pattern writing

Have you tried it? I love that I can read patterns now instead of following videos only, altho I still love to follow videos and always will. Writing patterns was a challenge I wanted to take on for some reason this year. I learned to crochet last year by watching youtube videos, as many people do. I go back now to learn the technical aspects that I didn't know to learn thru youtube then. And I had no clue then there was a a whole online world for crochet! I tell this story in my blog on the 'about' page and some of you may know that I chose crochet to help me focus away from chronic pain, and it has worked like a charm considering that I of course will likely continue to live with pain (as a lot of you do) and when I started getting very emotional & personal emails and comments about that concerning my blog, I was emotional myself! People have said I actually inspired them - that was one of my goals, to give others what I didn't have when I was learning to crochet, and to share all I find about crochet with others. I've made so many nice friends thru crochet, including a lot of you, and it's been just great! I really needed all of this at this time in my life, for many reasons. Luckily it didn't backfire on me!

The reason I chose crochet is because I needed kitchen and bath hand cloths and hand sized towels, and I knew I could make them somehow because I've always done hand made crafts. I thought the 2 needles of knitting would make my fingers spasm & hurt my wrists (the odd thing is the part that hurts most from it is my upper arm muscles and shoulders, and I know why but didn't expect it)so I went with the one hook of crochet. I bought a 'lot' of yarn thru craigslist (my 1st & only time on there) and a local lady had a 40.00 bundle that my MIL bought me in Oct for early Christmas 2013 so I could get that package of yarn, that had some great yarns in it but at the time I had no clue! No cotton was in it, but I of course didn't know that's what I needed for my pieces I wanted to make. I won't go into the way a friend sent me some cotton yarn, and another friend sent me her mother's 50+ years old set of crochet hooks, which is every size made but the big ones, that I need now to work with some thick yarn that I love to work with but it does waayy better with big hooks. I'm getting L-P if I can, soon.

Ok, sorry, I"m starting to blog here, so let me wrap it up!! I did actually make some things by working with a basic pattern, like Ive always done with crafts. That's just how I do things, play with them and change them around sometimes. I learned pretty quick how to read patterns, and a lot of videos started putting the written pattern on screen, or a link under them for the written instructions. As time went on and I started my blog, I felt a little urge to write patterns just to see if I could. It's not nearly as easy as making an easy piece! Writing down every little step is a lot more tedious than crochet itself. If you make mistakes and have no pattern testers (my patterns weren't complicated enough to need that) you might leave out a step or do a typo, and some people will jump all over you, while some a re understanding and just mention it to you or figure it out on their own and go on. that's why I'm glad I have m blog to publish my patterns, because everyone on there is kind and helpful, supportive in every way.

I went thru all of my notes for pattern I winged, which totals about a dozen or so, but they're not not written down for others to follow yet. I finally wrote & published the hooded cowl on my blog I think in October, or early Nov, and it sort of came by accident. I didn't set out to make a hooded cowl! I wrote down what I felt I needed to see in a pattern if I was trying to make it from that pattern, so I put notes in it, and it wasn't a difficult piece, but I was happy that at least 1 person I know made one from my pattern!

Then I made a headband recently, a modified pattern that right after I began making it I realized I didn't really care much for it, and with using some techniques Id found and used on it that wasn't in the pattern, I was very pleased with how straight my sides of the piece came out. So I wrote down the steps to make it and published it as a little Christmas gift to my blog subscribers. Thanks to techniques others teach us, and me gathering them to learn from and to share them on my blog, I've improved my work and am simply offering others the same information. Had some generous designers and instructors who love crochet dearly not been willing to share their knowledge, I'd never be where I am now in crochet, so I give back when I can. When I feel worse than normal, crochet and all related to it calm me, focus me, I get deeply into it and get carried away into crochet land!

My patterns I wrote are beginner pieces and I think anyone would enjoy making them, but a lot of people need that, need help or guidance at first, but the headband pattern has a technique that I'm sure some people have never done, so I posted the tutorial video with the pattern. I like the way the pattern looked overall when I was done. I'll stick with doing written patterns since I have no video equipment and no camera other than the laptop, not getting very good pics from it like I want of course, but I can still show my pieces and have all of my work documented thx to it. I'm camera hunting as you probably know, I used to have one (I learned yo must use a chargeable camera or rechargeable batteries, lol, for sure!!) and I'm nowhere near ready for writing really difficult pieces, but you have to stat some place.

Thx for letting me have a place to put this, I just wanted to share where I'm at in crochet. I look forward to next year with no moving involved and no worsened health issues. Last week I completed knee gel injection 3 of 3 so we'll see how it worked in a few weeks to prevent me from having knee surgery, which I might refuse anyway until I can't function and have no options!