The good news is that, by summer, we may be able to move into the house we’ve been building for the last three years. The other good news is that I’m writing another crochet book.

The bad news is that house-building and designing are consuming my life and taking time away from my blogs. I think that I’ll be back posting frequently and regularly by the beginning of this summer. I hope so, because it’s fun to blog, and I owe tutorials to a couple of readers.

Would you like to see our house? Here’s a photo album showing our progress: http://tinyurl.com/earthen-house

These crocheted hearts are a sneak peek at my new book, which will be published in Spring 2014. Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’m giving away the three Curly Ray Sunflowers shown on this page. Simply leave a comment on this blog post OR on my Crochet Garden page on Facebook by September 1, 2012 to be entered into the drawing. I’ll draw three names, and send one flower to each person whose name was drawn. Good luck!

The petals of Curly Ray Sunflower are attached to each other as you crochet them. Lori, a Crochet Garden reader, asked for help with the joining instructions. I promised to post step-by-step photos that show how to join Curly Ray’s petals successfully. Here they are:

Photo 1: the first petal of Round 5 is finished. The pink arrow points to the back loop of the final dc of the row, where you will be joining the next petal. The yellow arrow points to the 5th sc of the petal, which you’ll need to find after completing all the petals.

Move on to the next petal with ch 8. In the 2nd ch from hook, (3 sc). In the next ch-stitch, you will make 3 stitches, which will be inside the bold parentheses here: (sc,

fold the ch and the yarn to the front of your work, so your hook is behind them.

Insert your hook into the back loop of the final dc of the previous petal, shown by pink arrow in Photo 1. You have to kind of reach backwards to do this. Now you have two loops on the hook.

Photo 2: Insert hook into the ch and draw up a loop—that will be the loop the yellow arrow points to.

Now you have 3 loops on the hook. The pink arrow points to the original loop on your hook. The blue arrow is the back loop of the final dc of the previous petal.

Yarn over and draw through all 3 loops to complete an sc.

Finally, hdc into the same ch-st.)

Photo 3: Now you have 3 sts in the 3rd ch. Take a moment to sort everything out—find the chain and notice that you have 5 ch sts remaining.

Photo 4: Finish the petal as instructed in the directions. You will be using the htr or half-treble crochet. Find the htr’s history and how-to on page 12 of Crochet Garden.

Crochet 9 more petals around the flower, just as you did the previous petal, joining as you go.

Photo 5: Petal 12 is the same as petal 11 (not petal 17 as printed in the instructions), only you stop after completing the last tr. Cut the yarn and pull the loop until the cut end comes out of the top of the stitch. Thread the yarn into a tapestry needle.

Photo 6: Needle-join by stitching around the very first sl st of the round. In Photo 6, you can see how the thread comes from the top of the tr and goes around the base of the first petal. Thread the needle back down into the top of the tr to complete a needle-join.

Photo 7: Now thread the needle up the back of Petal 12, until you come to the final dc of that petal. The blue arrow shows how the needle is coming out of the back loop of the final dc of petal 12.

Photo 8: Find the 5th sc of petal 1 (go back to Photo 1—it’s the stitch the yellow arrow points to). Stitch into the back of this sc, then stitch into Petal 12 again to join the first petal to the last petal.

I always look forward to receiving my copy of Crochet! magazine in the mail, but especially the current issue! In the Fall issue, there’s an article (by me—yay!) about the Russian Spoke stitch, or double bullion stitch, with step-by-step photos.

But we didn’t stop there. Carol Alexander, editor of Crochet! asked me to design a project that included the Double Bullion Stitch. I was glad to do this, using the lovely Ritratto yarn from the S. Charles Collection to make a capelet. The flouncy border is made with Double Bullion Stitches.

Two flowers in Crochet Garden feature the Russian Spoke stitch and its friend, the Russian Spoke Picot.

* * *

Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood is a busy crafter, volunteer, and mom, who also publishes a magazine called CraftSanity. The magazine represents a broad range of articles of interest to fans of home-made and hand-made items, including canning, embroidery, weaving, and of course, crochet! You’ll also find interviews with artists and craftspeople and recipes.

