Hitting a crochet rut? Throw a Crochet Party!

Last month, after having talked about getting ladies together to craft several times and having a few friends ask me to teach them how to crochet, I decided to make up a party surrounding the craft I love best: Crochet! Whether it was for inspiration, learning new techniques, patterns or how to crochet for the first time, I asked several of my dearest friends to come and enjoy a night of crochet, refreshments and fun!

Some ideas:

• Send out E-vites, they're free and normally you can reach nearly everyone who you would contact on a regular basis through email or some social-networking site, such as Facebook. Most E-vites have some sort of feature that allows you to post the invitations or access your contacts on that site.
• Don't worry about whether your invitation will be welcome to non-crocheters, you'd be surprised how many people are interested in learning how to crochet, and if you offer to teach at the party, they're more likely to show up!
• Offer to teach how to crochet at your crocheting party. I asked everyone who wanted to come and learn to bring a light colored worsted weight yarn, and a hook between G-J. Anyone who was apprehensive of obtaining those things I offered to supply those things for them.
• Ask those who do crochet to bring their projects they're working on, patterns they love, and so on.
• Display your goods! I set out several of my finished products from the past few months, along with their patterns, and nearly all my yarn, hooks, and supplies for my friends to see, use, be inspired by, etc.
• Use the party as an exchange: Bring your yarn you never use, see if someone is willing to trade from their stash! Bring your patterns and share with others the projects that you loved making! Share techniques and gift-giving ideas!
• Provide refreshments and an atmosphere that is comfortable. Winter is the best time to cozy up in a house with your yarn projects, there's usually loads of holiday food available for parties, and you have every excuse to play holiday music and have your house looking particularly lovely in it's holiday splendor. I let some of my friends who asked me if they could bring anything to bring goodies- cookies, a veggie platter, crackers and a cheese ball and I provided drinks! Tea, coffee, lattes, and water for those who didn't want something hot.
• Don't let this be your only party! Chances are, those who didn't come, simply had a time conflict, so schedule another! Maybe make it a monthly affair that those ladies can look forward to. Let your first party serve as a learning experience to throw better parties along the way!
• Don't let it become a burden. Let your friends help! Parties are supposed to be fun, so if you're stressed out about providing food, divvy up the load and have a few friends bring one dish each. Don't have enough room at your house/apartment? Ask a friend with a little more room to host, and maybe make something fabulous as a thank you present for her time/effort. Ask friends for ideas for what to do at the party, how to make it better.