World Wide Artist Blog Hop

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:

Kim Guzman

Crochet Memories

Look At What I Made

Recrochetions

 

 

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.