My third Guest Blogger is someone that I know you have seen pop up on here before, because I have had the pleasure of doing plenty of pattern tests for her. Christine is the owner of Sweet Potato 3 and she makes all kinds of awesome projects from fun & funky hats to practical sets. She will be talking about owning her own business, her family life and an awesome Cancer Challenge that I urge everyone to join in on! Oh, and did I mention that she is also offering a 50% off coupon code for anyone that reads this blog post!?
So, let’s dive right into her post!
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Do you enjoy working with yarn?
Need a little down time in the evenings to wind down after a long day?
Are you a Mom who needs something other than cleaning up after the little ones?
Do you enjoy helping others through charities but kind of like being behind the scenes?
Well, I answered “yes” to all the above. And almost 5 years ago I started My Sweet Potato 3. I was a Mom to 3 young kids (ages of 4, 2 and 1) and as soon as they were in bed I needed something for me. I know, that may sound selfish. But, I believe everyone should have something that is just for them. Not only that but they need to make the time to do it. It needs to be something they love.
My name is Christine, and I love to work with my hands. To make a long story short: I have been crocheting for about 25 years. I started with making dresses and blankets for my dolls when I was young, to kitchen items for my Mom when I was a teen, and eventually blankets and hats for friends and family when they welcomed new babies into their families.
I did have one challenge though. It was difficult to find patterns that were easy to follow, or to find a designer that was willing to help out when I was stuck. So, I grabbed my pen and paper and started writing my own. 4 years later I have a crochet pattern shop with over 150 patterns. My passion with crochet is creating new patterns. Especially, when it is a special request from clients. Here are some of my favorites over the years.
My focus was on newborns, but as my children are growing up (way to fast too) I am starting to write more patterns for children and adults. The Cross My Heart Pattern was designed last year (2013) and I fell in love with it. This pattern has sizes from toddler up to adult.
I love doing charity programs as well. The last 3 years I have participated in, 12 Days of Christmas Preemie Challenge, that is hosted by Sunset Crochet. All the designers donate a free pattern to be used to make hats to donate to NICU’s all over the world. Last year we pledged over 4,000 hats.
I also am passionate about Cancer Charities. I have contributed to some over the last few years. But, this year it hit close to home when I lost my Uncle. I started my own Cancer Challenge asking others to make and donate hats. If you are interested please check out the details on my blog http://mysweetpotato3.blogspot.com/2014/08/cancer-charity-challenge.html, it will run through October 2014. My goal was to reach 500 hats pledged. Currently I had to reset my goal to 1000 because we reached 500 in the first couple weeks.
It was an honor to write this blog post and I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my work. As a thank you I would like to offer the readers a 50% off coupon code, in my Ravelry shop. Just input code “CraftingMommy” at checkout. This coupon will be good through December 2014.
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You can see Christine’s awesome patterns by checking out the following links!
Crafting Mommy of Three 