Kim Werker's Blog

Farewell, lovelies.

Kim Werker — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:17:00 GMT

On a dark, rainy Saturday the February I was 27, in 2004, I wrote a rant and put it on the internet. It was my first experience creating something on the newly social Web.

The thing I ranted about was the paltry representation of crochet online, and I was soon to discover that crochet was given short shrift in the old media, too. Where knitting was experiencing a revolution in popularity driven by innovation in contemporary design, crochet was sitting stagnant, continuing to throw itself back to the ponchos and granny squares of the '70s, and the doilies of eras long gone. People weren't blogging about it, no one was starting online magazines about it, and the print magazines seemed content to maintain the status quo.

That rant changed my life. It put me in touch with some of the friendliest, most creative and innovative people in the world. People who were, on their own, doing fantastically innovative things with crochet. But they were doing it in private.

The rant, which I'd put on a new site I called Crochet Me, grew into an online magazine. That online magazine grew into my career. It was the first time I'd ever felt I was doing something with purpose.

As I nurtured the magazine and formed relationships with crocheters, I did a lot of growing up. I learned how to ask for help. I learned how to take opportunities that terrified me. I grew a much thicker skin. I learned that for someone who can't seem to keep her home tidy and is often fifteen minutes late for social engagements, I have a knack for meeting deadlines.

I was called a cheerleader. It was feared I was a rogue.

I was driven by lofty ideas that kept me working until the wee hours of the morning. Fostering creative exploration. Challenging assumptions. Questioning the status quo. Encouraging women to speak up and try new things. Encouraging industry to embrace the maligned craft.

Eventually I burned out and didn't want to fight the fight anymore. I pulled back.

Now I'm 35. I'm still passionate about pushing crochet. I'm still frustrated there aren't more crochet bloggers. That we're still more likely to see the same-old same-old rather than innovation that makes our fingers twitch. Creative exploration remains my favourite thing to promote.

This is my last blog post here at CrochetMe.com. My contract is up, and it's time for me really to move on. I'll still do crochet and general yarn things here and there, and I'm focusing my creative energy on my new project, Mighty Ugly.

Thank you for your friendship, for your inspiration, for your passion for yarn and hook. Thank you for joining me on the most satisfying, most exciting adventure of my life. I'm sure it won't be my last. I hope to go on some more grand adventures with you again soon.

Have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family, and a spectacular New Year.

Don't be a stranger. Keep in touch on my blog, Twitter and Ravelry, eh?

PS I'll leave you with the Crochet Me image thanking people for a Myspace follow. The technology may change, but our love of craft never will!

Pinteresting People

Kim Werker — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:23:00 GMT

You know of Pinterest, right? It's a website that functions like an online corkboard – you can "pin" images you like to it, organized by folders and tags. Best of all, you can follow other people and see what they're pinning.

For a crafter, Pinterest is like a firehose of inspiration. I can only look at my Pinterest stream a couple of times a week, lest I lose HOURS of my day.

Sometimes, though, I'll check out just one person's stream. It's cool to see what someone's finding interesting of late.

And there are crochet designers on Pinterest. How neat to see the kinds of things Candi Jensen finds cute, and the colors that Kathy Merrick finds – oh, it's a visual delight.

Source: ravelry.com via Candi on Pinterest

And you can search Pinterest, too. Look what a search for "Doris Chan" turns up.

All this, and it's a useful tool for keeping track of your own inspirations, too.

Oh yes. I'm a big fan.

(I'm on there as kpwerker, if you want to see the sorts of things I enjoy looking at.)

This kind of cozy I can get behind.

Kim Werker — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:14:00 GMT

I'm usually not a fan of decorative cozies. I like objects to be as they are – why cover up toilet paper? Isn't it, you know, supposed to be in the bathroom?

But sometimes the cozy is elevated to art. Like this spare-tire cozy Maryse saw at the New England Fiber Festival in West Springfield, MA, earlier this month.

