Honing My Hooking :) Question of the Week

This week's question from my Etsy team, Create Crochet, asks "How do you continue to hone your craft (crochet) and what do you do to learn more?"

Noli, "needling" while I crochet

This is an easy one! I use a combination of crochet books and the internet. I have a pretty good collection of books and pattern pamphlets and also get them from the library. I can turn to these when I'm trying to decide on something to make - they are great for inspiration!

My favorite "how-to" book is "200 Crochet Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets" by Jan Eaton. I waited until I had a 50% off coupon from JoAnn's and bought it then!! :) It's an excellent source book and I have learned a lot of "trade secrets" from it.

I'm never without a book to read (usually fiction) and so go to the library pretty often. I always look to see if there are any new releases in the crochet/craft/cross-stitch area, plus I have some favorites that I check out from time to time. I am fortunate to live where there are several towns close by (it's like they are all one town) and so have three libraries that I use all the time, and have cards for a couple more if I want to go a little farther. (Here's something neat: one of them lets you renew up to 100 times! Can you believe that!! Very handy when it's 11:30pm and you just remembered that your books are due that day!! Jump up and run to the computer to renew!!)

Of course, the internet is a treasure trove of information and I'm always googling something! I have a number of crochet sites that I like to peruse: Crochet Pattern Central and Crochet & Craft Links Index are two that are good ones -- there's a lot to see, and a lot of ideas! Yarn companies are a good source also.

And, last but certainly not least, Etsy!  I could spend weeks just browsing through it! I love to look at what's out there in crochet, and also in other crafts. There is so much amazing talent!

I have thought about joining Ravelry but haven't yet. If any of you have, let me know what you think!!

Tulips Everywhere! - Wednesday Wanderings and the Shops Found Along the Way

If I could take an all-expense paid trip anywhere, where would I go?

That was the question of the week posed by my Etsy team, CreateCrochet. And since my Wednesday Wanderings post was due, I decided to combine the two!

My brother lived in Vlaardingen, The Netherlands for about four years and invited me to come for a summer just before my senior year in high school. We did a lot of traveling and sightseeing and I have lots of wonderful memories and would love to revisit many of the places we saw (went to 8 or 9 countries). Holland would be at the top of the list. Since I went in the summer, I just missed the tulip season when the whole country is a sea of reds and yellows, oranges and purples. I would absolutely love to see the tulips in bloom. In The Netherlands. (Visiting the "red light" district in Amsterdam would be fun again, too, but that's a story for another time...)

So, in my wanderings around Etsy today, I'm looking for tulips!

This print combines the great stuff of Holland - tulips and windmills! And the fact that there are gnomes about is just extra goodness! There were two gnomes who lived in a windmill print by Wind Up Bird Studios (rkoss)

I love this cross-stitch with its lone red tulip. So sweet! Butterfly and Tulip Cross Stitch by Whimsy & Charm

This shop is full of beautifully painted ceramics, not to mention her whimsical face pins! From sassy Diana to sophisticated Mavis, these pins are wonderful, each with a little added bling!! But I'm especially lovin' these tulip goblets!  Floral Wine Goblet - Yellow Tulips by The Artists' Loft

The tulips on this lunch tote just jump out at you! It's made of vintage fabrics with two designs front and back, and then it reverses to two more prints! All of them are tulips. How clever is that!!  Reversible Lunch Tote - Orange Tulips by Red Hen Studios

This tee is so reminisent of old world Holland designs with its kissing kids and windmill, and, of course, tulips! And did you see the wooden shoe hidden in the design? It's an original hand screen print and there's also a wonderful tulip skirt in the shop! Dutch Treat T-Shirt by Made With Love by Hannah

Well, thanks for coming along today, walking around the Etsy shops and a little down memory lane -- hope you'll come back next week to see where my wanderings will take me!! And what that sneaky little question will be from my Team!! 

How I Became a Hooker :)

OK, OK it's not what you think! Get your mind back up into higher places!!

Here's a new, fun weekly theme which I will TRY to post on Sunday or Monday. Note that I said "try."

A question will be posed each Sunday by Loose Threads on Create Crochet, an Etsy team I belong to, and will be answered by each participating member via their blogs! Should be fun and a great way to get to know each other. (It may or may not be crochet related!)

♥ ♥ ♥ Even if you don't belong to the team, feel free to leave your own comment on "the question" -- I'd love to hear what your own experiences are!

So, this week's question: When did you start crocheting? Did you teach yourself or did someone teach you? Tell us the story of how you became a hooker.

As so many do, I grew up surrounded by needle crafters and artists. My mother sewed, making nearly all my clothes as a child, and crocheted. A dear aunt did beautiful china painting and watercolors. She also made some amazing hooked rugs, dying her own wool from my uncle's Naval uniforms.  I had other aunts who quilted. My brother is quite the artist. My own drawing ability is sub-zero so I turned to cross-stitch, embroidery and ceramics to express my creative side.

I learned to crochet in my mid-twenties (no, not THE mid-20s, MY mid-20s -- hehe), initially from a co-worker and then on my own. Here is a picture of the first thing I crocheted (the co-worker said that it would be best to learn using thread instead of yarn -- I have always questioned the brilliance in that!)

And here is what it's SUPPOSED to look like!

I never finished it -- beginning what would become a long line of UFO's (or, in crochet jargon, UnFinished Object) and WIP's (Work in Progress or, I intend to finish it someday).  Oh, the precedents are set early in life....

Who knows why I began on such an ambitious project! (and who knows why I kept it, and more importantly, how I knew where it was!!)

From then on, I was self-taught -- got a really good magazine (which I still have) that showed great illustrations of the stitches and had easy projects.

And the rest is history!!