Sundsvall Throw, designed by Darla Fanton

I received an interesting e-mail from a reporter in Sweden, asking why the Sundsvall throw was named for that Swedish town.  (All Country projects are named for cities around the world.)  Here’s what Kristina wrote:

Just a coincidence? Must be a lucky one…

I come from the north of Sweden where Sundsvall is and the colours match perfectly. The town lies by the sea and the in the north whe have fantastic autumn colours. The plum and red look just like Sundsvall by autumn, purple cold sea water and red leaves and moss.

Thanks for a great newsletter, by the way!

Lots of fun for crochet-nerds like me.

Hope you have a fine, colourful autumn!!

Kristina

Gwen Blakley-Kinsler shows how it's done.

 And there was Svetlana from Spinrite showing how to make pompons – to the delight of a whole family…

Others included Susan Sullivan  from Leisure Arts dying yarn with Kool-Aid, Kathleen Sams from Coats showing how to do Tunisian (aka afghan) crochet, and Claire from Lion Brand demo’ing how to wrap a clothes hangar….

The pompon family.

 and me doing, what else, demonstrating the Ultimate Sweater Machine.

Yup, 1,200 stitches a minute.

A crazy, exhausting – but good time was had by all!  Watch for the next Supershow to be held in Anaheim CA this coming January.

A perfect place setting.

Elegant dining at its best - with Country, Etimo and Vickie!A perfect place setting.

Bradley and KJ Hay - with tie Bradley knit and top that KJ crocheted.

Amy Shelton of Crochetville in a Doris Chan dress in Spa.

Mentor Susan Lowman and mentee Kara Lyon.

Diane Moyer wearing her Tulsa Jacket design.

First-prize, special occasion-winning entry designed by Patricia Williams - and aptly worn by Kang Hyo Min from Tulip.

Willena's People's Choice Award-winning City Lights dress modeled by Kazue Ohara of Tulip

Cari and Doris at the entrance to Club Caron

While it may not be the 80′s (or 50′s 0r 60′s or….) anymore, DJ Doris had something for everyone at Club Caron, a first-time event for Chain Link.  Caron sponsored the Friday nite dance party so crocheters would have a place to socialize – and let off some steam – after a day of serious crochet classes.  And let off steam they did!  Starting with Jacque and her husband, Irv doing a bit of two-step, foxtrot and tango to Sinatra and ending (or leading into) some Village People (yeah, that’s an “A”), some Macarena, a bit of the slide and a chicken dance thrown in, among others.  Kimberly McAlindin even got everyone dancing to her aerobic routine!  And others preferred to keept their dancing shoes at home (that will change next year, guys) and had fun just sittin’ and chattin’.  Goin’ strong from 7 til midnite!

Jackie and Irv cuttin' the rug...

Ellen Gormley, Kimberly McAlindin and Kristin Omdahl in front of Design Competition Display

What an event!  The online praises are everywhere about Chain Link 2010, held in Manchester NH the first week of July.  We hope you’ll be there next year - Minneapolis, July 27-31.  There’s nothing wrong with planning ahead!  You could never have more fun than be surrounded by non-stop crocheters everywhere – and knitters too, since this was a joint show with TKGA.  But since I’m on the board of CGOA, my focus was on the CGOA events.

I have a few blog entries because we had way too much fun – and too many photos – to put in one post.  So let me start from the first event:  the Design Competition, chaired by none other than our bud – and designer extraordinaire – Doris Chan.  My shots of Doris were way too blurry to show here – wonder why??  That girl never stops moving!

The first event was the judging of the Design Competition entries, aptly handled by Jean Leinhauser, Edie Eckman and Bobbie Matella.

Jean, Edie and Bobbie pausing from Judging - except Jean

Then all the entries were mounted to show them at their best. 

Kimberly and Bertha (the mannequin, not the dress) with her contest entry - crocheted in Simply Soft!

CGOA had a wonderful volunteer professional photographer, so check out the photos on the Flicker pool on www.crochet.org.

Kim Guzman's One Button Cardi in Knit Simple, photo by Paul Amato

Check out Kim Guzman’s way-cute single-button cardi in Spa Berry Frappe, featured in this month’s issue of Knit Simple!  It’s on page 46 and we  know you’ll have to have one!

Congratulations to the 427 crocheters who broke the Guinness record for the number of people crocheting together for over 15 minutes while watching the Mets at Citi Field.  Read on at:   http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/06/2010-06-06_record_stitched_at_citi_field.html.  Crocheting while waiting for those long inning changes to happen helps make watching baseball not just fun, but productive.  Heck, with a season’s pass, you could crochet up all your holiday gifts with time to spare!  Kudos to you guys!  Keep on hookin’!

Cari

Summer Breeze top by Tammy Hildebrand

 I’d love to make this just a tad longer and in black to wear over a light neutral shade.  Great job, Tammy!  To get Crochet! magazine for free, just join the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA), open to everyone and all skill levels at http://www.crochet.org/