Of course a spare tire is expected to be mounted on the back of a truck. But a giant doily covering it? That's a statement!

Halloween Baby Dinosaur!

Kim Werker — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:38:00 GMT

After all my concern about not having enough time to make my kid's Halloween costume, it came out way better than I'd ever hoped! My friend found an outfit that matched the hat perfectly, which made the whole thing way more exciting for me. (Owen, at ten months, doesn't yet know from Halloween excitement. But he will. Oh, he will.)

I followed the Dragon Hat pattern by Michele Wilcox for Coats & Clark, with a few modifications. The first I wrote about in my initial post. Second, I made the spikes at the brim of the hat more pronounced by using taller stitches than the pattern called for. Third, I didn't make the tail (instead, I made the outfit). And finally, to save time I didn't crochet the spots, using felt instead. More details are on Ravelry.

I may replace the felt spots on the hat with crocheted ones, so then I can wash the hat. But for now, it's all good.

I hope you had a fabulous Halloween!

Learning Together: Granny Squares with the Stitching Group

Kim Werker — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:19:00 GMT

Every Friday night, give or take, I grab sushi with my friend Marianela and then we go to the stitch night at our local yarn store. We've been going for about a year, and the ritual has become one of my favourite parts of the week. The regular yarn talk, I'm sure, has played more than a small part in my recent bout of obsessive crafting.

Though I've undertaken some serious lace making at the urging of the group, and have been egged on even in the making of the simplest of baby sweaters, it's the current project we've started all together that makes my heart swell.

Every so often, see, I'd be the lone stitcher crocheting in the group. And though some members do crochet, many others have only sort of been wanting to learn.

And so we concocted a project for ourselves – simple enough that the newbies won't be intimidated, interesting enough that the whole group will remain excited about it.

Two weeks ago, each of the eight people who decided to participate bought a skein of yarn (we decided first which colours to buy). We're making granny squares, people.

That night one member of the crochet-along took all the yarn home; the following week, she passed the yarn to the next person, along with the two granny squares she'd made. We set no goal for the number of squares to make in a week – we all have things that come up, so we wanted a low-pressure commitment.

At the end of the eight weeks, we'll sew the squares into as many baby blankets as we can, and we'll donate them to a local organization.

Marianela took the yarn for the second week, and she texted me on Saturday morning super excited because she'd made her first granny square. (She took the photo I've posted here.)

So we're creating crocheters and blankets all at once. WIN.

Halloween Crunch: Dinosaur Hat

Kim Werker — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:09:00 GMT

I had a day of reckoning earlier this week. Four weeks to Halloween. No costume for my kid. The need to make my kid's costume. Having no idea where to start.

So I thought.

My kid's crawling and standing, but not yet walking. He won't go trick-or-treating, but will see lots and lots of people. Possibly outside.

The panic subsided. No elaborate costume needed.

What's needed is a fabulous hat. And maybe a kinda matching outfit.

I toyed with making a cute animal hat, but dismissed the cutesy idea at the outset. Then I found this free Coats & Clark pattern by Michele Wilcox. They call it Dragon Hat, but I'm totally making a dinosaur. My kid's fave toy at the moment is a purple dinosaur, see. Its name is Purple Dinosaur. So that's what he's going to be for Halloween.

The base of the "costume" is a double crochet hat. Which, in a child's size, I was able to whip up during the baby's nap times yesterday.

I modified the pattern a little at the joins (see above). Where it calls for the standard 3-ch turning chain and finishing up the round with a slip stitch in the top chain, I did only 2 chains and did not count them as a dc. So in every round, I worked the first dc in the same stitch as the join, then slip stitched into the top of that dc at the end of the round. The turning chain then serves to pretty well fill in the gap that might otherwise show up at the join, which means there's a less conspicuous "seam".

I'll be sure to introduce you to Purple Dinosaur when I'm finished.

Now. Tell us about some Halloween stuff you've crocheted!

Granny Ripple: New Addiction?

