During National Craft Month, crafters get creative with their supplies. Artisans set to work on a design, and different craftspeople put their skills together to bring an idea to life.

With a broad range of crafts to choose from, National Craft Month inspires all kinds of mediums. From paper and wood to fabrics, paint and metal craft, the month is dedicated to creativity and inspiration.  Whatever motivates you, take your craft from idea to reality this month. If you’ve only been thinking about learning, sign up for a class.

Learning a craft offers many benefits. Expressing one’s creativity provides stress relief and can lower blood pressure much like meditation.  There’s natural positive reinforcement from learning a new skill. With each new step learned, the satisfaction from gaining the skill is rewarding.  Most crafts require fine motor skills. Crafts teach young children these skills as well keep ours sharp as we age.

Crafting with a group becomes a social event. Gather with friends and complete a larger project or several smaller ones. Making items for charity, such as blankets for premature babies or activity bags for the children of veterans, makes your efforts that much more valuable.  When creativity becomes stress relieving and generous, it fills the soul.

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Description from:

“National Craft Month - March.” National Day Calendar, 19 Nov. 2018, nationaldaycalendar.com/national-craft-month-march/.

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The Complete Book of Knitting by Barbara Abbey
Call Number: 746.43 A124c
Publication Date: 1972-01-20
Excellent guide for learning how to knit well, undertake new projects, and even create new designs. All basic procedures thoroughly explained--from casting on and binding off, to inserting zippers and lining garments. Over 500 illustrations show how to knit and purl, increase and decrease stitches, knit left-handed, knit with more than one color, make cables, and much else. Includes chapter on Abbreviations and Terms.
Cover ArtStitch 'n Bitch by Debbie Stoller
Call Number: 746.43 S875s 2003
Publication Date: 2004-09-03
It's the essential guide for chicks with sticks--because knit happens. From the tools of the trade to the knitty-gritty of techniques and patterns, all with easy-to-follow step-by-step illustrated techniques. Stockinette stitch, rib stitch, seed stitch. Increasing and decreasing. All the bells and whistles: fringes, tassels, cables, intarsia, crab stitch, and Fair Isle. Plus the stitch doctor's own special bag of tricks and how to hook up with other knitters. After the how-tos come the why-to: forty hop, stylish patterns, as good for beginners as they are for purely pros. Featuring: Coney Island fireworks scarf Punk rock backpack Crickets technicolor techno-cozies Pippi knee-stockings Big bad baby blanket To-dye-for sweater Princess Snowball cat bed Queen of Hearts bikini
Cover ArtPaper, Metal and Stitch by Maggie Grey; Jane Wild
Call Number: 746.22 G844p 2004
Publication Date: 2005-10-01
This timely project guide concentrates on two of the key materials being newly incorporated into textiles and fiber arts--paper and metal. Both media are covered in separate sections that describe the unique properties of each, as well as textural methods, adding color, and embellishing with stitches. Paper can be molded, formed, cut, torn, embossed, and stitched; metal adds a new gleam; and additional dimensions of the material are explored with soft sheet metals, meshes, wires, and coils. Concepts build through each section, starting with elemental embroidery and basic, texture-building steps, and moving to exciting finishing ideas for combining and mixing techniques for original and innovative results.
Cover ArtKnitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Call Number: 746.432 Z73k
Publication Date: 1973-07-01
Do you love to knit-and hate to purl? Have you ever started a sweater without enough yarn from the same dye lot to finish it? When you cast on, do you end up with a tail of yarn that's maddeningly too long or too short? Elizabeth Zimmermann comes to the rescue with clever solutions to frustrating problems and step-by-step instructions for brilliant, timeless designs. In Knitting Without Tears,you'll find elegant designs for: Color-pattern Norwegian ski sweaters Seamless patterned-yoke sweaters Hooded garter-stitch jackets for babies Watch caps, socks, slippers, mittens, and more! This classic and influential book is poised to inspire a whole new generation of knitters who have yet to discover the joys and comforts of knitting. As the lady herself once put it, "properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either."