Before Jim and I headed into Joshua Tree, we stopped at the visitors center, located right off of Twentynine Palms Highway. After we had grabbed a map, I suggested that we try to locate the World Famous Crochet Museum before heading into the park, and luckily it was right across the street from the visitors center.

The (perhaps hyperbolically-named) World Famous Crochet Museum is owned by artist Shari Elf, and housed inside of tiny photo-processing booth. Elf has been collecting crocheted items since the early '90s and after purchasing the photo booth, she built shelves to display her collection, painted it green and moved it to Joshua Tree. The museum is free and the door was open when we arrived. It's a quick stop—it was really hot and stuffy inside of the booth, even with the door open—but one that I knew we couldn't pass up.

I can definitively say that Elf's collection is the largest collection of crocheted items I've ever seen in one place, although it may also be the only crochet collection I've ever seen. It's certainly deserving of its own exhibition space, and although you may be thinking that you don't need to go to the desert to see a bunch of crocheted poodles, I assure you that it's worth the detour.

If you can name it, chances are that Elf has a crocheted version in her museum—corn cobs, poodles, dolls, flowers, cats, a banana split, waffles, a toilet, a sink, alligators, fruit, eggs, gingerbread men, cupcakes and even a complete nativity set. Although Elf is responsible for creating the museum, the official curator is a crocheted alligator named Bunny, who would like to remind potential visitors that "we are always open, even though we may not be there."

World Famous Crochet Museum
61855 CA-62
Joshua Tree, CA 92252