I Heart Crochet Blogs! This Week’s Link Love!

Of all of the crochet-related posts I read this week, these were the ones I thought you shouldn’t miss!

Before we dig in, though, just a reminder that sponsorship / advertising opportunities are now available on Crochet Concupiscence.

Something Special

March is National Crochet Month. Check out the excerpt from the article that Talking Crochet did about this:

“The Crochet Guild of America started National Crochet Week in 1999 as a way to celebrate our beloved craft and to let others know about the guild. That year, President Pam Oddi designed a pattern as a gift to every member. It was a filet crochet chart used to make a bookmark that read “I Love Crochet.” Crocheters had fun, and the celebration blossomed. Now it is a whole month long, and we call it National Crochet Month. There’s so much to celebrate!”

Lots of blogs and crochet websites are doing neat things this month to celebrate so it’s a great time to be tuned in to our crochet community!

Smart Crochet Posts

• Living My Crochet Life. Designer @sheryluvsyarn talks in this post about learning to craft for the feeling of crafting and not the satisfaction of publication or other external validation. Love this!
• Coronation Crochet. @yarnclasses shares thoughts on getting inspired by our grandmas and great-grandmas (and maybe not our moms for some of us).
• Looking Back on Crochet. @ChelseaNorquay looks back at an old granny square vest project and celebrates the joy of those early projects even with their imperfections.
• Interview with Vickie Howell. Jo-Ann interviews this knit and crochet designers for Creativity Made Simple. She’s a smart woman in the craft business so I always love hearing what she has to say!

I also thought I’d mention here that the great crafty @whipup blog has monthly guest editors this year. The March guest editors are @freshstitches and @abbyglassenberg, both of whom are stuffed animal designers (in crochet and sewing respectively). I’m looking forward to their smart posts over there! Incidentally, I will be a Whip Up guest editor later this year.

Beautiful Crochet Makes

@knithacker shared this new crochet umbrella by Babukatorium; see more crochet umbrellas

@jennyhats designed this crochet hat awhile back as a custom order and re-made it recently in these colors

My Recycled Bags made this cute crochet baby booties using her own free crochet pattern

How to Crochet

• How to Crochet Bobbles in a Knitting Project. Not only is this an interesting tutorial for the bicraftual crocheter but it’s also the first time I’ve linked to something that comes from the blog of the brand new magazine called The Holocene, a new DIY magazine I’m really excited about from @kpwerker, @exprima and @bsandusky.
• How to Crochet the Double Crochet 5 Together Bobble Stitch. With video tutorial from @newstitchaday. I love bobbles, do you?
• How to Crochet Basketweave Stitch. A photo-rich free tutorial from @crochettoday for another great textured stitch pattern.
• How to do Barberpole Striping in Crochet. It’s easy with this free crochet tutorial on the @freshstitches, which is a guest post by @jenamberautumn
• How to Find the “Right Side” in Amigurumi. With video instruction from @planetjune

Crochet Patterns

How to Crochet a Large Circle in a Square. A free tutorial from Just Do, showing how to make the crochet circle squares that comprised her popular blanket that I shared in last week’s crochet link love.

Crochet Daffodil Flower Pattern, free from Lucy of Attic 24

Free crochet pattern for baby legwarmers from @WalkerWhimsy, spotted thanks to a post by JD @craftgossip. Love crochet legwarmers for kids? There’s also a new free Jo-Ann pattern by Vickie Howell for toddler sized crochet legwarmers.

@crochetkitten shared the free crochet patterns for the Alice and White Rabbit appliques that you see on this cute card

Free ebook of crochet purse patterns from @crochetme

Crocodile Stitch Tutorial and Free Crochet Pattern Roundup from @mooglyblog

Mr. Olifant, a cute new crochet pattern for sale from A La Sascha (@a_la_sascha)

People Who Crochet

• Meet the Designer: Drew Emborsky. Stitch and Unwind introduces us to @thecrochetdude and his crochet patterns
• Esther of @SoHappyInRed. A guest post and introduction to the crochet of So Happy in Red’s Blogger over on Made in K-Town. Note: I was also a guest blogger on this blog recently.
• Elisabeth Andree has moved her blog from its original location to this new spot; sign up to get her updates if you haven’t already since she does some great work in crochet.

Video of the Week

Sneak peek of the May/ June 2013 issue of Crochet Today:

Yarn

• How to Make Plarn. A basic photo tutorial from CrochetChrisie.
• How to Make Yarn from Sheets and T-shirts. Tutorial links from @creativejmom
• The Business of Dyeing Spinning Fibers. @HeySweetGeorgia shared a link to a downloadable (free) magazine article about Starting a Business that also talks a little about their business of dyeing spinning fiber. The article was written by @yarnworker.
• New Yarn from Juniper Moon Farm. Their spring yarn is a wool, alpaca, silk blend that looks lovely!
• New Yarn from @lionbrandyarn. They’ve put out a new yarn called Bellini and have three videos to share it – one about the yarn and one each for how to knit and crochet with it since it’s an interesting novelty yarn.

Other Crafty Stuff

• Croshame shared a cool fiber art project at the Denver airport. It included work from the Ladies Fancywork Society, who I just mentioned recently (but hadn’t known what they were up to). And it also included an area where passers-by could contribute their own art. Awesome.
• How to Sell Crafts and Products Online. A great overview of the pros and cons of the different options put together by @planetjune.
• Evolution (Unravel 2013). @Sarah_Knight of Crafts from the Cwtch shares her evolution as a knitting blogger attend a craft event three years in a row. Interesting to watch her chart this development! @supertinks also did a post about attending this fiber event.
• Big Box Heaven. @futuregirlcraft shared her crafty finds at a big box craft store. The reason this post made me smile is because in most places the big box store is the default go-to place for crafters because of convenience but Alice lives here in San Francisco where it’s much easier to go to a local boutique store, LYS, etc. than to trek out of the city toa big box store, so she mentions this as a guilty pleasure.
• Did you know that there’s a crafty competition for TV coming up called The Fiber Factor?
• Congrats to Dora Ohrenstein who has joined the team of the Talking Crochet newsletter as one of the editors. Dora’s new book on Tunisian Crochet was reviewed this week by @crochetlibfront.

Some Special Thanks

• Marie of Underground Crafter for doing a post about my work and a little interview with me for National Crochet Month!
• @lionbrandyarn for reviewing Crochet Saved My Life … and also thanks to all of the amazing commenters who shared their own knit/crochet health stories on that post
• @fruitfulfusion shared a link to the Marrakech crochet retreat I wrote about recently; it happens in April if you’re looking for a vacation!
• @KnittedArt_ did a post of seven links from seven days and included my post about organizing your stash; on another day they also linked to my post about crochet artist Yokoo Gibran.
• @frecklesinfog for linking to my post on crochet stash organization
• One of a Kindness for doing a post about Hook to Heal

Happy weekend and happy reading! If this isn’t enough creative reading for you then you may also want to check out the “arts and smarts” link love roundup I’ve done over on my personal blog, Diary of a Smart Chick.