I’m excited to be celebrating a first for the Craft Industry Alliance podcast today: our Community Episode! For this very special show, I wanted to turn to you, my listeners, and hear your voices on the show. I make this show for you, and it’s because of you that the show is a success.

A few weeks ago I put out a call on my blog and in my newsletter asking you to record yourself and I got so many entries. Thank you! specifically I asked if you would recommend something you’re loving right now. Those of you that listen to the show regularly know that towards the end of the interview I always ask my guests to recommend great stuff they’re enjoying. I thought it would be so fun to get those recommendations from my listeners this time and put together what I’m calling a Community Episode.

I’ve been podcasting for three years now and in 2016 we had a terrific lineup of guests. We kicked off the year with Ali DeJohn, founder of the Makerie. And since then we’ve heard from the publishers at Martingale, C&T, UPPERCASE, and Roost, Etsy Wholesale, the acquisitions editor at Craftsy, the president of Windham Fabrics, and a whole roster of artists and designers who have built independent creative businesses that are incredibly inspirational.

To help me out hosting this special episode I invited my longtime friend, crochet designer, author, and teacher, Stacey Trock to join me. Stacey is the designer and owner of FreshStitches where she sells amigurumi patterns and craft eyes. She’s also a teacher on Craftsy and nationally and she’s just started an exciting new membership site for crochet enthusiasts, the Ami Club.

To organize the show a bit I broken up the listener contributions into four categories: books, notions and tools, podcasts, and apps and websites. Here are links to everything that was recommended:

For books Stacey recommends:

• Brandscaping (affiliate link)
• Drop Dead Easy Knits (affiliate link)
• Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook (affiliate link)

and I recommend:

• Quench Your Own Thirst (affiliate link)

Jane LaFazio recommends

• Love Warrior (affiliate link)

Patty Dudeck recommends:

• Savor Each Stitch (affiliate link)

Kiriaki recommends:

• The Better Bag Maker (affiliate link)

Kim Diamond recommends:

• The Tunic Bible (affiliate link)
• Inside the Hem on YouTube
• the Nextrend garlic twist (affiliate link)
• Mrs. Meyers Clean Day dish soap in basil scent (affiliate link)

For tools and notions, Stacey recommends:

• bead crochet end caps from Vess65 on Etsy
• these backdrops for shooting videos

and I recommend:

• Fotodiox lightbox (affiliate link)
• Dymo 4XL label printer (affiliate link)

Trixi Symonds recommends:

• a white China marker or wax pencil (affiliate link)

Colleen Yarnell recommends:

• the Quick Curve ruler (affiliate link)

Jules Means recommends:

• adhesive pads for thimbles (affiliate link)
• a flat nose pliers (affiliate link)
• a jeweler’s loop (affiliate link)

Marlise Gross recommends:

• a piping foot (affiliate link)

Halfway through the show we give away an awesome prize to one of the brave contributors to the community episode. The prize is a $100 gift certificate to Sprout Patterns, the cut-and-sew division of Spoonflower. At Sprout you choose a pattern and select a fabric design from the Spoonflower marketplace. It’s printed on the fabric and shipped to you to cut and sew at home. Thank you, Sprout!

For podcasts, Stacey recommends:

• getting a radio! (affiliate link)

and I recommend:

• the Food Blogger Pro podcast (open in iTunes)
• the Simple Pin podcast (open in iTunes)
• How I Built This from NPR (open in iTunes)
• CRAFT*is with Vickie Howell (open in iTunes)

Cherry Heinrich recommends:

• BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour (open in iTunes)

Stephanie Kendron recommends:

• her podcast, Modern Sewciety (open in iTunes)

For apps and websites, Stacey recommends:

• Buffer
• Creative Market

and I recommend:

• WiseStamp
• Useletter by Amy Lynn Andrews

Danielle Snow recommends:

• Evernote

Jen Refat recommends:

• her site, Craftic.com

Janet King recommends:

• her site, QuiltBusinessExplorer.com

Jesy Anderson recommends:

• CreativeBug

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Today’s episode is sponsored by Yount Street Glass. Yount Street Glass makes jewelry and accessories from recycled wine bottles. Located in the heart of Napa Valley, Yount Street Glass is perfectly situated to upcycle the beautiful glass that cradled beautiful wines.  Check out YountStreetGlass.com to learn more about Yount Street Glass and their handcrafted eco-friendly products.

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This episode was a lot of fun and I hope to do it annually so if you missed out this time, be sure to watch for the call for entries next November!

You can listen to the episode right here by clicking on the green arrow below, or subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher (perfect for Android and Kindle) and listen on the go. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you.