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Welcome to The Artful Crafter Digest - January 2012 January 01, 2012 |
| Hi, [If you're having trouble reading this newsletter or if links don't work, click here to read online. Think of:
The list goes on and on. There is a bit of a lull between New Year’s Day and the next BIG holiday we love to craft for. Why not do some crafting for YOU and your pocketbook in the interim? Happy New Year and Keep on Crafting! Eileen UPCOMING HOLIDAY CALENDAR TO HELP YOU PLAN YOUR CRAFTING
This Could be Your First Good Deed for 2012Here’s an opportunity to do your first good deed for the New Year! Plus it’s in a pretty exciting way. My friend and fellow artist/crafter, Deb Terry, has submitted a really neat design to UGG boots. If she wins, UGG will produce the boots. Can you imagine how exciting that would be?! Oh, there’s also the $5000 prize! Go check out Deb’s UGG Boot Design. If you like it as much as I do and have a Facebook and/or Twitter account, vote for Deb. Votes are not the only determining factor, but they will be considered in UGG’s selection of the winning design. Crafters are the nicest people. They help each other out whenever they can. I know I can count on you guys ;-) NEW ARTICLES ON THE ARTFUL CRAFTERDECOUPAGE  New Decoupage: Transforming Your Home With Paper, Glue, and Scissors POLYMER CLAY CRAFTERS HELPING CRAFTERS  READER LETTER: Need Help Finding Gifts for My Wife Who's New to Crochet My wife started crocheting last month - said cross stitch just isn't fun anymore w/ her eyes. I need some advice/help for some fun gifts. I am in the Norwood, MA area thru Wed. and then back home to Nashville. Tnx John  Hi John, How thoughtful of you. I wonder if you read my blog post, Crafters are Easy to Shop For. Your case is a bit different in that your wife - and you - are starting from scratch as far as crochet goes. So you can’t skulk around her supplies and see what she is running low on. Nor can you get inside her head and find out what crochet items she has been longing for; because there’s not much there yet – regarding crochet that is - lol. It doesn’t matter where you are – MA or TN – I think your best bet would be to go online. You could also go into a brick and mortar yarn shop and ask one of the salespeople to help you. The problem with that is they can only sell you what they have in stock. I wrote, "For easy one-stop gift shopping, Amazon now has a dedicated section for Arts, Crafts & Sewing. If you want a subcategory like crochet, just type that into the Crafts search box and the most popular items in that category will show up on top." If I were just starting to crochet, I would be thrilled to receive any of the following gifts. 1) A set of (basic straight) crochet needles in a case to help keep them organized. Given your wife’s changing eyesight, she’ll prefer fatter needles – any size from F to K or 6 to 10 1/2 should do nicely. Some hooks come with ergonomic grips but you can also buy comfort grips that can be slipped over any hook. These are nice if one has arthritis or wants to crochet for long periods of time. I prefer aluminum needles myself. The yarn glides beautifully on them. 2) A book of patterns, preferably small projects which will teach various stitches and can be completed in a reasonable amount of time.
 3) My final suggestion: you know how women love purses and totes? Unless your wife has a nice tote from her cross stitch days, look for an open (at the top) design which makes items easy to find and extract. Pockets, either outside or in, are nice to hold patterns, pattern books, needles and scissors. If you’re buying more than one item, look for products that are sold directly by Amazon (not a third party vendor). That way, everything will come in one shipment and you only have one vendor to deal with. Cheers, Eileen P.S. Please tell your wife that The Artful Crafter has a section of (free) Basic Crochet Patterns as well.  |
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