FATW5 – WEEK 11 – Nacatole – Crochet Along With Us!!!

Week 11 brings us to the United Sates….. New Jersey to be exact, and close enough to my own state of Pennsylvania that I have had the most amazing privilege of not only meeting the next designer…… but spending an entire day at a YARN FESTIVAL of all places, with her!!!! Silvana Albanese Tabacchi, the Crafty Nonna, has created 2 lovely patterns for FATW5. This first release for her is entitled “Nacatole”, and the second….. well you will just have to return next week to find out!

Silvana has created several designs for CAL – Crochet A Long, including a square for FATW3 – Butterfly Kisses – and the Super Bowl Sunday “Coin Toss” Make-a-Long (MelRose Neckwarmer. She was also a part of our super fun Holiday *CAL-a-thon* with the Admin! (I have used her ornament pattern on several occasions – maybe we will have to ask Santa to bring it back this year so everyone can download a copy of that pattern?!?!?!?)

Silvana has been crocheting since she was a small child in Mammola, in the Province of Reggio Calabria, Italy. Her mother, Rosa Maria, and her Great Aunt Maria Rosalia, instilled a great love for all needle craft in her from the tender age of four years old. Her love for crochet has grown over the years and she has decided to start sharing her designs with the crochet community as a way to nurture their fondness of the craft as well. You can read Silvana’s autobiography page, 🦋..HERE..🦋 to learn much more about what inspires her, her “story” and how she became a crocheter to begin with. Silvana has dedicated much of her personal time and talent to the crochet community as she is not only a Moderator for the CAL – Crochet A Long Facebook Group, she is one of our *FABULOUS* Test Team Admins (and often times “tester” as well!).

Butterfly Kisses | FATW3

MelRose Neckwarmer

The inspiration for “Nacatole” is a heartwarming story from Silvana….

We all have certain things, that when we see them, it brings back cherished memories. One of them, for me, is when I see cables. Tender moments with my mom baking the “Nacatole” cookies (a traditional cookie from Calabria, Italy, where I was born), savoring the delicious aroma emanating from the oven, barely containing my excitement to finally eating one, and then sitting alongside her as she knit the most beautiful sweaters for us, with cable stitches incorporated. She called the cables, Nacatole, due to the similar twists. Always feeling her passion for each thing she was creating, and her love for her five children, enabling her to share everything with us. As I sat to create a square for FATW5, I had no idea what I was going to make and what it would look like, but I did want to make a cable somewhere in it. So as I sat, and worked, one round at a time, this was the end result. After the square was finished, I had no name for it, but the word Nacatole kept going on in my mind. And then the memories came flooding back; the tastes, the smells, mom’s smile and love shining through. To honor my Mom, Rosa Maria, I introduce “Nacatole,” brought to you on top of one of her tablecloths she loved to embroider.