I have heard some real horror stories from established designers about different magazines and companies not paying them on time or even not paying them at all!

Getting paid is a good thing! Here are some best practices to help you make sure you get paid for your work and services.

[Content protected for Indie-pro members only]

I bet you’ve noticed a few pages that won’t let you access more info. I also bet you are wondering how to sign up for the other part of our membership site.

Hold tight… This is all preparation for the launch in the next few days!

Free Members you’ll get a notice via email through our member system. However, you can also sign up for CLF News using the form below!

Join Our Email List Email:

It’s one thing to talk about having a pattern tested; it’s another to know what to have tested in your patterns.

{private_Indie-Pro]

Indie Pros!! Here’s a walk through on pattern testing and a FREE pattern tester evaluation sheet.

In four years the CLF has helped bring crochet to a place where we sit more accepted in the fiber world. It bothers me that we had to do anything at all. After all, whether we create with yarn and hook or paper and glue, we are choosing to do the most human of activities; express our creativity with our hands.

I said on Facebook today that the C in CLF could as easily be the word craft as it is crochet. I chose crochet because that is what I do and I understand the conditions which crochet lovers are faced in the marketplace and as makers. I didn’t choose the name because of a superiority complex regarding my craft.

I love crochet, it’s part of my family story. I have a history with crochet and I know many of you do as well. It is very personal to us, yes we do indeed get offended when people make nasty comments about our craft.

What about the other crafts? Some are completely ignored and others get the cold shoulder as well. Just last night on Twitter I heard a sad tale of a Macrame artist who was treated terribly at a fiber event. Really? How infantile.

If you are a crafting professional, supplier, store owner, you have NO BUSINESS treating anyone who could or does buy your products with anything less than GRATITUDE. That’s right, customers owe you nothing except the payment they make to buy your goods and services, but you my friends owe them much. After all those customers provide YOU with your livelihood!

Arts and Craft snobbery is the single most asinine behavior I can imagine. In a world that faces many serious issues, to cause further discord based off of the choice of creative media is puerile, ignorant and displays tiny minds at work. If you want to feel self important then go out and do something worth while and useful with your crafting, don’t just put other people down because you have this desire to be the top dog.

Members enjoy the video clip below, to remind you why craft snobbery is foolish!

[Content protected for Free members only][Content protected for Indie-pro members only]

I’ve had to make a few changes to the site to get things optimized for phase 3 of CLF 3.0, which is the launch of paid membership. CLF 3.0 has never been about being a social networking site, that inclusion is as I have stated previously, window dressing.

The site has been loading slowly and too slowly for all of us, including me. I have the absolute fastest hosting one can have without going to a dedicated server. It has become obvious to me that to enact the software that I would like to use for the social side of life that I was going to have to change a few things around so here’s what I have done:

1) Groups are gone. They were causing more headaches than benefits.

2) The old forum is back, the new forums will go away.

3) The cool slide show is removed from the front page.

This should optimize use. Thanks to everyone for their patience as I get things sorted to work for all levels. Currently testing is going great for the paid service and content delivery is working (meaning everything is linked up correctly and the downloads work, as do the videos! YAY!)

I have a deadline to meet to launch the paid membership because the first of  amazing benefits for 2012  pro members happens in February and I am soooo very excited!

My goal is to have an easy to use site that loads in a reasonable amount of time, thus the changes.

View more gifts at Zazzle.

  I love front post double crochet!

One of the things I love about this versatile stitch is how it can be used to achieve so many different looks and fabrics. For example the heart square on the left, is very puffy and three dimensional. I achieved that look by using half double crochet as the background and fpdc for the heart.

Front post double crochet (fpdc)/Back post double crochet (bpdc) can be used for many kinds of projects from cables to shaped “puffs” and of course my other favorite stitch pattern the basket weave.

A flat fabric with a hint of three dimension can be achieved using regular double crochet to embrace the front/back

post double crochet, as you can see in the photo on the right. I’ve been experimenting with hearts.

The heart on the left was made top to tip, the heart on the right was created tip to top.

I’ve found in creating any kind of shapes, from diamons, hearts, “circles” and even fishies in relief is that you must start with an odd number of stitches,

You create rounded corners  and increase angles by crocheting twice into the same stitch, and angles by crocheting 2tog. To round a corner, as in the heart square on the left, I began by fpdc 2tog, fpdc2tog, hdc, fpdc2tog, fpdc2tog, then on the return row, I crocheted bpdc around each of the fpdc posts.

There’s no pattern for it yet, but stay tuned, Free members may just get a valentine’s gift for me.

PS about the site slowdown. I won’t explain why, but I know why and I had a little bit to do with it (cough) though my host was also running slow today.  Beta Testing continues for the other parts of the site, so stay tuned!

 Part III

So, it was a great event! You met two or three great leads, contacts or possible sponsors. What do you do next? Here are my favorite action steps to do after a networking event.