Here's another design by Bonnie coming soon to a newsstand near you! Starting August 20th, Crochet! Magazine's "Crochet For a Quiet Evening" will be available and will include this Aran Headband made a wool/acrylic blend called "Sheepish" by Caron yarns. I hope you get a chance to pick up a copy. Should you have any trouble with any of the stitches, be sure to check out the instructional videos here at Bonnie Bay Crochet. Happy crocheting!
Crochet! Magazine's special edition "Crochet For a Quiet Evening" will be coming to a news stand near you soon! Included in this special edition will be these fun Celtic Cozies for your iPad, iPad Mini, or other tablet. As always, should you ever need instructional support for these stitches, you can find them here at Bonnie Bay Crochet for free under the video section under Aran Stitches.
I can hardly believe that it has been more than a month since my last posting. My fingers have been so busy feasting on some new fibers! I can't just yet show exactly what I'm working on, but I can point you in the direction of some fiber flavors to try.
If you are looking for yarn with a lovely drape, wonderful feel, and affordable, try Berroco's Weekend. Weekend is an acrylic (75%)/Cotton (25%) blend. It also comes in DK or Chunky weight as well. So far, anything I've been thrilled with anything I've crocheted using yarn with the Berroco label.
If you are looking for cotton yarn with a beautiful sheen, you may want to try Ella Rae's Phoenix. Phoenix is 100% Egyptian Cotton and has a smoother feel than other standard cottons I've used. It too has more of a drapy feel. The colors available are stunning.
Looking for yarn for that very special gift? Check out Alpaca Silk by Blue Sky Alpaca. This yarn is a thinner, light DK weight, with an amazing feel of the alpaca and silk blend (50/50). I you are looking for something thicker, try Blue Sky Alpaca's Worsted Hand Dyes which is 50% alpaca and 50% merino wool. This is great yarn for texturized patterns.
I hope you can check out some of the above websites, or better yet, go visit your local yarn store for the three dimensional experience. I have learned so much in the past year or two just by stopping by So Original (my local yarn shop) and asking Lana lots of yarn questions as well as buying an occasional hank of yarn to somehow justify my time bugging her. It reminds of being a kid and discovering that crayon boxes come with 64 (or is it 128?) colors, instead of just the standard 8 in those smaller boxes. Yarn is so much better though! It feels so much better, doesn't smell like wax and won't melt (like mine did in the Florida sun)....
Oh! One more thing - remember the Beach Bling Anklet from my May post? I made another one with Swarovski Elements beads and absolutely love it! In fact, I've bought some more Swarovski beads in another color so that I'll have a few choices to go with my summer outfits. If you need the pattern, just check out the summer edition of Crochet! Magazine. As always, if you ever have any crochet questions, I'll be glad to give them a try.
If you are looking for some refreshingly fun & summer projects, check out the Summer 2013 edition of Crochet! Magazine available at your local craft store or at CrochetMagazine.com. My Beach Bling Anklet (p. 12) is easy to make, fun to wear, and takes less than an hour to create.
This year will mark many milestones for our family: I'm now officially 1/2 a century old, Craig & I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, and our oldest child will continue her college education away from home in the fall. In response to all these things, my sweet husband surprised us with a trip of a lifetime! All seven of us traveled to Europe, starting off with 5 amazing days in Paris! I'll let the attached photos show you some of our blessings along the way. I am so thankful that I could share it with my children instead of having to try to describe the indescrible to them when we returned.
Enjoying breakfast at a sidewalk cafe in Paris. We really enjoyed the fresh French bread everyday! This sweet lady treated us like her family, and she didn't even speak English! We found the people in Paris to be very kind and accomodating.
The Eiffel Tower at dusk...
How can you crochet at 200 mph? In the TGV train - on our way from Paris to Switzerland! Another surprise planned by Craig.
Here's the rest of our gang. I must have counted to "7" at least a thousand times during the trip just to make sure we still had everyone. See - counting stitches over and over again does actually come in handy sometimes!
Walking across the Rhine River in Basel, Switzerland, all luggage in tow. We were on the way to pick up our rental van. Basel is also the home town of one of our tennis favorities, Roger Federer.
