Hi! My name is Heather Boyer aka The Ginger Hooker. I work full-time as a Senior Full-Stack Engineer. I love to code! So I am happy to report that I have a job doing what I love! Fortunately, my interests don’t end there. I like to think that I have a lot of creativity in me. I definitely find enjoyment and satisfaction in being creative. So I dabble in a lot of other creative interests like Photography, Crocheting, Knitting, and just general crafting. I love to blend my interests! Sometimes you’ll see my crafting or crochet projects also in my Photography. I just love to create!
Photography is an interest for me. I may not be the best photographer out there, but I find a lot of enjoyment in staging a photoshoot, editing photos, and creating art in the form of a photograph. I have two boys who have seen quite a bit of flash in their lives, but I just love capturing every moment of their lives and staging a few. 😉 I love to play in Photoshop, as well, so you may see some photoshop tutorials in my photography.
I started crocheting when I was 7. My grandmother taught me. She started out slow by teaching me the chain stitch first. Just to get a handle on regulating my tension and manipulating the hook. I remember sitting in second grade with yarn stuck in my desk crocheting a long chain out of an entire skein. I would crochet that chain at recess, during class breaks, during class time.. any moment I could find to make that chain grow. I rolled the long chain into a ball and had a huge ball of chained yarn stuck in my desk. After I had mastered the chain, my grandmother taught me the granny square. Oh, how I loved that I could create something amazing just from yarn and a hook. My first project was a blanket of large granny squares sewn together. I loved it so much! My passion to crochet slipped slightly during high school as I was more interested in boys than I probably should have been, but my passion was restored with full force with the birth of my first son. I crocheted so many projects just in leading up to his birth. I had found my love for crochet again!
I taught myself how to knit in my adult years. I had become a bit more of an intermediate crocheter, so I thought I could easily take on knitting. I did pick up knitting pretty well, but I decided to take on a more of a difficult project as my first project. I wanted to knit my niece-on-the-way a baby blanket from corner to corner, needless to say, it came out lopsided and took me a really long time to make. Since then I made some small knit projects that faired much better, but my interest didn’t take off like my interest for crochet. So it went to way side for awhile, but then more recently, with the aide of the internet, I picked knitting back up and love it! I can’t put it down. I also found that I was knitting continental which might have had a lot to do with why it finally made sense for me. Continental knitting is a lot easier to adapt to for a native crocheter. I also started by using thicker yarn and bigger needles so the projects were much faster. I have since made several knitting patterns and completed many knitting projects.
I also spend way too much time on Pinterest and love to make general crafts. Sometimes I use those crafts for staging a photoshoot or to use as props in a photo session. Sometimes it is just general crafts to do with the kids or home decoration. I just love to find ways to be creative. But with any of my hobbies, I find them relaxing and a great creative outlet!
Around the end of 2015 I started making my own crochet patterns. First, I started out with simpler ones that I shared for free on my blog. Then I branched out to making paid patterns, my cupcake dolls, an idea I had been mulling over for awhile and started my pattern designing journey. I was so excited when the Editor of Crochet Now, a magazine by Practical Publishing International, Ltd., asked me to design a cupcake doll pattern for an issue of their magazine. You can find that pattern in Issue 10 of Crochet Now. Now, I can officially say I am published!
My Creative Blog 