New technology, the internet in particular has bought many new features to crochet. Not only does it mean that sites such as our own BellaOnline Crochet site and other crochet community sites such as the famous Crochetville (with over 10,000 registered users!) exist, allowing people from around the world with a common interest in crochet to meet and exchange views, it also means that there is a tremendous resource at our fingertips which would have been unheard of only a few years ago.

Think of the way that free pattern directories such as the wonderful Crochet Pattern Central have developed offering the ability to find and share unique designs in a way that would have been impossible without the internet. We are able now to share ideas and techniques with crocheters around the world via blogs, newsgroups and dedicated websites. Blogs offer a great way for crocheters to share information and meet like-minded people. Setting up a blog isn't difficult and requires no specialist skills or financial outlay. We'll look at setting up and running a crochet blog in a later article.

Listen to Podcasts about Crochet.
However there are other new exciting developments in the crochet world. A ïpodcast called Crochet Unraveled is now available from Crochetville. In case you are unsure as to what a podcast is - think of it as being a online radio program that you can listen to either via your computer or by downloading as an MP3 file and playing on your MP3 player. This is a fantastic move as this means that you can have a double dose of crochet - you can hear about crochet and crochet at the same time! To find out more about the Crochetville podcast have a look at the podcast section on the Crochetville site.

Look at Crochet.
A quick search around some of the big photo and community sites throws up all sorts of interesting things! Did you know there is even crochet on YouTube.? A search on YouTube will return a variety of results including some funny videos and some great tuition videos. A search for 'crochet' at some of the photo-hosting websites such as Flickr or Photobucket will return hundreds of results including pictures of finished items, work in progress, technique etc. Even MySpace features some crochet and a quick search throws up all sorts!

Buy and sell Crochet and Crochet related items.
Community market places such as Ebay present a wonderful opportunity to buy (and sell) crochet related items. Patterns, books, yarns and hooks are widely available from sellers around the world making buying even the most unusual purchase now possible. New sites such as Etsy specialise in the selling of handmade items and are a great low cost way to start to sell your work. Etsy allows you to set up your own shop with your own address and stock it with your work reaching a world wide audience.

A search on CafePress which offers for sale a wide variety of unique designs available on t-shirts, mugs etc returned over 1000 crochet results!

There's a whole new world wide crochet web out there -if you find something interesting do pop into the forum and let us know!