Category Archives: Patterns/Design Thoughts

Simple Changes and What They Can Create

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ScannedImageI always enjoy how a simple change can make quite an affect.

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Refractions Tunisian Wrap Photo courtesy of Annie’s

I find this to be true with one of my latest designs to be released, Refractions Tunisian Wrap, found in the Spring 2016 issue of Crochet! Magazine. This wrap only has 2 stitches and works short rows. That is it. Yet the effect it has is stunning. A definite eye catcher.

The difference in the stitch types really allows the yarn to shine. This is because of the way the yarn gets taken up in each stitch. So, even though I used the same yarn, the looks in the different triangles is very different, almost causing the yarn to work a double a duty in a way, by having a different “pooling” pattern.

Color pooling is when colors in a variegated yarn stack up upon one another in certain ways, and this wrap creates two very different appearances in this. One triangle has long color stripes, the other almost square blocks of color.

129037The other obvious difference in the triangles it that one seems solid, while the other is lacy. So not only do you have a differing color effect, you have a differing textural effect, without changing anything but the stitch!

One of the secretly great things about the way the triangles come together is that it just easily wraps around the neck, and hugs the shoulders. There is no slipping or falling off, it stays in place.

Okay, in case you may not have realized it, I enjoyed working this pattern. I hope you do too.

 

A Dragonfly for Change in the New Year

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ScannedImageBeing the end of the year, I usually find it as a time of reflection. This year is no different, however as I was taking a count of the number of designs I created in 2015 I realize I have been busy…and I am not done yet. In 2015 I completed 32 designs (you can see some of them here), some for magazines, some for yarn companies, and some for my personal pattern store, but I want to add one more.

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Dragonfly Shawl

I am happy to release my latest pattern, available in my pattern stores on-line, The Dragonfly Shawl. So, I gave it the name of Dragonfly, as to me I see the edge panels as rows of dragonflies flying outward. Now I have not always thought of this little ancient insect, but since my wedding, several years ago, it has become a bit a totem representing that day for me.

I had an outdoor wedding, having the ceremony next to a pond in an apple orchard, and as I walked down the aisle I was surrounded by dragonflies. They beautifully danced me down the lawn to my husband. At the time I had guest comment on the dragonflies as bringing luck and magic to my life, yet looking up a simple search I see that many believe the dragonfly means change. What a great symbol for a new chapter in my life, as well as a New Year, so I feel it is fitting for this new design.

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My wedding

This shawl was worked with only one skein of Blue Heron Cotton Rayon Twist Lace Yarn in the color of Bluegrass, and I actually had some left over. I love when a design works up this way, as it means that there is no extra ends to work in, no joining to worry about, I can just begin and finish in one complete clean piece. It is worked from the center of the top edge outward, ending with an airy scallop fans. The size is very generous, and the drape is fabulous.

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Dragonfly Shawl

If you are so inclined, please check out the pattern, or pass it along to friend (you can find it on Ravelry & Craftsy), and I will keep busy throughout 2016 creating more…now 33 complete means I was working up a new design every 11 days, and amazingly I did not feel that busy…guess I have room to complete even more next year.

 

Unexpected Journeys- A Little Like Life

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ScannedImageThe interesting thing about ideas is that you never know when they are needed, or used. My latest released design, Holiday Sequins Sweater, reminds me of that, its journey was an awkward one, but now it sits on the cover of the Winter 2015 issue of Love of Crochet. I may not have even known that it graced the pages, let alone the cover had it not been brought to my attention by a very compassionate and supportive designer, Marly Bird. She had noticed it, took a picture of the cover and tag me in a Facebook post.

IMG_20151201_172418778The idea for this sweater came to me nearly four years ago as I was swatching with a yarn, which I believe has been since discontinued. I was inspired by a top that my sister had given me that had this cowl type neck, but I was never happy with how it only came to my waist line, it felt to short. I created a sketch to accompany the swatch of a simple texture, and sent it to various publishers, none of which were interested. As the seasons changed I would send it to a couple of other publishers, but it never found the right fit, until I answered a call for designs for a new book that Lorna Miser was putting together.

At the time, I had never met Lorna, yet I had heard about her as a local legend. She is the original founder of Lorna’s Lace Yarn, and actually began the business just a couple of miles from me as I was growing up. Of course I had no knowledge of this at the time, or frankly the interest, but as I grew older and even began working in the crochet/yarn industry, people would notice my street address and ask if I knew Lorna. That is just how small the world can be, she began the business and grew it for several years literally just down the street from me.

She has since sold the business and is focused on designing, and was putting together a new crochet book, one in which this sweater made to cut for, so the sample was made and the pattern written. The book never made it to fruition, but the design found its way to Love of Crochet, where unbeknown to me it landed on the cover. When the design was conceived I really thought that it was great, but then it was constantly rejected, then I thought it had found its way into an actual hard copy book, to learn that things had shifted once again. It was then possible that it may make it to the light of day, only to then dance upon the cover.

