1. What is your business name & where do you live?
Marsha Sparks of Marsha YarnDoodles. I was born & raised in upstate NY, right on Lake Ontario.
2. What are 3 adjectives that best define your business.
creative, supportive, quality
3. How did you get started designing?
For a while many friends & family member had been asking me 'Can you make this, but (fill in the differences they wanted)?' After my sweet MIL, who taught me to the basic crochet sts, passed away, I wanted to find a way to honor her memory. She did beautiful work, both knitting & crocheting, so I decided that would be a great way to honor her.
4. What is your favorite part of designing?
The creative side ... how can I make it look like this! Definitely NOT the FROGGING side of creating!
5. What is most important to you when choosing yarn for a design? Look? Feel? Weight?
When designing a piece, the 1st thing I consider is what type of yarn would look good in this design. FEEL is very important to me as well. I try to make as many of my designs as possible so it can be made with a variety of yarn weights.
6. What is your favorite yarn.
Oh, that's a hard one. I seem to fall in love with a different one every time I design something new. If it's soft & cuddly, it's a winner in my book! And it gets bonus points if it's a #5 or #6 weight.
7. Which project are you most proud of?
There are many of my designs that I like a lot and usually for different reasons. My most recent favorite is the "Knot Your Ordinary Bag" because it so full of fun texture ... and I LOVE texture! However, I can't rule out my all time best seller pattern, the "Chicken Hot Pad."
8. What inspires you when you create?
Many of my designs are inspired by the people I make them for. I think about that person & try to create a pattern that I think they would really like the look & feel of. When I design such an item, I honor that person by naming the pattern after that person.
9. If you could tell a beginner one thing about crochet, what would it be?
It's funny you ask that because in January I'm starting up a crochet class. So many different aspects of crocheting are important to know when you first start out, but I think the #1 thing to me is to not give up ... keep practising. So many of us start out wanting to be able to make the gorgeous, more complex items right away. We don't give ourselves enough time & grace to get to that point by practising.
10. Where can we find you online?
You can find me on FaceBook, Instagram, & my website: https://linktr.ee/MarshaYarnDoodles