Tales of a Techno-Hooker Crochet Blog by Amie Hirtes

I have a habit of disappearing. I’m no Houdini, I promise you that. I might exist on a social media blitz high – posting on my Facebook group, Ravelry, Twitter, yada –  for a couple weeks and then disappear for awhile. That’s the nature of my existence, for now anyways, due by in large to [...]

Six years of doing business selling online crochet patterns. SIX. I love what I do, but I don’t love dealing with PayPal. Matter of fact, I dislike them with a passion. In the last six years, I’ve had to make several phone calls to PayPal to work out claims and disputes. Every time it’s involved [...]

It’s been in my head for awhile now to update and revamp the layout for all the NexStitch patterns. With the last published patterns (Rhiannon Tote and Dandelion Neck Cuff), I had done some updating to the layout to eliminate the “intro” page and rework the materials page to include more product pictures and edit [...]

Wouldn’t that be awesome? A site called, “Crocehtbook” for all the crocheters out there. Guess that’s like Rav in some ways, huh? Anyways, have I mentioned my Facebook fan page here? I don’t think I have. I’ve had one for awhile now, I just haven’t used it until recently. Come join me on Facebook! My [...]

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog post. It seems that I’ve contained my socializing to Twitter these days. It’s fast. It’s easy. And it requires very little of me. I’ve been a lazy blogger stuck in a coma of sorts. And a lazy designer to boot. OK, that’s not entirely true. [...]

Sometimes it’s important to assess what you currently have going on in your life and make changes, updates, and improvements. New clothes. A new hairdo. Repaint the bedroom. Assess and downsize personal inventories. And sometimes it’s important to realize what you have is so far outdated that it needs to be scratched and started over. [...]

Finally. A published pattern. FINALLY. I’ve been sitting on this pattern for a year and a half. That’s right. You aren’t seeing things. I did say A YEAR AND A HALF. Designers are known to come up with a bevy of ideas and sit on some of them, but it’s not so usual to be [...]

SCRATCH THAT: But it here! We’re oh-so close to releasing the 3rd and final volume of the Bag Book series from SFTD Online. (I will update this post when we go live). Strapped For Bags, Volume 3 featuring: A Crocheter’s Backpack by, Amy O’Neill Houck Hip Hoppin’ Backpack by, Dee Stanziano Knot Bag by, Doris Chan Scrap Yarn Bag [...]

Natalie Zee Drieu from Craft Magazine posted some link action to my Adobe Illustrator tutorials. It’s always nice to get some link action from the crafty mavens at Craft. It’s kinda funny, and yet amusingly odd to see my computer’s desktop for all the Internets to see over at Craft…

Here’s a sneak peak of a handbag pattern that I had started a long, longgggg time ago and finally finished this week. This bag is totally my style. I’m a beach girl through and though, so I chose to make it with raffia (Wraphia by Berwick). The bag has been embellished with embroidery and surface [...]