Kim Werker — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:49:00 GMT

I'm barely finding time to work on my scrap granny squares, but that doesn't mean I don't want to use every spare ball of yarn I can find to make a granny ripple. I mean, right? This is irresistible.

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Rachel on Pinterest

P.S. You know about Pinterest, right? I discover so much amazing crochet on there. Not to mention all the geeky stuff, fashion inspiration, and home decor ideas.

Stash Bash: Getting Organized

Kim Werker — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:49:00 GMT

In celebration of Interweave's Stash Buster sale (you know about the sale, right?), I took some photos of my in-progress stash organization. Inspired by Lee Meredith's coffee-can yarn storage, I saved formula canisters for the last eight months. Et voilà!

Have you shared photos of your stash in the Flickr group yet?

Link Love: How To Join Granny Squares

Kim Werker — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:45:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I picked up my box of scrap yarn and started crocheting granny squares again. "Again?" you ask. "When were you crocheting granny squares?"

Um, apparently it was over four years ago that I started crocheting granny squares from my scraps. I figure it's been about three-and-a-half years since I made one!

I was able to date this project because a link I found this afternoon is a good compliment to the tutorial I wrote up about how to spray block granny squares. And upon finding that post I discovered that I published it well over four years ago.

The link I found today is to a photo tutorial (only from 2009) over on Carina's Craftblog on how to join granny squares. Which is awesome, because it's inspired me to join mine this very same way, instead of whipstitching them together as I'd originally planned. You know, when I have enough to join. Maybe by 2016.

Source: carinascraftblog.wardi.dk via Carina on Pinterest

Click for Babies Campaign

Kim Werker — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:44:00 GMT

We've all heard of shaken baby syndrome, and new parents hopefully have discovered there's a campaign to spread awareness of how dangerous it is to shake a baby, and about the period of purple crying – when an infant cries inconsolably. As a part of this campaign, Click for Babies is collecting handmade purple hats with the goal of giving one to each baby born in a participating hospital during the month of November. It's a pretty great cause, and a newborn-size hat is wee! See the Click for Babies website for more info on how to participate, and to see if there's a group in your area coordinating local efforts.

Teachable Moments: Open Thread

Kim Werker — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:29:00 GMT

My cousin Lisa is in town for a couple of weeks, and the other night she asked me what the difference between knitting and crochet is. (She's a scarf knitter.) The ensuing discussion led to the pulling-out of books, my gentle nudging about how cool and simple granny squares are, and the inevitable crochet lesson over doughnut holes and cider.

Such fun! Lisa was a quick study, and her excitement as she figured out the structure of a granny square made me happy.

It had been a while since I'd taught someone how to crochet, and I thought I'd open up a thread here on the blog so we can chat about experiences we've had teaching people to crochet, and share any tips we've uncovered.

I'm already bookmarking this page in anticipation of the helpful, inspiring comments you're going to write. And if you have questions, ask 'em!

Blocking the Alpine Frost Scarf

Kim Werker — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:34:00 GMT

My friend Lisa's been crocheting the Alpine Frost Scarf, by Amy O'Neill Houck from the Winter 2008 issue of IC, for ages now. She's not quite done yet, but she brought it over to my house last week to use my blocking board. By blocking most of what she's crocheted so far, she can figure out how much longer she wants the scarf to be. (Also, the scarf is already too long to be blocked in its entirety on the board.)

I snapped this photo of the partly blocked scarf so you can see how dramatically blocking affects lace.

Now I'm remembering how much I love this scarf. I must make one someday.

(And it's red! Perfect for Canada Day! Happy Canada Day!)

Maker Faire

Kim Werker — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:04:00 GMT

I spent this past weekend at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire which, contrasted with the massive World Maker Faires in the Bay Area, New York and Detroit, was fully run by members of the DIY community here in Vancouver. Note, though, that it was hardly "mini". Well over eighty makers participated, showing off the stuff they make, be it robots, bacon, quilts or pottery. I was there with my Mighty Ugly project, which was incredible fun to do with kids and adults of all ages.

