Find out whenever a downloadable new crochet pattern by Doris Chan or by Vashti Braha is added to the DesigningVashti Shop. Doris Chan has granted us an exclusive to carry her DJC indie pattern line in the shop!
Pictured is a type of photo gallery that I’ve started including in my crochet class handouts. This one is for the Stitch Games class. View it full size. It shows a few different stitch games across the top. In the row below are finished designs that are based on one of those game types.
(I’m still tweaking the handout. This gallery may change by July 13.)
Pattern Galleries are Like 2-D Trunk Shows
Crochet class pattern galleries have turned out to be very useful over the years. I bring an overabundance of crocheted examples for what we cover in class. It’s like a whole trunk show per topic! Anyone is welcome to examine them and try things on. As you can imagine, I’m often asked what the name of a design is, or whether the pattern for an item is downloadable. It’s just easier if I label thumbnail photos of them in the handout.
I first did this in 2012 with the 21st Century Love Knots handout. It helped immensely. When I pass around items, someone will ask, “Is the information for this one in the handout?” and it’s wonderful to be able to say “Yes, in the gallery on p. 3.”
Bookmark this page! It contains self-updating links to my future free crochet stuff too. After the three self-updating links below is a gallery of clickable photos of each free crochet pattern that’s available as of today (April 19 2016).
Three Self-Updating Links to All Free Crochet Stuff by Vashti
Self-Updating Link #1: This shortcut link tells Ravelry to display only my crochet patterns that are free. I have over 100 crochet patterns in Ravelry and I add at least one new one each month. If I publish a new free crochet pattern on this blog, I also add it to Ravelry.
Self-Updating Link #2: This link tells this blog to display all the posts that I’ve tagged with “free pattern.”
Self-Updating Link #3: This goes to my list of the 20 most recently published issues of Vashti’s Crochet Inspirations Newsletter. Occasionally I put a free crochet pattern right into an issue. In fact, I originally expected to put free crochet patterns in most issues, but I discovered the hard way how limited a newsletter is for full pattern instructions. (For example, space is very limited, and there’s no way to update an issue if errors are found. It’s also not searchable, so Google can’t find it for you.) Each newsletter offers other kinds of information for free that you either won’t find anywhere else, or that you usually have to buy a book or pattern to get.
Please note that I do not own the rights to some of the older free crochet designs. Even though I wrote the original pattern, the company that bought all rights to it then edits it. These companies are the best equipped to deal with questions about their versions of the patterns. Thank you for your understanding.
Clickable Gallery of Vashti’s Free Crochet Patterns
Under construction (and may end up being too much work…!)
Clicking an image will [hopefully…(once tested)] take you to another page of this blog with more information about the pattern, and a direct link to download the pattern. It’s not to make you jump through hoops. It’s just how my blog template deals with clickable images.
This [incomplete!] gallery is current as of April 30, 2016. For my newer free crochet stuff, use the self-updating links above. Over time, some of the older free crochet patterns in this gallery might develop a broken link that is out of my control. If you try to download a pattern in this gallery and it doesn’t work, let me know so that I can update the link.
This is the 2016 class web-poster at the CGOA event headquarters.
Last summer’s Get Your Geek On CGOA event inspired my new three-hour crochet class in Charleston SC (July 13, 2016); some new booklets and patterns too. Many of us have sought insight into using hand-painted yarns. These yarns are often boldly variegated with short color changes and other indie dyeing methods. Color pooling is exciting!
You’re looking at stitch game projects I designed from 2009 to a month ago. (There are more but they don’t all fit in this image.) Pattern for the vivid blue striped scarf (Jempool) releases this week.
Use crochet stitches to turn the color volume up or down (or both, selectively!). Exaggerate the element of chance: accidental pooling. Or, eliminate it: planned pooling.
What’s Color Pooling?
Variegated (multi-colored) yarns seem to have randomly and evenly mixed colors in one skein. It’s like a party in a ball…unless the colors stop looking well-blended when crocheted or knitted. A color might repeat too often, or pile (pool) up on itself row after row in a blotchy way. That’s pooling in a bad way.
