Sometimes I swear I craft just to have a believable excuse to buy cool things. First you buy the practical tools that you absolutely need to make something (e.g. Boye aluminum crochet hook set), then as time goes on, you find the awesome tools that actually give you a heightened sense of joy while you are making something (see my awesome new stitch markers).

Today I found my next tantrum-at-the-check-out. Glass crochet hooks. Not just any glass crochet hooks. These are some of the most beautiful I’ve seen. Michael and Sheila Ernst have created amazing hooks in a choice of five flameworked colors ranging from size H(5mm) all the way to P(11.5mm). Knitters, fear not, they have a full range of circular glass and bamboo knitting needles for you as well.

While you are there, also take a long I-needz look at their glass Don’t Drop spindles and the most amazing glass buttons I have ever seen.

For a slightly more affordable crochet glass hook, but no less scoot worthy, are the colored ribbon crochet hooks offered by glass2art. Each hook is made from Pyrex glass and annealed in a digital kiln for added strength and durability. They are available in sizes J(6mm) to N(10mm). And yes, they have uber cool glass knitting needles as well.

I seriously need a stimulous package to bail out my crochet addiction.

Way back in the time that is known as Let’s see how many projects I can do just before Christmas, I purchased some Stansborough Grey yarn because…well, the idea of it is freakin’ cool. The wool that was used on Lord of the Rings, how cool is THAT? The problem was now I had the yarn but I had no idea what to do with it. I knew it had to be a project that was just for me (a first), but what that was going to be, I hadn’t a clue.

I don’t know about you, but most of my best creative ideas gently caress me in bed around three o’clock in the morning and then sixty seconds later they grip my neural pathways and do a gymnastic floor routine en route to my bladder. Being confronted by both a creative idea and urinary desperation proves too much and I get up to resolve one problem while contemplating the other.

That was the scene when the Diamonds in the Rough scarf pattern came to me. A simple scarf for an understated yarn that would be enhanced by the simple textured pattern of alternating Tunisian stitches.

Click for pattern

I’m even more excited that the pattern is available for download! The $4.00 FREE pattern includes both standard written instructions as well as a symbol crochet chart. 

I hope you enjoy crocheting it as much as I did designing it.

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As I was doing some research using old pattern books for an upcoming project, I came across this pattern for a crochet watch fob¹ that, to my surprise, had a swastika dangling from it. The first thought that zapped through my brain was, “Great. It isn’t bad enough that crochet gets such a bad rap, but now I have to deal with it being the preferred technique when the Nazis had craft time.”

As I read the pattern, something struck me. I was reading the pattern. That’s not right. I shouldn’t be able to read a German pattern. The most I know of a foreign language is “beefy bean burrito.”  It was in English! Hmmm. Things aren’t adding up. A quick look at the copyright and publisher showed that it was published in Chicago in 1915. This looks like a case for Almighty Google.

I knew from my years of obsessed watching of The History Channel that ancient societies were using the swastika in their symbology centuries^2,3 before the man with the iron chip on his shoulder ever came to power. But in 1915? In Chicago?

I turns out that the swastika was used in America during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries as a good-luck symbol^2,3. So much so that even Coca-Cola used it in 1925 as a watch fob for advertising.

It is so interesting to me that through the course of human events something can go for centuries as a cherished religious symbol or good-luck charm and then through the adoption of one man it can be turned into a symbol of hate and murder. The inversion of this of course is how something for hundreds of years was a symbol of hate and murder and by the event of one man it turned into a cherished religious symbol and good-luck charm. That would be the symbol of the cross.

The final conclusion: The Nazi party, like much of the world today, did not crochet.

And that concludes the history lesson for today. Next time on Chain Stitching through History, Wooly Mammoth Fur: worsted or wasted?

1. EM Devere. Crocheted watch fob. Richardson’s Irish Crochet Book; 1915 Chicago, Ill. Pg. 27.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

3. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Swastika%23North-America

It was a dark stormy…um…day. Actually, it was. It was raining cats and dogs. I never saw the dogs, but the cat was staring me in the face. A coworker had found this patchwork kitten sitting at the front entrance of our office, crying to get inside and out of the rain. The LED “Sucker” sign must have lit up across my forehead, because before I knew it I was shutting down my computer and walking out of the office with my lunch bag, umbrella and… a kitten and going straight to the vet for a check-up. I’m not sure which of us needed it more at that point!

The problem now is a name. I have no clue, so I’m enlisting your help. There isn’t much of a back story on the kitten to help in naming though. Apparently, she had been seen many times under the cars of our office building over the last several days. She’s a jumper. At the vet she performed a four foot high-jump onto the examination table. It would be nice to have something that didn’t sound like “Tilly.” Tilly is the (now) big sister.

So, vote for a name for this newly rescued kitty. If you have a name that is not on the polling list, add it to the comments and I will add it to the voting list. Terms from the following interests are not out of the question: crochet, yarn/fiber, rollercoaster, Disney, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter (wow I’m a geek).

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It always amazes me how small the crochet circle (or should I say loop) really is. A few weeks ago I purchased the latest issue of Crochet Today magazine on my lunch break. A great vest, a Rugged Winter Vest to be exact, caught my eye. Seeing “rugged” and “crochet” together is so rare I had no choice but to buy the magazine.

This morning, while browsing my crochet news sources I came across an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that caught my eye, “Engineer hooked into a second career making crochet designs.” Well “engineer” and “crochet” is another pair of words that rarely are slip-stitched together and as you know from my Mensa Crochet and Math Off the Hook posts I totally get into smart-people crochet.

As I read the article I knew I immediately liked this engineer when I read in the article, ‘“People think [if you crochet] you have to be doing a blanket”…While there is nothing wrong with making afghans, she believes the craft is much more versatile.’ You go Robyn Chachula!

