Crocheting on HGTV this Thursday

Thursday, March 25, at 6:30 am (EDT and PDT) I’ll be on HGTV’s “Uncommon Threads,” crocheting an Easter bunny with my friends Julianne and Naomi. The show was filmed several years ago – and was the first of three shows that we taped – but we haven’t seen it yet.

The original idea I submitted was for three baskets. The producers liked those designs and wanted to expand each one into an entire show. Not only that, but they wanted me to bring a couple of members of my club (!) to tape the shows with me. A couple of hurried phone calls later (“Hey, how’d you like a free trip to California to crochet on TV?”), and “Three on a Swatch” was born.

We ended up doing a beaded crochet episode with the beaded basket, along with a beaded wrap and a bracelet; a summer picnic set with the bumblebee basket and placemats; and the Easter crochet show with a blue-and-yellow Easter basket. However, the producers decided they wanted the bunny to take up the whole Easter show so when we arrived for the taping they told us just to forget about the basket!

Naturally, we couldn’t make “Ralph” in real-time with the cameras rolling, so I prepared dozens of what are called “step-outs,” basically works in progress. It took forever because “Ralph” is 16 inches tall. The production assistants switched the samples in and out to simulate the process of crocheting the bunny from start to finish. It’s a good thing my luggage wasn’t opened by the authorities or I would have had to do some fast talking to explain the disembodied rabbit parts!

The Easter basket pattern is in my book, Basic Crocheting, and the bunny is in Beyond Basic Crocheting. It will be fun to watch the show after all this time.

Flamies Award Nomination

An exciting first for me! Tunisian Crochet: The Look of Knitting with the Ease of Crocheting has been nominated for a Flamie award on Ravelry in the category of “Best Crochet Pattern Book 2009.”

Let me back up. For anyone who is not familiar with Ravelry, it is an online community of yarn folks. Every craft and interest is represented, with groups and forums for each. The Crochet Liberation Front Headquarters group sponsors annual awards in several categories, including pattern book, instructional book, magazines, designs, instructors, etc. These are The Flamies. (The group does not have a knit-bashing focus, but rather seeks to help crochet get its due.)

Online voting is taking place now and ends March 18th. The awards are scheduled to be announced on Mary Beth Temple’s April 19th “Getting Loopy” podcast. There are so many worthy entries, it’s really great to see how much exciting work is being done in the craft of crochet.