Texture pooling is a variation of color pooling. Ever use a yarn with dramatic thick and thin areas, and find that these texture contrasts clump together awkwardly? The texture changes are pooling. That also happened with the intermittent tinsel sections of an expensive mohair yarn. I thought it would look magical! Instead, the tinsel just looked lumpy and stiff when I crocheted it.
Sprinkling Love Knots among simple double crochets {UK: tr} retained the otherworldly look of the yarn by giving the tinsel more room. The result was Marisa Artwalk, an exhilarating discovery.
A simple stitch game I like, especially with crochet, is what I call stitch pooling. I switch to a contrasting crochet stitch when a certain color comes up as I crochet. Knitters do this when they switch from stockinette to garter whenever a certain color comes up, for example. Crochet gives us so many texture choices for creating a simple game, or a wildly challenging one! You can heighten or de-emphasize colors too. This is accidental color pooling that’s fresh, interesting, and each result is unique. Just use familiar crochet stitches.
Pictured at right are three examples of beginner-level stitch games in a pattern booklet.
Color Pooling According to Plan
Eliminate chance and you get regular coordinated patterns of color. The game here is to identify the unique color code of a variegated yarn. You decide where they show up in your project. (See my newsletter issue #77, Find the Color Code of Short Striping Yarns.) Then, choose the crochet stitch, gauge, and number of stitches to get the color patterning you want.
To see when this class is offered next, check the Upcoming Classes & Events page. It’s updated regularly.
In honor of (Inter-)National Crochet Month, I’ve added a lacy spring scarf pattern to my Ravelry shop: the double-flounced Emdash Scarf. It’s free for one week.
I thought I’d show you Emdash’s crochet story in pictures. National Crochet Month is for crochet stories, right? Especially about lacy spring scarves. First, the design sketches:
There they are all together at the top of this post. It’s easier to show some alternate views of them this way. Antoinette is the eldest (I published her popular pattern in Nov. 2011). She loves lace weight metallic mohair with sequins and other holiday party yarns. Cantina is the youngest, even though her pattern was published before Emdash’s (in Dec. 2015). Cantina is a freewheeling hippie girl who likes color parties, scrap yarns, and beads.
How did Emdash get her name?
While I was exploring special characters on my keyboard, I kept seeing the scarf draped on my mannequin. The columns of tall stitches are grouped with vertical spacers. (I like the slightly different crocheting rhythm of it.) They started reminding me of emdashes, yes—a type of punctuation. It shortens so nicely to “Emmy.”
The last part of her design story is that I learned how to format and print out kit patterns with the Emdash Scarf, for the show booth I had last summer. This means Emdash is also available as a printed pattern while they last.
This blog post is an overflow page for issue #76 of my crochet newsletter. Scroll down to see the heart shape chart, and then the full text of the Slip Stitch Crochet Hearts Free Pattern. To print, click on the little printer icon at the end of this post.
We Need to Talk: Slip Stitch Skill Levels
I rate this pattern Intermediate for slip stitch crocheters, and Advanced if you’re new to Slip Stitch Crochet. A good free crochet pattern for slip stitch beginners would be Eva’s Ribs Scarf. After that, Slip Tectonics or Undaria would bring novices solidly up to speed for these hearts.
Seriously.
These crochet hearts were originally used for a three-hour intermediate-level class on slip stitch shaping methods. “Slip Stitch Crochet 101” class was a prerequisite. After crocheting this heart, students would be equipped to crochet fitted sleeve caps and gracefully shaped armholes!
You’ll be adding or subtracting only a stitch or two to make this heart. Not a big deal if you’ve ever increased and decreased with single crochets. It takes practice, though, to shape every row of slip stitches.
Consider that even if you’ve already completed some slip stitch projects, most existing slip stitch crochet patterns involve only occasional shaping, if any. (If you’ve crocheted a slip stitch pattern with a significant amount of shaping, please tell me about it in the comments.)
For a slip stitch beginner, the biggest challenge is recognizing what the stitches are doing to avoid increasing or decreasing by accident. It’s like learning to crochet all over again—and that’s humbling if you don’t expect it, but what a beautiful thing! How many of us long-time crocheters remember what it was like to learn how to crochet for the first time? If you’ve crocheted for at least ten years already, you can revisit this life changing moment.
Challenge Accepted? Great!
