Meet Our Members: Erin

Erin is one of our newer members - she's been a CTC member for about two years. She and her husband live in the Southeast metro with their first baby on the way. In fact, she has the honor of being the first expectant mother in our group - and some of us are predicting that the little one will choose to arrive the day that this blog entry is posted!

Erin, tell us a little bit about your craft and crochet history.
I enjoy lots of crafts in addition to crochet - making jewelry, painting, drawing and working on my porcupine quillwork skills. I've only been crocheting about 4 years and taught myself to crochet by watching youtube videos. I've also picked up a lot of skills by trial and error as well as by coming to meetings. 

My favorite thing about being a CTC member is seeing all the awesome things that people are making and the monthly topics have taught me a lot of new skills. The level of friendliness and support that goes along with the meetings makes them really fun to attend.

I recently bought a whole bunch of Brava yarn from Knitpicks and I really like working with it. The colors are vibrant and it has inspired a lot of experimentation with textures. I love working on smaller things like hats and scarves or jewelry. I generally don't have the attention span for large tedious projects. My favorite place to crochet is hanging out with my cats and watching a movie while all wrapped up in a blanket. Anytime that can happen is the best, as long as they’re not too interested in playing with the yarn.

The biggest benefit that I receive from crocheting is that it keeps me off the streets. Just kidding! I really like learning new techniques and improving upon what I already know. I like the challenges.

Speaking of techniques, what are some of your favorites?

My favorite technique (this week) is working in the back loop only so it ends up looking like a wave or spiral. The crochet challenge I would like to master next is to make a pair of tapestry crochet mittens that resemble the Selbu mittens from Norway. My dream project would be to make a blanket using the insanely bulky yarn that is almost as thick as your arm. I saw a blanket knitted from it using PVC pipe needles and I think it would be so fun to play with. I’m going to need a bigger hook…

To help organize my stash and supplies, I recently procured a yarn baller, it’s amazing. I would highly recommend purchasing one. I have wire shelves that I stack the yarn cakes onto. They’re organized by color and then I have a shelf for art yarns as well.

It sounds like you love to experiment and learn. What about patterns?

The first time through I will follow a pattern and then I will make my own notes on what I think would improve it as I go. Charts help if the pattern is complicated but a pattern along with some photos of the more difficult parts is my favorite. I really like it when the Ravelry patterns include some progress photos.

What do you do with the items you make? 
I mostly use them as gifts but will occasionally keep something for myself. These are pictures of two of my latest projects. The first photo is a hat that I just completed for my friend's 3 year old daughter. The second one is of a top I made for a friend's birthday from a pattern on Ravelry, the Keila top.

One of the main reasons I keep crocheting is because I like seeing the happiness on people’s faces when they open their gifts.



Erin, we can see that you make lots of friends happy with your crocheted gifts and we can't wait to see your baby decked out in crochet finery!