A Labor Of Love Is Just Pure Joy
(Vest design by newest crochet designers with the Cashmere Silk Fringe Dress)
As I prepare for my Europe trip to London, Paris and Versailles, I am reminded of what started it all for me which is creating my designs. When I was a child, my mom always encouraged me to be creative and that cultivated a lifelong dream into fashion design. Recently, I found myself looking into the textile art aspect of fashion and reigniting my skills into crochet.
I had tried both hand knitting and crochet in my early 20's, but really found my groove with crochet. When I was first inspired to try out both crafts, I had looked upon my circle of friends and family. The search let me to a friend of my husband (my then fiance), this friend I will never forget how she taught me how to knit and then ended up baking our wedding cake. Although, I have not practiced my knitting skills since learning 16 years ago, the memories I have in learning will never leave me. My dear friend had passed a few years ago, but she remains the only person who taught me how knit fibers come to be.
The search to finding someone to teach me how to crochet was easier, since I was living in Tucson at the time my future mother-in-law was nearby and happy to teach her future daughter-in-law. When my mother-in-law taught me how to crochet, I had expressed how fun it was for me to my own mother and then together we started our projects that we would be making for my wedding. My mother-in-law was crocheting her top made from a dusty rose yarn to match my wedding colors, I was working on my first crochet blanket, and my mother was making crochet doilies as wedding favors for my guests.
Crochet has brought me much joy in my life and hopefully, my new collection will as well. I have much love in the labor of crochet, but love all around for those in my team who do it so well and so happily. You might not see the love in the vest that was made in this blog post, but just know it's there.
The vest above was made by my newest crochet designers, which are my mom and her good friend. And that only came to be, because I bought yarn and I was excited to tell my mom about it. Thus, after a fun conversation of what to make with it all, my mother and her good friend volunteered their services into helping me with some hand-made pieces to add to my collection. My excitement for crochet must have rubbed off on them and now they have the crochet bug. I gladly accepted them on my team of crochet designers and since they have many more years of crochet experience, they were able to whip this vest in half the time I was able to.
You'll see a lot more hand-crafted elements in the new collection and lots of pictures from my European trip. Stay tuned to our social media! On Facebook (click here to view the JennyviNYC fan page, we will be posting LIVE video from Europe and on Instagram @jennyviNYC posting pictures.