In Issue 7 of CraftSanity, Jennifer published her interview with me–yay again! We had a great phone conversation and then she sent me questions to answer via email. Lark Crafts kindly gave permission to reprint the pattern for the Russian Picot Daisy. There was just enough room left to print the recipe for my favorite cooling dessert using our garden produce—Mint Ice.

More Information

Crochet! is the official magazine of the Crochet Guild of America. Click here for subscription information:

http://crochet.org/cgoamagazine.html

Buy copies of CraftSanity magazine here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/104131686/craftsanity-magazine-issue-7-print

I can hardly wait to go to New York to visit the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, talk with fellow crocheters, and sign copies of Crochet Bouquet and Crochet Garden!

The booksigning is at 6:00 p.m., August 6th, with seating starting at 5:30 p.m. If you would like to attend, please go to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio website to RSVP and for more information.

It will be a kind of homecoming for me. In the early 1990s I designed some afghans and sweaters for Lion Brand. I visited Lion Brand headquarters in New York and showed the Blumethals some design swatches. They commissioned a couple of designs–I was so excited!

Aside from the lovely crocheted flowers in Crochet Garden, these are my favorite Lion Brand yarn designs. I designed the Kitty Dreams Blanket, made with Lion Brand Jiffy, for the Monsanto Designs for America program in the mid-1990s. The pattern is in a book called Cat Crafts: More than 50 Purrfect Projects, by Dawn Cusick. The book is available from used booksellers online, starting at around $1.00 plus shipping.

My daughter Eva (then about 7 years old) drew a beautiful blue fish. I just had to see if I could interpret it in knitting. Mosaic knitting seemed the best way to capture the detail in her drawing. The result: this Fish Rug made from a double strand of Lion Cotton. What is it with all these fish, anyway?

That reminds me—I’m teaching how to Knit Mosaic Designs and Chart Your Own at Interweave Knitting Lab New England in October. See sidebar for link.

Sometimes there just aren’t enough pages in a book! But luckily for us, the internet is the perfect place to share some of the patterns that we couldn’t squeeze into Crochet Garden: Bunches of Flowers, Leaves, and Other Delights.

Amanda and Shannon, the Needlework Team at Lark Crafts, featured free instructions for the Leaves and Berries Spray on their blog last Friday. The samples show the spray with crocheted berries, like the one above, and with button berries.

I’ve always loved my mom’s blue and white Zwiebelmuster (onion pattern) china. It seemed natural to study and sketch the flowers of this popular design when researching ideas for Crochet Garden.

A small border element (the pink arrow is pointing to it) on this Zwiebelmuster tray led to the Leaves and Berries Spray. You never know what small detail can inspire! Here’s a close-up so you can see it better.

The ideas for the Curlicue Sprays and Leafy Spray in Crochet Garden came from this china, too.

A Scarf Project

The Trillium Scarf, worked in Dale of Norway Yarns, is a colorful example of flower cloth. You’ll need Crochet Garden for the Trillium and Violet Leaf patterns. Instructions and step-by-step photos for putting together the Trillium Scarf at the Lark Crafts blog.

Yarn shop owners, yarn manufacturers, and needlework professionals are getting pretty excited about The National Needlework Association Summer Trade Show, this coming weekend in Columbus, Ohio.

Dale of Norway Yarns is hosting a book-signing for Crochet Garden, at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 23. We’ll have a limited number of books to give away. And you can see this pretty Trillium Flower Cloth Scarf up close and personal.

Hope to see you there!

Wow! Who would have guessed that posting a video on YouTube could be so exciting? Well, it is! And I hope this will be the first of many.

“Suzann Thompson, Crochet Author” tells the story of how a regular kid grows up to be a crafty author. It’s really a movie-ized audio slide show, but it’s a start! I hope you’ll watch.

Here’s a slide from the show. Can you read it? It says “Thank You, Readers.” This means you.

Imagine a market where yarn shop owners go to buy stock for their stores. It’s like the best dream ever! That’s what’s in store at The National Needlework Association Summer NeedleArts Trade Show in Columbus, Ohio, June 23-25, 2012.

