Lace at the Avenir ...and how crochet saved lives...

Hi all!  Hope you had a fantastic weekend!  I sure did!  (Check out my instagram for pics of the Maroon Bells up in Aspen - I really love my homestate!!!)

I keep talking about this fun DIY I want to share - but it involves black leggings - and with temps in the 90's here - I just haven't been able to force myself to put them on and take pictures of them.  If it ever cools down - it will be coming - till then, if you have an extra pair of black leggings lying around (or any other color), get them ready for a cool crochet DIY!

So one of the coolest things about the grad program I'm in (Design and Merchandising and Colorado State University) is that we have our own museum - WHAT?  Pretty cool, huh?  The Avenir is our own little textile museum that exhibits darn cool historical and cultural textiles.  Last year they had a ton of really cool Peruvian weaving and THIS YEAR historic lace!!!

HISTORIC LACE!!!  That means there are some wicked cool historical crochet pieces in there right now.  Fun fact learned at the lecture last week - selling Irish crochet lace helped keep families alive during the Irish potato famine.  It literally saved lives.  (I'm 1/4 Irish - and my family members lived through the potato famine - maybe they were crocheters - I'll have to check into it!)  Anyway - I love stuff like that!

If you can make it to the museum here in Fort Collins - you should.  If not, I've included some of my favorite crochet pictures down below.  Enjoy.  Happy stitching!

SPUN

Hey stitchers!  ANYONE near Denver, Colorado needs to make their way on over to the Denver Art Museum and check out the SPUN exhibit.  (Going on now through Sept. 22.)

If you are even remotely interested in textiles and fibers, this is the place for you.  I went a couple weeks ago and it was amazing.  Some of my faves?  ...the room with the batik and ikat (WOW)  ...the silk scarf hand painted by Isadora Duncan's brother, Raymond (do you think it was one of her brother's scarves that made her meet her end in that car all those years ago???)...  and of course the crochet coral reef.

CROCHET CORAL REEF, GUYS!  It's a community project, so here is your chance to make something and have it displayed in an ART MUSEUM!  Pretty cool. 

Make something and send it to ...

Rose Eason
Denver Art Museum Offices
414 14th Street
Denver, CO 80202

ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE SEALED IN A PLASTIC BAG.
Send questions to reason@denverartmuseum.org

Check out the pictures I took and this cool video about the crochet coral reef!

Inspired Crochet

Hey y'all!

Big news this week!  I'm on the cover of Inspired Crochet's May issue!  WHAT???  Never thought I'd hear myself say that.  Best part?  They are going to give an issue away FOR FREE to one of my lucky fans!  YEAH!  How do you enter?  Become a fan of Sans Limites Crochet on facebook and leave a comment on THIS POST.  I'll pick a winner at 4pm mountain time on Tuesday April 30!

WOO HOOOOOOO!

Still working on a swimsuit pattern, and getting caught up on some other awesome cotton pieces.  It's 75 and sunny here in Colorado... let's get ready for summer!!!  YES!

Garden Love

I've never been one for gardening... although I recently heard that an hour out in the garden has the same effect as Prozac and helps to boost your brain function... who knew?

Then I was playing around on Pinterst and found 3 plant related posts that got me really happy.  And they can be done inside... away from the cold (and one is crochet related)!

So...  Thank you to duitang.com,  CuteDIY, and Lynzarium's Custom Living Design for these amazing plant pick-me-ups!  I really want to try them!

Click on the links before the images to see these images normal sized AND straight from these amazing creative people!  Stitch and Garden Happy! 

Redecorating

I found this amazing peacock chair for $18 at the Goodwill in Utah.  No I didn't buy it (my very small car was packed FULL of Renegade Craft Fair stuff, Christmas presents, and yes I did try to steal my dad's car to go get it, but the battery was dead and we took it as a sign, and I'm still very sad about it... let's stop talking about this, AAAAH).

Anyway...  I started obsessing a little over the cool crochet used to decorate the home of these ladies (who also have a wicked awesome peacock chair) over at the SPELL Gypsy Collective.  Now I want to use crochet to decorate my space, I have some fun DIY's in mind, and if they turn out, I hope to share them with you!

Fingers crossed that it ends up looking like this...

And less like this...

Be the Change

Be the change you want to see in the world.  Ever been so pumped about your stitching you thought it had the power to change the world?  IT DOES!  And these guys are doing it!

Stitchers UNITE!  Take to your facebook accounts, and help this knit and crochet non-profit CHANGE THE WORLD!!!

And exactly one year and one day after I found out I was going to have the opportunity to contribute a few crochet designs to this place, you can tune in to NBC and see if your ONE vote helped them win ONE MILLION DOLLARS!  December 8!

Do it!  Do it NOW!  HERE...   
Vote4kki!  Let's do this!!!

#letsdothis

OK OK OK!!!  Voting starts today!  You have the power to cast a vote and help Krochet Kids international win ONE MILLION FREAKIN DOLLARS to continue their work empowering women in Uganda, Peru, and who knows where next (hint hint... HERE) to rise above poverty!

#LETSDOTHIS



(The wood paneling behind Kohl was hand stained by my fellow freakin awesome interns, the hat Kohl is wearing was made by Lucy... my inspiration while I was there - she makes the best hats, I did a lot of quality control checking... and the cycle of change painted on the wall was done by my favorite Aussie -Leah... I helped hold the ladder and tried not to freak out about her falling... I worry... I can't help it...)



So it is time friends!  Vote at http://bit.ly/vote4kki.

And watch the American Giving Awards which of course is happening on my lady (and fellow intern) Liz's birthday (Dec 8) and one year and one day after we heard we were picked to work at this awesome place.

So crafters unite!  Help some amazing women on the other side of the world by helping this organization...  #letsdothis   !!!!!!!!!!

Knit WEAR

Fort Collins has a fashion week!  I know... what?  Yes... fashion week!  And it ends with this great knitwear event at our local performance hall!  Lots of cool hand dyed yarns, silks, felts, free demonstrations... an all around really good time!

And check out these awesome yarn bombs!!!  Love it!

This time... last year

Around this time last year, I made this dress.  Using some filet crochet sleeves and fringe.  I liked it quite a lot...

OK... that was well over a year ago... this exact time last year I was in Italy... trying not to think about how badly I wish I was there right now!!!

Anyway... I liked this dress quite a lot, but it was going to be difficult to explain in a pattern, so I never wrote one.  Then a couple days ago, I was perusing lookbook.nu and saw such a similar dress my jaw dropped!  This probably happens to you stitchers a lot... Isn't it funny how we can all have such similar ideas happening at such similar times?

Anyway... now I'm thinking it might be pattern writing time for this thing!  What do you think?

TopShop Dress photo from here.

My dress from last year

Crazy Cool Crochet

There are so many crazy cool crochet things out there... time to start sharing them here!
One of my favorite fashion bloggers, Madame de Rosa, went on vacation. And lucky for us stitchers, brought some absolutely amazing and fashion forward crochet pieces along with her.

A few photos below... for more visit THIS POST.