GO CROCHET! DO IT NOW! by Brittany Tyler

When Team Tangled was interviewed by Mary Beth Temple a few weeks ago, she asked us if we had a favorite project to crochet.  Tracy and I agreed that we both liked a good crocheted afghan.  Though I’ve never really noticed it before, I pretty consistently have a blanket project on a hook almost always, no matter what other projects I am working on (or not working on… or should be working on).  Crocheted afghans are just so satisfying.  The repetitive nature of crocheted patterns keeps a project like a blanket second-natured enough to work on it while watching a movie, talking with a friend, or snuggling with needy schnauzers – you would be surprised by what I can do with a pair of  schnauzers in my lap.  Crocheted afghans, too, work up much more quickly than knitted blankets and don’t have to fit your body in any way. Does this afghan make my butt look big? 

I recently got a copy of Ellen Gormley’s Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workbook … as if I needed more projects to add to my list.  My crafting queue has long exceeded my life expectancy and I’m only 25.  My science-minded boyfriend assures me, however, that humankind is on the brink of near immortality.  In the excited heat of trying to describe to me inevitabilities like medical nanobots (Google it), I can see the annoyance in his eyes when I interrupt him with quips like, “You mean I might have time to knit through my entire stash?!?!?  Clearly I should buy more yarn!”  But I digress…

Go Crochet! (I love the imperativeness of the title.) is an excellent reference for your crafting library with 50 motif instructions and 10 blanket patterns.  There are other books out there with more crocheted motif patterns in them, but Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workbook provides excellent instruction on how to join the motifs together and has an expansive beginning section that illustrates all of the techniques required to make the subsequent panels and blankets – great for beginners.  The photography is not only attractive, but is also very thoughtfully done.  Crocheters will really appreciate the relatively large, color photographs of each motif in addition to written instructions and a clear chart (thank you Krause Publications).  Additionally, the spiral binding is a nice touch and ensures the book will lay flat while you follow the instructions.  It’s difficult enough to crochet a blanket while two schnauzers fight for the limited space provided by my lap and I try to understand what new technological breakthrough my nerdy boyfriend is attempting in vain to explain to me – I appreciate any little thing that helps streamline the process between that initial slip knot and a finished project.  On that note, I thinks it’s great that Ellen took great care to ensure that all of the motifs have the same number of stitches on each side (with the exception of the long sides of the triangle panels), so they will fit together nicely no matter how you mix and match them and many are easy to join-as-you-go.  This combinability is most evident in the “All Call” pattern which utilizes every motif in the book at least once!  How cool!

Go Crochet Afghan Design Workbook is available through Krause Publications.

Check out these Tangled patterns by Ellen Gormley:

HOW THE PEA POD PURSE WAS BORN by Anna Tirat-Gefen

Pregnant with Ideas, or the Birth of Pea Pod Purse by Anna Tirat-Gefen

Pregnant with my third child, I was having a physically easy, but psychologically difficult pregnancy. I was feeling energetic, but high-risk pregnancy status imposed by previous health history forced me to “take it easy”. I was bursting with creative ideas – a good way to get distracted from obsessive worrisome thoughts about my condition.

That’s when I saw a call for design submissions for Tangled magazine. It was to be their premier issue – and the idea for the Pea Pod Purse was born, the project was completed shortly before my daughter’s birth – and the “birth” of Tangled soon followed.

The idea for the purse construction, most details, and even calculations were ready at the idea submission stage. But as it often happens, the project took a bit longer than anticipated – the yarn used in the pattern was different from my swatch, it had different felting properties, and led to several recalculations and a few froggings of the work in progress. I always leave myself more time than I think I need, so the project was still on schedule to be mailed to Tangled in time for the deadline.

‘Twas the night before mailing. The finishing work was left to be done. The zipper sewed in, the bottom and the “peas” attached, the bag ready to be packed for mailing… But alas, there were still no handles! I had not defined the design for the handles to the same detail as the bag itself, and I thought that if I were out of time and ideas, I could just buy a ready-made set of handles at a craft store. But time was passing, and I couldn’t envision a handle that will go well with the purse, and I didn’t shop for them at all. I realized that I would have to make them myself.

The handles had to be created right now, at midnight, from materials at hand.

The guiding principle of my design is simplicity. It doesn’t mean that my designs are elementary or boring. It means that if there are several possible ways to achieve the desired result, I will do my best to choose the easiest way.

This is something that was not an obvious truth for me from the beginning – it is wisdom I have acquired with years. When learning something new, one naturally tries to embellish and excel in ways of complicated execution. I have learned from experience, both as a designer, and in my other job as an engineer and a scientist, that the best and most elegant solution is the least complicated solution. The simplest way to create something is not always the easiest to design – often it requires innovation, and doing things in ways not done before.

Back to the handles – I could crochet them from the same yarn the bag was made of. However, this design required fine balance. The handles had to be shaped just right. They had to be stiff enough to hold the weight of the purse without stretching out or deforming – that condition naturally limited their length and width. The handles also couldn’t be too narrow, they had to be wide enough to be flat and not round in cross-section. In addition, they had to be sturdy and feel firm. And following my principle of simplicity, I have decided not to reinforce handles with anything (it has crossed my mind to insert plastic embroidery canvas cut to shape inside the handle, but I quickly dismissed the idea).

For stiffness, I decided to work the handles with the yarn held double, and a smaller hook. I would also make two of the shape for each handle, to make the fabric double thick. But the guideline of simplicity dictated that each handle is to be worked in one piece, and then folded in half to double the fabric. I sketched a shallow arc shape for the handles, real size and shape. Then I measured the length of the inside and outside edges of the handle. How do you measure the length of a curved line? It is simple – I took a length of yarn, lay it along the sketched line and marked the ends. Then I straightened the yarn and measured its length with a tape measure. Now I knew the length of both arches. I measured the drawn handle width, and from the gauge swatch I knew how many rows I had to work from the inside edge to the outside edge, and from the difference in length between the inside and outside edge I knew how many total increases I would have to make in those rows. Then I had to calculate the places to put the increases, so that the handle would keep its circle segment shape. And lastly, because it was worked in one piece and folded along the outside edge, I had to decrease symmetrically on the second half of the piece.

Anna’s Notes

The first time I crocheted the handle from my notes, it came out perfectly. A bit of geometry, a bit of algebra, some mechanical engineering, and a dose of late night creativity coupled with luck worked their magic.

I mailed the purse to Tangled in May. My daughter Naomi was born in June. The first issue of the best ever, vibrant and sophisticated bicraftual magazine was born in September. Happy Birthday!

Want your own Pea Pod Purse?  You can download the pattern here.