The granny square is perhaps the most iconic motif in the craft of crochet. However, the square is just the beginning of what you can do with the granny stitch. Learn how to adapt the granny square to make granny circles, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, rectangles, hearts, and rows.
Continue reading “Guide to Granny Crochet: Squares, Circles, Hearts, Stripes and More”
March is National Crochet Month (NatCroMo). Although you certainly don’t need any reason to celebrate crochet, it does give us a nice chance to focus on our love of the craft and indulge in it even more than usual.
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Hyperbolic crochet is a form of crochet worked in the round to grow items exponentially so that they form organic ruffles. Although the term is derived from geometry and can sound a bit complex, the truth is that you can use the basic concept of hyperbolic crochet to easily created ruffled projects, such as scrubbies for the bath and kitchen.
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Christmas is just around the corner! What did those words make you feel? Were you excited, filled with anticipation about all of the beautiful things that you are going to craft by hand this year? Or did you immediately feel a sense of stress – worried about just how you’re ever going to be able to get everything done?
Continue reading “How-To Plan your Holiday Crafting with Calendars and Lists”
Sometimes you see a crochet pattern that you really like but the color scheme suggested by the designer isn’t quite right for you. Or perhaps you want to make the same pattern using more or fewer colors than those in the original design. How do you know ahead of time what the likely effect will be when changing a pattern’s colors? This guide can help. Continue reading “Tips for Changing The Colors in Your Crochet Project”
When you find a crochet stitch pattern that you love, there’s a good chance that you will want to use it over and over. But what happens when you find it in one kind of pattern (such as a blanket) but want to make it in another project (such as a dishcloth)? Or even if you like the project, let’s say a scarf, but you want to make it narrower or wider than the original pattern? What you will need to do is figure out what the stitch multiples are for that pattern then adjust your starting chain with those multiples in mind. This guide will show you how to do it.
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Seaming crochet simply means joining two or more pieces of crochet fabric together. This is frequently done when a project, such as a crochet blanket, is made in motifs; you seam together all of the motifs to create the finished project. Crochet seaming is also important when making crochet clothing (and some accessories), where you create portions of the item (such as the sleeves) separately and then join them (to the body of a shirt, for example). Continue reading “Methods for Seaming Crochet”
There are so many inspiring crochet circle patterns out there. But what if you want to make a blanket or other item that has straight edges? You will need square crochet motifs. While there are also plenty of great square crochet patterns out there, there may be times that you want to adapt a circle into a square to create the exact pattern you desire. This guide shows you how to turn a crochet circle into a square. It includes a simple crochet circle-in-a-square pattern along with additional information to help you learn how to adapt any circle to a square.
Freeform crochet is a wonderful expression of your own creativity achieved through fiber. It is often called “painting with yarn” because of the openness of the design. Freeform crochet can be anything that you want it to be. While there aren’t any “rules” for freeform crochet, there are some great starting points and tips for people who would like to express themselves in this way but who aren’t sure where to begin. This guide will help you get started in the adventure of freeform crochet. Continue reading “Freeform Crochet Tips for Beginners”
Crossed stitches are created when you skip spaces, crochet a stitch and then crochet a stitch into the skipped stitches; you have crossed one stitch over another by working backwards into the skipped area. Crossed stitches are the foundation of creating crochet cables, and they can also be used as decorative textured stitches in their own right. This guide shows you how to crochet some of the most common crossed stitches.
Continue reading “Guide to Crochet Crossed Stitches for Cables and More”