Category: Vashti’s Crochet Products

Posts about crochet yarns, patterns, and more that I add to the DesigningVashti shop.

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All Free Crochet Patterns by Vashti Braha

Directory of My Free Crochet Patterns

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.

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Color Pooling Crochet Stitch Games-Class

Planned vs. Accidental Color “Pooling”

 

2016 collage for "Stitch Games" CGOA class
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.

“Stitch Pooling” Makes Color Pooling a Game

Lcustrine Cowl, Tea Lights, and Bare Bones scarves.
The three patterns in the Crochet to the Colors Playbook. This is simple stitch pooling that alters color pooling.

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.

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National Crochet Month Specials

Sister filet scarves: Antoinette Sparklescarf, Emdash, and Cantina Party Flounces

Welcome, Natcromo Blog Tour Visitors!

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:

Emdash has two design sisters.

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.

Happy National Crochet Month!

 

 

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NatCroMo Winner of DesigningVashti Lotus Yarn

We have a Lotus yarn winner of our National Crochet Month giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who entered to win some Lotus yarn by leaving a new color suggestion at the previous blog post. I received a total of 69 unique suggestions. One was by email on the first morning before the link was fixed on the Crochetville post: Debra Bostron, who suggested orange and a bright sunny/golden yellow.

The winner of two skeins of Lotus yarn is… Edith Smith!

Edith suggested, “Lilac, orchid, and emerald green would all be nice additions.”

Congratulations Edith! I’ll be emailing you.

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My method: First, I renumbered the comments slightly by eliminating my own comments and adding Debra Bostron’s emailed comment; Debra’s was the first I received, so it became the new #1. I also needed to number Dianne’s comment because it shows as an unnumbered response to Ann G’s comment. Using the true random number generator at Random.org, I generated Edith’s winning comment number. 

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New Lotus Yarn Colors: Help Us Choose!

On this first day of National Crochet Month we’re fantasizing about more colors of Lotus yarn.

Designingvashti Lotus yarn: 15 colors in 2015Help us choose the next colors of DesigningVashti Lotus yarn and you might be the lucky recipient of 512 yds (two balls or 200 g) of it. That’s enough to crochet many of these patterns, and all of the Ravelry projects that came up in this search.

The existing 15 colors happen to fall into a tidy symmetry: there are 5 pastels, 5 neutrals, and 5 deep gem tones. What to add, oh what to add?

2017 Update: See which FIVE colors we added!

2018 Update: Explore albums of all the Lotus colors!

What do you think our 16th Lotus yarn color should be? (You’re welcome to add a suggestion for #17 and 18 too.) Just mention it in the comments below. A one-word comment is fine. Color is very inspiring, and I’m especially passionate about color right now because I’m reading books by indie yarn dyers. So feel free to add why that color, or what you would crochet with it, or other colors you’d combine with it–whatever comes to mind. We look forward to reading every comment.

The gift recipient will be randomly chosen on March 15, and announced here on this blog that same day. We’ll use a random number generator. Commenting more than once won’t increase your chances. The yarn gift can be mailed free to a US address only.