Tips for Writing Crochet Patterns (I Wish I Knew Sooner) | Podcast Episode #109

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Have you been thinking about designing and writing up your own crochet patterns?

Great! It’s an incredibly useful skill whether you strive to be a full or part-time crochet designer or you just want to record a pattern for your own reference. When you understand the process of writing patterns, following patterns becomes a whole lot easier.

In this episode of The BHooked Podcast, I’ll share some of the tips I wish I heard when I started writing crochet patterns. I’ll also let you in on some of the lessons I’ve learned over the last six years! Whether you want to be a professional crochet or knitting designer or not, I think you’ll find some golden nuggets in this episode.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Well, hey there, and welcome to episode 107 of the BHooked podcast. I’m your host, Brittany, and I am delighted you’re here with me today. It’ll be just you and me chatting about something I know is going to help you be a better crocheter.

So think about this. When was the last time you had an idea for a project, you made it up sort of as you went along, and you told yourself, I’ll remember how I did that. But then you went back to make it again and you couldn’t remember how you did it.

I’m over here raising my hand because I am so guilty of this, especially for projects when I need to make two items. So take baby booties, for example. On more than one occasion, I made up one of those booties just as I went along, and I thought, I’ll remember this for sure because as soon as I finish this one, I’ll start working on the next one. But even though I went right into that second one, I still didn’t remember every little detail, and all that leaves you with is frustration, wasted time, and a pair of booties that don’t match.

Now you can think about this for any number of projects. It doesn’t have to be projects where there are only two involved. Let’s say you create a scarf for a gift. You make it up as you go. Maybe you’re just using a pretty stitch pattern you found. You gift that to somebody and then somebody notices and says, hey, I want one of those. Can I have one too?

Well then, enough time has gone by that perhaps you completely forget that stitch pattern, you have no idea where it came from, and then you’re not able to fulfill that request for somebody.

If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it’s that I should never trust my memory, and I always need to write things down. Now, for me, this sort of happens across the board, not just as it relates to crochet. I always tell myself I’ll remember that recipe or I’ll remember how I made that dish. But when it comes time to make it again, I almost always forget what I put in it.

And since I have a feeling that you’ve been here before, I want to share with you my top seven tips for writing your patterns down. Now, because some of us are recording patterns to later sell or publish, and then some of us are recording them for our own reference, I wanted to mix up the tips a little bit so that we can all benefit from this episode. But just know that each tip is pretty solid advice for anyone. You may see a clear pattern where some of them are more relatable for designers and some of them are more relatable for our own reference. But either way, they’re all good tips.

So let’s get to it, shall we?

The first tip is to have a designated spot for writing your patterns down. I’ve learned that if you don’t have some kind of system in place, you’ll either not want to do it, so not want to record the item down, or you won’t be able to find it when you need it.

So when I first started to crochet, I followed patterns a little bit, but to be honest, in those really early months, I didn’t know how to read a pattern, so I just made things up as I went along. That meant I had to keep pretty solid notes if I ever wanted to replicate something that I had created before.

So what I did was I bought a little notebook. It was probably only five inches by seven inches. I don’t know. One of those really small notebooks that you can get at the store. I bought one of those and that’s where I recorded my notes for a while. I sort of just bought the same notebook over and over when I would fill it up. But I had a solid place. I had one designated spot that I could go to when I sat down with my yarn and my hook and I wanted to create something all on my own.

Now, eventually, this little notebook converted to a digital platform. And you’ve heard me talk about it here before. It’s no secret. I like to use Evernote to organize and take notes for my patterns and my projects.

The reason for the transition… was because I just, I type faster than I can write. And a lot of times I’m jotting things down. I’m doing it quickly so I can get back to my project. And sometimes I can’t read my own notes. I’ll be honest. But it’s much easier for me to type them out and I can understand them a little bit better when I have to go back and look at it again.

So find your designated spot, whether it be a digital app like Evernote or a little notebook that’s just for you.

Okay, tip number two, and this is a big one, be as detailed as possible. Just because you know in the moment what you did or what you meant to say, it doesn’t mean you’ll remember in the future. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone back to my notes, read it, and thought, what? What was I meaning? What did I do here? I had no clue because I’d sort of made up my own little language, and I didn’t decipher that for myself. I just assumed that I would know when I would come back to it.

