Photo Gallery - Some Crochet Projects I Have Made

© Copyright 2011 Patrice Walker All rights reserved

I've been crocheting for more years than I care to count. While I began as a knitter around the age of 11, I learned to crochet from my aunt when I was a teenager on one of our family's many summer vacations in Wisconsin.

I continued to knit well into my twenties, got involved in macrame when that was the rage in the seventies, and even spent several years sewing my own clothes. But it wasn't until I was in my thirties that I decided to switch to crochet exclusively, and I've been working the hook ever since.

I did get back into knitting in the mid-2000s, thanks to Vickie Howell's TV show, Knitty Gritty on the DIY channel, but still consider myself to be primarily a crocheter.

And because I've been blogging about crochet since 2006, I've made it a habit of taking photos of my crocheted pieces, both in-progress and completed. So when HubPages announced its photo contest, the idea came to me to highlight some of those photos in a hub.

I've divided my crochet photo gallery into the following seven sections:

• Crocheted Sweaters
• Crocheted Tops
• Crocheted Dresses and Skirts
  
• Crocheted Afghans
• Crocheted Bags and Purses
• Crocheted Accessories to Wear
• Crocheted Accessories for the Home

I have tried to include a link to the pattern I used to create each piece, but I wasn't able to locate all of them. Also, not all of the patterns are free, but the cost of the ones for sale is reasonable, usually between $4 to $6.

** Note: To access patterns at the Lion Brand and Ravelry websites, you have to register first.

Despite what many people continue to believe, crochet is a great medium for creating wearables. If you choose the right yarn, the resulting piece, whether it's a sweater, top, skirt, or dress, will be soft and pliable and drape very nicely.

Modular Crochet Boat Neck Sweater. Modular crochet, a la Judith Copeland, seems to be a lost art because I can't find much about it at all on the Internet. But I was lucky enough to have been able to purchase the book when it was originally published in 1978 and have used it to design many pullovers since then. If you can find a copy at a reasonable price, my advice is to buy it before someone else does.

Knit for Kids Sweaters. I designed these cute sweaters after some frustration with the crocheted version of these sweaters, offered at the Word Vision website. I incorporated some modular crochet into the sweater body which enabled me to mimic their 10th Anniversary Knitted Sweater pattern.

Spiderweb Cardigan. This sweater is designed by crochet designer, Marty Miller, and is very easy to make. When I first saw it, I thought it was made from individual blocks, but the sweater body it is actually crocheted horizontally, in rows.

I haven't made nearly enough tops as I would like to. I keep saying I'm going to make more, especially since movnig to Hawaii. I can always use a nice, light weight top, and I have no excuse, given all of the cottons, cotton blends, soy, and other light-weight yarns that are available these days.

Modular Crochet Vests . I designed these vests using Copeland's modular crochet technique. I love this approach to crochet design because it's fairly easy to size the garment to fit your shape, whatever it may be.

Patons Grace Tank Top. I crocheted this cute top for my daughter (she was really into black then). The pattern is from the 2004, special crochet issue of Interweave Knits. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a pattern for this one other than the Etsy listing for the magazine.

"Knitwear" Turquoise Top. I used a software program called Knitwear to generate a pattern from which I created this top. Then I found a stitch pattern in one of my crochet stitch guides and used it to create the border. It turned out well except that, again, I should have used a lighter-weight yarn instead of worsted weight cotton which is too heavy.

I haven't crocheted many skirts and dresses either. In fact, I think these four are the only ones I've done. I'd really like to do more modular crochet dresses and hope to design some at some point in the future.

Modular Crochet Linen Shift. Similar to the boat neck sweater and vests above, this sleeveless, linen dress is an extension of the modular crochet pullover. It's just longer, and I added slits to the sides to give it a little flair. I wore this dress to death!

Modular Crochet Peach Dress. This is another item of clothing that should be made with a lighter-weight yarn, but I was experimenting with the "bloused" silhouette, one of three shapes included in Copeland's Modular Crochet book. Other than the fact that it's too heavy, it turned out well.

Spiderweb Skirt. This incredibly beautiful skirt (see the one in the pattern photo) is designed by Josi Hannon Madera, and when I saw it, I HAD to make it. Despite the fact that the pattern calls for worsted-weight wool, the yarn I used was too heavy. But I wanted to see how difficult this lovely skirt was to crochet and used a cheap worsted-weight acrylic yarn to make it. Turns out, it was pretty easy to make.