I was itching to see her work and was relieved to see her website listed in the article. I started in the design section and soon realized this is not some one-hook wonder. She’s been published well over a dozen times, has her own book, appearances on TV…and the list goes on.

By the time I got to the gallery section I was having hook envy and then I suddenly saw the Rugged Winter Vest. Ahh, full circle. I know, I know, it’s silly to get excited about seeing the pattern from the magazine I just bought on the designer’s website that I just learned about. But with all the minutes I had just invested reading about her, I felt like I knew her. And seeing the vest that she designed, I felt like she knew me. I’m at the point now (thirty-minutes later) that I feel like I can call her “RC!” Only her closest friends call her that (so I told myself).

Ugh. I’ve got to get out more.

Just when we need sale prices the most, I realized that it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted the Weekly Bargains.

Each week I search the Internet for the best bargains I can find in yarn, fiber and other crochet/knit related items. If you know of a good bargain this week please comment and tell us about it.

Annie’s Attic

Annie’s Attic has a wonderful selection of clearance pattern books for crochet, knit and much more. Some of my favorite crochet clearances are:

Teddy Bears to Treasure $2.95 (Reg. $9.95) Way cute bears.

By the Sea Pillows $3.95 (Reg. $5.95) Very cool raised details of starfish, seahorses and more.

Paradise Fibers 

White Cashmere Top-Roving $14.95/oz (Reg. $25.00/oz)

Magic Garden Allsorts 8 Ply $3.50 (Reg. $6.95) 70% Pure NZ Wool 30% Polyester Effect.

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 After just three days, the lost Elephant Baby Afghan pattern has been found!

Josephine was kind enough to comment that she recognized the pattern immediately from the 1987 Susan Bates book¹ Learn to Crochet in 8 Easy Steps.

Rose, thanks to Josephine you are one step closer to getting your pattern. For an easy way to order, so to the Store section of this blog. It’s a dedicated crochet and knit Amazon resource so you don’t have to worry about odd things popping up in your search. Type in “Learn to Crochet in 8 Easy Steps” in the search bar and you’ll see your pattern book come up immediately.

This just made my weekend!!!!

1. What would we do without Susan Bates? Seriously, she’s been around FOREVER. It was her little crochet kit  My Crochet Teacher  purchased at Michael’s oh those many years ago, that got me started down this road. Freakin’ Amazing.

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I love projects that have a double meaning. Like scarves that look like a sushi roll when you roll them up, or scarves that show the color spectrum of a chemical element. My good friend at work (you remember, Content Pig) is a Guitar Hero “super star,” so I was pretty jazzed to see that someone created the Guitar Hero Scarf and posted it on Craftster.org. Not only is it a great representation of a Guitar Hero display, it actually displays the note chart for Knights of Cydonia by Muse.

The designer gives very general instructions, but it’s pretty easy to do it yourself using the pictures as a reference. To customize it with a song of your choice you can use the .png files for Guitar Hero 1 or Guitar Hero 2. Or do a Google search for “Guitar Hero Note Charts.”

Freebird! Freebird!

Browsing though my emails from readers today, one came through that excited me. I love a challenge and a quest and this one has both. Several years ago (twenty-one to be exact) a rose of a hooker (coincidentally named Rose) crocheted the very cute elephant themed baby afghan that is pictured in this post. She wants to make it again but has lost the pattern.

Now the pattern looks fairly simple (large granny squares surrounding a single crochet field with a cross-stitched elephant) but before I go through the task of figuring out the pattern and writing it down (which I’m totally inclined to do to help Rose out), I was hoping that someone out there might recognize the pattern and be able to direct her where she can find it.

If you know of where she can find the pattern, please comment to this post or write me directly so she can create this delightful afghan again. If it comes down to having to recreate the pattern maybe you can assist with that as well. Everything is pretty clear except for the joining and edge stitches. That has me a bit stumped.

Rose, we are on the case!

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As usual I have many hooks in the fire these days. It seems every time I start a project five more join the party. One home-décor project that I have in mind requires¹ a hand-spun, earthy, nom-nom feel to it. One yarn popped into mind immediately…recycled sari silk. I’ve wanted an excuse to order some of this yarn for several months, and now my self-induced need fit the bill.

Recycled sari silk yarn is hand crafted from reclaimed saris and sarongs by women that have been rescued from abusive situations. For the story of the Nepali Women’s Empowerment Group and more information on the yarn itself, I urge you to visit Mango Moon.

My sari silk yarn arrived yesterday from Paradise Fibers in a rather simple package with strange characters written all over it. Maybe they were Tibetan prayers, blessing the purchase. Okay, fine, they were UPC codes. You can’t blame a guy for trying to give a little exotic flavor to his purchase.

The first thing you can’t help but notice is that when they say “multicolored,” they mean it. The yarn is an explosion of reds, pinks, yellows, greens, blues, lime green, black…I can keep going…purple, orange…

The yarn is very inconsistent in weight. It ranges from a fine fingering to bulky weight. This is perfect for gaining texture from the yarn rather than the stitches. In fact, because of the explosion of color and texture, you will want to use as simple a stitch as possible. There is no need to get all fancy-stichy with this yarn.

Using a large size M hook, I quickly whipped up a swatch to see how it works. The larger hook was great for making a looser stitch, giving the yarn more workability and drape. It’s the perfect hook size for scarves or bags.

The recycled sari silk is everything I expected. I’m pretty anxious to start on the project, and even more anxious to share it with you.

1. “Requires” has such a formal I’m-following-a-pattern feel to it. The project isn’t requiring it so much as I’ve got this idea in my mind and my brain is stubborn when it comes to my ideas. So, in reality, my brain has required it of the project and I am but a humble, under-paid servant

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