How to Design Crochet Patterns: A Beginner’s Guide

Do you like altering crochet patterns by others? Little tweaks that help you achieve the look you want for your crochet project.
Do you look at a crochet item and think, I can figure out how to make that? Are you looking for a crochet challenge? Then the next step for you might be thinking about designing your own crochet patterns.

It started out small for me. Instead of beginning with a chained circle, I’d opt for a magic circle instead. I resized a baby sweater pattern to make it for an adult.
Now, legally, altering someone else’s pattern didn’t make me a designer, but it gave me the curiosity to try my own hand at coming up with items of my own from scratch. Every designer probably has a different method of coming up with their finished project, I just wanted to share how I design crochet patterns I use for hats and blankets.

1. A sketch - I start with a drawing, just a quick rough idea of what I’d like my blanket to look like. I play with colors and edgings.


2. Math - Did I hear you groan? But, I'm sorry to tell you, your sixth grade math teacher was correct: math is something you need every day. And it comes in handy when figuring out how to design your crochet blanket, hat or anything! Length, width, determining how many stitches you’ll need all deal with some aspect of math.


3. Plan - Next, I draw up my design on graph paper, especially if color work or tapestry crochet will be included. The graph allows for me to see the visual “big picture.” Sometimes, I even write a rough draft of my pattern at this time.


4. Crochet - Once I know where I’m going and how many rows it should take me to get there, I begin to crochet my sample piece. As I work, I jot down notes on my plan so later, when I revise my rough draft pattern, I can remember any changes I needed to make. Taking pictures during this step is also helpful.


5. Test - After I’ve made my sample, I revise my pattern and send it to a tester. If you want to publish your pattern, this step is important because I want to make sure that my directions are as clear. If I need to make any fine tuning to the pattern, then I can do that once I get feedback from my tester.

Hope this helped.

This article was done by Milaha's Handcrafts, and I'd like to Thank Michelle for being my first Guest Blogger on Designs by Hebrew Hands. She has given us some very valuable information to begin learning how to design our own patterns. I don't know about you, but I'm going to start today to attempt to design my first pattern! Please make sure you go over and visit Michelle's Blog and let her know that you came over from Designs by Hebrew Hands!
Until tomorrow my fellow Crafting Comrades...
Shalam!