Sierra Skirt. That's my daughter, Adrienne, modeling Angela Best's Sierra Skirt that she asked me to make for her. The skirt turned out very nicely, but again, the mercerized cotton I used to crochet it wasn't the best yarn. It was the closest substitute yarn I could find.

I'd given up on afghans for a long time to focus on crocheting wearables, but recently got into making them. And now it seems I can't stop.

Swatchpghan. Most crocheters and knitters accumulate what are known as swatches. These little pieces, typically 4" by 4", are created in order to make sure you are crocheting and knitting according to the gauge a pattern calls for. The idea came to me to create an afghan using all of the swatches I had, and this is the result. I had to crochet a few extra swatches and added a border so the resulting lapghan was square in shape.

Jewel Tone Scrap Afghan. Another thing that crocheters and knitters collect is a yarn stash, a collection of odd balls of yarn left over from projects they've made. I'd crocheted three, multi-colored, granny square afghans to give away as Christmas gifts one year and had a lot of leftover yarn. So I used it to create this afghan.

City Stripes Afghan. This is one of my favorite afghans. The pattern is in an old issue of Interweave Crochet magazine. I messed up the striping at some point, but you really can't tell, and the afghan is a really soft, warm cover.

Magic Ball Afghan. Here's another afghan crocheted from leftover, stash yarn. Except this time, individual pieces of yarn, several yards long, are tied together to create the "magic ball" and then crocheted with a neutral color like black. You can weave in all the ends or let them show to create an interesting effect.

Two out of three of these purses are felted, and it's because I literally went mad for a full year, felting like crazy. I'd never done it before, and once discovered, I seemed to be felting everything in sight.

Felted Water Bottle Holder. This is one of three patterns I have in Amazon's Kindle Store. The water bottle holder is pretty easy to make. I designed it as an introduction to crocheting in the round for advanced beginners.

Felted Purple and Yellow Freeform Crochet Clutch. This clutch is loosely based on a freeform purse pattern I designed for Lion Brand yarn company (Pattern #: 60304AD) several years ago. This purse is made of wool, and as an experiement, I decided to felt it to see how it would turn out.

Flower Bag. I will probably create a pattern for this little bag at some point. I have knitted purses with the "keyhole" handle, and I wanted to see if I could crochet one. The flowering vine on the side is an attempt to cover a very visible, and to me unsightly, line that resulted from crocheting this purse in the round, without turning the work at the end of the round. I added more flowers and leaves on the purse front so the vine on the side wouldn't look out of place.

Men's "Crunch" Tie. I always find it difficult to come up with ideas for crocheted or knitted Christmas gifts for men. But I got lucky one year and found a pattern for these ties to crochet for several men in the family. I always wonder if they ever wore them. Would you, guys??

Another year, I helped my daughter crochet a gag gift for her boyfriend, called a "willy warmer." Sorry, guys, no photos -- HubPages would definitely slap me with a violation if I included one!

Crocheted Leis. When I first came to Hawaii and found a local yarn store nearby, I was blown away by all of the crocheted and knitted leis that were on display there. So, of course, I had to make some. I made these leis for Adrienne when she graduated from nursing school.

Crocheted Mary Jane Slippers. I thought these Mary Jane slippers were so cute, I just had to make a pair. They turned out well, but I really have't worn them much because they are very slippery on hardwood floors. The link I provide isn't to the pattern I used (I think a friend loaned me a book that had the pattern), but it's a nice one, with lots of detail that should make them easy to crochet.

Update: I found a link for the Mary Jane slippers pattern. It sells for $5.95. The slippers are the black ones in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.

Crocheted Wash Cloths. I believe the patterns for these cute little wash cloths came from the book, Teach Yourself to Crochet Visually (the "Exquisite Washcloths" pattern). They are essentially squares with a single crochet border, so find a nice stitch pattern in a crochet stich guide, and you can make them yourself. Use a worsted-weight cotton yarn like Lily's Surgar n Cream or Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.

Biffer Shrug. This is another pattern I thought was so cute, and that I crocheted to give away at Christmas, but I wonder if they are being used. Fashioned after those dry cloths that you hook onto a sweeper, these eco-friendly shrugs can be washed and resused.

Blue Heart. I found this pattern on the CrochetMe website, and thought it would make a cute Valentine's Day gift for my daughter. She still has it propped on her bed.

Well, there you have it. I have a lot more photos I could have included of my crochet projects, but 23 (I started out with 31!) is more than enough for you to get an idea of the kinds of stuff I've made over the years. I hope you enjoyed viewing them as much as I've enjoyed crocheting them.