Well, you know what they say about assuming. Just don’t do it. Take detailed notes. Write it all out, even if it seems vague. Redundant. Now, if you’re working with like a super long repeat or stitch pattern, it can get tedious. I know that, but be as detailed as you possibly can when it makes sense.

Now, you don’t have to write out the same row. Let’s say you have a two-row pattern repeat. Let’s say it starts on row number four and row five is your repeat. You don’t have to write out everything from those two rows every single time. But what I would recommend is that you write it out like this. You have row four and row five clearly written out so you can decipher it later. And then your repeat begins.

So for row six and row seven, I would say this. Row six, repeat four. Row seven, repeat five.

The goal here is to, like I said, be as detailed as possible because you’re likely going to go back to this pattern. And just because you remember something now, or maybe you remember something a week from now, it doesn’t mean you’ll remember a few months from now. Okay? So be as detailed as possible.

And if you set your own language, like I often do, which is basically just short form or making little abbreviations that maybe aren’t standard abbreviations for crochet—they’re sort of like my own little chicken scratch—make sure that that language is either second nature or you do it automatically, you automatically know what it means, or make a key for yourself so that when you do go back and you don’t remember what you meant, you’ll have a key to decipher your notes.

All right, tip number three, record the hook, the yarn, and the gauge information always.

Again, I am so guilty of telling myself that I’ll remember this info. Think about it, we have a project in our hand for multiple hours, sometimes crazy amounts of hours, like 30 or 40 hours. I always tell myself, I’ll remember what hook I have. And to some degree, I could remember. When I used to use the Clover Amore hooks on a more regular basis, if you’re familiar with these, you know that the handles are color-coded, so each hook size is a different color. I could sort of commit that to memory. I could recall the color of the handle, not necessarily the size of the hook.

But that all changed when I started using my Tulip Etimo. All of the hooks’ handles that are in the set I have are black, and I can only differentiate between the size by reading the label on that. So when this transition occurred, I made it a point to always write down that hook size. And I think you should do the same. Take my advice. Don’t trust that you’ll remember because you might not remember. And at that point, all of your effort is for nothing.

And we know that the hook size is so important in terms of sizing. So if we make a hat that fits us perfectly in one size, we think we remember what size we used. And let’s say we use a bigger hook size because we thought it was the one we used. Well, when you finish that hat, it’s going to be bigger. So it might be too big and not fit you. And then you’ve wasted all of that time. So record your hook size.

And it’s equally as important to record the yarn information. Again, I’m guilty of thinking to myself, well, I’ll see this project for so many hours. I’ll commit it to memory. I’ll remember what yarn I used. Well, some yarns are so similar that once that yarn label is removed, it might be hard to tell what yarn you actually used. So never assume, just go ahead and record it.

I like to record the brand, the name of the yarn, the weight of it just for reference, and then of course the color. I can never seem to remember the colorway names, and so I like to record this information too.

On this same topic, it’s always a great idea to record your gauge. Now I know you hate gauge, we don’t like making those swatches, but hear me out before you completely tune me out. For that step, in a lot of cases, it’ll come later. You’ll probably record your gauge sometime after you complete the project, if you’re like most of us.

What you will likely do in that instance is measure the stitches within your project. You can get away with this for some blankets, we’ll say. A gauge swatch is just a reference point that will allow you to figure out how many stitches and how many rows per inch. So that way, when you replicate that process later, you’ll have that reference point to know that it’ll be the size you need.

This is critically important where sizing matters. So hats and garments come to mind. In those cases, you’ll want to have your gauge swatched beforehand. But let’s say in our example here, we’re working on that afghan and it’s not as important. I would still record the gauge because let’s say somebody in your crochet group says, hey, I want to make that. Well, they’ll need that gauge information because likely they will crochet a little different than you do. And you want them to have the best results possible, right? So recording that gauge is important.

Now, I don’t wanna beat that horse too much. I know we talk a lot about gauge and its importance, but I just wanted to throw that in there because I know it’s a step we like to skip.

Now, tip number four, brush up on your crochet standards. And specifically, I’m talking those abbreviations. The abbreviations are there for our own convenience.

