NatCroMo 2016, March 15: Lori M. Carlson

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The Crochet Express National Crochet Month Blog Tour

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Welcome to Crochetville’s fourth annual National Crochet Month (NatCroMo) blog tour, taking place each day of March 2016. Join us as we take a virtual tour on our passenger steam train, The Crochet Express, visiting crochet designers, crochet-friendly local yarn stores, and yarn companies, and offer some fun giveaways.

Want to Chat about the Tour?

Part of the fun of taking a passenger steam train trip is talking with your fellow passengers. This year, we’re providing two locations where our passengers can get to know each other. We’d 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!)

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Lori M. Carlson, Shrone Designs

Crochetville is very proud to have designer Lori M. Carlson with us today as one of the featured designers on our 2016 Designer Blog Tour in honor of National Crochet Month (NatCroMo). If you’d like to know even more about Lori, check out our post from last year’s blog tour.

About Lori:

I reside in North Carolina with my husband and six cats. I do most of my designing in the fall and winter as during the spring and summer I’m busy with volunteering, tending to our extensive butterfly and native flower garden, and raising butterflies. I’m starting on my sixth year of being a primarily thread crochet designer. This past year I ventured forth into designing with yarn. I enjoy walking local trails in the warm months, dabbling with macro photography, and being culinarily adventurous. In addition to all of that I’m very much a science geek at heart.

Tell us about your favorite travel destination.

I’m more of a person who enjoys the journey a slight bit more than the destination. I love going on road trips and planning the route we’ll take, finding where we’ll stop to eat, and where we’ll spend the night. My husband and I like finding off the beaten path quirky places and roadside attractions, botanical gardens, historic places, museums, and intriguing or beautiful places in nature.

Tell us about a “dream” travel location that you’d like to visit one day.

My dream destination has a bit of a backstory: about 20 years ago my younger brother was describing a woman he had seen in a store. He called her a shrone, but I think he jumbled up the word crone. Something about his mixed-up word struck a chord in me. I was curious to know if it was an actual word in any language so I searched but being that the Internet as we know it was quite new I found nothing. It was a few years later that I actually was able to find out that Shrone is a for real word, or more accurately a real place. It is the name of a tiny village in Ireland that has historical significance dating back to the Neolithic. In Irish it is known as “Cathair Crobh Dearg” (Red Claw’s Enclosure). The site was used as a place for Druid and Pagan rituals and religious ceremonies going back five to six thousand years and remained in use until the widespread conversion to Christianity.

Do you visit yarn stores when traveling? If so, tell us about one of your favorite finds.

Once upon a time, back before I took up designing, I did check out yarn stores while exploring new cities and locations. When I decided to focus on thread crochet I stopped going as typically thread crochet is not sold in local yarn shops, and if they do carry thread the selection is minimal.

Do you have any stories or anything else travel-related that you’d like to share with our blog tour readers?

On our second road trip across the country to relocate to North Carolina I planned a route that would allow us to visit three different cities all named Centralia. At the time of our move we lived in Centralia, Washington, the town I was born in. The other towns we visited were Centralia, Kansas; Centralia, Missouri; and Centralia, Illinois. All four towns have a Locust Street which we intentionally sought out to take a picture of, and I mailed myself postcards from each town. I also got pictures of each respective “welcome to the city” sign.

Visit Lori’s Site: NatCroMo Specials

I’ll be debuting three new pendant designs that are super geeky. The trio is a group of molecules: chlorophyll, heme, and phthalocyanin. All share a common central structure of four hexagons arrange in a circle. A one day only discount will be offered.

A Few of Lori’s Designs:

Caffeine and Chocolate Molecule Earrings, $5.50

Get your geek on with molecules! Caffeine and theobromine are a pair of molecules that are structurally similar called purines. The difference between them is an additional methyl group bonded to a nitrogen. Caffeine is a molecule found in plants and acts as a natural insecticide. In humans it acts as a stimulant. It can be found in assorted plant-derived foods and beverages, like coffee and tea. Theobromine is a molecule found in chocolate and has a bitter taste. The methyl groups are represented by a triple picot; the double bonded oxygens are represented by an open picot. For super geeks 1,3,7-trimethylpurine-2,6-dione and 3,7-dimethylpurine-1H-2,6-dione are the systematic names for caffeine and theobromine respectively.

Vasantasri Necklace, $5.50

Vasantasri is a feminine Sanskrit name meaning “the beauty of spring.” Inspired by an actual mehndi (henna tattoo) design, this necklace features a medallion center composed of stemmed picots surrounded by a layer of shell-stitch petals.

Winter’s Night Necklace, $5.50

This Victorian-inspired choker necklace features a starburst created with split front-post double treble crochet stitches creating a richly textured design. Perfect to wear with casual clothes or for a night out.