Interestingly, I didn't see much crochet at the show, which is something I'll talk to lots of people about correcting for next year's event. We don't have a local crochet guild, so I wonder if that's the reason. The Fraser Valley Knitting Guild was there teaching people to knit, and the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild was there, too.

If your community puts on a mini Maker Faire, I encourage you to consider participating as a maker! Never before have I experienced an event so focused on teaching and learning. It's hands-on and exciting, and it attracts a very diverse group of attendees.

Science!

Kim Werker — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:24:00 GMT

My favourite kid-oriented music to listen to with Owen is an album nerd-rock band They Might Be Giants put out called Here Comes Science. My favourite song, by far, is Meet the Elements — this one song, alone, has me planning to make at least half a dozen crafty things for Owen's room. (No, I likely won't make them. Well, I do hope to do one wicked embroidery project.) Now why is it that until today it hadn't occurred to me to crochet any of those projects? I have no idea.

Check out the crocheted molecules by Flickr user primandplush that I discovered today via Knithacker! These fit very well with the chorus of that favourite science song: "[elements] either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are."

Ethanol:

Caffeine!

And my favourite, by far, Three Phases of Water:

Prying Open Pandora's Box

Kim Werker — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:44:00 GMT

My last brief post seems to have struck a chord, and though I'm inclined to avoid discussions involving absolutes when it comes to crafts and arts, I think it's time for a juicy, responsible and well-mannered argument. Consider me to have just pried open this Pandora's box.

The issue at hand: yarnbombing. Some commenters on my post about the New York Times article on yarn graffiti seemed fairly offended by several things, be it that: a) yarn graffiti can harm trees and birds; b) it's a waste of yarn; c) it's a waste of time; d) when people are going unsheltered and unclothed, it's offensive to spend one's resources on such useless crap; e) it shows crochet in a bad light.

I happen to think yarnbombing is wonderful. I've yet to hear of harm coming to ecosystems or wildlife, though I do think this argument is the strongest caution against yarn graffiti. I'm inclined to consider trees strong enough to withstand wearing a sweater for a few months, but I would like to know if anyone's heard of birds coming to harm either from becoming ensnared in yarn bombs or by mistaking it for food.

As for the other points, I see a lot of false dichotomies and judgment being tossed about. I get very twitchy when folks even sort of imply that art is a waste of time or money. Even art that makes you recoil is good to have around. Art makes us feel and it makes us think. Sure, especially in hard economic times it's easy to decide that money spent on "nonessential" things should be reallocated elsewhere, but I'll urge you to imagine a community devoid of art – that's not a very healthy community.

Though street art is more controversial than some other art forms, I'm a fan of it, too. And unlike paint-based graffiti, yarn graffiti is impermanent. It's easy to remove. And for the most part, people find it to be an enhancement rather than vandalism. But to each her own. If your bus shelter is yarn bombed and you're horrified, all you need is a pair of scissors to undo it.

When it comes to how an individual crafter spends her time, what's it to you? You make what you want to make, I'll make what I want to make, and we'll come together and talk about the things we've learned and the accomplishments we've achieved and the satisfaction we've felt. The sweater makers will appreciate the doily makers and the charity crafters will appreciate the sock crocheters, and we'll all be the better for it.

As for giving crochet a bad rap, I don't buy that either. Through yarn bombing, I see crochet featured in art galleries, in magazines and newspapers, and in blogs the world over. Better yet, when it comes to yarn bombing crochet is given equal billing to knitting – yarn bombers are yarn bombers, not crocheters or knitters. It's refreshing! All I see that has the potential to give crochet a bad name is crocheters casting aspersions or implying that the craft is only good for some applications but not others.

So. What do you think? Let 'er rip. And be nice, for topics such as this tend to get heated fast. Let's keep in mind that every opinion is welcome, but haters aren't.