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Cocoon by Jillian Culver and the Pilot Hill Art Collective, 2026. Steel conduit, steel wire, nylon twine, acrylic beads, silk, and solar lights It all began with a moment with a moth at Pilot Hill. A moth landed on me and stayed for a while. I walked around and did things and it just hung out on my leg. I felt like it was trying to send a message. I drew some moths, I drew some Cocoons. I felt more drawn to the Cocoon. I had decided to take a year of rest from Burning Man, and even from skiing...

Congratulations! If you are reading this, you have survived the year 2020. This new year is especially exciting as it means I have completed my first ever crochet temperature blanket. It was last New Years that I heard about temperature blankets and was so inspired to start one immediately for what felt like would be an iconic year.  There are many ways to do a temperature blanket but this is the way I did mine. I picked the daily high temperature because it is a consistent and exact recorded number. I tried at first to do the average temperature, but that...

Happy Summer Everyone! It was a long quarantine but I stayed busy and sane with lots of crochet projects. I had plenty of time and a bunch of half skeins of different purple yarns, which would be great for a patchwork project. I had never made a dress and I thought a patchwork dress would  be super cute with a top like the halter tops I have been making. It took a while to finish, as most big projects do but it came out so special I decided to keep it for myself. Right when I finally fished the dress, a...

   It's been a weird couple of weeks with this pandemic going on. The CDC is now recommending that everyone wears a face mask in public to help minimize the spread of covid-19. As much as I've avoided this band wagon, it suddenly seems like a bad time to waste a skill when I could be helping people. I started making crochet face masks and am offering my pattern for free, written below.  You can also follow along on my youtube tutorial:  https://youtu.be/DJkhj34LQfw   Please note: Wearing a mask will not prevent you from getting the virus, nor it is intended...

Introducing my latest creative endeavor, the Crochet with illJay Youtube channel!  Although I've been brainstorming this project for a while, what better time than now to inspire people to be creative while they are stuck at home. Also, I'm stuck at home and have plenty of time to capture and edit and share with you my first few crochet tutorials. For beginners, visit the tutorial on basic crochet stitches. It starts from the very beginning and takes you through a few common stitches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-lmr0Xbj50&t=2s   If you know the basics already, try learning the Granny Square pattern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdju4ShryU4&t=4s   After...