Teacher, Designer and Book Author Margaret Hubert

Teacher Designer and Book Author Margaret Hubert returned to the Yarn Thing podcast, and we couldn’t be happier with a returning guest to have HER.

Margaret tell us she’s been very busy this year, she’s written FOUR books. Margaret says she had a couple of them about Granny Squares, which was a project she put on the shelf because when she originally offered them, the publishers AT THAT TIME thought Granny Squares were passe.

She said she learned to knit first and later when she picked up crochet her mother wasn’t interested. But when Margaret began creating Granny Squares, mom became interested and in fact worked on a project Margaret still has. Her daughter picked up Granny Squares. Margaret says ‘Granny has kind of taken over my life…. it’s a golden thread between the generations’ as she begun to teach her grand daughter.

Margaret finds the portability of a square has great potential for herself, not so much for the join-as-you-go method. For those of us like Margaret that take our craft with us, we can understand having our hands busy everywhere to work on when we are at some point waiting, and a square at a time will go with her. (She will leave the other method to others who teach that, she finds it easier to teach just the methods of creating a square.) Margaret cites Warm-Up America for using squares that are donated then assembled to provide warmth to those in need.

Margaret shared a story about teaching in her local shop, three hikers walked in off the Appalachian Trail wanting to make hats. When the boys of the trio heard the concept by using math which they got immediately, but had struggled with the concept of creating a hat before. They came back later and shared their hats.

Margaret says her very first book was published in 1978, and was called One Piece Knits that Fit. (Searching a link for that) Margaret says her mother was a fabulous knitter, always in pieces. Her Mother-in-Law always did top-down and it fascinated her. In this book, Margaret combined knitting and crocheting in the same book, from top-down, bottom-up, from side-to-side… Margaret received a note from a lady in Israel who said this book has been her bible! She got to meet again her very first editor at Rhinebeck recently, so Margaret is very excited to get reacquainted with her too!

Margaret has been in the business of fiber for a very long time, but for her it never gets old. New ideas come to her all the time, even in the middle of the night. As in the case of the Granny Squares we mentioned earlier, sometimes ideas just need to hang out. The new book Customize Your Crochet came from her classes, where she says she finds she gets rejuvenated by her students and others she meets. She gets to jump in with both feet and even at age 80, she doesn’t take a moment of that feeling for granted. She says when she sees our Marly and the smile on her face, she stands at least two inches taller and knows she’s going to get a hug.

With Customize Your Crochet, Margaret heard people say they avoided making garments because the finished project doesn’t fit. Margaret’s included FOUR garments, with details on how to adjust to the four different body types, The Classic Rectangle, Triangle, Inverted Triangle and Hourglass. Many of us fall between the different shapes, she’s provide tips and shows how to adjust for that. PLUS how to embellish these garments with pockets, collars, experiment with different borders and trims, closures. FLOWERS too! There’s also advice on how to fix things.

Margaret as a cancer survivor wants us to keep an eye out for a special project Cast Off Chemo, an e-book to support Dr. Krag, who has been doing research and working on methods to cure cancer without using debilitating chemo therapy. There will be a Ravelry Group and Margaret will have something in the book too.

You can follow Margaret Hubert through Ravelry, she’s also in Facebook and Twitter. We also hope she gets back to posting and sharing her stories at her blog. Here is the link, just for fun, to hear Margaret’s previous visit to the Yarn Thing podcast.