2017 NatCroMo Blog Tour, March 29: Amy Shelton

A-Glamping We Will Go: 5th Annual National Crochet Month Blog Tour

Welcome to Crochetville’s fifth annual National Crochet Month (NatCroMo) blog tour, taking place each day of March 2017. Join us for a month of virtual glamping (aka glamorous camping), as we visit crochet designers, crochet-friendly local yarn stores, and yarn companies, as well as offer some fun giveaways.

Today’s Posts: Amy Shelton | Kirsten Holloway | Sparkle Studio | Daily Giveaway

Want to Chat about the Tour?

Part of the fun of glamping is the daily round-up around the campfire, chatting and stitching with friends. We hope you’ll join us in our NatCroMo Facebook group, where we’ll be sharing daily camping recipes, campfire songs about crochet, and so much more! We’d also love to hear about your favorite things you’ve discovered on the tour and see photos of your current crochet projects. You’re invited to join us daily for virtual cocktails/appetizers and dinner. (We’ll be sharing links to some fabulous recipes!)

[button-blue url=”https://www.facebook.com/groups/nationalcrochetmonth/” target=”_blank” position=”center”]Facebook: Click Here[/button-blue]

Amy Shelton, Crochetville

Crochetville is very proud to have designer Amy Shelton with us today, March 29, as one of the featured designers on our 2017 Designer Blog Tour in honor of National Crochet Month (NatCroMo). If you’d like to know even more about Amy, check out our post from last year’s blog tour.

About Amy:

I come from a family of crocheters. I learned the basics of crochet from my third-grade teacher, then my mother and grandmother, very experienced crocheters themselves, helped me expand my skills. I have been happily crocheting, left-handed, for over 30 years. My favorite things to crochet are all types of garments and accessories. I am a crochet designer, instructor, blogger, and crochet advocate. I teach weaving and crochet classes at yarn stores and fiber festivals across the southeast and online at the Crochetville forum. I served on the board of directors for the Crochet Guild of America for four years and as president in 2011 and 2012. Later this year, I hope to open Sparkle Studio in Huntsville, where you’ll be able to find me working and teaching on a regular basis. You can read more about Studio plans in this blog tour post.

I am very excited that I am now certified to teach Jenny King’s incredible Get Squared method of crocheting fashionable garments from the top-down that are guaranteed to fit you right the first time and every time. This system sounds too good to be true: no gauge swatch, no complicated pattern adjustments, no need to even read a pattern, and you use a J hook with any size yarn! To be honest, the first time Jenny told me about the system I didn’t believe it could possibly be true, as it flies in the face of pretty much everything we thought we knew about crochet. Well, after I watched her teach a class, I was hooked! Jenny is absolutely amazing at coming up with designs that are flattering on more body types than I would ever have thought possible. The Get Squared concept is actually so simple that, once you learn it, you will be able to create all sorts of pattern adaptations on your own, allowing for endless ceativity.

If you’d like to know more about Get Squared, you can watch this short informational video on YouTube. Get Squared is available as an online video system. You can purchase video access and several pattern shortcut add-ons here on Jenny’s site. (If you enter code crochetv at checkout when you purchase the video system, Crochetville receives a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

The videos are really all you need to get started. However, the Get Squared system is so radical and innovative that some people prefer to have an instructor walk them through things, so they can get immediate answers to any questions they may have. I am more than happy to travel to teach Get Squared in yarn shops, at crochet guild chapter meetings, or to any large enough group of crochet friends you may be able to put together. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to have someone come to your area to teach Get Squared. If I live so far away that it’s too expensive to bring me in, I can put you in touch with another of Jenny’s team of certified instructors who may be much closer to you.

Do you crochet in public? If so, when and where?

Absolutely! When my daughter was in high school band, I crocheted at band practices and all the high school football games. These days, I crochet in public regularly at our monthly CGOA chapter meeting, at another weekly stitching group meeting, while waiting in doctor’s offices, and whenever I meet friends for coffee.

