crochet designs – The Crochet Architect

What? You haven’t heard of KnitCrate? Let me tell you all about them (or at least a little about them). KnitCrate is a company that ships out monthly knitting and crocheting boxes/crates which include both a knit and crochet pattern, along with 2 skeins/hanks of yarn to make either of the 2 designs.

This month, I’m the designer of both designs in KnitCrate’s
Membership crate: 1 crochet and 1 knitting. This is the first time I’ve
designed for KnitCrate and it was a great experience!

About a year ago, I was approached by KnitCrate to design something for their June 2019 crate. I love designing in both knit and crochet, so I agreed to design both patterns for June! Earlier this year, they sent me 4 hanks of yarn (2 of each color) for the knit and crochet designs. I had so much fun designing these 2 patterns for them! The yarn they sent me was squishy and very soft. It’s the same yarn that is included in the June 2019 KnitCrate membership crate. The yarn is called Vidalana Aloft DK, a chainette-plied yarn that’s made with 48% merino wool, 20% baby alpaca and 32% organic pima cotton. This yarn is lovely to work with! The 2 colors I used are Tiger Lily and Wee Violets. When I received this yarn, I knew I wanted to design my projects with lots of texture and some lace! So without further ado, here are some photos of each design, along with information about them and the designing process behind them.

First up is my crochet design called “Golden Afternoon”. This is a reversible scarf or cowl made with lots of post stitches and chains. I designed this stitch pattern myself to mimic one of the knitting stitch patterns that I used in the knit design.

Once I came up with the crochet stitch pattern, I realized that it looked really nice on the back, so I decided to take advantage of that and make the scarf reversible! I decided to make diagonal lines where the changes occur between the front and back of the stitch pattern. Then I calculated how long and wide I could make the scarf/cowl with the 548 yards total that was sent to me. I’m thrilled with the final result of this scarf! You can find this pattern for sale on Ravelry here.

The 2^nd design is my knit design called “Rows of Lavender”, which I actually started designing first, but finished it last. This is a really soft crescent-shaped shawl that can be worn in a variety of ways. I used 2 stitch patterns in the body of the shawl and a coordinating border at the bottom. The shawl is started at the top, center with increases worked throughout to achieve the crescent shape. You can find this pattern for sale on Ravelry here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these 2 new designs. For more information about KnitCrate, check out their website here. If you decide to purchase the June 2019 KnitCrate membership crate and make either of these 2 projects, I’d love to see your finished projects or answer any questions you may have about the patterns.

Until next time!

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan

Have you heard of “The Crochet Awards”? They used to be called the “Flamies” or the “Flaming Hook of Justice Awards”. They were started by Laurie Wheeler, the founder and fearless leader of The Crochet Liberation Front. Each year, many crochet designers, bloggers, yarn companies and more are nominated for these awards. Anyone can vote for their favorites in each category, starting on Feb. 23rd. You can even nominate your “wildcard” favorite starting on Feb. 16th. For more information about The Crochet Awards, check out this page.

To see who won in last year’s awards, check out this page. Here is one of my favorites from last year’s awards:

It is the Happypotamus, designed by Heidi Bears! Isn’t it pretty with all those vibrant colors? This design won in the category of Best Pillows or Cushions. If you’d like to make one of these, you can find the pattern for sale in Heidi’s Ravelry shop here.

Now back to this year’s awards. The Crochet Awards are being split up into quarterly awards in order to feature more great crochet stuff! All of the nominees for the first quarter of 2015 are listed on this website. This quarter’s awards are all about apparel, from jackets to scarves and everything in between! To see all of the categories for each quarter of the year, check out this page.

I’d like to share a few of my favorite designs that are nominated for the first quarter of 2015.

This is the Fun in the Sun Cover-up by Marly Bird that is nominated in the category of Best Beachwear (swimwear, coverup). It was published in the Summer 2013 issue of Love of Crochet magazine. I like this design because of the nice motifs that Marly used and the possibility to wear it as an everyday top (with the addition of a solid top underneath, of course). It looks very comfortable and easy to make, too.

This is the Jordan Sleeveless Pineapple Top by Vicky Chan that is nominated in the category of Best Tank/Tunic Top. I like the relaxed look of this top and the crochet pineapple is one of my favorite designs! I think this top would look great on many different sizes and figures! You can find this pattern for sale on Ravelry here.

This is the Fall Leaves Wrap by Jessie Rayot that is nominated in the category of Best Shawl/Wrap. I LOVE the colors in this wrap and the way it wraps around the neckline. You can see this pattern and purchase it from Jessie’s Ravelry shop here. This is the same wrap that Jessie entered in the 2014 CGOA Design Competition (and won first place in the accessories category), but in different colors:

I was one of the 3 judges in the CGOA Design Competition last year at the CGOA Conference in Manchester, NH. It was a blast! This year, I’m one of the 2 co-chairs who are putting the design competition together. The other co-chair is Bobbie Matela from Coats & Clark (also a CGOA Board member). We’ll have all of the details for this year’s design competition very soon, so stay tuned for that!

I’m getting sidetracked again! Oh well. Such is my life! Here’s another of my favorite designs that is nominated in the category of Best Cowl:

This is the ZigZag Blues Cowl by Yuliya Tkacheva (I believe she’s Russian and is living in the UK). I love this cowl because of the zigzag design done in all front post and back post stitches! It’s brilliant and has lots of texture! You can purchase this pattern here.

The last of my favorites that I’m going to share is the Summer Sprigs Lace Scarf by Esther Chandler. This scarf is nominated in the category of Best Scarf. I love the lacyness of this scarf and the pattern is free on Esther’s website here. If you scroll to the bottom of her blog post, you’ll see the pdf downloads of the pattern and charts. I haven’t made this scarf yet, but 166 people on Ravelry have made it! If you’re not a Ravelry member, you really should join! It’s free and has links to more patterns that you can imagine! Here’s the Ravelry website.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at The Crochet Awards. And I hope you’ll take a few minutes and vote for your favorites when the voting goes live in 10 days. There are so many talented crochet designers all around the world and it’s nice to give credit to those whose designs are the best in their classes! Until next time…

Happy crocheting!

Susan

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