New to the Blog List

I've made a couple of new additions to the list of Blogs I'm Reading, which you'll find in the left sidebar.

The first new addition is the Margaret Sherry Lovers fan blog. I've also joined this site as a contributor, and made my first post there a few days ago. Margaret Sherry's patterns are always adorable and I found the community at Margaret Sherry Lovers very welcoming. Anyone who makes patterns with her designs is welcome to contact the blog administrator and become a contributor to the site, creating their own posts displaying their Margaret Sherry stitchings and other related news.

I'm also very excited by Pinwheel Ponders, which I accidentally discovered while searching for something else. Author Pinwheel makes ornaments (mostly cross stitch) for her friends and family every Christmas, and her blog is a treasure trove of gift ideas and crafty tutorials. There are lots of great ideas here for creating various types of cross stitch decorations and how to reuse greeting cards. I was very impressed with the level of detail, clear instructions and numerous pictures in the tutorials. I'll definitely be going back to read more!

So that's two blogs I think are worth checking out. Let me know what you think of them. And if you've got any recommendations for other blogs I should add to the reading list let me know with a comment (and links).

Things I look for when I consider adding a blog to Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins reading list:

• it covers a topic I'm interested in such as amigurumi, crochet, cross stitch or geeky crafts
• it's still active and gets updated fairly regularly (there's been at least 1 post in the last 2 months) or it has an extensive archive of interesting posts/patterns.
• it offers some free patterns, tutorials or other crafting advice/insight
• it isn't just a vehicle for the blogger to display the latest item they're selling
• it's focus is primarily crafting, as opposed to being the person's day-to-day life story with occasional mentions of what they're crafting.