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Dora Ohrenstein is a designer of fashion crochet, author of 6 books, and a writer specializing in crochet history and international traditions.\xa0 Dora\u2019s designs appears in all the major print and digital crochet publications. Given her avid interest in advancing the skills of the crochet community, she includes lots of in-depth technical information in all of her books. She also teaches crochet at Vogue Knitting Live, on Craftsy, and in yarn shops across the country.

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Earlier in her life Dora was a well-known soprano who sang contemporary classical music, most notably as the solo voice of the Phillip Glass Ensemble, a position she held for 10 years.\xa0 Nowadays in addition to her design career, she is a singing teacher at Wagner College in Staten Island. Dora is a born and raised New Yorker.

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Being on the road as a musician gave Dora a love of travel, and today she engages in textile travel, which has brought her to many exotic locations, including the Balkans, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the Ukraine.\xa0 The experience has deepened her understanding of how crochet and knitting fit into the larger world of textiles.\xa0

Episode Highlights:

• Failure is the best teacher and how that can help you learn crochet.
• Find out how each learning style easily lends itself to learning crochet.
• Crochet is easy enough to learn that you can learn complex patterns fairly quickly.
• So many lessons are learned from failure and Dora shares some of the ones she learned when she was new to crochet.
• At the end of the day, it\u2019s just yarn!
• The best designers and crocheters rip. Find out why it\u2019s helpful!
• Discipline cultivated in other creative endeavors can actually help hone your crochet skills.
• If you\u2019re going to be interested in crochet, you better learn to love the process because the outcomes are not going to be fast!
• Have you ever heard crochet mentioned in a rap? Dora\u2019s got a crochet rap for us!
• There are beautiful parallels between Dora\u2019s vocal performance skills and her carefully honed crochet skills, both creatively and mathematically. Who knew?
• There\u2019s something artistic and free about designing your own patterns.
• The beauty of embracing those \u201cmagical mistakes\u201d on the hook.
• Learn why Dora finds her magic in the swatching.
• Find out what caused Dora to pick the hook back up after years of not crocheting.
• Dora has a \u201conce in a lifetime\u201d meeting (with crochet royalty) that ushers her right into the crochet \u201cbig leagues\u201d.
• Dora shares some really great insights into both the knitting and the crocheting industry, and also shares some of her wishes and hopes for the industry.
• Dora talks about her new book, Top Down Crochet Sweaters, which has just been released. She\u2019s also got a special giveaway for Power Purls listeners! Dora also has patterns for plus sizes too and she has some tips for the right fit. She knows that people aren\u2019t standardized, so patterns can\u2019t be standardized either!\xa0

Don't miss an opportunity to win a copy of Dora's new book, Top Down Crochet Sweaters at\xa0

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