Stitches West 2015

Top down sweaters, floral garland, and sampler wall

The Stitchwhisper booth at Stitches West 2015 (#846) was a wonderful success!  For four days, I talked with lots of visitors about all manner of crochet ideas, all leading to patterns and finished pieces to be posted soon to Etsy, and more pieces to be available at the Scotts Valley Artisans Co-op.

My focus on crochet is on the fabric, rather than on the stitch, so my pieces don't look like afghans or doilies.

Block and diagonal garments, shawls, and samplers

Crochet is more complex at a basic level than knitting.  That means that pattern-writing for knitting doesn't always work well for crochet.

Knit stitches are simple, so it is easier to make gauge.  Knit fabrics in process are on needles, making them difficult to measure.

Crochet has more complex stitches, so making gauge can be a real challenge, if not impossible for a lot of folks.  Crochet is worked one stitch at a time, so measuring the fabric in process is usually very easy:  you just lay it flat and measure it.

It makes more sense for crochet patterns to be written based on measurements than on gauge -- I've worked this way for decades.  The concept patterns on this blog very often are about measurements rather than stitches and rows.  And now my patterns will show how it makes sense.