Bayfront Blues Festival

So today I am catching up on things that have slipped away over the last couple of weeks.  At the same time I am getting ready for the blues festival this weekend. As you may have noticed the blog name is Crochet Blues. Both things are a big part of my life.  Michael and I have gone to several great festivals this summer, Bayfront blues festival in Duluth Mn is the last one of the summer.  By the end of summer we will have seen 74 different blues acts.  Three full days of Blues music. It is sort of bitter sweet, we look forward to this weekend we get to sit in the sun (hopefully) together and enjoy music we love, but it also means that summer is nearly over and we have to get back to routines. I of course always have several projects with me to work on while I am sitting.  I am designing a new piece that I will hopefully sell the pattern to a company........LALALALALALALALALA Sorry can't can't say much more.  Today I am making sure my blue streaks in my hair are bright and shiny and redoing my blue nail polish.  I should be all set for a fantastic weekend. I will be AWOL for a few days.... just sittin' by my baby and singin' the blues.

Gotta have pretty blue fingers and toes.

Books I won!!!

CGOA had a raffle during professional development day.  We bought tickets for prize drawings and the money went to a wonderful cause Susan G. Koman Foundation. Well I came out a big big winner this day!!  I won several books, 6 skeins of Lambs Pride worsted yarn (it was even in purple, it was meant to be mine), and a skein of Gobi Bijou Basin Yarn!!  If you have never felt this yarn it is amazing!  70% Pure Yak Down and 30% Pure Camel Down.  I do not know what I am going to do with it yet. I only have one skein 160 yards and they run about $36.00.  I do not even know anyone in town that carries it.  I will keep you posted when I decide on a project worthy of it.  The books I won are fantastic!  I am excited to start working on some of the stitches in the 365 stitches a year calendar.  My plan is to try to get two of them done a week.  I will post my results.

CGOA Thursday Night

The CGOA ChainLink 2011 conference recap continues; Thursday night was the Club Caron dance. It was sponsored by Caron International Yarns.  It was a lot of fun, and I met some great new friends

Amy Shelton; President of CGOA, Co-founder Crochetville
Karen Whooley, knit and  Crochet designer 

Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby is tweeting at this very moment

Myra Wood, Tammy Hildebrand,
 Kimberly K. McAlindin, Ellen Gormley

Kimberley K. McAlindin, Ellen Gormley

Yes that is Margaret Hubert doing the Electric Slide!!

Jo'Elle Galo (me), Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby, Karen Whooley

I have added a link to all of these fantastic designers. Just click on their names and you can go to their websites and see what great new things they are working on.

CGOA Thursday

Thursday morning started with a breakfast for the buddy's and the newbies.  Kate Steinke headed up the committee to pair a newbie with a buddy that has been to conferences before.  She did a fantastic job!! Kudos to her!!  She made crocheted flowers for everyone, Yellow ones for newbies and Blue ones for Buddies. It was great because you knew instantly who everyone was and if you had a question you could easily find a buddy.
    I had my first class; Crochet socks with Karen Whooley.  It was a great class.  I learned lots and now I am going to go back to Yarn Harbor and teach from Karen's book, I can't believe I am crocheting socks.  You can see more of karens wonderful patterns or join her sock of the month club at her blog.   http://krwknitwear.com/

I got home and I immediately started working on a sock to be sure I remember everything I learned.  I have one done and the second started. Karen gave us a copy of one of her new sock patterns in class and I also started that one in Patons stretch sock yarn.  Soon I will have two new pair of crochet socks. I realized it is not easy to take photos of your own foot.

Stay tuned to hear about the rest of my adventures at the CGOA Chain-Link 2011 Summer Conference..........

Wedding Anniversary

Michael & Jo'Elle

As I thought about what to write for today I decided I needed to take a quick break from the CGOA conference and talk about Michael.  Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary.  He gives me the foundation I need to soar to great heights.  I think back to the 20 year old kid that I was I can hardly believe how far I have come.  I am now a wife, mother, business owner, teacher, designer, etc. I could really go on and on but the one constant that has kept me grounded in reality, even when my head was in the clouds has been Michael.  Without his enduring strength, guidance, support and unwavering love, I would not be the woman I am today.  Simply, I need to say to him I love you and Thank you!  


As I looked for a photo to put here I realized I do not have any of just the two of us. I had to crop the kids out of this, I need to reconcile that.

CGOA Conference Day 1

 So I just got back and recovered from the CGOA chain-link 2011 conference, which was held in Minneapolis MN.  I figured when it was right in my backyard I really had to attend.  I took some fantastic classes which I will tell you all about and I met some wonderful people. Whom I will also tell you all about. OK day 1 was Wednesday, it was Professional Development Day (PDD). The description of it was as follows; If you are thinking about teaching crochet, already a teacher, sell your patterns, or an aspiring designer this is the day you do not want to miss. Well, come on, did that scream my name or what?  So I signed up not really knowing what to expect.
The day started at 8:00 am so Michael drove me to MPLS, to be sure we got there on time we left home at 4:00 am.  Yes! You read that right, I did not even know there was a 4 in the AM. I met my roommate, whom I had only conversed with via email, I called her in the lobby and she was sitting about 30 feet away.  I stowed my multiple bags, you know I don't go anywhere lightly, in our room and got set for PDD. 
       First on dais was Ellen Gormly, she spoke about how to bring your work from ordinary to extraordinary.  She also talked about how there are two types of work, the show-stopper, you know the ones, they are on the covers of the magazines and people stop you where ever you are and say WOW.  She also talked about the project makers, these are the patterns we write that get made over and over.  She told us it was ok to write the project makers and submit them for review.  It opened my eyes quite a bit.  I realized I write a lot of these type of patterns but never thought about submitting them because they were so everyday.
     Next up was Margaret Hubert. She spoke about how she got her start in the business and what she has done to continue a long and successful career.  I also won 1 of her books during a prize drawing.  I can't wait to start a new bag. You can NEVER have enough bags.
Last up to speak was Vickie Howell, the new spokesperson for Caron Yarns.  She has just launched a new line of yarn called Sheep(ish), you should go check it out. She discussed what social media can do for us and why we need to be a part of it.  We need to be on Facebook, Ravelry, Blog, Websites, Twitter, Flickr, and the list could go on.  I am glad she went last because by the time she was done, my head was spinning and I was completely overloaded.  I went back to my room and was not sure I really belonged in this world.  I talked to Micheal and told him everything I had just learned and he asked "when will you have time to crochet?"  I was wondering the same thing!!!!  There was more to the day but it will have to wait, for now go check out these sites:


  Ellen Gormley has a fantastic blog and great books for sale see her at: http://www.gocrochet.com/
Margaret Hubert has a blog you really do not want to miss:
http://margaretshooksandneedles.blogspot.com/ 
Caron Yarns has a wonderful website http://buy.caron.com/  as well as a great blog by Cari Clement http://blog.naturallycaron.com
Vickie Howell also has a great site and blog to check out: http://vickiehowell.blogspot.com

And...... She is back!!!

Hello world.  Yes those of you who get the rss feed are shocked, I say shocked to be receiving this.  Lets just say life kinda threw a few curve balls into my family this past 6-8 months. I think we have dodged and weaved through it. Life is moving along at a manageable pace and we are all doing well.
   I just spent a fantastic week at The Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) national conference in MPLS MN.  It was fantastic!  I learned soooo very much and I got re-energized.   I am now going to be off and running in 3 directions at once as per my normal speed.  I do however plan to be more organized in my adventures. I have so much to share in the coming days.  More about the conference I promise.