The show is open to TNNA members, like yarn and needlework shop owners, manufacturers, publishers, designers, and teachers. In other words, people in the business of yarn- and needle-crafting.

I’m going to be there, signing copies of Crochet Garden at the Dale of Norway Yarns booth (booth numbers 510 and 512). I am so excited!

Kathryn, a knitting guild friend from way back in our Austin days, introduced me to Dale of Norway Yarns years ago. I fell in love with the deliciously bright colors of Heilo and Baby Ull. As a color-lover, I was impressed that a person could buy yarn in so many different qualities of one color. The patterns were gorgeous, too. The knitted baby clothes were just darling.

The bright colors of Dale of Norway Falk were perfect for these Trilliums (pages 126-127 of Crochet Garden).

The Summer NeedleArts Trade Show is for TNNA members, but if you can’t go as a member of TNNA, please encourage your local yarn shop owners to drop by and say hello.

If you are a needlearts professional, and you haven’t joined TNNA, please visit the TNNA website for more information about this helpful organization (click on the TNNA Summer Show Logo above—it’s a link).

The roadsides around our house are abloom with Mexican Hats, so it seems a good time to do a Mexican Hat Crochet Along!

Instructions for the Mexican Hat are on pages 24-26 of Crochet Garden. You choose whether to make one or two rounds of petals.

For these step-by-step photos, I made the double flower with Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 Crochet Cotton.

Both flowers start with the tall center, a tube of single crochet worked round and round through Rnd 7. Be sure that you’re inserting your hook from the outside of the tube.

In Rnd 8, you make ch-3 loops around and then stuff the tube. Now it looks like Photo 1.

You close off the tube with Rnd 9, cut threads, and weave them in.

Rnd 10 starts the first round of petals in the ch-3 loops you made in Rnd 8. In Photo 2, you can see burgundy centers of four petals created in Rnd 10, along with the first part of Rnd 11 (yellow thread).

To give the petals their characteristic shape, their edges are pinched together with stitches. Rnd 12 pinches each petal and it creates ch-3 lps as the foundation for the next round of petals. You are still working in the same direction, but you have to look on the underside of the flower to insert the hook.

Photo 3 shows a completed Rnd 12 from the underside of the flower. Each petal has a sl st at one side of its base, a ch 1, then another sl st on the other side of its base. This is what pinches the petal into shape. Between the petals you’ll see the ch-3 lp that forms the base for the next round of petals.

Since I was going to use the burgundy and yellow threads again for the second round of petals, I fastened them off but I didn’t cut them.

In Photo 4 you can see the first petal of Rnd 13 peeking from between two petals.

When Rnd 13 is done, the underside looks like Photo 5. Then another rnd of yellow (Rnd 14) completes the petals.

In the sepal round (Rnd 12 of the single flower, Rnd 15 of the double flower), you are once again pinching the petals together and at the same time, you’re crocheting the green sepals, as in Photo 6. The sepals are little green spikes that curl out from between the petals.

Beth, a friend from Ravelry, sent me this message, and it was a great opportunity to get on my soapbox. Thank you, Beth! The soapbox is one of my favorite places!

Was wondering – about your Crochet Garden book, are there lots of new patterns in your new book, please? How would you describe the book in relation to its predecessor?

All the very best

Beth

Hi Beth!

Crochet Garden has all new flower patterns. I’d say it is very focused on its four themes:

Botanical Garden (realistic flowers)
International Garden (flowers with a tie to various countries around the world)
Inspired Garden (flowers interpreted from decorative arts like embroidery, weaving, chinaware)
Fun and Fantastic Garden (imagine “Candy Cornflower,” “Imp Flower,” and “Frost Flower”)

It also has a few leaves, a peacock, a butterfly with variations.

Crochet Garden reintroduces a vintage crochet stitch, the Russian Spoke Stitch. The Tole Tulip (shown above) and the Twirl Center Rose are noteworthy for their unusual and cool construction.

Thanks for asking!

Suzann