County Fair Winning Entries!

I'm so excited to report that I won four ribbons in the Washington County Fair this weekend!! My Ribbon Weave Felted Tote won a First Place ribbon AND $4 (LOL!); my amirgurumi Snail named Shelly =) took a Second Place ribbon (& $3), as did my Chanson En Crochet Capelet done in Egyptian Cotton; and the Skipping Stones Afghan took a Third along with an outstanding $2 premium! I was a little disappointed that my beautiful freeform purse didn't receive recognition, but there were quite a few entries in the purse category. Overall, I'm very gratified to have received any ribbons. What fun!

My First Free Form Project

I acted on a whim yesterday (shocking I know) and took a Freeform Crochet Purse class from the amazing Bonnie Pierce, Interweave Press’ 2005 Crocheter of the Year. She taught this class several times but it usually fills up within one hour of opening registration. Lucky for me, Oregonians are taking advantage of this warm weather and I got the last open spot for Saturday's class at the Yarn Garden.

What fun!!! I learned so many new stitches and finished my first little project last night, this cute purse. Bonnie was such a help choosing colors from the 100's of mini-hanks she had available and helped us all feel like each of our choices were beautiful. Thanks, Bonnie!! I've already started on purse number two, in shades of white and cream. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

First Class Was Great!!

My class turned out great!

For Jamaica night, I found a crochet pattern for a Rasta Hat at ChezCrochet and I made it Monday night with a variegated bright colored yarn. Then, I felt really self-conscious so didn't wear it! LOL!! I just had on some capri cargo pants, a white flowing pheasant shirt and called it good. I'll add a picture soon.

Nine ladies showed up for class and all but one had crochet familiarity, but all levels. I handed out little kits I made up - aluminum tubes from Target that originally held incense became their tool holders which I filled with a crochet hook, steel yarn needle, folding scissors and - my secret weapon - a simple hair clippie! My mom always used those snappable hair barrettes to hold her loop and I love them. Then, I also hand-wound center pull skeins of yarn (about 1 oz) and made up "starts"
for each of them -- ch 21, then 2 rows of 20 sc -- from some pretty blue Simply Soft. Then we went through all the basic stitches, adding rows to my base start.

I know they're going to be a great group of gals and I just had so much fun!!! Thanks for letting me share!

OASIS Crochet Class

My 5-week crochet class at church starts tomorrow night, and the entire program is called "Summer OASIS: The Amazing gRace". Our women's ministries is offering about 10 different crafting/fun classes for members and their friends, plus we'll be "visiting" a different country every week in the main opening session.

Tomorrow is Jamaica night. What should I wear? The only crochet thing I could find is a Rasta Hat, and I could probably make that tonight.

I guess the real question I need to focus on is how am I going to teach 13 ladies to crochet?!? The good thing is several already know how to crochet but can't read a pattern, or only know how to DC because that's all their grandma taught them ... I've asked those who can crochet to please space themselves throughout the group. I originally said I had room for 8 newbies but it ended up being a really popular class. Sooo, if you know anyone who lives around Tualatin/West Linn Oregon, I could use a co-teacher or two. =)

CAL Butterfly Shawl

Oh, I'm in trouble -- I think I'm going to start a new project. Crochetville is doing a crochet-a-long of a beautiful butterfly shawl that you can find in Knit 1 magazine. So, I'll see if any yarn I have will work and go from there! Here's a great picture, the designer's blog is here and to join the CAL click here.