AMAZING Deal on Online Crochet Classes and Yarn

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I mentioned a while back that I am re-learning how to crochet by taking the Daily Practice Online Crochet Class with Twinkie Chan on Creativebug.  I’m making an adorable crochet wall sampler that will look something like this when its finished:

I’m writing this post to share an awesome discount I found that will basically let you take this class for free!!!  Here’s how it works, you pay $50 to get an annual subscription to Creativebug but then they will turn around and give you that $50 back in the form of a gift card to Joann.

That’s enough to buy a starter set of crochet hooks and whole rainbow of yarn colors.  Seriously, they have a 3 for $9 deal on Red Heart Super Saver which is perfect for this project and/or cranking out a ton of adorable amigurumi toys.

BTW, if you dropped the whole $50 gift card on Super Saver, that adds up to well over 3 miles worth of yarn…  luckily there are 100+ online crochet lessons in the Creativebug catalog and you’ll have a whole year to watch them!!

I keep threatening to write a whole blog post dedicated to the topic of why I pay for online lessons even though there are a million free videos on YouTube.  I won’t try to cram that whole manifesto into this post, but is a quick bulleted list of my main points:

1. Many knitters/crocheters with YouTube channels are skilled in their craft, but the majority of them are not skilled in teaching that craft to others.  Not only do you risk wasting time watching tutorials that don’t make sense, you also risk picking up some bad practices that the YouTuber doesn’t even realize is a bad practice, but a professional instructor would. (Bad practice = the end result might turn out okay, but the technique is inefficient and shouldn’t be passed on).

2.  There are some professional instructors with YouTube channels but then you face the whole needle-in-a-haystack dilemma.  Places like Creativebug or Craftsy have curated this content for you.

3. Professional instructors deserve to be compensated.  Knitting may just be your hobby, but it’s their livelihood.  In the age of the internet, everyone is pressured to share their skills and knowledge for free, but that’s not really fair, is it?

p.s. I know this is a knitting blog and here I am talking about crochet! There knitting classes on Creativebug too – I’m just super obsessed with the crochet ones because Twinkie Chan is 100% adorable!!