All posts filed under: Crochet Secrets

Mini Hexies Blanket: A Free Demo for My 7-Step Guide to Multicolor Motif Blankets

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Hello, gorgeous crafter! I recently shared everything I know about creating multicolor motif blankets, or scrappy blankets, or however you would like to call it when you organize all of your remnants and make a blanket. Knowing how to make something out of nothing like this is a very good skill to have – and I say skill because it definitely is a learned skill! But once you get the feel for it, you can effortlessly whip up remnant motifs after each project, and once you have enough piled up, you can create a thing of beauty. Head to my “All those ends!” post, so you can read all of my tips and tricks for making a multicolor motif blanket.

“All Those Ends!”, “Layouts are Hard!”, and More… A Definitive Guide to Multicolor Motif Blankets, Plus Bonus Free Demo Blanket

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Hello, lovely crafter! Today I want to share everything I know about multicolor motif blankets. Every time I post a motif blanket with lots of colors, I get the same exclamations, responses, and questions, and so I decided to compile all of my knowledge into an ultimate guide. There is a wide variety of thought that goes into creating a motif blanket, like the design, color choice, layout, management of ends, joining method, etc., so I have a lot to share today. I’ll do my best to keep everything organized, and in an effort to do so, here is a little rundown of what you’ll find in this post:

Continuous Join-as-you-go (CJAYG) *Again!*

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Are you arriving here from Pinterest? That’s because this blog post is viral on that platform! Wowzers – thank you all for your continued support. This post has now become the most viewed content on babylovebrand.net, so I have updated it so that it’s fresh and new. This tutorial will show you the method behind the crochet continuous join as you go, but there are an infinite amount of ways you can use this method. My tutorial here is just a strong foundation to springboard to more uses. You can also find this pattern on AllFreeCrochetAfghanPatterns.com. Related Links for CJAYG YouTube Tutorials (Link goes to part 1) CJAYG with sc for triangles //// Blog post link CJAYG Flat Braid Join for hexagons //// Blog post link CJAYG with sc for hexagons //// Blog post link CJAYG granny st for hexagons //// Blog post link Blog Posts (Written/photo instruction only) CJAYG for squares using sc and my PLT Join CJAYG Flat Braid Join for squares CJAYG tutorial for Sunburst Flower Blanket Suggested Yarns KnitPicks Brava Sport (affiliate) – See my full review of this …

Crochet Tip: A Better Way to Chevron!

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Heyooooo! Today’s post is about you and everything you dislike about chevron crochet blanket patterns. The stuff you don’t like about them is the same stuff I aimed to resolve for myself when I set out to design the perfect chevron blanket. Let’s get to it! The two blankets we will talk about today are Chevron2.0 and Soulful Sierra. The basics of these two designs are the same, but Chevron2.0 is a normal height chevron, and then Soulful Sierra is a deeeeep chevron. Chevron2.0 Find this classic crochet blanket pattern on Etsy or Ravelry. Find inspiration in a gallery of all of the Chevron Blankets I have made on my portfolio site. Popular for Making and Selling/Gifting The Chevron2.0 is so popular among custom-blanket-making crafters that I have added it in my pattern bundle on Etsy that is specially curated for folks who want to make a sell or gift blankets. Essentially, the patterns are simple and classic, and they’re crowd-pleasers. Chevron2.0 fits the bill! 3 Blankets to Make and Sell (etsy link). I have …

Crochet Tip: Hold Cotton Thread Triple to Add Elegant Texture (Simple Trick) – Feat. VVCAL Squares

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Helloooo, gorgeous crafter! Today I want to share a small WIP that I have been working on here and there over the past month. And, I also include a super nice tip that I learned from two crafters years ago to make three strands of yarn from one skein/ball. Very useful!! So here we go! I have an entire shelf of beautiful cotton thread Scheepjes || Maxi Sweet Treat – I have a full set of them, which is a total of 109 colors. Definitely swoon-worthy, but also kind of sad – they are very pretty to look at, but I don’t much work with thread very often, and I am not one to let yarn fester in a stash.. I like to USE it!! Sweet VVCAL Blanket in Progress So with a tip that I remembered in the back files somewhere in the recesses of my brain, I made the decision to create a cute little VVCAL blanket, just making a square here and there over time. Eep, just posting these photos is making …

Freeform Crochet Basics: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

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Hello, lovely! Lately I’ve been thinking of you. Who are you, and where are you on your creative crochet journey? Are you just starting out and still learning the basics? Do you have years of crochet under your belt, but you love sticking to those simple rhythmic designs for a little #craftastherapy? Are you looking for a way to push the boundary of your hook and yarn, and let your creativity flow? No matter where you are on your journey, you probably feel like creativity is deeply connected to your soul and cultivating happiness. Keeping that creative feeling fresh is so important to get out – and stay out – of those low energy points of life. It happens to all of us. The creative funk. If you want a creative refresher, I have an idea for you. If you haven’t tried it, you should definitely take a few afternoons to see how you like freeform crochet. The freedom of expressing yourself with fiber art will get those creative juices flowing again. [Related: Scheepjes Cahlista …

