I have about 180 free crochet pattern designs available. I like to fully design and finish the real sample of each of my patterns.
In the yarn arts, it's not uncommon for a designer to have thoughts and farm it out to another person to write the pattern and crochet the sample. Some designers also buy designs to put their name on it as well. Myself, I couldn't imagine putting my name on a pattern I didn't do completely myself. However, it makes me a slow designer.
To be clear, many designers do farm out their work to allow more time for creative thought as the actual crocheting of a large-scale project can be very time-consuming. For myself, I have to run a business, do tutorial work and I find designing isn't on the top of the list for priorities but love when I can do it.
The Stitch Journey
The joy for me is in the stitching journey. During the design, I know where I am goofing up or maybe need that extra tip or two to throw into the design by crocheting it myself. When the work is finally photographed, I feel more joy when I know the project came from my own mind and hands. It's personal.
The Crochet Action Packed Squares was our Crochet Cruise Project where we honoured heroes. The only square that isn't available in written format was the Super Man. I nailed the logo too close to the original look. The rest of them are homages but not duplicates.
Stitch Stop and Roll Afghan
The Stitch Stop and Roll Afghan was the very first project Yarnspirations asked me to intentionally design.
I was heavily inspired by the Ringtoss Afghan as the texture was up my alley. Designed by Barbara Worn-Wurtz. This is not a free design but you can buy her design. It was originally a front cover of Crochet World Magazine.
I was captivated by the idea of causing an intentional roll that lifts off the project. I completed her afghan in 18 days in working straight through as it was time-consuming and I was hooked!
In speaking to Barbara, it took her a year to design and get the mathematics right.
I wanted to experience a roll in my design. I didn't want to do the squares or triangles so I made my version of hexagons instead.
I did a prototype of the motif. Svetlana, one of my mentors from Yarnspirations took my sample motif and wrote out the pattern from the diagram I had drawn. Home crocheters for Yarnspirations made 5 versions in different colourways.
Though the orange version was my favourite, the green and blue versions sold out fast.
This was a lesson for me to really try to write a pattern with words instead of graph paper.
Scandinavian Snowflake Blanket
Inspired by Tim Hortons Coffee Cups back many years ago. Doubled up by the challenge of Daniel and me to create our own snowflake-inspired blankets. Introducing the Scandinavian Snowflake Blanket.
I used a snowflake pattern from Yarnspirations and adapted it to be a hexagon motif instead. I have seen so many colours of this afghan that has been really inspiring.
I literally crocheted this during a week on a personal vacation on a Norwegian Cruise Ship. Sitting in the sun on a sundeck or lounges. I had designed the hexagon before I left and used the downtime on the cruise to make this version.
Daniel's version was the Winter Blizzard Afghan. Daniel has a gift of incorporating unique stitches to form the patterns. He even used Jacob's Ladder Concept here.
He had designed the hexagon with no idea of how to join them.
Daniel doesn't crochet very fast so he asked our friend, Colleen, to crochet his motifs and she did it pretty quickly and handed back the motifs as is. Daniel asked me to come up with concepts on how to join them.
So I designed the joining and final edge of this blanket.
Original Study of Texture Concept - 2014
Back in 2014. I had a wack of Bernat Mosaic Yarn and designed to design a blanket that was laced with texture. For me, I was captivated by the colouring of the self-striping yarn.
If you notice, the interior is collapsing inward and so I comped by adding more rows in the stitches between the corners only. This got my back to being square.
This was a lesson for me that stitches really have tension and doesn't always work. I had taken this to the Tent Sales for a display and people were loving it but asking for the pattern. I didn't write it out as I gave up as soon as the collapse occurred. I promised I would write it out but never did. It becomes my personal treasure.
I decided to try to actually write out a pattern for the Study of Texture. The name is derived from me watching a cooking show where they were doing a study of fruit. I looked at the afghan and thought, this is a Study of Texture.
In 2018, the Study of Texture Blanket is revealed to the public on a Summer Stitch Along. If you look closely at the final version, the centre of the blanket is the same.
I was using the first example side by side to physically write the pattern but knew a collapse was imminent. I put the 2014 version away and continued to design the 2018 version. It was a hit. The Bernat POP! made it work.
I don't have a sense of how many downloads have actually occurred with this free pattern as I handed it over to Yarnspirations when I was done. However, it seems I am always seeing people working and finishing this project.
The Boho Ornament Afghan
The boho ornament afghan original was from 2015 but not actually released until 2019.
This particular afghan was actually conceptualized by adapting one of the original patterns on Yarnspirations. The pattern gave me the starting I needed to achieve an oval shape so it can stay flat. In fact, most of the design was drawn on a piece of paper and then scanned. I would later find this design on my system and decided to revisit it.
You may have seen this version from my 2015 concept as it was on the base of the Nutcracker. I found the original design really hard so I adapted it for the nutcracker base that you can see in the video presentation below.
Free Pattern: Crochet Boho Ornament Afghan
Did you notice the top picture of this blog of my desk. This is me actually designing the Boho Afghan once I pulled the design back out.
There was no interest for other publishers to pick up this design so it only lives on my website. The reason was simple. There are 10 colours and a lot of yarn is leftover in each ball so it would require a customer to buy way too much yarn. For me, this was always a scrap yarn project.
Crochet Hypnotic Tiles Afghan
The Crochet Hypnotic Afghan was designed the day before attending a weekend-long show on our last appearance in a major show. The name is derived by asking the crocheters on Facebook what the name of the blanket should be.
The show was moved and we didn't have time to do a mega display and in retrospect, thank gawd we hadn't. The show tanked leaving me with a booth to teach how to crochet to be empty for most of the show. I literally crocheted the entire blanket at the show.
