Welcome to Inside the Crochet Designer’s Mind with Julie of ACCROchet

Julie Desjardins / ACCROchet – www.accrochet.com

In French, “accro” means addict. ACCROchet is a play on words that goes a long way to explaining the person behind the brand: a 40 year old French-Canadian woman named Julie, who is, of course, a crochet addict.

By day, Julie is a Marketing and Communications professional in an out-of-home advertising firm – a job she loves; but her passion comes out after the 9 to 5, when she can finally sit down and create pretty things with yarn and a hook.

Julie’s family holds many people together: a man, two teenagers, a big dog and a small dog, and a very fat cat. They all live in a pretty blue house on the North shore of Montreal, in the province of Québec.

Julie keeps all of these lovely people and pets far, far away from her yarn and hooks, except for the female teenager who will periodically join her in the madness of a few stitches, or sometimes even an entire finished project.

Want to stay up to date on what’s going on over at ACCROchet?

Interview

Same DiNamics Crochet: Tell us a little bit about your crochet experience such as when did you start to crochet and how long you’ve been crocheting?
Julie: I’ve been crocheting for over 10 years – right from the start it became a passion. I am very rarely seen in a sitting position and not holding at least one project on my lap! I tried knitting first. That did not stick – it stressed me out. Crochet clicked right away & as it was (and still is) quite the underdog, that satisfied that need for me as well. I love people’s reaction when I tell them something they are loving on is crocheted!

SDC: Who has influenced you either as a crocheter or designer?
Julie: Doris Chan, for turning rounds to maintain a pattern in rows vs rounds, as well as the foundation chain & just in general her eye for design. Robyn Chachula, for motifs and building them into garments. There are many, many more, but these 2 have been constant heroes to me.

SDC: What inspires your crochet designs?
Julie: Everything, everywhere. I’ll sit with yarn and play with it to see what it wants to be. Or I’ll accumulate a bunch of images from the web, or shopping, or people in the street, and just go from there.

SDC: As a designer, it’s pretty hard to chose what your favorite design is, but, is there one or two that you really enjoyed creating? Tell us little about it and leave links to where they can be found.
Julie:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/almost-the-same-socks

I love these socks because socks are the number 1 item people don’t believe you can crochet. Also because since they are technically not the same (1 or 2 cables), the 1 pattern can become 3 different pairs of socks!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jacqueline-pullover

As for this sweater, I love it because it was so well received by crocheters when it first came out, that it made me want to continue to design!

SDC: What are your favorite fiber types you like to work with?
Julie: Merino is a big fave. Silk blends, pima cotton.. I love natural fibers most. This love of natural fibers also led me to indie dyers, so there is that.

SDC: Are there any sage advice you can give to a new crocheter, and a new crochet designer?
Julie: New crocheters: do not give up! take any new pattern 1 line at a time & you WILL get through it. Think of it like when you started writing, way back when. You didn’t quit because it was hard. You should not quit this either, it is ALMOST as important =)

New designers: make sure to check out industry standards (CYC, CGOA) when writing your patterns. We want people to trust our craft & find value in what we do. This will happen through producing super well written patterns.

And do not infringe on copyright – whether it be for characters or existing crochet designs. It is not worth it.

SDC: This is something most crocheters are curious about, what’s the size of your yarn and hook stash?
Julie: Eh…. too big according to The Man =) Never big enough according to me. I will say that a LOT of the hooks I own are 5 mm because I collect them. Otherwise, my yarn stash mostly fits in a closet, and my hook stash is stashed all over my house in projects and bags so I’m never really sure.