It’s been extremely busy here with the spring/summer craft fair season upon us. MOSS has been in serious production mode preparing for the first craft show of the year which also happens to be my favorite. Crafty Wonderland’s Super Colossal Spring Sale is happening this Saturday! 200 talented designers and artists will be coming together under one roof to bring you a one of a kind shopping experience. There will be a DIY Area to do some crafts, a book signings with Susan Beal, Heidi Kenney, and Cathy Callahan, food, GREAT company and goodie bags for the 1st 200 shoppers! Maybe you’ll score some of these dainty daisy earrings from MOSS

So come early, spend some time and be inspired! MOSS will be teaming up with Flapper Girl Come and find us, we are in booth 159.

I get asked this question a lot when I do craft fairs so I will endeavor to answer this question as simply as I can. Crochet and Tatting have a very similar look. The main differences are the tools that you use to make them and the scale.

Tatting is a very old technique used for making very delicate but strong lace. It sometimes uses a shuttle,  or a tatting needle, or a combination of a needle and a crochet hook (this technique is called cro-tatting).  Tatting is a combination of loops and knots connected together to create a very fine lace. Tatted lace is normally used for decorative edgings. Whilst I am not a practitioner of this amazing craft (I would love to learn but don’t know anybody who does it), I am indeed a fan of how beautiful it looks. I found some strips of antique tatted lace at the Button Emporium. Here is a pic of one of them.

I used one strip to make some dainty loop earrings (see pic below). You can get the larger hoops exclusively at Tender Loving Empire (quantities are limited!) and the smaller ones will be making their debut in the Crafty Wonderland Spring Sale (2 pairs are also available at Presents of Mind).

Now, crochet is something I am very familiar with. It uses hooks of different sizes to create lace and fabric. Crochet Lace is not as fine as tatted lace. The finest gauge thread for crochet I can find are size 11 which I use for my doily designs. The antique tatted lace pictured above uses a thread that is almost as fine as sewing thread. What I love about crochet is how dimensional it is. You can make everything from lace to fabric to plush. There are so many crochet stitches and that allows you to make a variety of forms, shapes and textures. Observe…

Here is a picture of a crocheted doily which is one of the most popular forms crochet takes.

And here is a photo of a 2 headed, crocheted cat

And finally, my favorite crochet application, crochet as lace and jewelry. I will be showing this piece at Crafty Wonderland as well.

Well, there you go folks. Any other questions?

As you all know Crafty Wonderland’s Super Colossal Spring Show is just around the corner. I have  been super busy trying to get stuff ready for this event. And as part of the of the promotion, Crafty Wonderland will be handing out 200 swag bags for the 1st 200 shoppers through the doors. That’s on both days, so that’s 400 swag bags total!! MOSS will be contributing these adorable crocheted bracelets. They are accented with lovely floral glass beads. Limited edition So if you are one of the lucky ones to get these, swing by our booth. We’d love to say hello.