After a month that started with a long trip and ended with five days of festivities for our friends' wedding, I'm only now getting back into the swing of my normal daily routine involving things like email, blogs, well-timed meals and normal sleep patterns.

A post on Modish today about Wren Handmade's lovely crocheted accessories sparked hours of Etsy surfing.

What are your favourite sources of handmade goods for when you're too busy/tired/uninspired to make your own?

When I was in Manhattan a few weeks ago I was delighted to come across the "9th Street Fence" guerrilla knitting project at the PS122 Gallery at 150 1st Avenue. Crocheted webs and knitted tubes adorned the wrought-iron fence that was surrounded by blue construction poles.

I especially enjoyed the notes people left for each other there.

Ever come across unexpected yarn art during your travels?

I'm in love with this series of crochet-covered sea stones by Margaret Oomen. It's such a lovely juxtaposition.

[Photos by knitalatte11; found via some stream of clicking beginning with a tweet from Sister Diane]

Because of my work in the industry, I've considered crocheting and knitting to be my primary hobbies for a long time. Really, though, I've been a fiction reader since I was a kid. I pretty much always have a book on the go. I've envied people who can read and stitch at the same time; I've never been able to master that feat.

A few months ago I started hearing about a couple of competing absurdities on Twitter and in book and publishing blogs. The Slanket vs. the Snuggie—blankets with giant sleeves! For all of us who love to sit under a warm blanket and read or make stuff, these puppies solve the eternal problem of cold arms. I bet you could hem the sleeves so they don't get in the way of your hook.

Crochet Me member katknit posted in the forums the other day that Bernat has just released patterns (one crochet and one knit) for what they call a wrap-ghan. Now you can make your own blanket-with-sleeves* so you can crochet warmly all the time!

*My unofficial personal policy has been to avoid using the term "afghan" (or any variation thereof) in an effort to move away from the negative stereotypes people hold about crochet, in favour of the more benign "blanket". In this specific case, I hope the Slanket wins out, both because I find the name less annoying and because their website is less obnoxious. Though I gotta say, the Snuggie has a whole culture of pub crawls...

Flickr user Inger Carina's caption to this photo of her lace-crochet work is, "For the record; I don't like guns."

I love the juxtaposition of fine lace and firearms, and I imagine it's a meaningful one whether you're a fan of guns or not (I'm not).

Do you ever find yourself compelled to express your opinions through your crochet work? What's your take on Carina's?

A couple of weekends ago I spent a few days in Portland, Oregon. There to see the west-coast premiere of Handmade Nation, the documentary about the indie craft movement, I ended up enjoying the best crafty weekend in the history of my life. After touring around some crafty hotspots around the city, eating fabulous meals with amazing people, seeing the film and talking long about it, we converged on the warmly welcoming home of Susan Beal to spend a few hours chilling out and making stuff.

Over the course of the afternoon, Sister Diane from Craftypod and I taught Rachel, AKA Average Jane Crafter, how to crochet. And Rachel asked the same questions every single beginner crocheter has ever asked me. See, we started Rachel off making a granny square, and after that proved a frustrating first project, I set her up simply making double crochets in rows. By the end of the afternoon, I was wondering something that hadn't occurred to me before: Why on earth do we start brand-new crocheters out with double crochet? When you're not yet familiar with what stitches look like and how to count them, why do we start them on a stitch that requires skipping at the beginning of a row, and working into a turning chain at the end? This, people, is a dumb thing we experienced crocheters do. We should stop.

But until we do, I hope these tips will help out new crocheters who are struggling despite assurances that crochet is easy as pie. Sometimes pie can be a great confounding mystery. Let's set you on a path to evening those edges out, ok? (Note: You can click on any photo for an option to see a larger size.)

Image 1: Here's what it looks like as you approach the end of a row of double crochet. I've circled the tops of the stitches from the previous row that remain to be worked. The most common confusion is where to place the last couple of stitches; it's very, very common for beginners not to work a stitch in the top of the turning chain from the previous row. So in the circle are the final double crochet (rightmost in the circle) and, to the left of it at the end, the top of the turning chain.

Image 2: The arrow is keeping track of the turning chain, and I'm inserting my hook into the next double crochet.

Image 3: I've pulled up a loop in the double crochet. The arrow is still indicating the top of the turning chain.

Image 4: I've finished the stitch and the arrow is on pointing to the top of the turning chain. See how easy it would be to skip it? After all, it sort of looks like the edge could straighten out after a little tugging. Alas, though, it won't.

Image 5: Ok, no more arrow. Here I'm about to insert my hook in the top of the turning chain. By "top of the turning chain," I mean the topmost of the three chains. Notice how I'm using the fingers of my other hand to open that sucker up. It can be tight and/or awkward to shove your hook in there, but persistence will pay off.

Image 6: I've pulled up a loop in the top of the turning chain. It's pretty apparent now that we need to work a stitch here to make the edge straight, eh?

Image 7: Here's the completed final stitch of the row. There's nothing to the left of it to stick my hook in, so I'm confident it really is the end of the row.

