Interviews

Karin Skacel-Haack

"Natural fibers are a current trend, but I think it’s a trend that’s here to stay.  Natural fibers have always been around, and they’ve become more and more incredible.  A wool of twenty years ago is not a wool of today.  Now they know the proper processing, whether they should comb it off the underbelly, how it’s much softer that way than if they shave it off the sheep.  They understand a lot more about the different animals."

Karin Skacel phone interview June 2007

DORA:  I understand you recently took over the company from your parents.

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Margaret Hubert

"I was attending a series of lectures being given by Rock Brynner (Yul Brynner's son).  His lectures were on literature, but he started his first lecture with a speech about conservation.  He described our planet as a giant sweater, and here and there and everywhere people were picking at stitches, and soon the whole thing would unravel.  Some one in the audience, knowing that I was there, said 'give it to Margaret, she will fix it.'"

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Antonina Kuznetsova

I saw examples of this wonderful designer's work on a Russian website and was thrilled to see her updated version of Irish Crochet.  I was able to connect with Antonina through Elina Chernoussova, who conveyed my questions and translated her responses along with Svetlana Matieva.

Antonina’s Statement

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Melody MacDuffie

"Life is about being eternally three—about being free to create exactly what I feel like creating exactly when I feel like creating it. That’s when I do my best work, and it’s where I take my greatest pleasure. It’s the big payoff. Money comes in a distant second. This has been worth changing the whole structure of my life for; worth living very simply for; worth experiencing an ongoing degree of financial insecurity for, one that nearly all of my friends (the exception being another artist) would find completely intolerable."

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Lily Chin

"I always tell crocheters, don’t be fearful, what’s the worst that can happen?  If it doesn’t come out right, you can always rip.  Where else in your life, when you make mistakes, can you start over?  . . . When we were little children in kindergarten we were always given play time to develop.  Development shouldn’t stop because we’re adults.  Set aside some time to doodle with yarn."

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Marianne Seiman

"Although my mom and my granny were excellent crafters, they still followed so-called rules and were pretty strict about how things (craftwise and in life generally) were supposed to be done. I think that my modeling career, travelling, seeing different cultures and meeting people from all over the world has had a great impact in changing my view on life. It has also given me the courage to try different things in my craftwork."

Annette Petavy, a fine designer in her own right who lives in France

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Doris Chan

"Writing this book helped me understand my mother more, and also think about my own mortality.  Of course you hit middle age and that’s one of the big questions, what have I done with my life, have I done what I wanted to do, am I a success, all these big mid-life questions.  It helped me answer some of them, and I reached a kind of peace, about my craft, who I am, what I want to do, who my mom is, my relationship with my mom, with my kids, with my partner, with my dog.  It was therapeutic."

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Kim Werker

“The more crocheters who can really write - that’s a key.  It’s one thing to be able to come up with gorgeous designs . . . and it’s another to write an article about something: about your inspiration, your technique, about your travels and the crochet you did and the yarns you saw. If a designer might ask me whether there’s one skill to focus on, I’d say writing.”

DORA: What was the inspiration for Crochet Me?

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Margery Winter

"The people we want to influence most are the yarn shop owners ...We want them to be just as open to crochet as to knitting, and to use crochet when it’s best to use crochet. I think it’s better to unite than to divide. I could see higher-end boutiques opening all over the country. Why not ride the trend, like knitting, and have crochet shops with fine yarns and fine gauges?"

DORA: I’m so glad we could make this work, I know you must be incredibly busy. Can we start with you telling me about your job?

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Adina Klein

“I have crochet envy because these days I'm much more attracted to what crochet can do than to what knitting can do -- the structure, the organic quality. I love how you can use it for accessories. . . Knitting is divine but for someone who started out knitting, crochet is very refreshing."

June 13, 2006, at the offices of Soho Publishing,New York City

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