This seemingly long journey, which had a couple of twists and turns, just to have a pattern for a sweater, reminds me a little of how things ultimately go in life. You think you are on one path then all of the sudden you are on another and you end up in places that you may not have expected. So as I begin the time of year that has me usually reflecting on the past, looking at where things were a year or two earlier this design will remind me that you never know where the journey might take you.

Sometimes It Is the Basics That Make All the Difference

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ScannedImageIt is interesting how sometimes you overlook the simple. I always think of it as a challenge to see if there is a new way I can use a crochet hook; create a new approach to an old technique or combine pieces of several different techniques to create something different. However, sometimes it is just a simple chain stitch that can make the difference.

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Crossroad Leaves Shawl

Everyone that has used a hook has created a chain. It is the foundation to the beginning of almost every piece of fabric that a crocheter creates, but can it create a fabric its self? Of course it can.

In my latest design, I basically stumbled upon using the chain in this manner. I was using a lovely yarn, which had a very pretty, yet short color repeat. I wanted to get an effect of color pooling, or at least spans of the same color. Most crochet stitches were unable to aid me in creating this effect, as each stitch would use enough yarn to have more than one color in a stitch. Tunisian crochet allows for the color to work this way more, but I wanted a fabric that was a little more fluid. So I began to play.

Sometimes when I am attending an event of one of my children, I bring along a yarn that has no particular project and play with various stitches as a visit with other parents or cheer my child on. This was the case with this design. My fingers almost mindlessly began creating chains stacked upon chains, and I was really drawn to the result, from it Crossroad Leaves Shawl was born.

IMG_7280.1This shawl is worked from the center outward with a simple stitch repeat for the main fabric, and has two bands of my rendition of leaves, and edged with smaller “leaves”. Overall it has a beautiful drape, and feels great in the hand. It is actually a one skein project, using Lisa Souza Dyeworks Baby Alpaca Silk Petite, the color way is a limited edition (Rhinebeck 2015), but the color way of Deep Fall, Fall Leaves, or Leaf Pile easily can fit the bill for an almost exact replica. However there are so many beautiful colors available and this pattern would easily highlight any colors that may have a short repeat.

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Crossroad Leaves Shawl

The creation of this design does have me reviewing some stitches I may have overlooked (this particular stitch is already destined for another design), and opening my thoughts to some of the simple structure that is the back bone of crochet.

If you would like to add this pattern to your collection, you can find it on Ravelry & Craftsy.

Not All Patterns are Created Equal

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ScannedImageI have taken a small journey this week, and I thought I would at least touch base talking about it, I plan on doing more research and writing more in the future….but the evolution of the crochet pattern can be an interesting thing.

This came about when i was talking to another designer, she primarily works with knit designs, but was have questions about a crochet pattern she had written. What she had written was fine, but it was not in the standard formats that you see today, and this got me thinking and looking at older patterns.

The way she had wrote the pattern was similar to ones I had seen growing up, it didn’t give stitch counts at the end of the row, it talks about working “along the working edge”. When today all of this would be much more specific. IMG_5622

I pulled out some older patterns, I mean like things from 1914, and found that they did not even specify a hook size or even the yarn. the pattern was written like you were talking to your friend…like, “just skip the next stitch and work in the next, one the next row work in to the stitches and make boxes”, it does not tell you how big the final item is to be. there was a lot that you had to understand about crochet in order to create a successful product, or at least one that is exactly like the original one created.

Then later patterns began address crochet hook size. I can not take credit for any of this particular research, as I learned it from a conversation with my friend Vashti Braha. She does a lot of research on every topic that she covers in her newsletter (I highly recommend if you are not on the subscription, do it. She gives you so much insight to the structure of crochet that it is inspiring) Vashti explained that patterns began noting hook size about the 1950-60’s, yet only specified “use what yarn feels most comfortable with the hook”. Things became a little more structured during this time, and the terms and description eventually worked up to the pattern the started me on this quest.

DSCF0993However, I think that after the internet patterns have become much more detailed, and much more precise in the descriptions of locations. This is mostly found in professional print publications and magazines, a just downloading a pattern on-line can definitely be a gamble of any of the writing styles found before. Why is this a change after the internet if pattern downloads can be a crap-shoot, because it is easier to reach out and ask questions of the designers, the publishers, and the technical editors. So if it is well written the first time, less questions are there to be answered.

I definitely want to look more into the ever evolving writing of patterns, but it might take some time….so at least now it is some food for fodder….

So the next time you think you might be going crazy, it might just be the pattern, not all patterns are created equal.