More team interviews!

Meet Tess – aka trendymates

What was the inspiration for your challenge item?

I was greatly inspired to create something special for a wonderful friend and her family for the upcoming birth of their baby girl. The name of this piece, "Special Delivery", is very fitting. My friend and her husband already had one precious little girl. A few years ago, my friend lost a baby, and in doing so also lost the ability to ever conceive again...having come about from an extremely rare condition. They so wanted another child. An especially close friend of theirs (one who already had a family of her own) offered to be a surrogate mom for them.... the baby was born a few weeks ago, strong and healthy... a mom and a dad now have two beautiful little girls, and a little girl has the ability to say "I'm a big sister!"

It was so funny, and heartwarming hearing them talk about their experiences at the stores when out shopping for groceries or shopping for the new baby. The little girl would say "I'm going to be a big sister really soon!" Then their would be a glance at the mom tummy that was slim and flat...followed by a look of confusion. Of course there was another side to the story...the one of the surrogate mom... she would here "congratulations, and good luck", then had to tell her side of the story...Their miracle story was always followed by tears by everyone around...this little soul touched so many lives before she was even born...

The main color, yellow, in the cocoon to me represents hope. The little bursts of pink, green, blue etc, represent the bursts of joy brought about by her life...thinking of her with every stitch as I put this cocoon together.
I feel so blessed to be able to share in their joy if only in this small simple way as they hold their little girl, their little miracle, wrapped in love.

How would you describe your own personal style and how is this reflected in your crochet designs?
My style....hmmm..I'd like to think that my style is, simple, elegant, sleek, chic, and "classical with a twist". I was taught to crochet at the very young age of 4 by my grandmother, using a size 1.24 metal hook, and cotton thread from Greece. I learned how to combine the classical stitches, twisting them and changing them around to create doilies for our home...funny thing is, I never used a pattern or knew the names of the stitches I was making...nor did my grandmother...it was an art passed down from generation to generation...basically used to help decorate a home, prepare items for girls' trousseau, and make clothing...

As the years went by, I found my collection of doilies getting larger and larger...even after giving many away...I've always had to have my hands busy while sitting...so a few years ago, I started using the skills my granny taught me, expanded on them, and have given them a new twist loving the idea of my crochet taking me to levels of artistic expression I had never dreamed of finding in a doily. So now, my collection of hats, scarves, mittens, ponchos, baby items, pet-wear, bags and other accessories continues to grow....always changing, and yet always staying the same as each item begins with the stitches taught to me by my granny...and yet never a granny-square in sight...

 

and now for MsPenzCrochet (Penny)

I raised two boys and it really wasn't much fun dressing them, so I am enjoying making girly things now. The real inspiration for anything I make though is really the yarn or the challenge. I gave up crocheting for 35 years while I worked and when I retired I took it up again. You can imagine how amazed I was to find how much the yarn had changed over the years. It used to all be quite coarse and scratchy. Now its so soft and beautiful. Even the wool is soft.

Anyway, I'm addicted to yarn and I love to find designer and novelty yarns at bargain prices. I buy anything that I love at a reasonable price and then I decide what to make from it. When I found this yarn I knew I wanted to make a girls' dress. It is so soft and has a spongy feel and the color is perfect for a girl. I saw a pattern with ruffles and combined my own ideas with it. Added a cape and some flowers and had a wonderful time creating it.

I saw a shirt once that said "I crochet so I won't kill people". I won't go that far, but it is very relaxing and I feel so good when I finish creating something. I have a lot of free time now and feel that I put it to good use by crocheting.

 

Last but not least, a few final words from whippleswhimsy

I've only been with Etsy for a year. However, I have learned so much in that time. Etsy give us sellers such a resource of information to help better display and inform others of the products we offer. Also as a buyer, Etsy has made it very easy for me to find whatever I'm looking for, whether it be toy or a pendant for my mother.

I could not agree more whippleswhimsy! Etsy is a great resource to us all and a great way to bring people together through teams like CreateCrochet. Congratulations to all of our contest participants, I can’t wait to see what you all come up with next!