About Me

Hi everyone! Since it is a new year, I wanted to do a new About Me page. I asked on my facebook page what you all would like to know and got several interesting questions! I hope you guys are able to get to know me a bit better through this and I encourage you to leave your own introduction in the comments! At the end, I'll ask some things I'd like to know about all of you. :)

1. For starters... someone asked what I looked like and I figured the best way was just to show you. I'm the woman in the back :) The guy in the front is my husband. We have been together for 6 years, married four and are currently expecting our THIRD child (due 9/1/15).
   
2. A common question that came up was who taught me to crochet. Several people in my life contributed to me learning but, for the most part, I taught myself. A lady in my family crocheted often and taught me the chain. An aunt taught me how to turn around. Then, a friend's mother taught me the popcorn stitch. This all happened between the ages of 10 and 16. Everything else, I taught myself by experimenting, practicing and learning new stitches in books and online. I think that the best way to learn anything in crochet is to find a pattern that uses that stitch or technique and make the pattern. By the time you're done, you'll about be a master of whatever it is you'd wanted to learn!
   
3. "How long have you been designing?" - I've not been designing long at all! I would make a pattern here or there and share it on my blog. Another designer found me and invited me to a designers Facebook group where I learned that you can actually make a living off of designing crochet patterns and running a blog. I started working really hard on my website and on designing and now, 11 months later... I've almost finished my first year of designing!
   
4. "What about other crafts?" - What about them? LOL I'm kidding. I'm not overly crafty in other areas. I suck at drawing. I can't sew a straight line to save my life (and that goes double for cutting) and I have to concentrate really hard to color in the lines (kidding... mostly). I have tried my hand at knitting and I think I'll eventually reach a point where I'm also designing knitting patterns; that's year in the future though!
   
5. This next question is a happy one... do I have any animals? I do! I love animals. Eventually, I want to have a horse farm and chickens, I've always wanted chickens (though I recently discovered I'm allergic to egg whites so I may have to skip the chickens). I currently have two dogs. One we just added to our family before Christmas! My first dog is a Siberian Husky, we call her Misty and our second dog is a Shepherd Wolf Mix and we call her Bear. :)
   
       
   
6. The next obvious question was to ask about my family! :) This answer doubles as an answer to what most inspires me... my family! More specifically my kiddos. My daughter is the whole reason I started getting serious about crochet in the first place. Once I became pregnant with her I wanted her to have a special blanket. Once I found out she was a girl, I spent the rest of my pregnancy working my butt off to finish that blanket. It was the first blanket I ever made!
                                       
   
   
7. "Why do you like to design?" - I love designing because there is something that is so freeing about it. Though I originally started because I thought it didn't require a whole lot of work. I already take care of two dogs, two children and a husband! Plus I was in school when I started to design. The last thing I wanted to do was a serious job that required lots of work. Designing seemed like such a freeing thing. I could be as creative as I wanted, work when I could and just have fun doing it! And... while most of that didn't pan out the way I thought it would, I still love it. In reality, designing and running my websites takes at least 60 hours a week and I had to really shape up in my photography skills as well. While I didn't have any idea just how much went into designing... I'm so glad I started this journey and can't wait to see where I end up!
   
8. The next popular question was "What are your favorite hooks?" and I'm very eager to answer this question. I am in LOVE with Crochet Amour hooks. I use them for everything and get a little bummed out when I can't find the size I need (because I'm horrible about losing hooks). I also jumped for joy when I found out they were releasing larger sizes! :D
   
9. Next up is: "what is your favorite yarn to work with" - this is another question I am thrilled to answer. I even have more than one answer. When I first started crocheting I was a "Red Heart Super Saver" or "ILTY" kind of girl. I'd occasionally use "ILTC". Then I discovered hand dyed merino yarn and hand dyed mulberry silk yarn. And I fell in love. I LOVE to buy from Yarn Baby LLC and The Silk Drop! They are small businesses (which I love to support) and they have incredible material. Yarn Baby takes custom orders on yarn (I've ordered two different custom color schemes) and The Silk Drop has the most incredible prices for their high quality work! I definitely encourage you to check them out and treat yourself to a bit of heaven ;)
   
10. Ten seems like a good number of questions so this will be my last one... "If you could give one piece of advice to a person just learning to crochet, what would it be?" - Don't give up! Keep trying. No one is perfect when they start learning. It took me forever just to learn to turn around :p And don't compare your work to others. No matter how bad you are, there will be someone not quite as good as you... and no matter how good you are, there will always be someone better. So just be happy with the work you do and never stop trying to improve it. :) 

Thanks for the questions everyone! Now here are some questions for you:

• How did you learn about MNE Crafts? 
• What is your favorite MNE Crafts pattern? 
• How long have you been crocheting? 
• What is your favorite yarn? Favorite hook? 
• Do you crochet as a hobby or as an income?