Hello everyone! I assume you are as happy as I am that tomorrow is finally Friday (yay!). I have been so busy lately that weekends seem to come rather quickly and they are gone even quicker. I had some time today so I thought I would start to talk a bit about my inspiration and how this crochet journey began. I will write a series of posts highlighting designers and patterns that I like or have tried and hopefully it will help when you are looking for some inspiration yourselves or just some really nice pattern to try.

Before I jump to it, I wanted to give you an update on the fair isle pattern I have been working on: both mittens are done and I was going to start writing the pattern when I realised that a photo tutorial would be very useful for some parts that might be confusing with just written instructions. So, I have decided to take a bit longer and do a proper tutorial for you guys, hope it is worth the wait! Have never taken photographs of me crocheting, I am predicting it will be quite interesting…!

Back on subject, let me tell you a bit about my crochet journey. I learned to crochet when I was around 10 years old and have been crocheting on and off ever since. A few years ago I started to find some free patterns online and was drawn back into crochet once again, but it wasn’t until around 2 years ago that there was a real change in the way I saw crochet.

As it happens, some friends were having a baby and I decided to crochet something as a gift. I was already living in Edinburgh and I went to the library to find some books when I came across Kat Goldin’s book “Crochet at Play”. I have crocheted many baby items, but for the first time in my “crochet experience” I was seeing something different, something I hadn’t seen before. Fun and different patterns that weren’t the typical light pink or blue baby blanket or the white cardigan with matching hat. Those patterns are lovely, but I have seen them MANY times before.

 

 

 

“Crochet at Play” has slippers with claws, hedgehog mittens, wolf cardigans, fox scarves, octopus pillows and much more. For the first time in my crochet experience I was seeing fresh, interesting, inspiring patterns. I think that is one of the reasons why I had left crochet aside: patterns didn’t have attractive colours, didn’t look wearable or practical, sometimes they looked outdated. I am not sure of the timing when patterns like these caught my eye, maybe they have been around for a while but it was my first encounter and that really kicked off this crochet journey.

I really recommend Kat’s book, she is great if you have any questions (talking from experience!) and she has some other beautiful patterns that, as her book, are different. She has designed modern and wearable garments and accessories, with lovely colour combos and fibres (check her website here). She has become one of my favourite designers and can’t wait for her new book coming out in September.

Maybe the knitting/crochet boom has helped, maybe the beautiful new yarns available online to every part of the world has contributed as well. I often go on Ravelry and there are so many lovely patterns, but only some of them catch my eye: those that use techniques I haven’t seen before, or different stitches, or combine colours differently. The ones that I think: “I have never seen that in crochet” or “That doesn’t even look like crochet!”. This has driven my own creative process for my patterns: I am trying to design things I haven’t seen before. I think granny shawls are lovely, but I won’t make a pattern for one when there are so many around and when I know more talented people can get more beautiful colour combos than me. I want to try new things, challenge myself and make my small contribution to this new crochet world, one with endless colourful opportunities.

Have a great Friday 😉

x

Sol