NatCroMo 2016, March 7: Susan Lowman

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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.

Today’s Posts: Justyna Kacprzak | Susan Lowman | Annelies Baes | Kelbourne Woolens | Daily Giveaway

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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Susan Lowman, The Crochet Architect

Crochetville is very proud to have designer Susan Lowman 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 Susan, check out our post from last year’s blog tour.

About Susan:

I have been married for 38 years and have 3 grown sons, as well as 1 daughter-in-law. I learned to crochet as a teenager in the 70’s (over 40 years ago) and have been designing crochet patterns for 17 years now. I strive to create quality patterns that are easy to read and follow, making them enjoyable for my customers to crochet. Many of my patterns include symbol crochet charts and/or step-by-step photos of different crochet techniques used in the pattern. I love to crochet and share my crochet knowledge with others through my crochet classes, tutorials and patterns.

Tell us about your favorite travel destination.

My favorite travel destination is Hawaii, followed closely by China. My husband and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary 5 years ago with a fabulous week on Kauai. Last year, we spent 2 1/2 weeks visiting 2 of our 3 sons (and our daughter-in-law) who were living in Beijing, China. It was a wonderful trip filled with lots of new things to see, do and eat! Our kids were the best tour guides, too!

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

While on our trip in China last year, our youngest son took my husband and me to a Chinese book store one day. The store had many levels and all sorts of books. Of course, I looked all over for the crochet section and finally found it. I bought 6 Chinese knit/crochet books for only $40 US dollars total (they would have cost at least double that much if bought in the US)! The books are written in Chinese, but I can still read the symbol crochet/knit charts in them! I’ve become a big crochet pattern collector over the past 40 years and I love collecting crochet/knit books from other countries, especially when they include symbol crochet charts!

Packing: Tell us about any crochet clothing or accessories you pack when traveling. Do you have any really cool packing tips to share?

While on a trip/vacation, if you’ve purchased more yarn that your suitcase can hold, try using a travel bag that you can suck the air out of to pack your new yarn in to bring it home. The yarn compacts in the bag so you can fit more in your suitcase and it springs back to life after you open the travel bag, allowing air back in, when you arrive home with your luscious new yarn!

Tell us about any crochet projects you take with you when traveling: How many projects do you take? How do you decide which ones to take?

I hate to run out of projects to work on when I’m traveling, so I take more projects than I can possibly finish! I try to take a variety of projects, too, like an easy project or 2, an intermediate project or 2 and an advanced project. Sometimes when I’m on vacation, I want to relax with an easy project and sometimes I want the challenge of an advanced project. I definitely don’t want all of my projects being too easy or too hard because I have different brain power on different days and in different circumstances!

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

I would recommend you bring extra crochet hooks with you on your vacations. You certainly don’t want to lose your hook on a plane or between the seats of the car and not be able to work on your project during your vacation! Bringing extra hooks is a really good idea!

Visit Susan’s Site: NatCroMo Specials

I’m offering a free scarf pattern (Luck o’ the Irish Scarf, Reg. price $3.95) and 25% off all crochet patterns on my website, www.The Crochet Architect.com, from March 7-31, 2016.

A Few of Susan’s Designs:

Crochet Mosaic Scarf, $$4.95

With its striking geometric design, this mosaic scarf is fun to crochet and wear! The scarf is a lot easier to make than it looks, since only one color of yarn is used in each row! As an added bonus, there are no tails to weave in on the scarf, since the tails are added into the fringe!

Unforgettable Ripple Cowl, $$4.95

This gorgeous cowl uses only 1 skein of yarn, making it an economical project. It’s made with a simple ripple pattern, which is quick to memorize and easy to crochet. The beautiful colors of the yarn make it perfect to wear with any outfit! Made with an easy care acrylic yarn, this may become your favorite cowl for years to come!

Faux Tatted Jewelry Set, $$7.95

Our “faux” tatted jewelry set looks like it’s tatted, but it’s actually crocheted! This versatile necklace, bracelet and earrings can be made in any color of crochet thread, as well as any desired buttons, beads or charms to go with your favorite outfits! You’ll get many compliments wearing this one-of-a-kind jewelry set!