Recrochetions asked for volunteers for this week’s World Wide Artist Blog Hop, so I happily raised my hand.
Here’s how the blog hop works:
Artists around the world post their answers to four questions on their blogs.
They then link to a minimum of one, maximum of three artists who post their own answers the following Monday.
Want to participate? Write me a comment & get ready for the next post! The next Blog Hop post will be September 29.
Here are the 4 questions:
Why do I do what I do?
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
How does my creative process work?
What am I working on now?
Some Previous Participants:
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Why do I do what I do?
It’s funny because only a few years ago, design simply hadn’t crossed my mind. There were patterns out there that needed crocheting, and I had a bunch of hooks & even more yarn to crochet them with.. No one needed my ideas added to the lot.
Now, design is a major part of my crochet time. I have soooo many ideas for patterns, I wish I could devote a lot more time to crocheting them, writing them, editing them, and publishing them, but the reality is that I need to sleep sometimes!
I do what I do because the ideas wouldn’t allow it to be any other way. They want to be made real.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, I design mostly with new or intermediate crocheters in mind. I also do everything I do in the crochet world in French, primarily, and in English.
French crocheters don’t have that many sources of crochet patterns. There’s a real shortage of stylish, modern, interesting crochet patterns available in French, and I’m doing my best to make the shortage go away. That’s why I also often randomly e-mail designers to ask for their blessing to make their creation available to a wider audience. I provide the translation, I advertise for the newly available patterns, and the designer gets sales she otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.
Basically, as I teach more and more students, and reach out to more and more yarn companies, I realize that not only is crochet a very niche market, French crochet is just crazily unavailable.
I want to bring crochet forth in Quebec, and I want to bring French crochet… forther.
Having said that, I made everything I do available in the two languages I speak, because why not!
How does my creative process work?
Eesh. Process… I’m not sure this counts as a process.
It’ll go one of two ways : I’ll have an idea for something – can be super vague or super specific – and I’ll grab some yarn & a hook and work until the idea materializes into the fiber.
Or I’ll have a gorgeous yarn I absolutely must use, and I’ll play with it until something cool happens.
Either way, I take notes & pics in my smartphone, and I leave unwritten items in a basket until I finally get to them. I have a problem putting the hook down in order to write the patterns so I am currently slightly behind in terms of publication.
What am I working on now?
I’m currently in the process of designing a baby blanket using Julie Asselin’s Leizu DK, and an asymetrical top using Royal I by Illimani Yarn.
Also, and it’s been a while since this has happened, I’m crocheting Stephanie’s wrap using Malabrigo lace. This is a pattern based on the knit Colour Affection. When I saw it, and considering the number of knitting students I’ve seen working on the knit version, I sent an e-mail to designer Julie Blagojevich offering to translate the pattern to French for her.
