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| Whispertwister's fingerless glove |
Let me get this off my chest first: I LOVE THIS BLOG! I started by following as @crochetblogger on Twitter and just popping over when there was an intriguing tweet. There were so many intriguing tweets! Kathryn's ability to find interesting crochet news seems never ending. Just on the home page she is sharing the love with a promo for another Etsy seller, discussing crochet into old age and exploring a particular favourite of mine, recycled and upcycled yarns.WARNING! It is very easy to get lost and spend hours reading through the blog (I'd like it reproduced as a huge, glossy coffee table book - that way I could put in a book mark!). And, yes, this post is taking a very long time to write because I haven't been able to resist reading several articles ... watching yarn being made with one eye as I type!
Kathryn has 3 projects she is very keen to promote at the moment. I'll let her tell you about them:
"1. Swaddle! A Crochet Art Project. Swaddle is a crochet art project exploring the ways in which women nurture the men in their lives. It looks at silent forms of nurturing but specifically delves into the way that women communicate. Swaddle looks at the positive ways that female approaches to communication improve relationships but also looks at the darker side of how differing communication styles can suffocate relationships. It does so using crochet, which has stereotypically been considered a female craft. It will include 12 – 24 works of crochet art incorporating a range of crochet types including hyperbolic crochet, mosaic crochet and granny squares and using yarn from indie dyers, sellers and small yarn stores. I am trying to crowdsource funding for the project and all people who contribute will be represented in the project.""2. The Health Benefits of Crochet (a book). I am writing a book about the mental and physical health benefits of crochet. Crochet is such a healing, soothing craft and can provide significant mental health benefits for people dealing with depression, anxiety and stress-related illness. It can be used as a form of both long-term and short-term pain management and also as a form of occupational therapy for people with various hand ailments. What I’m spreading the word about is that I’m still interviewing people for this book and I’d love to hear from anyone who feels that crochet has helped their health and who would like to complete an email interview for the book."
"3. Hooked Together! (a blog project). Hooked Together is my huge crochet blog project designed to explore the connections within the crochet community. I have a list of 270 crochet / fiber / yarn blogs that I read. I am going through the blogroll for each of those blogs and exploring what they read, sharing their links to crochet, craft and other blogs on my blog every Friday so that my readers can find other blogs that they’ll enjoy. In the end, I’m going to put all of this together into a big display so that we can all see how the crochet community is connected within itself and to the larger craft community."
Such fascinating and important projects. Those of you who know me will also know that my degree is in Linguistics and so the communication/crochet combo in the Swaddle project is right up my alley! You will also be aware that crochet has helped get me through some very difficult times and a crazy leap from the security, but destructive stress, of a nicely paid teaching job to the insecure world of self-employment in crochet hooking and crochet design. I owe a lot to crochet and I think this book is an amazing idea.
If you love crochet or anything yarn or fibre related... go and visit Crochet Concupiscence.
What an advocat for the world of crochet!
