rhelena's hobbies

Crocheting and knitting are one of the best stress relievers. They help your body to relax while taking your mind away from the everyday hardships of life, to a whole new world of knitting or crocheting. Once a project is completed it gives the crafter a sense of fulfillment.

However, if you're just starting your adventures, you might find it rather tedious and stressful. It takes a lot of patience and practice, but remember, practice makes perfect! Once you have the hang of it, and have mastered the basics, you'll love it so much you'll never want to put it down.

To avoid some of this stress you'll want to start off with very small and simple projects. Also you'll want to use a plain worsted weight yarn-not the fancy boucle, eyelash or any other yarn that's difficult to work with.

There are many different hook and needle sizes which you can use; I recommend you use at least a 5.00mm if you're just learning; anything smaller than that will only add to your frustration.

I would recommend you start off making simple scrubbies or dishcloths. These projects are so small and give you lots of practice at starting and finishing off. You'll see your improvements from project to project whereas if you work on a large project, you see your improvements towards the end. This can be very discouraging, because it tends to makes you want to go back and redo the whole thing, but at the same time that's the last thing you want, you just want to get on with your next project.

So you see how starting with small projects makes for a great way to learn how to crochet or knit. Not only that, your stitches don't have to be perfect, because you'll only use them to wash your dirty dishes, and trust me these dish-cloths work like magic whether the stitches are even or not.

When making dish-cloth you should use 100% Cotton yarn, it's very easy to work with and perfect for dishcloths and scrubbies. It's amazing how this yarn when knitted or crocheted can act as a scrubber.

The best way to learn is to have someone teach you, but unfortunately not all of us know someone who possesses these skills. So thanks to the internet, today there are many free article and video tutorials online which will teach you step by step, from start to finish, how to knit or crochet.

You can shop online for all your supplies needed, hooks and needles, yarn and pattern books. Shopping online might cost you shipping, but you'll have a much bigger selection to choose from. There are also sites where you can download all kinds of free patterns.

If you don't know of any sites that offer free patterns, crochet and knitting supplies, visit my blog and look for the entry "Crochet and Knitting Supplies Online."

So you bought this craft book, maybe it's a book on crocheting, knitting, sewing, papercraft or any other craft that's out there.

You found some projects that you really, really want to make, but there's just a slight problem...your local craft store doesn't carry the supplies you need. So where do you go, what do you do now?

Well, you're in luck, Amazon carries a wide variety of great craft supplies, and great prizes as well! They carry everything from sewing machines, to fabrics, notions, yarns, everyting you need for papercrafting, jewelry making, and the list goes on.

You can also go to ebay and find some pretty amazing stuff there as well, also at very low prizes.

The first thing with which you need to familiarize yourself with in sewing is your sewing machine. If you don't have one you can get one at a fairly good price at eBay, or your local department store.

If you are not familiar with sewing I recommend you buy a cheaper machine; it will provide you with all the features you need to learn how to sew, plus it will be a lot less complicated to learn on, allowing you to focus on what matters most-your sewing skills.

Once you have your machine you should read the owners manual carefully and test out all the features it provides you with so that you have the basic understanding of your machine. There are also many sewing machine classes which you can take. Some stores will offer these for free just for buying their machine.

After you are familiar with your machine there are a few options on how you can learn to sew.

1) You can take hands-on sewing lessons. This is the easiest way for you to learn because when you run into a problem you simply ask your instructor instead of searching through your books or the internet. There are evening courses which you can sign up for at most fabric stores.

2) If there are not any sewing courses available in your area, you can also take a correspondence course, either by mail or online.

3) Lastly, if you don't mind searching around, you can use the search engines to help you find the answers and free patterns on the internet. There are many free step-by-step instructional projects which will have you sewing like a pro in no time.

The only advantage to taking the correspondence course is that in the end you'll receive a diploma, which could help you to find a job. But if you just want to learn for self improvement, then I would definitely recommend that you just look on the internet for help.

Sewing patterns such as simplicity or vogue also offer you step-by-step instructions.

There are also many books which you can buy which will help you to learn the basics of sewing.

To get started, stick with simple projects, such as simple curtains, pillow-cases or simple quilts. Once you have the basics mastered you're ready to move on to more advanced projects, like sewing your own clothes and much more.

Free Patterns and Pattern/Sewing Help:

Burdastyle
SewN'Sew
Clotilde
Sewing
Allcrafts
Learn to read patterns here