Image 8: Now we say to "turn your work." This means to flip it around so your hook is poised to start the next row (in these photos I'm working right-handed, so at the beginning of a row my hook is on the right. If you're a lefty and you crochet left-handed [hey, not all lefties do!], your hook is on the left at the beginning of a row).

Image 9: Make 3 chains. This is the "turning chain" which serves the function of raising the hook to the height of the stitches you'll be making. Since double crochet is a fairly tall stitch, most patterns say to "count the turning chain as the first stitch of the row." This is because that turning chain takes up about as much space as a double crochet. Since we're counting it as the first stitch, we work the first actual double crochet into the second stitch of the row, not the first. (If we work it into the first stitch, the edge will bulge out and look wonky.) The arrow is keeping track of that first stitch that we're going to skip before making the first double crochet.

Image 10: This might be a confusing photo. If it is, ignore it. I'm inserting my hook in the second stitch, and the arrow is pointing to the skipped first stitch.

Image 11: Ok, this is better. Here I've pulled up a loop for the double crochet, and the arrow is pointing to the first stitch which I didn't insert my hook into. At the very right, you can pick out the chains of the turning chain; see how they're pretty much rising from that first stitch? That's why we skip it before working the first double crochet.

Image 12: I've completed the double crochet and the arrow is still indicating the first stitch from the previous round row. So even though I've only worked one double crochet, you can see it looks like we actually have two stitches made. This is why we count the turning chain as a full-on stitch.

It's entirely possible that my familiarity with crochet has prevented me from really getting to the heart of any confusion you might have. Please leave a comment with any questions I haven't answered—or that, eep, I've introduced—and I or someone in the community will chime in to help you out.

Promise me something, though. In a few months when a friend begs you to teach them how to crochet, start with single crochet, eh? The last stitch of the row can still be tough to place, but at least you won't have to contend with the turning-chain-counts-as-a-stitch thing.

Last week we taped the third season of Knitting Daily TV, and in between segments, chatting, snacking, knitting, and crocheting, I took some photos. This season will start airing this coming summer. Have any questions about what goes on behind the scenes? Leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer.

Eunny with Adina Klein from Tahki Stacy Charles

Liz in the solarium where we eat lunch

Jaime looks on while Eunny chats with Kathy Elkins for the Ready, Set, Knit podcast. (I talked to Kathy, too. Such fun!)

My little dudes had their television debut! It was so much fun to have them all together again. And it was tough to play guest instead of host for this segment. I wish I had half an hour to talk about how to make dolls.

Me and Shay.

Kathy Merrick and me with the cover of my new book, Crocheted Gifts, due out this coming fall. Kathy has four awesome designs in the book, and she has her own book coming out, too.

I think cozies are dumb. I like things to look like what they are, even if what they are is a roll of toilet paper propped on the lid of the tank or an ugly, worn out vacuum cleaner. If I'm going to crochet something useless, I want it to be useless in its own right, in all its own waste-of-space glory.

Still, I discovered this morning before I even had my tea that sometimes a cozy is necessary. Say, to protect the shiny casing of your new painfully fabulous wee camera. When I bought said new camera last night I did spend some time in the camera-case aisle at the store, but I just couldn't stomach any of the wee black cases. Not wanting to leave the shiny camera casing or plastic-covered lens totally unprotected, though, I took up my hook.

Now, you might be tempted to argue that since my crocheted covering serves a clear purpose, I should call it a "case" instead of a "cozy" and thus not feel the need to qualify my thoughts about cozies and save you the time having to read it. But let's not kid ourselves. This covering might protect the camera from scratches, but it lends no structural protection at all. In fact, I may discover through use that the camera turns itself on while it's bouncing around in my bag, or something. And really, much of my motivation was to make something cute.

So, well. There you have it. Presenting my camera cozy:

This is so ridiculously simple you don't or shouldn't need or want a pattern, but if you do, let me know and I'll post it.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is coordinating the International Year of Natural Fibres (IYNF). Their website is fairly dry and totally fails to excite, but I heard Linda Cortright, the editor of Wild Fibers magazine, speak about it at TNNA in January and everyone in the room became positively giddy with excitement. I couldn't find information about some of the programs she talked about, but I'll keep you posted as they come to light.

According to said dry website, here's what the program is all about:

"The main goal of the International Year of Natural Fibres is to raise the profile of these fibres and to emphasise their value to consumers while helping to sustain the incomes of the farmers. In addition, the International Year will:

* promote the efficiency and sustainability of the natural fibres industries;
* encourage appropriate policy responses from governments to the problems faced by natural fibre industries;
* foster an effective and enduring international partnership among the various natural fibres industries."

I like to think of the program as being about:

I've always preferred natural fibres to synthetics—for how they feel and for their other qualities, and because it's important to me to support fibre-animal raisers, eco-friendly fibres (note that not all natural fibres are raised/grown or processed in environmentally friendly ways), and sustainable fibre-related businesses.

Are you aware of any IYNF events in your area? Got any stories to share about why you like working with natural fibres?

Creative Commons Flickr photo credits (top to bottom): tinou bao, Stevie-B, flydime, ktylerconk, Jule_Berlin.

DSCF0408, originally uploaded by jillvedge.

No words needed, eh?