A Little Crochet Preview

To help celebrate National/International Crochet Month, I've got some crochet sneaky peeks to share with you from VK Live, held this past weekend in Bellevue.

All of these designs will be in Vogue Knitting's third (and I hope annual) crochet special edition, which Trisha Malcolm, VK's editor, told me is being finalized as we spoke about it on Saturday. Expect it to hit newstands sometime in May - but here's a little tasty preview:

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This dress front is amazing. In fact, on both the crochet and knit runways, dresses were hot.



This next summery top looked great over the white tee they had it styled with:

 This was one of my favorite pieces in the entire show - creative and full of texture.

This next top was paired with a sheer blue skirt and green shoes - I wanted the entire outfit:

 



 

Again, another great dress. While I might pick more muted colors (just think of that in neopolitan colors), this dress style is a keeper - it's easy to customize and imminently wearable by most anyone:

 

I absolutely loved this next top - it was worn by the presenter earlier in the day:

 

This next top is also great over a tee-shirt. I believe there are hairpin lace inserts on the sides, for all you hairpin lace fans. (Btw, the model is still in high school - I met her parents in the audience prior to the show and they were, as you can imagine, excited to see their daughter up on the runway.)










And, finally, the end of the show:

Trisha Malcolm was all kinds of excited for this third crochet special edition. With this preview, can you blame her?

VK Crochet: 4th Installment

So, although we've just celebrated the traditional final weekend of summer here in North America, I thought it appropriate to celebrate one, last summer fling with a look at the most popular design (in terms of projects) from the special crochet edition of Vogue Knitting:

Design:  #18 Lacy Top

It is no surprise that this Doris Chan top, complete with signature exploding lace and top-down construction, has the most projects started from the magazine in the Ravelry database - 47, 23 of which are completed. The three I chose to highlight cover a range of sizes and wearing options.



The interpretations:

Photo used with Amy's kind permission.

Amy (Amerz on Ravelry) loves purple and blue - you don't say? Wearing this top over a dress is a popular approach to this design. Amy is a Doris Chan devotee (she co-moderates the Doris Chan Ravelry group), so it's no surprise to me that she has a finished project from this design, or that it fits really well. Of some note: technically, the neck edging isn't quite finished in this photo, but the average viewer won't spot that. 

Thanks so much for the use of your photo, Kristen.

Kristen (KristenJ on Ravelry) has one of the most elegant interpretations of this design (which is in line with her overall craft approach and personal design aesthetic). Kristen is one of many polycraftuals hanging out on Ravelry - she states she's been knitting and crocheting for over 30 years. I love her color choices in this outfit, as well as the simple yet effective pearl-like accessory. Amy does note to be mindful of the potentially not-so-strategically placed negative space in the front of this top. Noted, Kristen!

And a sincere thanks to Cyndi for allowing me use of her photo.

And the final interpretation, from Cyndi (cyndim on Ravelry) is probably my favorite. Great yarn choice (Cascade Ultra Pima - I love cotton, what can I say?), great color, and a perfect, casual summery approach. Can you believe this only took three skeins? Or that Cyndi has four, count 'em 4, grandchildren? You just keep rockin' that lace top, Cyndi.

I hope you are as impressed as I am with all of the finished projects thus far from the VK Crochet special edition. These designs are yielding great fashion bang from real-life, everyday women.

Now don't forget to check in with the blog of our very own super, real-life, everyday woman - Andrea, the WonderWhyGal.

Oh ... and have a great weekend!

VK Crochet: 3rd Installment

Now that herculean Ravellenic Games crafting efforts are over, I thought another installment in my series of finished projects by real people from the special edition VK Crochet magazine was in order. Today's design features one close to my designing heart, since I love all things tunisian crochet:

 Design: #32 Tunisian Lace Tunic

Mary Beth Temple, of  Getting Loopy! podcast fame, has been a crochet and knit designer for many years. This lovely tunisian lace tunic is, to me, her most engaging tunisian design project to date. American audiences are still learning about the wonders of tunisian lace (although Japanese crochet pattern books are repleat with the technique), and I'm thrilled that someone has a completed project from this design (in fact, there are two thus far).

The interpretation:

Annette (ANetTow on Ravelry) has captured the easy wearing yet sophisticated appeal of Mary Beth's design. She's been crocheting for over two decades, and I was so pleased to see in her notes (as well as her photos!) how blocking really opened up the lace stitches:

 

As anyone who reads this blog regularly is aware, I think blocking is magic. The proof is definitely in the stitchy pudding in this design. Annette also used a light fingering weight merino/bamboo blend, which allows for that great drape.

All in all, a nifty little top that I hope she enjoys wearing for many years to come. My thanks to Annette for her kind permission to use her photos.

There's more in store in this series, so stay tuned. Same bat channel. :)

VK Crochet: 2nd Installment

Happy new week, everyone! In this second installment of my look at finished interperetations of crochet patterns from the recent Vogue Knitting crochet special edition, let's take a look at one of the most amazing interpretations I've seen yet.




Design: #7 Long Dress by Kristin Omdahl

Kristin Omdahl is known for her intricate lace crochet pieces, and this stunning dress doesn't disappoint. Ankle length, it's drama comes in equal parts from the length as well as the amazing lace stitch sections that are pieced together to make the skirt.

And now for the amazing interpretation:

Peggy has absolutely rocked this dress! She took her engineering background and re-engineered the entire pattern to fit both her figure as well as the yarn she used (green variegated Araucania Lonco Multi). She then created a simple green sheath to go underneath the dress, added some great chunky jewelry, et voila - she is so ready for sunset cocktails on the boat.

Who says you have to be runway-thin to be chic? Maybe we need to reimagine who's on the runway.

My sincere thanks to Peggy for kind use of her photo.

Look for another installment of real-life FOs from the VK crochet special edition next week.