Lace Wave, CAL, tutorials, and stuff

 

It’s a stuff day.

I had gotten in the habit of blasting this site and social media every Sunday and Monday with a pattern or two and

some posts, but the last couple of days I’ve been doing……stuff.
One of the stuffs I’ve been doing is conquering my block regarding lace. As a regular crocheter, I love lace. As a knitter and Tunisian crocheter, I run and hide behind the couch where lace is concerned. I would make half-hearted attempts to start, get frustrated, pick my short little hooks up, and just crochet the thing blindfolded while hopping up and down on one foot.

Except that’s not always good. I’ve been watching these videos lately, some of them made by a very good friend of mine and all these motivational coaches love to talk about pushing your boundaries and testing your limits.

OK.

So I tested mine. Success!!

Day One was a day of tears and frustration and I was in a house without chocolate. I picked my copy of The New Tunisian Crochet (non-affiliate link) off my bookshelf and committed to doing this thing. I’d actually started the Lace Wave a few times before and couldn’t get past a certain point and each time couldn’t remember why, until I got started again. Then there were tears and gnashing of teeth and out came the stubby little Boye hooks and yet another Celtic Wave was crocheted in its place.

BUT THIS TIME I was better at this stuff. And THIS TIME I figured out what I was doing wrong. It only took most of the day, and it involved a batch of salted oatmeal cookies that magically appeared in the oven and were never seen again, but it happened.

I CAN MAKE TUNISIAN CROCHET LACE!!!!

I turned that pattern into my bitch.

That’s right, Lace Wave. I own you. You may kneel.

***********************************************************************************************************

…….onto CALs.

A CAL, for those of you scratching your heads, is a “Crochet Along”. It’s a planned event where someone uses a pattern, gets a group together, and then they crochet daily, weekly, or monthly, a different part of a pattern until it’s all finished. Participants usually meet informally in a group – like a Ravelry or Facebook group – to post their progress, ask questions of the organizers or other members, chit chat, and just be social. When they finish, participants post photos of their finished work in a display area meant for that CAL, like a Pinterest board or link to a Ravelry project page.

It has been put to me a few times over the last few months, that I should do a CAL. This has been percolating in my head for a while, and it was one of the stuffs that I decided to get started on this weekend. So far I’ve come to the conclusion that organizing a CAL is a lot like trying to seat people at a wedding and I have no experience at that, either.

So, dear TC fans, what do YOU want a CAL for? An afghan made of different squares? The infinity scarf that I’m making right now whose progress pictures I’m boring you with – you know, because lace? An entrelac something? A mandala? Leave a comment on the Facebook page and let me know.

************************************************************************************************************

Speaking of that lovely lace infinity scarf…..

A lot of you really, really like it!! Thank you!!! I have picked up several IG followers in the 24 hours since I started posting #wip photos. That’s great!! Thanks for stopping by and sticking around. Some of you in various places have requested a tutorial.

It’ll happen, just not today.

When I finish this one, which will be soon, I will do a tutorial. Once I realized my mistake, it was actually pretty easy and now I’m sailing through. I found myself looking for information on left and right slanted TC decreases this evening so I can do MORE lace and start charting my own patterns.

PS: I really, really love Instagram. Really love it. If you have an IG account, follow me!! @tunisiancrochetchick