So, you want to craft and create together with other people instead of sitting at home feeling lonely with your supplies? Here are some tips to get you started if you have been longing for company but don’t know how yet. I think everyone should have creative friends because it makes life richer and brighter. Just seeing other creative people (both offline and on) inspires me!

1. Look around you - Ask your friends and co-workers if they are in a craft group or if they know anyone who is. If you don’t know the people in the group don’t hesitate to join anyway (if you are invited). Having a project in your lap makes it easy to socialise, just ask the person sitting closest to you about what they’re making or see if they have any advice about your own creation.

2. Try a café - If you can’t find a group of friends that meet at home, try to google your town’s name or area plus “knit café” or “craft store” to see if there are any courses, café days or regular meetings close to you. These are popping up by the minute even in small rural towns, so do a search and you might be lucky. If you can’t find it online go to your nearest yarn or craft store and just ask them. If there is nothing “official” you might be invited to a private gathering if you are lucky.

3. Make it happen - If all else fails you might have to do it yourself; invite your friends (both creative and not so creative) and bribe them with home made cookies until they promise to come! Then let creativity do it’s magic and some of them will be “hooked” and come back. Tell your friends, family, class mates or co-workers to bring their crafty friends and the next thing you know strangers will come up to you and ask “I heard that you have a craft group, please can I join?”

4. Don’t be shy - If you’ve just moved to a new town then you really need that network of friends with the same interests as you. Go find them; they’re sitting at home feeling lonely too! Put up messages, on online bulleting boards or at your local library, that you are starting a knit/craft group and will be sitting at the local café next Monday between six and nine. Maybe someone will show up? Maybe you’ll sit there alone and enjoy a great coffee looking at people looking at you crafting, wishing it was them who was knitting or crocheting!

5. Join a group online - Maybe crafting in public or joining a group of other people is not your thing after all? What if you don’t want to get out of the house or maybe you can’t find a baby sitter or you live in a place where there is no cafés or libraries at all? I recommend you try to join the fun of crafting with others via your computer (if you are reading this online the chances are you already know about the wonderful world of craft blogging). Join a mailing list, a knit-a-long for a project you’re making or create a blog so that people that don’t live close to you can share the creative fun you’re having. Maybe you’ll inspire others to join the Do It Yourself Revolution? Why you ask? Because it is a wonderful and great thing to share what you do with others who are genuinely interested!

When I started to knit I didn’t know anyone who was like me. Now I see “them” everywhere I go, those Creative People, and I love them to death and can’t imagine living without them!

About the author: Hanna Andersson is a Swedish journalist who writes about her creative adventures in her blog iHanna, where you can see her beautiful photos, learn about her projects and see her videos. She enjoys art journaling, sewing, knitting, writing and more. Hanna just published her first book, A Creative Year, as a print-on-demand book at Lulu.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 3:37 am and is filed under creativity+community. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.