Blog: The First. Now with more Turtles

Life is full of firsts; first project, first pattern, first video and now: first blog!

My name is Sarah, I'm a crocheter. I'm based in Sydney, Australia, which you will notice quickly when you check out my YouTube. The accent is strong with this one.

I have been crocheting for coming up to a decade. I started out watching CrochetGeek on YouTube and never looked back. I have been sharing on Facebook since my very first beanie, then started expanding with Etsy, Instagram and more recently YouTube.

There are a lot of changes happening in the social media world though, and it's always uncomfortable being at the whims of The Algorithm & ever changing TOS (terms of service). It feels about time to start sharing somewhere I can call my own.

I think I'll start out with one of my favourite free patterns I've released: my baby turtles. This is a great introduction to making plushies, using scrap yarn and testing out new hooks.

Three small crochet turtles nestled together

Free Downloadable PDF on Ravelry

I wrote the original pattern as a challenge when I felt like I wasn't using my commuting time to the fullest. With roughly 3 hours a day on trains and busses travelling to work, I decided to write and post a pattern to Tumblr before I got home that night.

It was also my first YouTube tutorial, it is the one I learned how to record, edit and upload. I was determined to use this new medium as a way to help people unable to read written patterns. So often a pattern is either written or video tutorial, so it's difficult for self taught to learn to read a written pattern.

By sectioning out the pattern in the video, I was able to add the text to the screen to show how it converts from short hand to spoken pattern.

My more recent videos have better audio, video and editing, but this one will always hold a special place in my heart as my first free pattern, video tutorial and blog.

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