My daughter Becky and me - trying to stay warm in the Swiss Alps.
One of the many spectacular views of God's creation we were blessed to experience.
Another incredible view. Looks like a great place to retire, huh?
A view from a castle in Germany.
A small taste of home in a foreign land: Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream.
A sobering visit to Dachau Concentration Camp. The gate reads "Arbeit Macht Frei", which is "Work will make you free," the biggest lie of the 20th century. Every prisoner walked through these gates. We were able to do what many prisoners never could - we freely walked back out of these gates after our visit.
Part of the original security fence that surrounded the compound. I will spare you any other photos. If there is any doubt in your mind about the doctrine of the depravity of man, this place will remove any doubts.
Look what we found for sale in a high fashion Italian shoe store right near the Trevi Fountain in Rome: crochet sandals! That's not all. I also found a pair of crocheted racing gloves and a cabled hat at the Ferrari Store! Looks like crochet is alive and well in Europe. : )
The Coliseum at dusk. Our apartment in Rome was only 3 blocks away!
A visit to another ancient city, Ostia Antica.
A hummingbird moth, one of the many little ways we were divinely blessed on this trip.
Visiting with the Lanz Family in Switzerland.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit my website as we celebrate National Crochet Month together! I want to thank Amy Shelton and Donna Hulka for all their hard work and enthusiasm in setting this up for us. You can check out their site at Crochetville for a complete list of participating designers. Don't forget to check out Project Night Night, and see how you can help their wonderful cause of providing "Night Night" packages - free of charge - to homeless children in need of a little extra comfort. If you aren't a member of the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) I want to encourage you to learn more. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned crocheter, young or "mature", CGOA is the place for you! Be sure to see Marcy Smith's blog post today on the tour at the CGOA page.
I've got a few goodies that I hope will bless you. Below you'll find an instructional video on how to block a crocheted piece made of acrylic. You'll also find a story of how I stumbled into designing.
If you scroll down to the March 10 blog entry, you'll find my latest free pattern: the Dubonnet Poncho - just in time for spring! Of course you are very welcomed to peruse my other free patterns simply by going to the tab "patterns" and scrolling down to "free patterns". I am also making my Leisure Arts leflets Aran Afghans and Noggins & Necks available at a discounted price. If you buy both I will even cover the cost of shipping! Just click the "Bonnie's Leisure Arts Patterns" tab at the top of the page.
Should you need any help with some of the Aran crochet stitches, just check out the free instructional videos under the video tab. Make sure you choose RH for right-handers, or LH for left-handers. If at any time you have questions, just let me know! Interracting with other crocheters is one of the biggest blessings in the world to me.
Resting in His grace,
Bonnie Barker
How I Became A Crochet Designer
by Bonnie Barker
My journey into the publication world began in a very unlikely place - the county fair. For years I had entered crochet projects, always hoping for that elusive purple champion ribbon for my work. Well, one year it actually happened! Not only did I get a purple ribbon for my afghan, but also the “Best of Show” for the crochet department! To say the least, I was thrilled.
About two weeks after the fair had ended I received a call from a woman in New Jersey who had visited our fair in Maryland. She really liked my afghan and wanted to know where I bought the pattern. I explained that it was an original pattern and I had not even thought to put it in print. That phone call really made me think. If this lady, whom I had never met was interested in purchasing this pattern, maybe others would also be interested. Since this was just one of several original afghan patterns that I had crocheted over the years, I decided to contact the only publisher I knew, Leisure Arts. Using a simple point and shoot digital camera, I photographed 4 afghans and e-mailed the photos to them. Within a short time I received a response from them, asking me to send the afghans to their office in Arkansas. Since I had never dealt with publishers before, I felt a little uneasy boxing up about 5 years worth of work and sending it off. It was almost as if I were boxing up my children and sending them! I had one other afghan that could round out the set, so Leisure Arts said to include it. At this point there was no guarantee of anything. I only knew that they wanted a closer look at my work.
