Online Crochet Magazines are a great resource for any crocheter. There are many to chose from but not many of them offer their content for free! The Official Crochet Savvy Online Magazine is a free resource that offers so many features. You will find free patterns, articles about crochet professionals just like you, as well as tons of tips for fellow crochet fashionista’s . There are lots of extra’s dispersed throughout the magazine. The Spring issue had 88 pages.
The owner and editor in chief is Keturah. Keturah is a sweet soul, she has been so helpful and kind to me during my blogging journey. Keturah is also very generous and donates a lot of her time to charity. The magazine highlights some of the charities she is involved in.
Overall the Official Crochet Savvy Online Magazine is a fantastic resource. You can check out the Spring Issue here. All back issues are also available on MagCloud. Digital copies are free, you can also get a print copy for $17.60 if you wish.
I believe I have made a life long friend in Keturah, her magazine is an inspiration to me and I can’t wait to see what the future brings for her and her team.
Lets get to know a little bit more about Keturah of the Official Crochet Savvy Online Magazine
1- How long have you been publishing your magazine?
Crochet Savvy is 1 year old this spring. We began advertising in April 2012 for the release of our first “Sample” magazine Late Spring 2012. This was the first magazine but we also labeled it “Pilot” to show what would be included in the magazine. So if had items from all seasons in it. The first cover girl was Shauna Howard of Diva-in-Training Designs. She was an awesome pick because although she was crocheting before, the push from the magazine really made her focus on her business and I am very proud that we and the love that she got from being featured gave her the mental strength to really think long term crochet business.
The idea of doing the magazine came to me one day when I was reading different crafting and fashion magazines on my iPad and I realized that while they all where great, none of them combined elements that I would like to see in just one magazine. I said to myself, “Imagine a magazine that had crochet, fashion and style all in one. I would love that for myself.” Little did I know that other people where looking for the same thing. I still subscribe to other magazines and buy them in the stores but one day I hope Crochet Savvy Magazine will be a sort of couture fashion craft magazine on the level of Vogue and Vanity Fair.
2- Do you also crochet?
I do crochet. But I also knit and sew, cook and home decorate (paint, craft and rebuild items in the home), sort of like Martha Stewart. I love internal decorating and I wanted to go to school for fashion and home design but I ended up going for Pre-Law and Business. I have been knitting since around 2008 when my first daughter was born as an outlet while breastfeeding. I found it hard to do with a young child and two knitting needles so a lady from a local business that I was consulting and helping out taught me to crochet. I loved the idea that you can still do something with yarn and only hand. I took to the art of crochet immediately. It was only after 2010 that I started to go back and forth with both crochet and knitting. This year, I will enter the field of teaching crochet and knitting to a group of teens at my synagogue and then we will see what happens from there.
3- What are your favorite items to crochet?
My favorite items to crochet would be scarves and wraps, earrings (I love earrings) and shrugs. My favorite creative way to crochet is with jumbo hooks and multi skeins in the same project. In life, I love art, painting with mediums that give the canvas a textured look. I take that love of art and apply it in my crochet and knitting projects. Multi skein projects just make any item pop! Also, my daughter wants me to start crocheting Barbie clothes and things for her dolls. I will try but it seems to me that when I crochet or knit small things, it’s harder and my hands hurt. I love those people out there who make the dolls and crochet food, etc. Seems fun but totally hard for me lol.
4- What is your favorite thing about crocheting and/or publishing?
My favorite thing about crocheting is how fast you can make many projects and how some things just take shape better than knitting because you are almost freehanding a project because you are only using one tool- the hook. With knitting you can shape but you have to really make sure that you count and decrease or increase and turn and shape, etc. Crochet- it feels like you just do it naturally. Odd shapes- crochet it, no problem.
