If you love crafting, it’s worth it to take the time to find a craft community that bolsters your creativity and understands how hard you worked on your project. Crafting communities can be found in many different places, from the local library to social media or even through your child’s school! Honestly, finding a craft community is incredibly easy. What’s much more challenging is finding one that fits your personality.
For instance, I’m in many different crochet groups, and they all allow different things. From Mildly Offensive Fiber Arts to Not Your Grandma’s Crochet, all the way to Free Crochet Diagrams, each one offers something different and has a different vibe. Many people won’t be comfortable in the Mildly Offensive group but thrive in Mikey’s Crochet Crowd.
Although I focus mainly on crochet, every craft you can think of has at least a handful of groups full of thousands of people conversing daily and offering high-fives and advice. Regardless of whether you’re into beading or scrapbooking, there’s a community out there that will make you feel like you have found your people. My best advice is to treat each group as a trial run and simply leave if you find things distasteful. This works both in online forums and in real life.
The perks of joining a group are endless. Creativity knows no bounds when many people get together to discuss a passion. Even better, if you ever run into a problem, you can rest assured that someone has an answer on how to troubleshoot it or can at least point you in the direction of a YouTube tutorial that is easy to follow. You can also get tons of advice on color combinations, project difficulty, and where to buy materials.
I often use my communities to help me decide which patterns and yarns I should use and whether or not I should order supplies from a particular company. Twice they’ve saved one of my projects from absolute demise, giving valuable advice on how to get coffee stains out of wool without damaging my stitch work and how to undo a certain portion of my project when I misunderstood a pattern. Honestly, they’ve also taught me how to stave off migraines and keep my hands happy and healthy when crafting.
If you’re not sure where to start when trying to find a craft community, ask around. Call your local library or craft store and see what crafting classes are offered. You can also search Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other online forums that will lead you in the right direction. At the end of the day, if you can’t find anything at all, consider starting your own. I promise that someone out there is searching as hard as you are for a crafting buddy!