The Loss Of Creative Motivation

Hello Everyone!

I know I have kinda of disappeared off the face of the planet for the past month or so, but I have good reasons (I think?) The most prominent reason being that we got caught up in an unexpected house hunt. I won’t get into too much detail about it, but long story short, we went from thinking about buying a house in a few years down the road to buying one within a month or so. Ultimately there were certain aspects of our life that didn’t line up with the plan and it would be much easier to start looking at the end of the year rather than right this second. With that being said, I spent about 3 weeks thinking I was going to uproot my whole life out of nowhere, so crochet wasn’t really on my radar for a little bit.

Top 10 Tips for New Crocheters

Have you recently started crocheting and feel like chucking your work in the bin because you just don’t think you can get the hang of it? Well don’t aim for the trash can just yet!

Now I don’t consider myself to “know it all” when it comes to crochet by any means, I am still learning every day and probably will be till the end of time. In fact I actually gave up trying to learn how to crochet, probably, 3 times before I finally had the motivation to stick with it. Since then I have been crocheting for about 5 or 6 years and I would like to think that I have come a long way and learned a lot since then!

Top 5 Tips To Help You Pick Out Beginner Crochet Tools and Supplies

If you are new to crochet and are really itching to jump in your car and head to your local craft store to pick up some supplies, I am right there with you, but if you have no prior knowledge of the craft, there may be a few things you want to know before you stomp on the accelerator. Luckily I have some crochet tips!

King Cole Big Value Chunky Review

Naturally, reviewing yarns is fun because it’s really kind of an excuse to try a bunch of new yarns (and feel a little less bad about buying so much). Additionally, part of the fun of shopping online for yarn is trying to find more “obscure” brands of yarn to try every now and then. In reality i’m sure the brands aren’t really that obscure, but some of them don’t seem to be as well known in the US.

Fall Favorites

As fiber artists I think we are pretty much required to love Fall. Don’t get me wrong, I really love making lacy summer garments, but there will always be a special place in my heart for chunky sweaters and fluffy blankets. Personally, I think I love fall because it brings back a lot of fond memories from when I was a kid and somehow makes me feel more comfortable and secure than other seasons.

It is also the time of year when all the best holidays start to roll around, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are by far my favorite holidays of the entire year. So with all of that being said, I am super excited for Fall to start! I’m still brewing up design ideas and trying to make my brain make the transition to come up with warm patterns rather than ones that help you not melt during the summer.

Now Accepting Pattern Tester Applications!

Over these past few months I have been spending a lot of time focusing on how I can expand and improve Casale Crafts. I have come up with a lot of ideas that I am super excited to share throughout the coming weeks! One thing that I know I have needed to crack down on for quite some time now is to take Pattern Testing much more seriously and do it consistently for every pattern. Not going to lie, this realization came after receiving some not so positive feedback about the structure of my pattern not being “traditional”.

DROPS Cotton Light Yarn Review

If there is one thing that I never shut up about it is how much I love Cotton yarn. I think I have really pin pointed that love down to that fact that I always aim for a certain kind of drape in my designs that you just can’t achieve with bulkier fibers like acrylic or wool when you are crocheting. If you want a knitting level drape in crochet I feel like you have to use cotton (or just really thin yarn in general). The down side to using cotton is that it is so hard to find good cottons yarns, so I have been slowly trying some different kinds and doing these reviews in the hopes that it takes the guess work away for other people who are thinking of trying out new brands of yarn. So today I am focusing on reviewing DROPS Cotton Light.

My 5 Biggest Maker Challenges and How I’m Learning to Deal With Them

The maker life is a fun and meaningful one, but it is not always very easy. With being creative comes a lot of challenges that I think we often feel alone in, but in reality we aren’t alone at all. I have been doing “Makers May” this month, where you are supposed to do one post a day on Instagram all month-long. This on its own has been quite a challenge since I already don’t post on Instagram as often as most makers do, but ironically today’s post (which of course I have not actually done yet) is about Challenges. So I thought that I would do a post here about some challenges that I find myself facing rather often, so here goes!

Gazzal Yarn Review

I have talked about this brand briefly in some of my patterns, but here is everything you need to know about it in one place! I happened upon Gazzal yarn, when I found myself wanting a light weight cotton fiber. I really love making lace like patterns that are spring and summer friendly, and in my experience the only easily accessible cotton that I could find was Lily Sugar and Cream, which is always available at Michaels and Joann. Now don’t get me wrong, a part of me will always love Lily Sugar and Cream yarn, but my only issue with it is that it is weight 4 yarn. Worsted Weight yarn is amazing for a great number of projects, but I don’t think Spring and Summer projects fall under that category.

The “Maker Image”

If it isn’t immediately apparent, I love crocheting, but just as with any love there usually comes a period of inevitable frustration. Since starting this website and trying to develop my presence in the Maker Community, I have been feeling that frustration quite often. This frustration has many roots, and although I have not identified all of them, I think I have a handle on a couple that I believe many Makers experience. I have had such a difficult time putting all of these difficulties and emotions into words until I woke up the other morning to this post written by Lindsay Oncken of @bundlehandmade. She dives into the topic of what makes someone a Maker and tackles the idea that for one reason or another, Makers often feel pressured to fit into a mold and I honestly couldn’t agree more. Her post really helped me organize my thoughts and find a central theme to all of the frustration and anxiety I have been feeling. For me it has come down to the idea of “Image”.