I’m so excited to take part in Julie Yeager’s Block-a-Week Crochet Along project! Granny squares are one of my favorite things to design, and I enjoyed being able to play with lots of fun stitches to create the Flora & Fauna Crochet Square. I worked on the design just after attending the annual CGOA Chain … Continue reading Flora & Fauna Crochet Square
Photo by Marrose By now, you’ve completed all of the “bones” of the Marguerite Blanket. You’ve got your colors laid out in just the way you’d like, and you can see the outline of the spectacular rectangle your blanket is going to be! All that’s left is to fill in the gaps and border it … Continue reading Marguerite Blanket CAL Part 3
De-Stashing Inspired by Marie Kondo, as many around me seem to be, I was recently taken with the idea of culling my yarn stash. It had gotten to be quite unruly, with half-used skeins and unwound hanks spilling out of seemingly every nook and cranny of my house. Armed with the directive of choosing what … Continue reading Happy Scrappy Scarf Crochet Pattern
Well, the time has finally arrived to begin the Marguerite Crochet Blanket CAL! Let me just don a party hat and pull out some streamers, and we'll be ready to go! In this post, I'm going to break down the timeline for the CAL, and address some questions about the first part of the pattern. … Continue reading Marguerite Blanket CAL Part 1
Welcome to the first in a series of posts for my very first CAL! I'm nervous about putting this design out into the world in CAL form since it's something I've never done before. There's a certain kind of vulnerability around sharing work with the world in this way. But I know that the upside … Continue reading Marguerite Blanket CAL Introduction
It should come as no surprise that a lot of my designs are inspired by geometry. Patterns of shapes leap out at me from fabrics, art pieces, and even light fixtures and floor tiles. The Marguerite Motif is no exception. Thank you to Gabrielle @gabulledelaine for the name suggestion. She let me know that “Marguerite” … Continue reading Marguerite Motif Free Crochet Pattern
I've been listening to the audiobook Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's about the pursuit of creativity and covers both creative obstacles and also ways of transcending them. Gilbert speaks to topics such as fear, courage, permission, creative entitlement, and originality vs. authenticity. I don't know that I've ever truly connected with "magic" as part … Continue reading Big Magic Mandala Pattern
This past weekend, I was playing around with some overlay crochet techniques, and came up with a little motif that I’d like to share for free. It’s a granny square with an overlay center that reminds me of a spinning record, for some reason. Maybe it’s the movement illusion that the stitches create, or maybe … Continue reading Spin Me Right Round Crochet Square
This entry was first published in September, 2015. The holidays are fast approaching, which means I've entered a kind of gift making frenzy. Any day now I'm going to slip into full-on Oprah mode: You get a cowl! And you get a cowl! Everyone gets cowls! Ahem. All over the top enthusiasm aside, and in … Continue reading Stitch Sampler Crochet Cowl
This post was originally published on January 12, 2016. First blog post of the new year! And what better way to kick off the new year than with a new mandala pattern? I've never been one for New Year's resolutions (too much expectation, too little follow through), but I do like to use the flip … Continue reading African Flower Crochet Mandala