Welcome to the “heart” of slip stitch country. Start with a thick smooth yarn and a big hook.
Cross off each row when you complete it to easily keep track of where you are. (I have to. For these crochet hearts it’s easier to count stitches, not rows.) For pattern help, visit my fabulous forum.
This heart shape is crocheted from side to side. Use any yarn. Image missing? See this album.
Chain 4.
Row 1: Skip ch nearest your hook, ss in any loop of each remaining ch, turn: 3 ss. Easy, right?
Notice that every odd-numbered row ends at the top of the heart and every even-numbered row ends at the bottom of it. The yarn end (called “tail” from now on) is at the top of the heart, so when you crochet toward the tail end, you must be on an odd-numbered row.
Row 2: Ch 2, ss in 2nd ch from your hook (an increase of one st), Fss in first ss, 2 Fss in each of next 2 ss, turn: 6 ss.
No row will ever have more than 10 sts in it. If you have trouble seeing which loops to crochet into:
It will get easier after 3 rows or so. You won’t see the heart shape develop until you’re halfway there (Row 9).
The st count matters more than choosing the correct loop. Count as you crochet and add a st in a good enough loop if need be. The most common problem for slip stitchers is identifying which st is the last one of the row. Counting as you go helps and you won’t need to use a stitch marker.
I don’t count my rows. As I complete each row I put a check mark next to it on the pattern. I also rely heavily on the yarn tail to know whether I’m crocheting a row toward the tail or away from it.
Row 3: Ch 2, ss in 2nd ch from your hook, Fss in each ss, turn: 7 ss.
Rows 4 & 5: Repeat Row 3. At the end of Row 5 you’ll have 9 ss.
Row 6: Ch 1, Fss in each ss, turn: 9 ss.
Row 7: Repeat Row 3: 10 ss.
Row 8: Ch 1, skip first ss (a decrease of one st), Fss in each remaining ss, turn: 9 ss.
Row 9: Ch 2, ss in 2nd ch from your hook, Fss in each ss to last st, turn leaving last st unworked: 9 ss.
Row 10: Ch 1, skip first ss, Fss in each ss to last st, 2 ss in last st, turn: 9 ss.
Row 11: Repeat Row 10: 9 ss.
Row 12: Repeat Row 9: 9 ss.
Row 13:Ch 1, Fss in each ss to last st, 2 ss in last st, turn: 10 ss.
Row 14:Ch 1, Fss in each ss to last st, turn leaving last st unworked: 9 ss.
Row 15:Repeat Row 6: 9 ss.
Row 16-18: Repeat Row 14. At the end of Row 18 you’ll have 6 ss.
Row 19: Ch 1, skip first ss, Fss in next ss, [skip next ss, Fss in next ss] twice, turn: 3 ss.
This is how it looks after a quick blocking, and before edging it with a round of slip stitches. (If image is missing, see this album.)
Round 1 (add a border of ss): Fss in each ss of Row 19, ss in one loop at the end of each row to bottom point of heart, [ss, ch 1, ss] in it, continue edging row ends to first row, ss in each of the 3 foundation chs, ss in remaining row ends, join to start of round with a ss.
Note: Edging these crochet hearts is not as laborious as it might seem. Even though it’s not easy to identify the same loop of each each row end, this needn’t slow you down. I mostly just estimate where to put my next stitch, and it comes out fine.
Finishing: Fasten off, or add another round of ss, or reverse sc. Be sure to damp block: stretch all edges in every direction then let it settle into a smooth, symmetrical-enough heart shape and let dry. Make another like the first so that you can seam them together with a ss seam, add a bit of stuffing and hide the ends.
Experiment Freely with this Free Heart Chart
The grid rows of the chart match Fss stitch height, but why impose limits on your heart? Try using single crochets instead; the heart shape may widen or narrow a bit. Or, try back-loop slip stitches (Bss) after you’ve made a few crochet hearts in all front-loop slip stitches (Fss). (The back loops of slip stitches are trickier to find than front loops for some folks at first.)
I hope you’ll show us your crochet hearts in my forum.
Site-wide Search
Vashti’s Crochet Shop
Get the Newsletter
Sign up to receive Vashti’s Crochet Inspirations Newsletter in your inbox monthly.
