Which Crochet Magazine is Your Favorite?

Hello all my blogger friends!

Today I added a "Poll" to my sidebar to find out which crochet magazine is your favorite. Please check the one you like best and vote.

Doing a poll is a great way to find out what other crocheters are doing and what you all think is the best magazines, products, etc.. I plan on doing several more Polls so check back often.

There aren't a lot of crochet magazines to choose from but tons of knitting magazines. I wonder why that is? Anyway, these four are the ones that I have found:

Interweave Crochet...

Interweave Crochet magazine is not for the beginner crocheter. It has some beautiful patterns, mostly garments, that are for the more advanced crocheter. I love looking at the projects but I have never attempted any of the intermediate patterns. Maybe someday...

Defining Crochet or just "Crochet!...

Crochet! magazines is a perfect middle of the road magazine, it has a great mix of easy patterns for beginners and more advanced patterns for those of us who like a good challenge!

Crochet Today!...

Crochet Today is great for the beginner with some challenging patterns but not very often. It usually promotes Red Heart yarn products so they are always easy to fine.

Crochet World...

Crochet world is for the new crocheter. It seems to have some very old fashioned patterns and I rarely see anything I would like to make. It has doilies and some downright ugly items in it. Not one of my faves, I feel like I wasted my money on this one. What do you think?

I am so anxious to see what the poll reflects is the best crochet magazine among my readers. Also, if there is another crochet magazine that you subscribe to and LOVE, please share with us in my comments!

Happy Crocheting!!

Crafting Balance

Crocheting is the only yarn-based craft for me...

Although knitting can be tempting for different projects...I have never learned this craft. I really haven't had a need to learn.

It seems that everything I have a desire to make I can make in crochet. I have heard comparisons of the two crafts but for me, there is not comparison. Crochet has so many more stitches to learn and knitting only has a few. I like having all of the different options crocheting offers.


I read in another blog today (CrochetTime) that:

There are machines that can replicate knitting, whereas no machine can truely replicate crochet. I like to be a bit different and I’m proud of the fact that I use yarn in a way that no machine can.

 When I first learned to crochet, my MIL was teaching me when I was pregnant with my first child, twenty -seven years ago, and I struggled with it. I didn't think I could ever learn it and then three years later I bought a "Learn to Crochet" pamphlet from Leisure Arts. My first project was a ripple afghan and I loved it! I was "Hooked". I entered my ripple in the local fair and it won best in show! It even beat my MILs entry! So...it was love at first ripple for me and I've been crocheting ever since. I had a few years that I quit crocheting for a while but I picked it up again in 2009 thanks to Lucy at Attic24. I made the Hexagon blanket and wow...that was a huge project and I've been learning new techniques and crocheting more the last three years than I have in my life. I really love it.


Well this is the last day of the 2012 Knitting and Crochet Blog week! Yay! I did it! I was able to post everyday. This has been great and now that I'm in the habit of blogging every day I really like it and I might just keep it going. It's been so fun! So, thanks for all of your great comments and following along this week.

Use this tag 3KCBWDAY7 to search on Google and read about other bloggers are saying about Crafting balance.

Improvimg my Crochet Skills

May is a great month for crochet for a couple of reasons. First...
Vogue Crochet 2012 Fashion Preview will hit the magazine stands on May 8th and all I can say is "Wow"!

These are just a few of the patterns included in the magazine that I would love to try and would definitely be challenging my current skills...

Since I haven't ever made any garments that I could wear I would like to learn how to make sweaters or anything with sleeves. 
 
Now this is a sweater I would love to make...

More news for May...DROPS Super sale from May 1st to May 31st!

They have some gorgeous sweaters that I would love to make...

Source: garnstudio.com via Eileen on Pinterest

Source: garnstudio.com via Eileen on Pinterest

Source: garnstudio.com via Eileen on Pinterest

How would you improve your crochet skills?
Use this tag 3KCBWDAY6 to search on Google and read about other bloggers Crocheters are doing to improve their skillset on their blogs.

Something Different...

Something different I have been wanting to try...


An Animated gif! Of course it's even better because now you can see what I've been up to! Baby booties and two hats. Aren't they sweet?



