This Issue #19 is brought to you partly by My Favorite Link This Week, below.
My Favorite Link This Week
My friends designed squares for a crochet cable afghan pattern booklet. It's a group hug for our pal
Pam Gillette http://bit.ly/j6KUpv who is surviving breast cancer.
100% of the pattern sales go to Pam:
http://bit.ly/j7Ym2O
Of the 23 of us who contributed, it could not have happened at all without:
Tammy Hildebrand http://bit.ly/lpU9yO who coordinated, collected, and joined our squares,
turning it into a magnificent gift for Pam. Doesn't it look fabulous on Pam's couch?!
Susan Lowman http://bit.ly/kp8sPP did much preliminary editing, and award-winning tech editor
Marty Miller http://bit.ly/lUdR1m did the final editing of the entire booklet. The beautiful photography and booklet design is by
Amie Hirtes Bentley http://bit.ly/jc56la
DesigningVashti News
I love having plenty of news to report!
1. OK, finishing up about Pam's Comfort Cables afghan (linked above):
This is the square I contributed. It's called "Brighíd's Willow" because Pam loves Celtic cables, so the name has an Old Celtic healing theme.
2. Doris Chan's deluxe
Trellis pattern 
http://bit.ly/mttV9a was released this week. I enjoyed
what Doris blogged about it http://bit.ly/k82TsI, so then I had to
blog about what she blogged http://bit.ly/mycf4e !
3. My new
Petals Tunisian Lace Wrapper (large cowl) released yesterday at my site
http://bit.ly/ldUAJp and
in my Rav Store http://bit.ly/k8WW2D. It has two fancy (but easy) beaded rows to
accent a diagonal seam. The slight added weight gives pretty drape and a luxe feel. Haven't blogged its story yet, but it involves Starbucks and my local friend Colette....
4.
Petals does make an appearance in "Tunisian Crochet Lace: New Habits."
I recently blogged what I've discovered about crocheting and teaching Tunisian lace, http://bit.ly/iqFiXw compared to the more traditionally dense and solid Tunisian crochet.
5. Remember the foundation stitch topic of this newsletter 2 weeks ago? An update:
I polished up my photo tutorial http://bit.ly/m3StEV with more details and some color-coding. This week,
Doris has a new blog post about it http://bit.ly/lUaNJx (includes a link to another post she wrote on the topic back in March).
I leave you with a jewelry design that I tried in blues for an upcoming pattern,
"Cabochon Braid."
I had to go through my entire yarn stash because I'm renovating the room where my yarn is stored. Of course I rediscovered yarns that inspired me. One of them sparked a wildfire.
These thoughts caused a whole net-crochet swatching fest over here. I have answers to my first questions, but they brought on more questions. Then I caught a cold (hayfever migraine?) and that put a damper on them. Before that happened, here's what I noticed:
There is the diagonal mesh (a.k.a. "fishnet") and a hexagonal-looking net, and simple-to-elaborate variations of these. I tried starting filet (left), fishnet (center), and hexagonal mesh (right) from one corner. A big advantage of fishnet is that it's normally much stretchier than filet; but when started in a corner, the filet has the most stretch at the edges.
I notice that I fall back on filet instead of diagonal mesh if I want to have the fewest choices to make before crocheting: I have filet on speed-dial in my memory bank. With fishnet, I often forget how I most like to set up the first row and start the next rows, because each row is offset. However, an advantage is that it lends itself to lovely shell patterns.
Tunisian mesh swatch in a glossy blue bamboo yarn (above). I think I'd like it more if I used a thinner yarn. The white swatch at left is bamboo in slightly gussied-up offset filet.