September 16 marks 11 years since I bit the bullet and bought handsoccupied.com before signing up for @handsoccupied on every social network I could think of. I built my website myself, sort of knowing what I was doing, but motivated by the idea of spending more time with a growing number of crafty internet friends. It might not mean much to some, but this was all the way back in 2010, about a year before Pinterest was a thing anyone had heard of, and a couple years before Instagram blew up. 11 years later, and I increasingly encounter crafters who aren’t even aware of what a big deal crafting blogs were to the community 5-10 years ago. Knitters and crocheters had Ravelry, but if you were in to other crafts, blogs (and to a lesser extent message boards) were your best bet for finding maker friends online.
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