Original Pattern - My Design Process Explained

A recent cable afghan yarn project fail (basically, it was ugly), left me with 10 skeins of Lion Brand Heartland yarn in Grand Canyon (a taupe color). Since I hated how cables looked with this yarn, I decided to design my own afghan. Here are the steps I follow when I design a project for some yarn I have on hand. 

 1. How much yarn do I have? In this case, it was pretty easy because the yarn is from an afghan kit I purchased several years ago from Craftsy (remember them?). Most of the time, I have a few skeins of a yarn that I want to use so I must figure out what I can make with what I have on hand. I look for online patterns that use the yarn to get ideas of how much is needed to make various types of projects. If no patterns are available, I will get the yarn weight (worsted, DK, etc.) and find patterns that use same weight and see if I have enough total yards to make the project. If I do, then I will work a gauge swatch to confirm. 

2. Once I have determined what my project options are, I will narrow it down to one specific type of project. For example, I might have enough yarn for a scarf, mittens, socks or small shawl. I figure out which one of those I want to make, usually going with the project that will use most of the yarn. I hate having tiny little balls of yarn piling up. 

3. Next, I consider what type of project do I want to work on – knit or crochet, easy or challenging, skill building or relaxing. For this project, I decided to do a relaxing knit project that used simple knit/purl combinations resulting in different textures. Once steps 1 – 3 are complete, I gather my pen and paper to write down notes as I work on the design details. 

4. Which stitches to use? I pulled out my trusty MonTricot stitch dictionaries and had some fun testing various stitches that met my criteria. Using some DK yarn, I tested about 15 different stitches. Some were quickly discarded after only a few rows so I ended up with a swatch with about 9 different stitches on it. If I had kept going, it could have easily ended up as a scarf. Once I had a good variety, I had some decisions to make about which stitches to use: 

    a. Do the different stitches play well with each other? The width of the swatch can vary wildly between different stitches. A rib-like stitch will be much narrower than a moss stitch for example. For my afghan, I wanted to make sure that all the different textures produced a swatch about the same width so my afghan would have straight sides. 

    b. What does each side of the stitch look like? I want my afghan to be attractive no matter what side was facing up so looking at both sides of the stitches was important. In some cases, the stitches were the same on both sides. Others were only attractive on one side. Some look different on each side but both look nice. All of the stiches I chose look good on both sides. 

5. What do I want my finished project to look like? A blanket made of only one stitch? I seriously considered this option because a large area of an interesting texture can be lovely. Need proof? Check out Purl Soho’s free patterns, especially the Slipped Garter Blanket. In the end, I decided to use 4 different texture stitches work into stripes, divided by garter stitch sections. Why? I thought I would get bored doing only one stitch and would put the project aside before I finished it. In my test swatch, I tried to use the moss stitch to separate the sections but the added texture blended in and did not offer the visual border I was looking for. 

6. Using the notes I had made while doing my swatches, I wrote out a sample afghan pattern. My notes include comments about each stitch I did a swatch on – did I like it, was the 1st row the wrong side or right side, did the edges curl, etc. 

Test Swatch in Progress

    a. One of the trickiest parts of this process can be figuring out how many stitches to cast on. The four textures I chose require a multiple of either 2 or 3. Based on the gauge of the yarn, I just did some simple math to find a number that was evenly divisible by 2 and 3 and would be afghan size. 

    b. For the reversible stitches, which side did I want facing up on the right side of the afghan? 

    c. How wide did I want my garter sections to be?  

7. Now, I have started stitching using my pattern. As I go along, I will tweak the pattern to get the finished product. Once it’s done, it will be ready to share. 

I have learned the hard way to always write down patterns as I create them. There have been several instances where I wanted to recreate something I designed years ago. With no notes, the process is much harder (if not impossible) because I have to study my previous project and figure out the pattern. Tedious at best and impossible if I don’t have the original item anymore. I have a notebook with several crochet motifs I designed years ago. I don’t remember what any of them look like so another lesson is to include a picture of the finished project with my pattern. Once day, I will have to stitch up those motifs to see what I’ve got. I’ll let you know if it’s anything good.

