March 17 National Crochet Month: A Tour through Crochet Country

National Crochet Month Continues

You’ve arrived at A Tour Through Crochet Country! During March 2013, Crochetville is hosting a daily designer blog tour in celebration of National Crochet Month. Each day, we visit the blogs of one or two crochet designers, who share something with us — a free crochet pattern or tutorial, a peek into their studio or a-day-in-the-life, a coupon code, or something else special. Join us each day for a new surprise!

On our 17th day of A Tour through Crochet Country, we’re visiting Brenda Bourg and Susan Lowman for CGOA.

[button link=”http://brendabourg.blogspot.com/”]Today’s Stop 1: Visit Brenda Bourg[/button]

Brenda is yet another designer I’ve had the good fortune to spend time with at Chain Link conferences. She has the most gorgeous, corkscrew-curly hair that I’m very envious of. She also lives in the mountains of Colorado and has posted some beautiful photos of her local scenery on her Facebook page. Those photos make me miss the Great Smoky Mountains that were just a hop, skip, and a jump away from where I grew up in east Tennessee.

She is presently serving as chair of CGOA’s Professional Development committee. If you’re interested in becoming a professional or associate professional member of CGOA, she’s the one who will review your application and get you in touch with our mentor coordinator if you’d like to be paired with an established professional who will serve as a mentor as you learn more about becoming a crochet professional. (Guess what: There’s no cost for a mentor beyond the standard CGOA membership fee. Isn’t that unbelievable?)

Brenda has had more than a few designs published in Crochet! and Crochet World magazines. You can also find her patterns on the Red Heart, Caron, KnitPicks, and Craftsy websites. Brenda also knits and spins, although she loves the speed of crochet!

Would you believe this striking Tunisian afghan below can actually be worked with a regular crochet hook? This afghan is not stitched in rows of alternating colors as you might think. Instead, it features a unique center-out construction method. You work on only one square at a time as you work each row. Since each square is only 7 stitches wide, you can use a regular crochet hook with no problem at all.

We had this afghan on display in the Red Heart/Crochetville booth at Stitches West in February 2013. It seems like everybody who came into the booth was absolutely fascinated with it. I can’t even count the number of times people wanted to pick it up, unfold it, and take a very close look. I’d be interested to know how many times that pattern was downloaded the week after Stitches! I’m sure it will soon be gracing many homes in California.

I absolutely love the colors in Brenda’s Fantasy Fair Isle Crochet Socks. If you love the look of Fair Isle but don’t enjoy working with multiple strands of yarn, these socks are for you. Brenda’s developed a special technique combining front post single crochet and self-striping yarn to give a fabulous faux Fair Isle effect.

 

[button link=”http://cgoanow.blogspot.com”]Today’s Stop 2: Visit Susan Lowman for CGOA[/button]

Since a major point of our blog tour is to highlight designers who are professional and associate professional members of CGOA, it seems fitting that we have a few special posts that are designed to spotlight CGOA itself in a more meaningful way. Our second stop today is to the CGOA blog where Susan Lowman, Chair of the Masters Committee, will share with us about the CGOA Master of Advanced Crochet Stitches and Techniques program. This program gives crocheters whose skills are at least at the intermediate level a chance to “stretch their knowledge and show mastery of advanced crochet techniques and stitches.”

Susan Lowman will be back with us on March 26, blogging for herself. Donna will post a short biographical sketch of Susan with a look at a couple of her designs at that time.

See You Again Tomorrow!

I hope you enjoyed today’s stops visiting with Brenda Bourg and Susan Lowman for CGOA. Please come join us again tomorrow when we’ll visit with Rhonda Davis and Tammy Hildebrand for CGOA.

Our Little Giveaway: Autographed Pattern Postcard

Each day of A Tour Through Crochet Country, we’ll be giving away two promo postcards, one to each of two winners. These are only available at our 2013 consumer show booths, and will be autographed by both of us, Amy Shelton and Donna Hulka, co-owners of Crochetville! The postcard includes Amy Shelton’s exclusive X Marks the Spot scarf pattern.

To enter, please leave a comment below answering this question: What is the next crochet skill you would like to learn?

The fine print: Must be 13 or older to enter. Entries must be received by 12:00 midnight Pacific time on the date of this post. Winners will be selected by random drawing and notified by email the following day. Void where prohibited by law.

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All photos used with permission or under the Fair Use Exclusion of US copyright law.