My favorite thing about publishing is that I control what I want in my own magazine. I don’t have corporate people or boards telling me what they want to see. I also love that I can show off new artist and other people who may never have been in other magazines and probably will never go that route. I can even be a stepping stone for people who may want to be in those popular magazines but do not understand pattern making or what it takes to get in a magazine. I feel that my magazine is a safe haven for people like that, my staff becomes a resource and mentor to these designers. That is what I love and enjoy about Crochet Savvy Magazine. So far, just from publishing one year, I have made business partners for life with some people and I will probably always support whatever they do, even if it may seem strange to the other magazines.
I also love that I focus mainly on fashion and style. Other magazines do things from baby items to home décor and crochet clothes, but I always wanted the main focus to be about style. We also publish charity projects as I am a big advocate for people getting involved in volunteerism. I feel that without that one element, even though it’s a crochet fashion magazine, that my magazine would be nothing. I come from a background where you help people who need help and you empower people to get out and get moving when they are able. By adding charity crochet in the magazine it gives people a chance to help with crafting, even if we don’t have money to give, we can craft from the heart and make a difference in someone’s life.
And finally, I love that I don’t have to try to go to these other magazines for help getting my own patterns out. I have my own magazine. I tell people that if you are tired of working for other companies and giving all of your time to people and their dreams- create your own. This is why I also publish articles about business and how to survive financially by doing what you love. I work for myself. My husband works to support our family, but I work to keep my creative output pouring out and I am very blessed to do it. Some people can’t but the magazine will help those who want to. So you can’t get your work out there, create an outlet to get your work out. That’s my motto and hopefully Crochet Savvy Magazine can encourage other people to follow their dreams and create crochet empires. That’s what I love about publishing.
5- What are your favorite articles/ or favorite content to publish?
Charity articles and our Wear Crochet section where we feature styles from Polyvore.com stylist to help people learn how to wear crochet any season, any time and anywhere.
6- Tell us a little something about your personal life… kids, family, pets, etc.
I am from Houston, Texas and love to travel. My main craft is graphic and web design but I love to cook, garden, crochet and knit, sew and decorate. My family lived in Florida near West Palm Beach in Port Saint Lucie/ Fort Piece and we have traveled lots of places down south and on the East Coast (New York and New Jersey). I hope to visit California one day and to site see all over the USA like the mountains and go hiking somewhere. Now that I am in Canada, I hope to see Newfoundland and visit Viking lands.
We moved to Toronto, Canada where my husband is an Assistant Rabbi over a local community of the Messianic Jewish faith, making me a Rebbetzin (title given to a Rabbi’s wife). We are very busy helping and dedicating our life to the synagogue but are blessed to have time to craft and work on music.
I meet my husband in 2002 when we did conscience hip hop music in a group named “Secta 7” under Ministerz of the Underground Records & Television. We had a tv show that focused on the good in hip hop music and the artists who teach through music to make the youth better and stay encouraged. We taught against most of the filth and crazy music that is seen on tv and heard on the radio and replaced it with better music. After dating, we got married in 2005 and now have 2 children- a girl 5 years old and a boy 21 months old and 2 cats. I love animals and hope to get some dogs one day (although my daughter also wants fish and anything else cute and fuffy.)
I love to craft and I am a visual learner. If I design something, its in my head and then I write the pattern when I am finished. My grandmother sew for a living so I learned by watching her and I love music, movies and art.
My favorite music is nature and relaxing music like Jazz and Classical and I would love to see an Opera one day! My favorite movies have to involve a great plot and story line (Narnia, Marvel Super Heroes, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Twilight, etc.) And finally, I like to be outside on the porch in a rocking chair, just listening to the sound of nature, the trees, a beach, anything.
I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about The Official Crochet Savvy Online Magazine. If you are on facebook you can “like” the Offical Crochet Savvy Online Magazine FB page. Crochet Savvy is also on Twitter.
Keturah’s other blog is Knit Fabulous Cook. Sew. Knit. Crochet. DIY. Craft. Fashion. Motherhood. Torah.
A very special thanks to Keturah for being a featured guest blogger on Cre8tion Crochet!