25 May 2023 (Sydney) – What do Julia Gillard, Katy Perry and US Vice President Kamala Harris all have in common? They love to crochet.
Crochet Guild Australia – a not-for-profit organisation - is holding a National Crochet Conference to showcase all things crochet.
The public are invited to attend the eventfrom Thursday June1 – Saturday 3 June at the Wesley Conference Centre at 220 Pitt Street, Sydney. This amazing crochet expo will provide an extensive yarn market, crochet teaching workshops, and 8 hours a day of presentations and audience Q & A panels on topics related to crochet including:
Thursday 1 June
- How to protect your intellectual property: What you can do if someone steals or copies your design. What are the steps you can take. Is it legal to crochet or copy TV or online characters?
- Fashions on the Field
- Fast Fingers Competition – crochet a granny square swatch accurately in the fastest time.
- “So, you want to open your own Yarn Shop” – a Discussion behind the scenes with Yarn Retail shops with the owners of Skein Sisters and Crochet Australia
- “Crochet Vlogging and Blogging” – lets meet an international success story with Australia’s Bob Wilson123
- Polly Plum – interview live via ZOOM from the USA – designer of globally popular “Stardust Melodies”.
Friday 2 June
- Acrylic yarns VS wool and natural fibre options and blended varieties. A panel discussion with audience Q&A. The pros, the cons – what brands do we love and why. Environment impact opinions and more. Which do we agree are our favourites.
- Mending Crochet - How to repair those treasured items without creating more harm.
- Up-cycling – Unique Chic - How to update and create amazing crochet garments from old items in your wardrobe or from thrifting. What to look for when recycling yarn from garments – how to do it
- Shelley Husband (Australian) & Dedri Uys (UK) (the designer who created the famous Sophies Universe) have a discussion on how they write and publish their patterns and come up with their designs.
- How to pitch winning crochet designs to crochet magazines with UK Magazine Editor of Simply Crochet.
- Want to be a crochet Vlogger, Blogger or Tik Tokker – presentation by Australian social media manager (who crochets)
Saturday 3 June
- Amigurumi – tips and tricks (with leading Australian designer, Erinna Lee)
- How manufacturers choose yarn colours for Australia’s yarn loving audience (Australian Wool Store)
- How to make money from crochet – a panel discussion from a designer, retailer, tech editor and maker.
The $35 entry ticket to the conference includes access to all speaking presentation as well as a yarn market with 30 vendors selling yarn, crochet, and items of interest to attendees.
In addition, there will be a crochet lounge where attendees can put their feet up and have a cuppa while getting some stitches on their hooks. A ball winding station to convert your purchases of skeins into balls is present in the lounge.
Petra Creutziger QLD (Australian)– Black Sheep Crochet
Shelley Husband VIC (Australian)– Shelley Husband Crochet
Jenny King QLD (Australian)– Jenny King Designs
Erinna Lee VIC (Australian) – The Little Hook Crochet
Dedri Uys (South Africa/UK)– Look at what I made
Susan Walsh WA (Australian) –Peppergoose Design
Wendy Thompson SA (Australian) - (20+) Zigz Crochet - Mosaic WIPnWatch | Facebook
“Crochet has made a massive comeback yet again,” said Crochet Guild Australia’s volunteer conference organiser Samantha MacNally. “It has always been regarded to cool and funky little sister to the more conservative craft of knitting, but most of us a bi-stitchual anyway and adore both crafts.”
“COVID lockdowns saw loads of people surge online to fill their time crafting instead of Netflix.
“The biggest difference between crochet and knitting is that crochet simply cannot be done by a machine. It must be done by hand. Machines have been able to do the job of knitting – but not crochet. This is because crochet can be three dimensional, it’s mathematical and whether you know it or not, it’s like writing computer code. It’s all patterns, logic, and numbers to make up the correct number count,” says Samantha.
“Katy Perry crochets many of her own costumes. And that gorgeous British Olympic Swimmer, Tom Daley is a huge crocheter and has released his own pattern books. Even our former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard crochets,” said Samantha.
“We have put together a program of half day and full day workshops to teach crocheters a full range of speciality classes in different types of crochet.”
“Shelley Husband, an internationally renowned Australian Crochet designer from Victoria (who has published 7 books on Crochet and is currenlty on the best seller lists on Amazon for her amazing crochet books) is teaching workshops daily.
“We have also persuaded Dedri Uys from the United Kingdom, www.lookatwhatimade.com and the designer of the inimitable “Sophie’s Universe” pattern to teach for 3 full days. On top of this we have other Crochet rockstars like: Petra Creutziger, Jenny King, Abbeymade, Erinna Lee from The Little Hook, Susan Walsh from Peppergoose Design, Lisa Hounshell and Wendy Thompson from Zigz too. Anyone who knows anything about crochet will know at least one of these names,” said Samantha.
Members of the public are invited to attend the Gala Dinner on Friday 2 June at Doltone House and enter AND MODEL their crocheted items into the Fashion Show. Crochet Designers will hold a separate Fashion Show at the same event.
Ends.
MEDIA CONTACT AND SPOKESPERSON: Samantha MacNally 0435123 350
About us:
Crochet Guild Australia was founded in November 2019 when a teacher, solicitor, accountant and a business owner who all had a passion for crochet decided on a mission to: Teach, Educate, Inspire, Learn and Connect crocheters around Australia through forming a volunatry "not-for-profit" organisation. COVID certainly hobbled the process but we are back on track to help each person who loves to crochet to find their tribe, improve their mental health and their crochet skills through our shared love of crochet.
Contact details:
Samantha MacNally
0435 123 350