Do you have a special place at home where you crochet? Tell us about it.

I’m sort of like my cats: My favorite spot to crochet varies from time to time. Currently, it’s on the couch, where I have a nice natural daylight Ott lamp next to me on the end table.

Share the story of your favorite thing you’ve ever crocheted or designed.

Amy Shelton | Get Squared Tunics

My favorite thing I’ve ever crocheted is usually the most recent project I’ve completed! Right now, I would say I have two favorites: Two tunic tops that are variations of Jenny King’s Get Squared system for making crochet garments. Both of these are made with Omega Yarns’ Mimosa, a fabulous rayon/cotton blend.

Tell us about any other fiber-related hobbies you enjoy.

It might be easier to tell you about fiber-related hobbies I don’t enjoy. Seriously, though, I really do enjoy knitting, weaving, spinning, sewing, embroidery, and the list goes on.

How do you decide what to name your patterns?

As just about every other designer in the tour has stated, naming patterns is hard! There’s no real rhyme or reason to the names I pick. Sometimes it’s serendipity; other times, I spend a lot of time with a thesaurus!

Tell us about your most popular pattern.

adult-royal-crown-amy-shelton-red-heart-yarns

My most popular pattern is the Adult Royal Crown I designed upon request for Red Heart. I had designed a smaller crown with a different yarn that I wore a couple of times in our Crochetville booth at the CGOA conference. Bobbie Matela asked me to design a crown using Red Heart’s thread. I decided it was time to go big or go home, so I designed a MUCH larger crown than the original one. The Adult Royal Crown, made with Red Heart Fashion Crochet Metallics, is a whopping 6″ tall! You definitely feel like royalty when wearing this crown.

Anybody who knows me, knows that I love bling! After I sent this crown in to Red Heart, I made another for myself that I decked out with hundreds of size 6 transparent, sky-blue, silver-lined glass seed beads. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to locate a good picture of that crown right now.

Tell us about your favorite camping location.

Amy Shelton | Gulf Shores

We don’t really go camping, unless you count staying in a condo at the beach as glamping. This is a photo of a beautiful sunset taken from the lagoon-side pier of the condo we stayed in at Gulf Shores, AL last fall.

What is your favorite camping tip?

Stay someplace with electricity so you have heating or air conditioning. And an indoor toilet!

What is your favorite camping snack/meal/recipe?

Fried fresh seafood of any type caught by my husband!

Visit Amy’s Site: NatCroMo Specials

You’re already here visiting my site, so I guess I don’t really need to give you a link! We have another sponsor for today’s Daily Giveaway, but I did give a couple of my paid patterns away for free for a limited time earlier this month. (Sorry, the freebie period has now expired.)

Amy’s Designs:

If you’re not familiar with my work already, I’d like to share three of my designs with you.

classic-montauk-lacy-wrap-amy-shelton-long-island-livestock

1. Classic Montauk Lacy Wrap, FREE with yarn purchase from Long Island Livestock Company

The motif used in this wrap brings to mind gently falling snowflakes on a crisp, frosty winter’s day. Although the air outside might be nipping at your nose, this wrap will keep the rest of you toasty warm. The open laciness of the motif means the wrap will still be perfect for cool spring days or in over-air-conditioned rooms in the summer. Make this wrap in a colorful yarn and the motif will have you thinking of a beautiful floral garden.

La Fantasie Violette Infinity Scarf | Amy Shelton

2. La Fantasie Violette Infinity Scarf, $1.99

My inspiration for this infinity scarf was a solid rectangular knitted scarf with a similar open loop treatment only on the ends as trim. I thought an infinity scarf made entirely of the open loops would look really cool!

Amy SHelton | Janus the Owl

3. Janus the Owl Coffee Cup Cozy, $1.00

This cute little owl is named after Janus, the two-faced Roman god of beginnings and endings. With Janus the Owl on your favorite coffee cup, what a perfect way to begin and end your day!