Tales of a Techno-Hooker Crochet Blog by Amie Hirtes

The Meaning of Creativity
I find it fascinating to talk with other designers and ask them what makes them tick, what drives their internal engines to create and keep creating even in the face of self-doubt and frustration. The answers I get always lean towards an insatiable desire to put to real form what they’re seeing [...]

Here are some quick picture from my latest pattern release, “Montauk Handbag.” I’ve included a photo fan of the first four pages. You can see that there are a great deal of photos, illustrations, and diagrams to help the crocheter along the way. Don’t be afraid because it’s labeled “Intermediate.” I use a couple more [...]

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 near [...]

Here are some more details about the wedding…which is in 4 days!
Techno-Wedding Cards & Bouquet Extras:
Larry came up with the FABULOUS idea of having our guests be able to automatically upload pictures they take at our wedding using their cameras and phone cameras. Once someone takes pictures, they just send them to a prescribed email [...]

(If you missed Part 1, here’s a link. If you want to see where they wedding will be held or check out the color inspiration for everything, check out this post.)
While I’m a fan of the importance of the larger details of a wedding – the clothes, the wedding vendor, the food – it’s the [...]

Sorry to leave you “flat” as we used to say when I was 10 years old. I’ve been so busy with wedding plans that I haven’t had time to pop in here and write. But let me catch you up on all things wedding (with some crochet too!).
I decided early on that I was going [...]

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. I think I just needed some time away alone with my thoughts. It’s been an emotional two months to say the least. I’ve kept most of my babbling to a 140 character count over at Twitter. Less is more these days. I do promise though, with the summer coming up, [...]

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 by, Marty Miller
Crochet Small Wire Bag by, Noreen Crone-Findlay
Felted [...]

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…

Now that you know how to make slip and chain stitches as well as single, double, and treble crochets, let’s talk about how we can group our stitches to make a simple chart. Open a new document and save it. Call it whatever you like. I’m calling my “First Symbol Chart.” 
The Setup
There are a few methods [...]