The Story of the Crochet Project Bible!

Hi, it's Lucy here, and I'd like to tell you about HOW and WHY the Crochet Bible was invented, and how we sold 275 in the first 3 weeks after it's launch...a pretty impressive statistic!

So back in the summer of 2015 I became obsessed with the idea of learning how to crochet, I've always been into crafts but I don't think I had found my "perfect" hobby quite yet. I'd bought some knitting looms from The Range and loved making hats on them, although, strangely, knitting with needles wasn't on my agenda! But crochet seemed different, to me it appeared a bit "trendier", I preferred the look of the kind of things you could make, and I thought I would find it easier using one hook, rather than two needles! So my obsession to learn was born. I had no luck with YouTube videos so I booked a couple of lessons with a local crochet designer and tutor, Ruby, from Frank and Olive.

A couple of hours on the sofa with this absolute WIZARD and I was away! I remember saying to Ruby that I didn't think I would ever be able to understand a pattern, yet within a couple of months I could, and oh what fun I was having!

Before I knew it I'd signed up to a crochet magazine subscription, had a yarn stash to be proud of and carried a hook in my handbag at all times, you know, just in case! It soon became clear to me that I liked to make notes on the patterns I was following, or tick an instruction once I'd done it. All of my projects looked like this....

So, being the "stationery geek" that I am, there was only one thing for it, I needed to design a project book! So I set to work and began designing My Crochet Project Bible, I took it along to my monthly crochet club to get some feedback and probably amended the book 3 or 4 times before I was happy with it. I wanted it to be perfect before I shared it with the world, one piece of incorrect jargon or a daft mistake and it wouldn't be taken seriously. When I was happy with it I took a few photos of it on my kitchen floor (lol!) and started to share it on the (many!) Facebook crochet groups that I had joined, and wow! They loved it.

I took orders for 50 copies overnight. This is where the saying "hot off the press" comes from, we were printing on demand and they were still warm by the time they were packed up! Another 100 orders were taken within the next few days and news of it's existence was spreading fast within the crochet community.

The bible was featured in Simply Crochet magazine, an online yarn shop (Wool Warehouse) took stock to sell on their website, legendary crochet designer Sarah Zimmerman featured it on her blog (Repeat Crafter Me, read it here) and we had likes, shares and reviews popping up all over the place.

Of course, this didn't happen just through good luck, here at Stationery Geek we work hard to tell the world about our products, we encourage interaction on our website and social media pages, we ask for photo's, we ask for reviews, we ask for shares and re-tweets! The response people have to My Crochet Project Bible is hugely positive which was quickly reflected in our hundreds of 5 star reviews.

We launched the Crochet Bible at the end of August, and by the start of September we'd sold 275. The Crochet Bible remains our best selling book with thousands sold throughout the world in it's 18 months of production, it seems crochet is cool and is back for good! The red dots on the map below shows all the locations we have shipped a Crochet Bible to....

If you haven't got one yet, here's the link: BUY A CROCHET BIBLE RIGHT NOW!

I'd love to hear any questions or comments so let me know below!

Lucy xxx

Stationery Geek are now taking ideas for notebooks from YOU, the public! If we like your idea we will design it, produce it, advertise it and sell it on our established website. With every copy sold we will give you £1. So the story of the Crochet Bible could apply to you - it would have earned £275 in it's first 3 weeks! If you have an usual hobby (or even a common hobby!) or you have a great idea for a notebook, let us know here.