CGOA Saturday

Jo'Elle with Lily Chin at the banquet

My weekend of blues was great but now I have to get back to crochet work! Saturday morning of the conference I had a fantastic class with Lily Chin.  It was called Tips & tricks for crochet.  I learned lots of little things that will help me be a better crocheter.  She also has a book by the same name, we just happen to carry it at Yarn Harbor.  We also carry her book Tips and Tricks for knitters.  She was lots of fun to learn from.  I also had the opportunity to sit next to her at the banquet dinner on Saturday night. She remembered my name, and told me the blue hair helped!  See it pays to be unique!  Lily's earrings in this photo are great big buttons.

Lily's Book

Exciting News!!!

I received a very exciting email over the weekend!!!  I can not share much of the details with you but I can tell you this >>>>>>>>> I sold my first pattern!!!! 

Doing cartwheels around the room!! OK maybe not actual ones cuz I might break something, 

(and yes I mean me not the room).

The yarn I need to make it in will be arriving on my doorstep any moment.  waiting.......waiting...... waiting........ I am patiently waiting........................... can you hear me tapping my foot????
(I am sitting at my desk, watching out the door, I promise not to pounce on the mail man when he comes off the elevator!) Hold on.......... False alarm. <insert sad face here>  The mail man came but he only brought me bills. Its alright I still love my mailman. Tomorrow is another day! It WILL be here tomorrow!  The yarn I get to use will not be out on the market for a few months so I get to test it out with my design.  OK, that is all I can tell you about it.   As soon as I get the go-ahead from the yarn company I will tell you alllllllll about it and send you to look at their site!

Weekend of the Blues!!

Bayfront Blues Festival 2011 is done and gone.  It was a wonderful weekend mostly in the sun.  Friday night it started to rain and even with our rain ponchos we got soaked.  We had to leave before the end because my bare feet had absorbed as much water as they could hold.  My sandals were still squishy on Saturday morning. I will give you a quick photo overview of our weekend.

Super Chikan &amp;amp; the Fighting Cocks
Yes that is a chicken guitar he is playing!
"Somebody shoot that thang!"

CJ Chenier &amp;amp; The Red Hot Louisiana Band
They had a great Zydeco flavor.
 I love the washboard sound!! 

Joe Louis Walker
Fantastic guitar player!!

Here I am Friday with my yarn in my lap.
I swatched a piece and decided it needed
a bigger hook so I ripped it all out and rewound
the ball to start over.

Big Head Todd &amp;amp; The Monsters
Yes that is a rain coat in front of me.
It poured!!! and I only got a few photos before
the camera was to wet to work and then we left for the night.

Blues Caravan 2011 Girls with Guitars
Dani Wilde She is called
 The British  Phenom

Blues Caravan 2011 Girls with Guitars
Cassie Taylor with her
Bad-Ass Girl Attitude

Blues Caravan 2011 Girls with Guitars
Samantha Fish, known as Guitar Barbie
This girl can really rock!!

Devon Allman's Honeytribe
He is the son of Greg Allman and sounds much like dear old dad.
He has that great gravelly voice and can make that guitar sing!!
He threw a guitar pick into the crowd, I got it!
It will be added to my growing collection!

Lil' Ed &amp;amp; the Blues Imperials
He is about 5 feet tall but can belt
out sound from the bottom of his feet.

Tommy Castro
He closed out the night with a rockin' show!
He came off stage and performed right in front of us!!

Tommy Castro brought Lil' Ed on stage with him at the end of the show.
I thought Lil' Ed was gonna burst, he was smiling so big.

Tucker Jensen played bass with Trent Romans
in the tent on Sunday.  What is it about Bass players
and that bad-ass attitude?

Mick Sterling &amp;amp; The Irresistibles
He may not be as young as he used to be but he
still can climb up on the speakers to perform!

Michael, sittin by my side!

My friend Meg!
Listening to great music and knitting!!

Hey we actually had a photo taken of us this year!
I usually forget till its too late and dark out.
Thanks Meg!!!

Commander Cody
Still puts on a great stage show!

Here I am on day 3, My project is almost complete!
  Just have to weave in ends, and take it home to block!

Beverly McCellan
She was a runner up on "The Voice"
She came and performed with Vicci Martinez.
She played guitar, keyboards, drums, this girls really ROCKS!!!!

Beverly, Joe Thornton,Vicci Martinez

Vicci Martinez
She was a runner up on "The Voice"
She was little but could really belt it out!!

Vicci Martinez

It was a long weekend.  You had to catch a nap when and where you could.

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..........