Learn to Crochet: Level 3

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Learn to Crochet: Level 3 Welcome to the next steps of learning to crochet. If you have not practiced everything from Learn to Crochet: Level 1 and Learn to Crochet: Level 2, I suggest heading to those sections, because it will be tough to continue without the fundamentals. In this section, we will learn to crochet increases and decreases, and new stitches like Cluster, Bobble, and Popcorn, stopping after each step to crochet our practice projects with the You Can Crochet This! series. The You Can Crochet This! series includes projects that only require the skills that you have learned so far in this program. They are designed to allow you to practice your new crochet skills. Bonus material is also included for further enrichment. It is super important that you work through this series in the order it is presented, because each skill set builds on the one before. Let’s get started! Materials You should have the same materials from your practice from Learn to Crochet: Level 1 – yay! Yarn & Hooks You can …

Crochet

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Welcome to the crochet section of Cypress Textiles! As you may know, crochet is my main craft, so I have a lot to share with you all, and this page will continue to grow over time. My goal is to reach every crochet artist at every level – from absolute beginner to crochet entrepreneur. Grab a cuppa and your hooky and dive in! Click here to visit my shop for crochet patterns, yarn, and ready to ship pieces.  Featured Crochet Projects 2018 #VVCAL Reboot – Most recent CAL My book! The Art of Crochet Blankets Relaxghans: 6 free crochet blanket patterns designed with peace in mind Crochet Learning Portal Crochet Learning Portal – Learn to crochet, get my tip te beginners Quick Links: Learn to Crochet Level 1 Learn to Crochet Level 2 Learn to Crochet Level 3 Beyond the Basics: Continued Learning – Get my tips and tricks! You Can Crochet This! – My patterns, fully expanded for absolute beginners – Click to see which ones I’ve updated so far! Crochet Patterns All Crochet …

Learn to Crochet: Level 2

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Learn to Crochet: Level 2 Welcome to the next steps of learning to crochet. If you have not practiced everything from Learn to Crochet: Level 1, I suggest heading to that section, because it will be tough to continue without the fundamentals. In this section, we will learn to crochet taller stitches like HDC, DC, TR, DTR, and beyond, stopping after each step to crochet our practice projects with the You Can Crochet This! series. The You Can Crochet This! series includes projects that only require the skills that you have learned so far in this program. They are designed to allow you to practice your new crochet skills. Bonus material is also included for further enrichment. It is super important that you work through this series in the order it is presented, because each skill set builds on the one before. Let’s get started! Materials You should have the same materials from your practice from Learn to Crochet: Level 1 – yay! Yarn & Hooks You can use any type of yarn. When you …

Food Scale = Total Game Changer

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Between writing free content, self-publishing paid patterns, and completing design commissions, my business is getting to be more stressful and less fulfilling lately. So I’ve been taking a closer look at the pretty crafter photos on social media, searching for tools and tips to make my crochet life easier. A strong tool that I discovered and added into my pattern designing tool kit is a food scale. This is the one I have: Amazon.com – Weighing the Cozy Flowers blanket free pattern coming soon 😍🔥 Instead of just listing the ways I use this digital scale, I thought I’d spend a week taking a snapshot every time I used it. You can really see it in action during my Hexagon Month with Scheepjes Yarns*! Monday In making motifs for Autumn Blues, I figured out how many of the orange centers I could get from one ball of Catona*. I weighed one motif – 6g. Each ball of Catona is 50g, so I can get about 7-8 motifs per ball. This is the most common way I have used …

Color and Your Mood

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Hello, crafter! Welcome to my color and mood post, inspired by the abundance of emerging crochet mood blankets. Enjoy this article full of color theory and the profound influence it has on our mood. Click here to sign up for my Creative Art Blanket Course! I discuss loads of color theory and how it relates to yarny endeavors. The Original Mood Predictor My interest in how color and mood are related began long ago when I put a quarter in a machine, turned the knob, and out popped the ring that would turn my finger green for weeks to come: the mood ring. So mysterious! So accurate! So… adjustable! Unfortunately, about the only thing the mood ring is good for is telling you if you’re hot or cold. A mood ring contains liquid crystals that change color depending on the temperature. Read more about your favorite 70s fad on wikipedia, at retroland.com, or buy a dozen for yourself and all your friends here! Color and Psychology Below, you can see my favorite online visual for colors and the …

No Fear: Fixing a Mistake

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How I performed surgery on a piece to fix a mistake. Crochet + Scissors = Faint. I see crochet and knit artists alike asking amongst themselves if it is better to leave an error be as if it were fate, or to frog back and fix it, for fear of being forever haunted by its presence. Sometimes you don’t have a choice. One time I was in such a hurry to experiment with a new border that I’d been wanting to try that I literally worked all of the perimeter motifs in a blanket just so I could jump ahead. BUT, I erroneously worked in two extra motifs on one of the sides, causing that side to be wider… I hacked it apart with scissors, natch. Here are the gruesome details in an excerpt from the original BabyLove Brand blog post in early 2013. * * * * * Cruising along – Everything is looking fabulous at this point but I started getting a serious itch to see how my squared edge and lace border would come …