How do you make gifs


Isn't this a cool way to show off your projects? It is so easy...just follow the link above and make one of your own. You will be seeing this more often on my blog.Use this tag 3KCBWDAY5 to search on Google and read about other bloggers Crocheters are doing differently on their blogs.



Happy Crocheting!

Crochet for All Seasons!

How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?


For me it really doesn't all that much. I went back through my photos for 2011, (as you can tell I love Flickr)and in Winter I finished this "Homespun Ripple"...





Finished this Pillow in the Spring...



and this one...



and this cute little "Green Blossom Dishcloth"...





and still in Spring this "African Flower Soccer Ball", ( I noticed I crochet a lot of more items in the Spring and seem to challenge myself, i.e. this ball and the dishcloth above, very adventurous for me!).



Then here comes June and the hot days of Summer and what do I start my new project...





CRAZY!! :) I know... you would think I would do some of the cute "little items" like I did in the Spring...but now Summer comes and I finish my daughters "Rainbow Granny Stripe" that is a wool and acrylic blend.

Oh yes, I am a rebel...don't tell me I can't make blankets in the Summer! I'll show you...

I'll start another one...my "Giant Granny" just because it is a CAL I couldn't resist.





Then comes Fall/Winter and what am I crocheting?   In October a baby blanket for the new grand daughter of a friend of mine at work, (little did I know I would soon find out I am getting one of those for myself)!






Then, I made some progress on my "Blues" blanket. This is a UFO for now, I thought I was done and ready for the border until I laid it out on my bed and Oooops! I was using the wrong size hook for about the last half of it so it is longer on one half than the other. I have to say this is so embarrassing. No picture of that catastrophe...I counted and counted across all the different rows and the count was the same as the beginning rows...then it dawned on me that my count was right but my hook was not. I went from a "G" hook to an "H" hook and didn't even realize until I thought it was finished! Uggggh! It still isn't frogged, I just have it sitting there staring at me thinking...."how could you be so dumb?" So I really need to finish it soon so I won't feel so dumb anymore! :)





Now... some seasonal stuff during the season it should be worn...Winter Scarves! This first one I gave to my daughter after I added some fringe. She loves it!





This one I gave to Goodwill during my Spring Cleaning...





and this one went to Goodwill too.





I finished up my Giant Granny CAL...





and made some Christmas Stockings for the girls at work. I put little candy treats, (all chocolate of course) in them and after the treats were gone... they were perfect little ornaments to go on their tree! They were a big hit. Hmmmm...what will I do this year? I better start thinking about that one.





So...there you have it. The seasons don't seem to make much difference to me, I make what I want, when I want to. Now that's fun!Use this tag 3KCBWDAY4 to search on Google and read about other bloggers Crocheter Seasonal blog.



Happy Crocheting!

My Crochet Hero...Babukatorium!!

I can't say enough about Babukatorium, her crochet speaks for her...

She is amazing!! A true crochet artist!! I Love the colors she uses...and the designs are so unique. I hope to aspire to her skills someday, design my own patterns and projects, be as unique as she is and keep the prices low like she does, (see her Etsy shop). I love her freestyle designs and want to buy them all! These are only a few. Click on any photo to go to her flickr photostream.

Please take a look at her Etsy Shop etsy shop!


Now on facebook too!!! XD


Follow her on Pinterest


Craftster Best of 2011 Winner I'm a Craftster Best of 2011 Winner!
 Use this tag 3KCBWDAY3 to search on Google and read about other bloggers Crochet heros.

Happy Crocheting!

A Crochet Fantasy

I slept late and woke up with the sun shining in my bedroom window, the birds chirping, the smell of lilacs and my curtains billowing in the cool breeze.


Uh oh! Reality check, I 'm late for work! Panic sets in and then I realize, oh wait...its Saturday, my "Crochet Fantasy" day.


First of all, I am going to meet "the girls", my sisters Karen and Joyce and my BFF Cindy, at Milton's on Massachusetts street for a down home cooked breakfast. From there we are going to Yarn Barn, (also on Mass street) to learn a new crochet technique called Tunison crochet. We have all wanted to learn this but none of us has taken the time to take a class and learn how.


After the class, and shopping all the special yarn that yarn barn carries, we are all going to lunch at our favorite restaurant on Mass street, The Mad Greek. We all got caught up on each others lives and even splurged and had delicious chocolate cheesecake for dessert.


