Andy's Take on Stitches West

Well One of the Highlights of my Stitches West was spending time at the Warm Up America Booth.I did get to talk to a lot of people in my breaks around the huge mall. One of the People was Karin Skacel, the owner of Skacel Company and there is some new Skacel Crochet Hooks on the works.I also got to chat with the Founder of Malabrigo yarns and they have come out with a superwash worsted way yarn, I was fortunate to receive a skein to test it myself. I also got the opportunity to give Toot's Le Blac another one of my hats for display with they yarns. Yarn has no distinction whether is crochet , knit or weaved, but I believe that the CGOA could have had a bigger say in the classes that were offered, if they offer to give classes that people could attend. I do not know the details of that, but is all on the Guild. If the Guild would have been able to recruit more people we could have promote more the Crochet part of Stitches West, I
believe Stitches West Would have been a 25 /75 crochet knit Event more than a 1 percent crochet. It is in my experience as a Tapestry Crochet Artisan I promote the Art of Crochet. More and more people need to look at their crochet as art, because it is.  Let's see if in the future we can have more impact on events like this one, but if The CGOA does not motivate crocheters to participate is not going to happen.  Knitters are very enthusiastic for whatever reason, but we can be very enthusiastic as well.  We need to find ways of using yarns in a more creative way in crochet.  As a matter of fact I know we do our part at the Men Who Crochet CGOA Chapter to promote crocheting beyond the basics.

As crocheters we need to get our mindset out of wherever it is and promote crochet.  The attitude to have is HOW CAN I turn this event into a promotion for Crochet.  Don't wait for people to make it easy for you to Crochet, make crochet a priority.  Whatever fiber you use whether is acrylic, superwash merino, angora or plain twine, we need to make every opportunity a Crochet Moment.  Do not try to compete with knitting; instead promote crochet as an Art, because it is.  Even a simple Granny square is a work of art, only you can make the difference, nobody else is going to. 

We are hoping to have a more influential venue in the fiber community by participating in the creative process and making a show in the field.  I hope that all of you get to follow our blog.  We also need to have some guidelines from the CGOA for our blog, I do not know if there is such a thing.  We may also want to review,  yarns, hooks, and interview crocheters that have come to our attention.  Anyway enough for today, but remember that we can only have a presence if we show them we are here.

You can see Andy's crafts at
1. http://www.CraftyAndy.net
2. http://home.earthlink.net/~apnevarez