Press Release: Crochetville Sponsors 4th Annual National Crochet Month Blog Tour

Join us on The Crochet Express for a month of crochet excitement

Huntsville, AL – February 24, 2016 – There are an estimated 14.7 million crocheters in the United States, according to the Craft and Hobby Association’s 2012 State of the Craft Industry survey. There are approximately 303,000 “crochet enthusiasts” in the US, highly-dedicated crocheters who create an average of 39 projects and spend an average of $570 and a total of $173,000,000 per year. The month of March has been designated as National Crochet Month (#natcromo). Crochetville is giving back to the crochet community by sponsoring its fourth annual crochet blog tour. Titled The Crochet Express (a virtual trip on a passenger steam train), this year’s tour is larger than ever before, featuring 93 crochet designers, 19 crochet-friendly local yarn stores, 19 yarn companies, and daily giveaways. The tour is expected to reach at least 100,000 of the nation’s crochet enthusiasts as all participants promote the tour through social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.

Said Amy Shelton, co-owner and social media director for Crochetville, “We created the blog tour to enable the crochet industry to celebrate the beauty and benefits of crochet in a big way. We want to express gratitude and thanks to the many crocheters who make our jobs possible as well as help others in the industry to build their businesses, all with as much fun and excitement as we can create, all month long.”

Crochet designer Pam Daley can testify that the blog tour is a very positive experience for tour participants. She said, [My participation in the tour] “completely exceeded my expectations! I offered a limited-time free pattern that was downloaded over 500 times! . . . Website traffic is still up in the six days since my feature, 114% over the average for the three weeks prior. The day I was featured, I had an increase of like 2,500%, which is a crazy number!”

Some of the biggest names in the crochet industry are participating in this year’s blog tour, including Ellen Gormley, editor of Crochet! Magazine; host Deborah Norville and crochet expert Robyn Chachula, of TV’s Knit and Crochet Now!; designers Tammy Hildebrand and Kristin Omdahl; designer and cozy mystery author Betty Hechtman; designers and national instructors Edie Eckman and Marty Miller; and international designer and instructor Jenny King, just to name a few.

This year’s passenger train trip theme will enable an amount of social media community participation among crochet enthusiasts that has never been seen before. Passengers (crocheters) can participate in many different ways.

• The Crochet Express will make multiple Daily Stops in the form of blog posts at crochetville.com that feature participating designers, yarn companies, and crochet-friendly local yarn stores and featuring daily giveaways.
• Blog tour participants that may feature free patterns, releases of brand-new patterns, coupon codes, and special discounts at stops to their own websites.
• The Observation Car will feature daily discussions in which passengers can talk about their favorite parts of that day’s stops and post photos of their current crochet projects.
• The Dining Car will feature a daily cocktail hour and dinner (through posting of recipe links), adding to the “train trip” experience.
• All participants will post and share photos of new patterns, free designs, and gorgeous yarns in their social media channels.

Another goal of the tour is to get more people in the United States and around the world interested in the art of crochet. Recent studies in peer-reviewed medical journals have documented the health benefits of crafting. Crocheters have also self-documented the health benefits they have received from crocheting. According to the 2014 Tracking Study conducted by the Craft Yarn Council, crocheters stated they receive these benefits from practicing their hobby: relaxation (90%), reduced stress levels (85%), help coping with health challenges (76%), improved mood (68%), and a sense of confidence (56%). Crochetville wants as many people as possible to experience these health benefits and share our love of this beautiful art form.

“The Crochet Express blog tour will be the largest crochet celebration ever seen! We encourage every business that has crochet customers to help promote the tour. It’s a great way for a business with limited time and financial resources to help their customers celebrate National Crochet Month.” added Shelton.

Helpful Links

General Blog Tour Information: https://crochetville.com/general-information-2016-natcromo-blog-tour/

Daily blog tour posts: https://crochetville.com

Daily blog post announcements: http://facebook.com/crochetville

National Crochet Month Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nationalcrochetmonth/

Crochetville message board group: http://www.crochetville.com/community/forum/469-the-crochet-express-crochetvilles-4th-annual-blog-tour/

###

About Crochetville

Since 2004, Crochetville has been the premier online social community where crochet enthusiasts from around the world come to get help, find inspiration, show off projects, dish about yarn and hooks, and just generally share their love of crochet. We’re the fun place for crochet, with over 67,000 registered message board members and over 258,000 Facebook page fans. Amy Shelton and Donna Hulka, co-owners, are both designers and professional members of the Crochet Guild of America. They run Crochetville because they are passionate about crochet. That passion translates into creating a vibrant, thriving community for crocheters, by crocheters that they hope will meet any need someone may have as a crocheter.

Media Contact

Amy Shelton
Crochetville Co-owner and Social Media Director
amyshelton AT crochetville DOT com