It was such a lovely day for walking we decided to walk over to library to meet with our Yarn, Paper, Scissors group, we meet once a month and do our own projects. It's a diverse group with knitters, crocheters, scrapbookers, etc. We all get together and learn from each other. The library even has a large selection of yarn scraps we can use if we want to. We show them all the Tunison technique that we just learned. Yes, it's heaven!


From there we drive a few miles south to our favorite B&B. After unpacking we go downstairs to the dining room for dinner then we go for a walk in the quaint little town. When we get back we sit on the wraparound porch with our hooks and yarn and crochet until the sun goes down. Then we go up to our room and crochet and talk and laugh until the wee hours of the morning. I fall asleep with visions of new Clover hooks and Nora yarn dancing in my head.


When I wake up I am back in my bedroom with the birds chirping, the smell of lilacs and my curtains billowing in the cool breeze.


Dang it! It was all just a dream...a "Crochet Fantasy"...it's Monday...and I'm late for work!!!
Use this tag 3KCBWWC to search on Google to read what other bloggers are writing with the Wildcard Topic!


Happy Crocheting!!

Color? How Do You Choose?

When I choose colors for my projects I am all over the place! When I look at my finished projects just for the last year it is very clear I don't have a "system" or any one color that I predominantly choose.

As you can see I am about as random as they come. It seems I am drawn to a rainbow of bright hues, nothing subdued in my selections! I have done extensive studies of how to choose the "right" colors for a project. Of course we all love Lucy's colors at Attic 24 so I studied her system of choosing colors and I just didn't get it!!


I don't have any art school training and I kind of have a basic understanding how the color wheel works but, I still don't know what colors look good with other colors and why.

Do I really want to know this much about color? No, not really. I just want to be sure the items I crochet are pleasing to look at and basically look pretty. Isn't that what we all want? Do we really need to know all this information about color theory, hues, tones, etc.?


Well, I think to a certain extent we do. A lot of us ask our readers/followers about our yarn color choices for our next project, so we can get reassurance that our choices are "okay". It's nice to know that others agree with our choices or don't as the case may be. 

Of course we can also check with the new "Color Generators." These are pretty cool but I still end up confused because they seem to be very random! 

This site called Design Seeds is pretty awesome if I want to take the time to use it. It will search for colors by hue, or even themes like flora, vintage, vacation, winter, etc. It seems to be more useful to me than just color generator. It gives you several swatches from a photo.


Okay, I have given you a lot of options for picking colors for your projects but how do I do it? I try to look at nature for my decorating and my crochet projects. If a flower is pretty then the colors in it will look pretty in a crochet project. Mostly though, I go with the yarn that is in used in the pattern. It looks good so why try and reinvent the wheel?

 I know this probably limits me in my choices but some sites like Lion Brand show the same pattern with different colored yarns. They also have a pattern that goes with the yarns you like so when you pick a yarn you would like to use, at the bottom you can see crochet or knit patterns made with that yarn. For example, I looked at the Amazing yarn and then crochet patterns and then I got lots of crochet patterns using Amazing yarn. How easy is that? Use this tag 3KCBWWDAY1 to search on google and read what the other bloggers are saying about color!


HAPPY CROCHETING!!

Tags!? More Fun for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week!

Hi Everyone! I am getting more excited to do this each day, I am so glad some of my readers are going to participate!

Here is some more fun information about the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week I am participating in next week.

 Below is a list of tags that all of us that are blogging will add to our blog posts. Then you can go to Google and do a search for a tag and you will get a list of all the bloggers that did that post for that day. Does this make sense? I hope so. You can link to this post so you will have the tags for each day, (or do it the old fashioned way and write them down on a piece of paper;))

Happy Crocheting!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!-Crochet Blog Week

That's right folks...

Next week begins the 2012 Knitting and Crochet Blog Week! Yes, yours truly will be participating this year and I am so excited! Be sure and check back here at the Crochet Attic (Addict is more like it) every day for a fun and informative blog post from me.

If you would like to participate you can find all the information here.

The blog week is in its third year and this year there will even be prizes! 

Here’s a list of all the topics that we crochet/knit bloggers, will be blogging about next week.





I sure do hope you can join us! Happy Crocheting!