Within a week or two I received the exciting news that I would be offered a contract for the rights to my afghans! The purple ribbons made me excited, but this had me walking on air for a few days. Now all I had to do was to wait for the contract to come in the mail. I knew that there would be a small advance until the booklet would be published, but I had no clue as to how much this would be. I did the only thing I knew how to do at this point: pray. I prayed for a specific amount of money, and with this prayer I wanted to commit 20% of any earnings to the Lord through a ministry that has been near and dear to my heart - the orphanage in Guadalupe, Mexico called Rancho 3M. The day finally arrived when I received the contract and I was stunned. The total advance for the publication of my Aran Afghans was the exact total that I had prayed for plus 20% more! I knew God answers prayers, but I am so much more aware of His sovereign hand in all the details of life, including something as seemingly obscure as crochet publications. Of course He is THE Master Designer.
My dad in Korea, 1952.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the day my dad was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetary. Dad was a veteran of the Korean War. Only six months after he married Mom, he was called to serve his country.
Not only was he a defender of liberty, but he was a very creative man as well. He was always trying something new. He could look at a picture in a book and then would set to drawing his version out on paper, complete with measurements and a list of what he would need. He could draw anything simply by just looking at it - without using a grid. He was the ultimate DIY guy of his day - all without a computer or the internet! As a tribute to my dad, Robert John Schweitzer (or "Bob" to all who knew and loved him), I want to share with you the following essay. I love and miss you Dad.
A final salute for PFC Robert J. Schweitzer at Arlington National Cemetery, February 21, 2003
What’s an Afghan?
By Bonnie Barker
The other day I was visiting with a young friend and his mom and the word afghan came up in conversation. “What’s an afghan?” this young boy queried. We quickly answered with something like, “a fancy word for a blanket,” and moved on along in our conversation, getting back to our main discussion that had nothing to do with his question.
This morning as this stray thought once again entered my mind, I am transported back to a different time and place as I recall my first discovery of this marvelous word. About the time when I was a 7 year-old girl, my neighbor taught me a couple of crochet stitches. It was then that I discovered the yarn department at the G.C. Murphy & Co. Store in Hialeah, FL. I had been in that store numerous times, usually on a Friday evening because that’s just what we did as a family on Fridays. This store had one of the last true soda fountains where you could get the most wonderful cherry coke served up by friendly waitresses that walked back and forth serving folks sitting at the long counter. You could watch everything they created – and to a child like me, this was amazing! I have many a fond memories sipping a coke sitting next to my dad, as I spun around and around on the circular post seats.
Now as I mentioned above, G.C. Murphy had a yarn aisle. Some stores today have some yarn as a token representative to their craft section, but this was different – gloriously different and spoke of a time when more people crocheted and knitted on a regular basis. We didn’t have computers and other electronic devices to “save time” for us, thus we had time for the home arts.
Back then it was popular to buy afghan kits. Usually all the yarn and even the proper size hook would be included in the package. The yarn was never in handy pull-skeins. Oh no. It came in a long mass of yarn wrapped around a piece of cardboard about a yard long and had to be wound carefully into balls, usually requiring a second pair of hands, just like out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
I remember my first afghan I made this way. It was a multi-colored blue ripple afghan kit that had eight shades of blue 2-ply yarn, the blues ranging from very dark to very light. I don’t know who was amazed more when this project was finished, my mom or me! It didn’t really matter that it wasn’t perfect, but that it was completed and I did it! Soon after I did the next logical thing. As soon as I could scrape the necessary funds together, I bought another one. This time I picked out the more popular one of the day – you might remember – the one with browns, yellows and oranges in it in a gradual order from dark to light. I actually followed the directions this time and it ended up looking almost like the picture on the box! I was elated.
Fast-forward about 35 years. Now this same afghan rests on my mom’s recliner that she occupies a lot these days in her in-law suite that’s attached to our home. It still has a small hole in it at one end. Mom doesn’t want me to fix the hole. It reminds her of when Dad accidentally poked his toe through it a number of years ago. This afghan would accompany my dad to his last hospital visit, perhaps as a small reminder of the comforts of home.
My dad has been with the Lord a number of years now, yet we have many reminders of his life in our home, not the least of which is a well-worn afghan with an un-repaired hole. Now that I think of it, perhaps that old afghan is much more than a blanket, and just maybe the word “afghan” is much more than a fancy word….
© 2023 Bonnie Bay Crochet