Pattern Surprise

In 2020, I used patterns from higher end yarn company (Shibui and Lana Grossa) for the first time and made an interesting discovery. Much to my surprise, I liked these patterns better than ones I had used from companies like Lion, Red Heart, Berroco, etc. A whole lot more. I’m just not sure exactly why. Full disclosure, I received all the patterns free with my various yarn purchases (all on sale). The first pattern was for the Shibui Medley Stole. Honestly, this one is so simple, I could have probably figured out how to make it without a pattern. However, I appreciated the designer’s explanation as to why she didn’t slip the first stitches of each row. It was printed on nice, thick paper that didn’t require a clip board which I also liked. This pattern really lets beautiful yarns shine and I would make it again. On the Shibui website, this pattern is $10.00. The other patterns were two PDF booklets from Lana Grossa that I got with the purchases of closeout Cashmerino yarn. The first is called Luxury Shades and has 7 scarf/shawl/stole patterns, 4 crochet, 2 knit and one that is a combo of knit and crochet (something that I wish was seen more often). All of the patterns used charts which is OK with me. I have made two of the crochet projects in this one and found that I didn’t need the charts anymore after the first few rows. The other is called Shades and has only one patterns for a crochet shawl. I love this pattern so much I’ve already made two – one for Mom and one for me. Again, this pattern uses charts. I don’t care for PDF patterns so I need to print these out. I like paper patterns because I can add notes, highlight, etc. One thing I love about these patterns is that they have interesting edging details that really make the items shine. My successes with these patterns has me much more interested in other pattens by higher end yarn manufacturers. Recommendations?

Comfort Crochet

I had a couple big kitting project fails recently (more about them in another post), so I decided it was time for a comfort crochet project.  What is comfort crochet?  Let me explain.

I have been crocheting since childhood, so it is much easier for me than knitting.  I’m fairly fast, can confidently read patterns and can figure out how to fix problems as I go.  That means that I rarely have a project that I end up hating after spending hours working on it.  I don’t get frustrated with crochet so the time I spend stitching is truly relaxing and restorative.  An added bonus is the boost to my confidence and confirmation that I actually can stitch!  None of this is true with my knitting yet (I know – time and practice).  A comfort crochet project is one that is smaller in scale, like a scarf or shawl, fairly simple to stich and uses up stash yarn. 

Comfort crochet project came up more often during 2020.  I made three different shawls during the year, one for my Mom and two for me.  When I needed a break from my Shibui Medley stole project, I would work up one of the shawl projects.  For all three projects, I used Lana Grossa patterns.  Here are pictures of the patterns and my version (all yarn was from  my stash).

Large Triangular Crochet Shawl
Luxury Shades, Lana Grossa

My Version With a Surprisingly Busy
Mystery Alpaca Yarn

Crochet Shawl, Shades Booklet, Lana Grossa

My Version, Unforgettable Yarn Polo

My Version, Universal Yarns
Handprints

Crochet Scarf
Luxury Shades, Lana Grossa

Fruit Garden - Waiting Patiently?

 In 2020, an online Craft store called Dreamores (in the US and the UK) sponsored a crochet along for an afghan pattern called Fruit Garden designed by Jane Crowfoot.  She is an amazing designer has created some very exciting patterns.  Just looking at her afghan designs, there are several that would have be happily pulling out my hook right this minute. 

Lighter Color Scheme

Darker Color Scheme

Unfortunately, due to work demands, I did not think my schedule would allow me to keep up with the pace of the crochet along.  I did not buy the yarn kit that went with the project because I figured I could buy the yarn later when I know my schedule would allow.  Big mistake.  Dreamores has been sold out of the yarn kit for months in both color ways.  At first, I wanted to work up the darker version but now I will be happy with either color scheme.  I’ve tried to put together my own kit by buying the yarns separately, but they are always out of stock on some of the colors.  I’m worried that if I buy only some of the colors, either the colors I need or the entire line of yarn will be discontinued.  The darker version used a yarn called Naturals Bamboo-Cotton that I don’t see on their website anymore.  I have signed up for a notification of when the yarn kits are back in stock, but I am afraid I missed the boat. 

This pattern is so unique, using squares unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.  I love the Arts & Crafts period influence.  The pattern is based on The Melsetter Hangings, embroideries that were designed by May Morris, the second daughter of the famous William Morris.  To be perfectly honest, I’m afraid of this pattern, worried that I won’t be able successfully stitch it.  It is rated as an intermediate project, but it looks much harder to me.  The finished blanket is rather small; the lighter one coming in at 50.5” square and the darker one at only 44” square.  Even so, I love it so much that I’m willing to take the risk. 

I am also toying with the idea of buying another brand of DK yarn and making it bigger by about 50%.  I need to do some math to figure out how many more blocks I can add to the center to make the border blocks line up correctly (or close to it).  If the yarn kits don’t become available within the next few months, I will probably go this route.  Updates to come!