Hi! My name is Amy Solovay, and I’m your hostess here at knittingcrochetcrafts.com. Thank you for dropping by today! I am glad you’re here.

I’m a freelance writer, digital marketer, textile designer, artist, crafter, and educator.

As a textile designer, I’ve designed knits, prints, wovens and embroideries for both the fashion and the home furnishing industries. As a writer, the above topics give me endless material to write about, but textiles aren’t my only sources of inspiration.

Back in 2009, I began designing and publishing patterns for hand-crafters, and nowadays that’s where I focus a large portion of my textile design and writing efforts. I also write about other topics of interest, including crafts, education, fashion, home decor, home improvement, green living, organics, food, international travel and others.

Furthermore, I enjoy sailing, traveling and caring for an ever-changing number of kittens and cats.

Fun fact: My most interesting accomplishment so far was sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea in a 34′ (10 meter) sailboat with my husband, Mike.

About This Arts and Crafts Website:

I’ve been an artist and crafter since childhood, and the pages on this site give you a glimpse at projects I’ve made over a lifetime of creative work. The site offers you 800+ pages of craft project ideas, craft tutorials, free crochet patterns, and craft book reviews.

In the long term, I aspire to make this website into the world’s most authoritative craft site. To be truly authoritative, the site needs other voices and other points of view beyond just mine — and, indeed, I am hoping to promote the work of a broad variety of other artists and crafters.

If you would like to contribute, please get in touch and offer to write for us.

See Also: Amy Solovay’s Crochet Patterns

Pages of Interest Here at KnittingCrochetCrafts.com:

I’ve reviewed 37 Crochet Books, 42 knitting books, bunches of craft books, and countless craft supplies to help you understand which resources are worth spending your time and money to buy and use.

If you are new to crafts, and you aren’t sure which one you might like to try, please check out the home page of this website to see a bunch of different options you could consider.

If you’re hoping to find ideas for a craft project you could make right now, that would be seasonally appropriate for the current time of year or for the next upcoming holidays on the calendar, please check out our craft blog. I keep it updated with trending topics and timely ideas you won’t want to miss out on.

If you don’t want to feel pressured to make a project on a tight deadline, you might also want to consult this list of holiday crafts to find additional ideas for holiday projects; it can be more fun (and less stressful) to make projects for a holiday that isn’t imminent.

For example, I like to work on Christmas projects all summer long. I feel a sense of accomplishment if I can have most of my Christmas crafting finished by September.

If you’d like to learn how to crochet, please check out this page about how to crochet for beginners. You might also enjoy our lists of crochet patterns for beginners and best crochet books for beginners.

The two crochet books I use most frequently are Crochet Kaleidoscope: Make Granny Squares, Circles, Flowers and Other Crochet Motifs and Melissa Leapman’s Indispensable Stitch Collection for Crocheters.

If you’d like to learn how to make jewelry, you’re invited to check out this page of jewelry making ideas and projects. You might also want to learn about the jewelry making tools you’ll need for success (but keep in mind that you don’t need all of them; it’s sensible to start small and buy only what you need).

If you’re on a tight budget, but you want to make jewelry, I recommend learning how to crochet your jewelry projects, because you don’t need many tools and supplies to get started with crochet. See this page of 9 Crochet Necklace Patterns and this page of Crochet Bracelets to find ideas that’ll get you started.

Amy Solovay’s Craft Projects Are All Human-Generated

I am a real person, not a robot. I do not use robots or automation technologies to write the content or create the images I post here at this craft website (or at any of my other websites, for that matter.)

I personally made and photographed most of the craft projects and DIY projects posted on these pages. My husband, Mike took some of the photos; if you see my hands in the photos, Mike was probably the photographer. There are also some craft projects posted on this site that were made and / or photographed by my friends.

Amy Solovay’s Education

I hold a degree in textile design from FIDM LA. FIDM stands for “Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.” My understanding is that FIDM merged with Arizona State University, but it was a standalone academic institution when I studied there.

At FIDM, I studied knitting, weaving, textile history and many related topics.

Before FIDM, I also studied at Sweet Briar College, where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics. I also had double minors in studio art and dance performance. As a result of my studio art minor, I am competent to instruct you on a variety of arts and crafts topics including painting, drawing, botanical illustration and fashion illustration.

I review many art supplies and craft supplies on this website, and you can be assured that I have personally used each of the supplies enough to be confident of writing a fair and helpful review.

Meet Mike Solovay

My husband Mike used to play an active role in this site, but lately he has been too busy with his other projects to get involved with my crafts. He founded a tech startup, and he is super busy with that these days, among other things.

In a nutshell, this is Mike:

• Entrepreneur
• Audio visuals expert
• Founder of a local TV channel
• Founder of a tech startup
• Computer programmer.
• Sales & marketing genius.
• Mountain biker. Skier. Cruising sailor. Athlete.
• Ultra-talented photographer and videographer.
• Hat and scarf model.
• Animal-Lover.
• Health nut.
• Amateur chef.
• Adventurer.

His other current role in our operation: CEOCS. That translates to “Chief Executive of Crochet Snark.” You wanna snark on some crochet? Well, get together with Mike, and have at it — he’s one of the best in the business. This “talent” of his is especially useful when we’re reviewing books.

Thanks so much for dropping by KnittingCrochetCrafts.com today. I really appreciate your presence here, and I hope you’ll find all the craft ideas and inspiration you’re looking for.

This page was last updated on 5-17-2024.