Feature
| thoughts of a desigNer
Thoughts
from a
designer
Chelsea Norquay, the teenaged designer of
BY Chelsea NorquaY
the beret pattern on page 50 shares with us
some of her thoughts on crochet.
ary had a little lamb,
M
it’s fleece was white as snow,
and everywhere that Mary went,
her lamb was sure to go.
The picturesque red barn in my backyard with
sheep gathered behind the barnyard fence has only
recently become a reality. I hadn’t even imagined
crocheting with my own sheep’s wool when I learned
to crochet with my grandma at five years of age. Yet
my life today is very much like that of Mary’s in the
nursery rhyme Mary had a Little Lamb. Let me show
you how crochet has become my way of life...
The passion I have for crochet must be in my
genes (like my brown eyes), since my mom has
crocheted her whole life too. Everyone knows…
if grandma crochets, there is a good chance you’ll
end up crocheting yourself. But when grandma and
mom crochet, you’ll definitely be a crocheter! I
found it fascinating to watch the yarn and hook fly
as grandma crocheted at lightening speed. She was
always working on at least one project. She also had
the fibre stash of your dreams. Colourful boxes of
yarns lined the walls of her craft room. I still look
forward to selecting new yarns for my next project
from her 'store'.
Learning to read patterns was a
big challenge for me
When I first learned to crochet, I would make short
lengths of chains, and ask Grandma to double
crochet a spiral on the end. Too young to understand
how those bigger stitches worked, she patiently
helped me create many little bookworm book marks.
I thought chaining was a lot of fun, and sometimes
I made chains long enough to be jump ropes! As I
got older I wanted to learn how to single and double
crochet. Naturally grandma taught me. I was thrilled
88 | INSIDE Crochet
IC1.feat.chelsea.essay.FINAL.indd 88 16/3/09 15:35:18
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