So we don’t have to write out the full word or the full phrase of what we’re doing. And the good part about there being an industry standard is so that there’s a standard. So we’re all doing the same thing. So I could look at your pattern and know exactly what to do or exactly what you mean by that abbreviation. And likewise, somebody you share that pattern with, whether it be published or just given to somebody in your group, they will know exactly what you mean by those terms.

I also like to advocate for this because as you write your own patterns down, and perhaps you’re in a similar situation as I was, where you maybe don’t know how to read a pattern and you’re creating things as you go because you—that’s what you know how to do. You don’t know how to read a pattern, so you make something up. Well, this is really great to incorporate in your writing routine to use those abbreviations because through that process, it’s going to help you be able to read patterns in the future. Makes sense, right?

Now, I have a page on my website that lists all the crochet abbreviation standards. You can find that at behooked.com/abbreviations. Now, the Craft Yarn Council is responsible for coordinating the industry standards as far as abbreviations and diagram symbols go. If you haven’t checked out their website already, I would really suggest that you do because you’ll find a lot of useful information.

Not only will you find those abbreviations and the diagram symbols, but you’ll also find helpful things like sizing charts, which will help you, especially if you’re writing a pattern for a garment or a wearable.

All right, moving on to tip number five. Make a baby project wherever you can. You’re probably thinking, what? Are you on the right list? It seems so weird to include this type of tip in a list for writing better patterns or writing your patterns down. But here’s why I feel it’s so important.

Baby projects are a lot smaller than regular projects. So they’re quicker to make. They’re also easier to record. This does a couple things for you. It gives you a quick win, so you have a project very quickly. You get the almost instant gratification there, but it’s also a quick win in terms of recording.

As you write more patterns, you get better as you go. It’s sort of like you’re practicing and the more patterns you write down, the better you’ll get at it. So when you make small projects or baby projects wherever you can, it will help you get more practice quicker.

It’s also a great lesson in teaching you how to pattern grade. And what that means is basically converting a pattern to different sizes. So let’s say you create a hat. And it’s in a baby size because you wanted a quick win. You needed a quick turnaround to make sure your pattern worked out as you envisioned.

But let’s say you really want to make it for yourself or in an adult size. Well, you can take the information you recorded, notably that gauge information, and you can convert it to a bigger size. This might be a little more advanced than you had in mind, but just keep this tip handy and know that as you’re really ready to be better, to record better patterns, this is a really good strategy. It’s almost like a little ninja tip.

Okay, so tip number six, make sketches for additional clarification. Now, before you just completely dismiss this because you’re not great at drawing, let me just say I am that person. I am not a sketch artist. Far from it, in fact. I don’t like sketching, but I do it anyways because I’m a visual person and visuals really help me, especially when I go back at a later date.

In a lot of cases, just remember these notes are for your eyes only, and it doesn’t matter if your sketches aren’t perfect. As long as you understand what that sketch means, that’s all you need. After weeks or months go by, a lot of times we do need those refreshers, and the visuals are just going to help us in that process.

Now finally, tip number seven. Rewrite your notes after you have finished the project. This is another one of those steps that I’m tempted to skip altogether because I think I did it right. It’s fine. I would say nine times out of ten, when I go back to do this step, I always catch some kind of little error. And when you’re doing that right after you finish the pattern, you’re more likely to catch those mistakes because it’s fresh in your mind.

This also will give you a good opportunity to clean things up. So as you’re working through your pattern, you might be writing really sloppy. And perhaps when you have more time or you don’t want to dive back into your project, you can just clean it up. Make it a little more legible, easy to refer to in the future for yourself or for somebody else.

I also like to take this time to convert anything to that standard form if I’ve sort of used in my own little short form or crochet language as I take those notes. Or if you wrote full sentences, if you like to have really detailed notes, you can convert it to standard form so that it’ll be ready for publishing if you intend to do that with it. Or it’ll be ready for somebody else’s eyes if you want to share it within your group.

So now that we’ve gone through those seven important tips about writing your own patterns, I thought it would be helpful to outline what the process looks like.

