Grandma Series 4: The Motherload of all Crocheted Creations

To end my Grandma Series on Lola Viring and to start 2013 with a bang, I will be showing you the motherload of Lola Viring's creations - her crocheted wearables.

Just look at what I'm talking about.

These crocheted clothes were the only ones she kept for herself. I asked her if she can recall how many blouses and skirts she crocheted. She said she probably made 10 truckloads of them. I believe her. People used to come to her house and order these clothes. Some of her clients were "balikbayans." They'd bring them to other countries and give them as "pasalubong" or sell them at higher prices.

Lola Viring is amazing. She made all these without following any pattern. She said she doesn't even know how to read or write crochet patterns. She made these clothes from pure technique and imagination. I love the way the sleeves fall on this blouse.

Want to see the rest? Click the link below!

Last Crochet Workshop for 2012!

2012 has been a powerful year for me in crochet, and one of the reasons for this is the opportunity I got to teach it. Craft MNL opened its doors for me to teach crochet. I can't believe I did 4 workshops with them just in the last quarter of this year. I'm also overwhelmed by the amount of interest for these workshops. I hope I get to be a better teacher so I can spread the love of this wonderful craft. Thank you to all the 23 lovely gals who made this opportunity for me possible!

We held the last basic crochet workshop for the year on Dec. 22 at Craft MNL. Despite the frenzied atmosphere of the pre-Christmas weekend, we had a full house! Thank you Cat, Gillian, Joy, Bituin, Julieta, Sharon, and Aneliese for keeping crochet alive in the holiday!

Participants get a crochet starter kit which contains 5 balls of yarn, 2 hooks, scissors, and patterns. I taught them the basic stitches: chain, single crochet, double crochet, and slip stitch.

Everyone was serious crocheting their way. It's not uncommon to get quiet moments in the room because they are focused on what they're doing.

Our goal was to make granny squares. Granny squares go a long way in crochet and it's the perfect pattern for any beginner.

Anyone can crochet! It doesn't matter at what age you start.

Welcome to the rocking chair club! I hope you get to make wonderful things with crochet!

I'm looking forward to a more eventful 2013 for crochet! I can't wait to get Pinoys and Pinays hooked on it!

Crafty Bedroom for 2013!

Hope you guys have been enjoying the holidays. I have been quite preoccupied fulfilling a goal before the year ends...and that is to finally have my own craft room. It's more of a new bedroom with more space for my crochet and of course, yarn.

Let me show you first how my past rooms looked.

This was my bedroom when I was in college. It was already 2000 but I wanted to keep the 90s alive. I was going for that kind of room Janeane Garofalo's character in Reality Bites would probably like. Yeah, I like purple. And yes, I had my own landline. Whatup!

I had that room until 2009, I think (I had a hard time letting go). I had way too much stuff so I had to upgrade to a bigger space on our 3rd floor.

I went for a more "unflashy" look. Less angst. More order and calm. Apologies for the poor pic quality, by the way. Unfortunately, only my lame camera phone had pics of this room before I dismantled it.

Then I became serious with crochet. This room is facing the side of the busy street in front of our house. It's been accumulating too much dust. This kind of environment will not be good if I decide to display all my yarn and crafty materials. I will be spending too much time cleaning my stuff if I decide to allocate a craft space in it. So I did what any big sister would do - bully her younger brother to switch rooms with her. Just kidding.

I asked my brother Gerald if it was ok if I switched rooms with him because his room is facing the nice and "clean" side of our house. He said yes, of course. I will be spending more time in my room than he with his, so it was a practical decision on both our parts. He got my aircon though. His aircon is older than my aircon by about, erm, 10 years I think. Well, it's a fair trade off.

This is his room. Typical dude kind of room.

So this is where I am now with my renovation.

I've pretty much figured out the colors I want for this. I think I can have all of this done before the year ends. 2013 is looking pretty good.