quiet.

 

The major thing has been my cat Elsie.

She broke her leg while I was in Spokane visiting my family in October.

When I got home and took her back to the vet they told me she would require surgery or it wouldn't heal. That it was a very nasty break and she might lose the leg.

Found a great vet who told me that we would try the surgery, and if it failed she would take her leg off at no extra charge. Couldn't turn down the chance to keep Elsie's leg. This vet was awesome through everything. Thank you so much for the chance you gave Elsie.

Long story, short version. After 7 weeks of watching  Elsie struggle with the cast. We came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going  to heal. So last Wednesday she became my 3/4 cat. She now has 3 legs. 

Actually it's a relief as I knew she wasn't comfortable and things weren't improving. It's so hard to watch some one you care about suffer.

Now she is in the process of healing. I am not worried about every thing she does and if it's going to aggravate the healing process.

What has totally amazed me through all this is her ability to keep loving, keep going and never whine through it all. She has a purr for me and wants to snuggle even though it's been difficult to find a comfy way to sit on my lap.

If we as people could accept what life dishes out with out complaining what a world this would be. If I ever go through a major life change like her I hope I can show the same strength of character and keep an attitude of acceptance and hope. She has been an inspiration for me.

 

So with this behind us now hopefully I will feel more like posting.

I need to tell you about my book that is coming out.

The one I have worked so hard on. But that will be tomorrow or the next day.

And I do apologize if this came off as a whine.

It wasn't meant to be one.

Elsie the night before becoming a 3 legged cat watching TV.

 

Warning a rant: It gets confusing sometimes: Frustrating at other times.

Bit of a Rant here:

I keep reading about how people interrupt copyright. Scary in and of itself. Because of this I have found myself very leery about self publishing anything for some time. I have 3 patterns that I should be putting on my website right now and they sit, as I am scared of how things are going these days.

The gist of how I interrupt the copy right laws is:

I created the pattern from my imagination. I wrote the pattern in my words. I used my own photos in the pattern. I then own that pattern to sell, give away, or anything else I want to do with it.

Others should not be able to profit from my work unless I sell or lease them the right to.

Then I have to honor that agreement.

Seems so simple doesn’t it.

But it is not how everyone interprets it.

I won’t argue Copyright laws. I am not an expert. But if I can’t protect my work, why should I bother.

One of the things I find confusing is we all encouraged to write our patterns in a certain style. There are many people that teach pattern writing and they have very set rules you are supposed to follow. If we do our patterns this way after awhile we would lose our own style. Well folks one of the criteria of copyrights is the pattern should be written in your own words. Which if we all write our patterns the same way we would not have any individual copyrights for say a granny square. They would all read the same. You can’t have it both ways.

I firmly believe we all have to have our own style of pattern writing to help keep copyrights protected as I definitely write my patterns different from other people I know.

The key to any good pattern writing is does it make sense. Can the piece be duplicated from the instructions given for said piece. Yes there are some basic guidelines. Abbreviations should mean the same for all.

I write my patterns as I think my patterns.

I find writing a pattern in other formats difficult as it's not how I think when I crochet.

It's kind of like writing a note in French when you think, write and speak English.

 I can be done, but it is harder to do as you have to translate as you go.

 

I thought I wanted to do my patterns as charts so I could be more international. I even have the program to use to learn to do this. But I am almost thankful I haven’t had the time to actually learn to do this.

Why, you ask.

 Well I keep seeing charts pop up in my Face Book news feed. It is so easy to post a picture of a chart with no other instructions. And your pattern is out there for all to see. You don’t see too many patterns posted, but lots and lots of charts.

So I don’t think I want to make it easier for someone to steal and share my patterns.

See it’s like this folks,

I can’t afford to spend 12 -16 hours each day working on creating designs and translating them into a pattern that others can follow without compensation. If I can’t make anything off my patterns, I need to go back to Home Depot or someplace like that pays me a wage. That would put designing on a much lower level in my life.

 The number of designs I would be able to create would drop dramatically.

So as you think about sharing a pattern with your friends, on the internet, or anyplace else, Stop and think about how you are biting the hand that feeds your addiction.

Not just self published patterns.

But books and booklets.

Designers get royalties from the sale of the books.

I keep hearing support small businesses.

Well support your hard working designers too friends.

We do work hard for your pleasure.

 

On a lighter note

We finally got to go hiking yesterday.

Been too crazy for almost 2 months to get to enjoy our favorite past time together.

Here a few pictures from our hike.

Butterflies were everywhere.

 But this was the only one that held still long enough to get a decent shot.

This plants flower looks likes feathers to me.

So light and airy.

Lovely

The flowers in bloom right now are so small. This one is about the size of a dime.

The four peaks in shadow.

Marv and Pip were definitely having a great time.

I love this shot.

 Pip enjoying the pools we found.

But you see Pip, his refection and his shadow all in the same shot.