So before you start anything at all, create a page for the pattern in your designated spot. So for me, it’s creating a notebook in Evernote. So I have all the details right there at my fingertips. And then I’ll give it some kind of name. Now the name is usually not what it ends up being published as. It’s how I reference it, if that makes sense.

Then the very first thing I do after that is record the hook size, the yarn brand, name, and color.

Now after that, because I am taking my patterns and publishing them, I make my swatches. So I’ll go through that phase, that testing phase, where I make my swatches, I play with the stitch pattern, I use that, and give myself a clear picture of how that stitch pattern will work with the yarn and hook that I’ve chosen.

And if the result isn’t something I love, then I go back to the drawing board and I make a new swatch.

Now, I know you don’t love this step, especially if you’re not publishing it. It’s really tempting to skip this step altogether. But you’re writing your own pattern down, which means it’s never been tested. So you’re going in blind.

And in the case of those smaller projects, you won’t have as much time invested because—but let’s say you’re working on a bigger project. Let’s take a garment, for example. You work through a good portion of that pattern or that project only to realize that it doesn’t have the right drape. Maybe it doesn’t hang or flow very well.

And that’s a real shame when you’ve put all of that time and effort into creating something and then the sizing is off or the drape is off. And just by taking an hour, not even that sometimes, to create a gauge swatch, you can avoid all of that trouble.

Once you get that information at your fingertips, jotting down the number of stitches per inch and the number of rows per inch or per four inches, whatever metric you want to use.

Actually, on that note, it’s better to use a larger size. So when I take measure of gauge, I like to measure the amount of stitches in four inches and the amount of rows in four inches. And that way I have a bigger sample size, we’ll say. So I know that gauge is a little more accurate than if I just measured the amount of stitches in two inches and the number of rows in two inches.

Once you have that information, I like to make quick little sketches so I know how it comes together. Think about if there are multiple pieces or panels involved in the project. Do you need to coordinate colors perhaps? Do you want to see how some stripes will come together? That sort of thing.

I’m not trying to sketch something to frame. I’m just sketching for my own reference so I know how things need to come together.

So that’s all of the pre-work I do, and now I’m ready to really dive into the pattern and record it as I go. I like to be as detailed as possible, as I mentioned before, and I also like to pretend that I’m writing it for somebody else, so I don’t really create that shorthand lingo in the moment that I can’t figure out later.

Be sure to not leave anything out during this process. And here’s a good example why that’s so important. Think about amigurumi. Let’s say you’re making a bear. You work on the head. You’re writing it down. I would love for you to record things that you wouldn’t even think to record. When did you stop to add the eyes? When did you stop to add the stuffing?

That may be less important for you, but it’s really important for somebody who is recreating through your notes. So be as detailed as you possibly can throughout this process.

And then finally, when you’re all finished, review your notes and clean it up. So put it into a standard format, address any questions that may have come up while it’s still fresh in your mind, and also take note of things that you tried that maybe didn’t work.

So that’s not too bad, right? I know it’s a lot of steps. It’s a lot to think of. But I would say that most of it is pretty intuitive.

If you haven’t done this sort of thing before, recording your own patterns, and you’re just getting into it and you’re feeling a little frustrated, just know that it takes practice to perfect, right? Just like anything else. The lingo will come. Those standards eventually will be second nature to you. And you’ll learn what information you need when you’re writing patterns for your own reference. And you’ll also remember what others need just through the questions that you receive.

All in all, I would say that writing your patterns down as you’re creating them is a really good practice to get into, even if you have no plans to publish at all. It will save you time in the long run, and some of those two-itemed projects will look very uniform, so it will help you to be a better crocheter. That’s my favorite part.

Now, I would love to know your tips for writing patterns. I’m sure this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the things you need to know when you’re writing your patterns, but I would say it’s a pretty good foundation.

So what do you do in addition to what you heard today? And what do you do differently? Tell me in the comment section of the show notes page. I can’t wait to see your responses there. And not only will it help me, it’ll help the community as well.

So thank you so much for your time and attention today. You could have tuned in to so many other podcasts out there and you chose to spend time with me today. And I just want you to know how grateful I am for that.

So that’ll wrap things up for today. Remember to join me next week for another episode. I’ll see you there. Bye for now.