Back in June 2018, I posted a photo on Instagram that showed the start of a summer top that’s crocheted from the top down. And yes, that’s a tarot deck I included in the photo, tarot being my other passion in life. The top-down method of crochet design had fascinated me for some time. I’d only made them using Australian …
Category: Patterns and Instructions
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Even though my intention is to do more designing, I still crochet from patterns. But I typically make changes to the pattern I’m working on if I know of a better way of doing something the pattern calls for or if I want to tweak it to fit my style.
Sometimes the changes I make will be applicable to other categories and that’s where I’ll post these patterns. But when that’s not the case, I’ll put those other posts here.
And I always like to hear from my readers about the changes you make to patterns. So feel free to comment. It’s a great way to learn new skills and see how other folk approach the same issue.
For the environmentally conscious crocheter, these market bags make great substitutes for plastic and paper bags. And they'll last a lot longer.
This post contains affiliate links. Read my Disclosure Policy for more information. Thanks for your support! Yes, I got caught up in the “pussyhat” craze. The brouhaha surrounding the Women’s March on Washington seems to have died down somewhat, but I keep telling myself, “It’s not a march; it’s a movement” as I knit and crochet yet another pussyhat. And …
A while back, I wrote a blog post that describes three ways to felt your crochet and knit projects. Included in that post was a photo of a bright magenta clutch that I felted in the dryer. Here’s the pattern I used to create the clutch. Thanks to Mari Weber of Cali Crochet for kindly testing this pattern. Be sure to …
This post contains affiliate links. Read my Disclosure Policy for more information. Thanks for your support! Unlike last year, I got an early start crocheting Christmas gifts this year. But I still ended up hooking gifts on Christmas Eve. This wasn’t such a big deal because I had great patterns to work with, four of which I could crochet in …
I’m working with my eight year-old crochet student on a granny-style poncho which we are both making, hers for herself and mine for her little sister. The poncho is crocheted in the round, and it’s like making a granny square, except there are only two corners instead of four. What I love about the pattern (pattern link at the end of …
Crochet lends itself well to a variety of uses, especially when it comes to dish cloths and wash cloths. There are so many patterns available online, it makes my head spin. But when you think about it, a dish/wash cloth is simply a square (or rectangle) crocheted in an interesting stitch pattern. The main challenge I’ve had in making them …
Pinterest continues to be a wonderful source of ideas for crochet projects. In this instance, it’s the Granny Square Striped Bag, a free crochet pattern featured on the Japanese website, Gosyo. I figured I’d make it at some point, but wasn’t sure when. Then I visited my local yarn store, Aloha Yarn a month or so later and discovered that …
I’ve been thinking about switching from a wash cloth to a loofah for some time now, but the only ones I’ve seen for sale are the plastic ones, and they aren’t very appealing. Then I came across a free pattern for a crochet loofah on Pinterest called The Perfect Loofah and, of course, I had to try it. The Yarn …
Several months ago, I came up with the idea to teach a “granny square” class at YarnStory, the local yarn store in Honolulu where I teach crochet. The class has a two-fold purpose: to teach students how to crochet granny squares and to illustrate the many ways granny squares can be incorporated into crochet projects. So I pitched the idea …
THE PROBLEM – GRANNY SQUARE “LEANS TO THE RIGHT” I received a comment the other day on my post about the granny square blanket I crocheted for a friend’s one-year-old son. The comment was from Brenda, the co-moderator along with Joan, of the popular Yahoo Group, Angel Wings Crocheting. Joan was having problems crocheting a granny square afghan, explaining that …
It started this past Christmas when I decided to crochet cozies to give as gifts. I figured they’d be easy and quick to make but still nice enough to be appreciated. But despite the fact that Christmas has come and gone, I am still crocheting cozies. I guess you could say I’ve gone crochet cozy crazy (akin to the felter …
One of the things I was able to do during the Christmas holidays, along with crocheting gifts was to complete the vintage circular shrug that I talked about in an earlier post. As I suspected, it was too small for me, so I had my daughter, Adrienne, who is clearly smaller than me, model it. I think a better range …
I subscribe to a crochet newsletter called Hooked on Crochet, published by AllFreeCrochet.com. The site has compiled loads and loads of free crochet patterns from around the web, and the newsletter provides a sampling via a daily email. The only downside is that they send you ads for other products, but I just ignore these unless it’s something that interests …
An Intriguing Crochet Shrug Pattern I’ve been working on the vintage Circular Crochet Shrug that I talked about in a previous post. I mentioned how intrigued I was by the way in which it is constructed and figured it would be fairly simple to make. The shrug consists of two halves and is crocheted in the round, from the bottom …
Computer Woes Yes, I’ve been crocheting and knitting up a storm so that I have a nice quantity of hand-made gifts to give away this Christmas. What I haven’t been doing is blogging, for a couple of reasons. 1) My blog was hacked by seven people who posted about 25 spammy posts. I deleted them as quickly as possible, but …