Celebrating Crochet with Link Love!

Here’s my roundup of all of the best posts in all areas of crochet blogging from the past week. By the way, this is the last link love roundup of 2012. I’m going to be quite busy this coming week with wonderful holiday things and a visit from my sister so I’m taking the week off (although other posts will still be going live throughout the week). Link love will continue, of course, weekly in 2013.

Something Special

You can crochet something to help the victims of the Newtown Massacre. There are several projects launched. Two I’ve seen:

1. Hands, Hearts and Hugs. They’re collecting 6″ squares to make comfortghans for the families of victims.
2. A group of designers has come together to offer stuffed animal patterns that you can use to make animals to donate with the goal of collecting one for each child in the school. Details from FreshStitches.

Smart Crochet Articles

• Meet Kristin Roach. Stitch and Unwind introduces us to this craft / crochet designer.
• 7 Tips for Planning Knitting and Crochet Travel Projects. Stacey Trock gives us some good tips; I’ve covered this topic in this past, too.
• Stress-Free Last Minute Gifts for Crocheters. Great suggestions for gifts for your crochet-loving friends from @crochetbyfaye.
• Designing Crochet Sweaters with Sticky Notes. Toni from CrochetMe shares this design tip [email protected]

Crochet Books

• Learn to Free-Form Crochet. Joy of Crochet Crusader does a great review of this Margaret Hubert book that describes why you may want to try freeform.
• Ganchillo con bigunki. Patrones de Amigurumi. Bigunki shares this Spanish amigurumi book. Even if you don’t speak the language you can see some cute photos in this post!
• 100 Snowflakes to Crochet. Kristin Nicholas did a review and giveaway of this new crochet book by Caitlin Sainio.
• Learn Tunisian Crochet from Books. @crochetkim shares a roundup of Tunisian crochet lesson and pattern books.
• Long Legged Friends. A book review of this creative crochet book of stuffed animal patterns. Review by Underground Crafter.

Beautiful Crocheted Items

Loved the fun of this crochet snake that Andamento made as a gift request.

Little Woolie did a lovely roundup of her 2012 projects. This is only a portion so click over to check them all out.

How To Crochet

• How to Crochet the Fan Stitch. From @newstitchaday
• How to Crochet Crossed Stitches. From @mooglyblog.
• How to Single Crochet in a Chain. An explanation of all the different options for this basic stitch from @freshstitches.

Crochet Patterns

• Baby Gift Card Beanie. Crochet Kitten says this is “the perfect quick project for every newborn in your life! It’s made with a little pocket that fits a gift card of your choice.”
• Crochet Chunky Ankle Tie Baby Booties. A free crochet pattern from @creativejmom for the babies in your life.
• Spunky Gladiola. A pretty crochet pattern for a scarflette offered free from CraftyBegonia.
• Quick Q Hook Crochet. A Moogly roundup of ten free crochet patterns that work up quickly with a big hook.

Crochet Video

Twinkie Chan’s booth at Renegade Craft Fair

Yarn

• How to Recycle a T-shirt into Yarn. This is a Time for Tea tutorial (@JessicaLSharpe) that I spotted thanks to a link on The Making Spot.

Other Fun Stuff

• BellaCrafts Free Online Magazine. I just learned about this quarterly online magazine produced by four CHA members to share lots of interesting crafty stuff.
• Craftsy Classes. An overview / review of @becraftsy online craft classes from Kathreen of @whipup
• Pantone Color of the Year. The new color has been picked. It’s Emerald. Will you buy Emerald Yarn?
• Instagram is Changing. Saw this news thanks to Crafts from the Cwtch. I’m not an Instagram user but it’s good for bloggers/ makers who use it to know about this. You may also be interested in this week’s Lifehack post on How to Backup your Instagram Photos.
• Jocelyn Sass has opened a new Etsy shop, Jocelyn Designs. You can win some of her patterns from this shop by entering Day 4 of my Christmas Giveaway (deadline 12/25).

And Some Special Thanks

• About.com Crochet for allowing me to showcase my upcycled sweater project.
• Talking Crochet newsletter for highlighting a really sweet comment from a reader of my book (Sandra) thanking them for sharing a review of it.
• StitchScience shared my post on 20 inspiring male crocheters in a post about women in science and men in craft.
• CrochetToday for sharing my guest post on Last Minute Crochet Gifts.

Happy reading, happy weekend, happy holidays!