It has taken me forever to blog about it, but words cannot express the amazing time I had at this years Crochet Guild of America summer conference held in Buffalo, NY. I know that I want to pursue a future with crochet, and can't wait till the next conference. I learned a lot, some great crochet techniques, and about the industry. And I think I know where I want to go. So watch out!
Today, I am just going to briefly discuss the folks that I met, and in the next few days, I'll show more pics and discuss more detailed thoughts about the conference.
As you can see, I got a chance to meet Drew Emborsky, The Crochet Dude. He was super-friendly and a great person to learn from (and a lot taller than I expected). I think I have about 5,000 pictures with him because whenever people saw us together they wanted to snap pictures of two male crocheters. I guess it was like seeing a purple dinosaur...but wait, there's Barney. You get the point however...
I had an opportunity to converse with a number of other "crochet celebrities" that I follow on shows like Knitty Gritty, Uncommon Threads, and Knit and Crochet Today. In addition to Drew I met, Myra Wood (she has always impressed me with her smart look), Jennifer Hansen, and Lily Chin (my idol).
But in addition to these TV folks, I got to meet some dope designers who were sweet as pie, and extremely generous--Vashti Braha, Charles the Stitch Stud, the superfly Kim Guzman (and her son Derek), Donna Childs, Marty Miller, Kimberly McAlindin, Amy Shelton and Donna Hulka of Crochetville, Jerry, and Molly Made.
I have a lot to blog about, but I took three amazing classes,
- a shaping class with Lily Chin--that inspired me to work on clothes worthy of the runway.
- a hairpin lace join class with Jennifer Hansen that was frustrating, because I realized that I didnt know how to do a regular hairpin lace strip. But she was amazing.
- and a tunisian crochet class where I learned how to do TRUE cables that look like knitting. AMAZING. The teacher was Darla Fanton.
I will definitely be taking the things that I learned and incorporating them into my crochet design.
The conference was amazing because for the first time I got to see the industry that makes up crochet. And it is a business. I left the conference feeling hopeful about my future in crochet, and wondering what I can do to add some jengibre and spice up things in the crochet world.
I have a lot more to share...