This blanket reminded me of air vents. It was the first time for me to create a blanket using Caron Cakes.
The Rising Tides Bag
The Crochet Rising Tides Bag is a design that never really took off but is my favourite design of the bag category of the several I have done.
I live next to the Minas Basin that feeds the Bay of Fundy with tides rising 60 feet every 12.5 hours. The tide moving so fast, the water appears brown with the turning up of the bottom of the basin. In the fundy, it appears blue but when the water is gone, you are left with just soil.
Using the Larkfoot Track Stitch, I created this bag while on a cruise ship during one of the Crochet Cruises. I would later release it months later after the cruise when I found more time to finish it.
This pattern was a stinker with low interest but I still loved the process and final look.
Study of Transition Blanket
I was really craving a non-thinker pattern but with texture to keep me interested. This is the Study of Transition between one stitch to another.
It has two distinct stitches being used and is one of my simpler texture blanket concepts.
This is probably my most popular blanket that is self-published. I came to learn this yarn would be discontinued and so passing on this design to a publisher isn't possible.
Jeanne's secret to designing isn't to overcomplicate the design and have a quicker repeat than my typical designs. This design is using crisscrosses and zigzag basket weave concepts.
It's a Beautiful Whirled Wrap
I was asked by Jimmy Beans Wool to design a wrap for the Christmas Advent Calendar. My design didn't make the cut but went out as a kit for a season. There weren't enough smaller stitch sections to make it advent-worthy, which didn't hurt my feeling at all. My designs are free and I was glad to hand them over.
This is the It's A Beautiful Whirled Wrap that I would later call it my Signature Wrap. It lives as a free pattern at Jimmy Beans.
This was a journey to using smaller and thinner yarns as I had been avoiding it.
Crochet Wave Wrap
Inspired by my It's a Beautiful Whirled Wrap to have a complimentary wrap that is slightly different but also the flow of working with thinner yarn. This is the Crochet Wave Wrap.
It was an easy repeating stitch that looks like waves. I'm really proud of this design and the flow of the colours transitioning hit my attention level nicely.
There was no tutorial made for this.
Crochet Woodland Afghan
The purchase of Red Heart with Yarnspirations occurred and I was asked to create a blanket that used a combination of Bernat Super Value and Red Heart Super Saver.
Unfortunately, I ran full steam on the challenge but the colours were too close to each other to determine that the two yarns working together worked out. I was asked to change the colours well into this project but I was nearly done. Instead, I just let the blanket go and missed the campaign it was originally designed for.
This was inspired by my backyard as our house is nestled into a ravine. The greens of the trees, browns of rotting leaves, soil and pine needles. White of the mould on the trees that illuminate in the rain.
Crochet Home for Christmas
The Crochet Home for Christmas Afghan was my goal to have a new Christmas Inspired Afghan. I designed and crocheted this in July 2019.
Daniel really wanted to see if I could design a three-dimensional wreath with an afghan. If you haven't noticed, the wreath pops off the afghan. You could do the leaves as red and be a poinsettia feeling. Overall, easy to do design.
The colours are personal. Green for the wreath, of course, but the burgundy is the colour of our front door. Yellow is the gold of Christmas bells. Of course, people can change out colours to be more personal too.
Deb Miller says
Mikey...You are such an inspiration and a breath of fresh air! Thanks to my friend who recommended "The Crochet Crowd".
My crochet story...
My Mom was a crafter and I learned many through her such as sewing, knitting, cross stitching, embroidery and I added a few more with macrame, leather working, silver smithing and more! She used to do beautiful crochet pieces, especially her fillet pieces. I could never get the hang of crochet...I guess some mental block! Well...fast forward a few years later and my divorce from my husband...I know, right...how is this fitting into the journey?!? One of his last and meanest tricks was to make my beloved Christmas ornaments and treasures "disappear"...I even tried to get them back legally. To no avail...my most treasured were the many snowflake ornaments that my Mom crocheted for me through the years. My Mom had been diagnosed with MS and could not crochet anymore at this point!!! I cried and cried over the loss of the snowflakes and memories of them twirling on my Christmas tree! So, one day, I dried my tears and put my big girl panties on and picked up one of the crochet hooks that my Mom had given me and some crochet thread and taught myself, stitch by stitch...my first project (I couldn't even think of doing snowflakes yet in case I was unsuccessful...) was a set of six Victorian ornaments that included a hat, umbrella, basket of cut flowers, shoe, glove, fan ...it blew up my brain, but I did it! My mother said that it was a baptism by fire but she was proud of me!!! She said, "You have to enter them in the Fair!" I did and, wait....I won a BLUE RIBBON!!! If I had wings, I would have flown! My next projects...yep...snowflakes for my tree...many snowflakes and for many people!!! I have done so many projects but, you Mikey, have pushed me out of the box once again!!! You've inspired me beyond the sc, dc, trc...New Horizons! And with an awesome sense of humor!!! Sorry for the long story but I thought I'd give you a Phoenix from the Ashes story...life isn't always peaches and cream but when you get to do something positive with talented FRIENDS along the way, LIFE IS GOOD!!! Hugs to you and all of my friends in the Crochet Crowd...you make a beautiful Art EXCITING!
Wendy barney says
Mickley you inspire me and you are the most Happy funny man iv seen on the media thankyou for your amazing videos they are my go to option as I'm not good at reading a patterns.
Thankyou again when iv got the money to buy more yarn I will be attempting the log cabin throw.
Ines says
I am a new crocheted, learned during the beginning of the pandemic. Your videos got me through my first projects as I didn’t know how to read a pattern and was a visual learner. Almost a year later, I can read a pattern (Yea!). And still love your videos to get me through the project. Thank you!