Magnetic north

I've seen Thai women crocheting in Koh Samui and admired wedding gifts of intricate bedspreads to a Portugese bride. Until I'm told otherwise, the largest collection of crocheters on the net are collected in the atmospheric northern hemisphere. Cool light and cooler winters. There must be alot of good designing time up there!!!

I'm now in contact with quite a few of these designers and I'm very excited to invite them here to chaincreative. They'll be returning in the Designer Interview slot but until then here is an introduction to 'our friends from the north'.

The first is no stranger to chaincreative and we've featured her before, so there's little need for introductions. Fryd + design is the brainchild of Norwegian Jeanette Lunde and is written in English so is accessible to many countries. Although not specifically a crochet blog (there aren't many of us anyway!!!) I love her emotion that she brings to observing her world and her approach to craft and design. The little touches she gives to her creations and observations are so charming and she's such a sweetheart that chaincreative is happy to have her as a friend!

Next to visit is Guro Strandskog from Hobbykroken which is a mix of Norwegian and English so no problems there on translations. As with Fryd + design, Guro creates such a gorgeous ambience that completely transports you to a cool, clear world. I love it. Both Jeanette at Fryd and Guro here at Hobbykroken take beautiful pictures of their work and Guro's also appears on flikr so you can enjoy in full there. She has patterns for some of her creations and is certainly prolific in many creative fields. Beautiful jewelery too.

From Estonia comes Marianne at heegeldab and she too is a mother and designer. Her work can be seen both on her blog and at etsy and blows you away with it's range and depth. You'll love all the examples of her work on her flikr photostream. Again beautifully shot, the signature coolness and clear colours gives just the right feel. Again the blog is translated in English and there is so much to learn from all our northern girls about how crochet and design go together so beautifully that visiting them is a pleasure you can return to again and again.

Last, but not least, is Hedda Vatter, also from Estonia. I haven't been in direct contact with her yet so I can't give a brief resume. Suffice to say, her design is certainly a chaincreative favourite. She has a shop at etsy full of delicious things and is a lesson in how to turn a craft into objects of desire.