Simple Yoyo Square

Admit it - you've got a ton of yarn scraps, right? Here's a way to do some serious stash-busting. Yoyos are just tiny crochet circles, and they only use a little bit of yarn. When I measured, I found that my yoyos take less than ten feet of yarn each. So use up your little bitty scrap balls! Once you have a pile of yoyos made, I have a way to join them while minimizing additional pesky ends to weave.

The method that I devised is based on Priscilla Hewitt's flat braid joining. I love the flat braid for joining squares, but when it came to joining yoyos with a separate strand of yarn for every yoyo, I drew the line. I wanted the same look without all the ends. My method lets you join a row of however many yoyos you want with a single strand of yarn. My giant afghan pictured below had only 50 ends to weave for the yoyo joining, versus 1500 that it would have had with the original flat braid method!

Here is the pattern: Simple Yoyo Square

Welcome!

If you're joining us because of the big announcement that I put on all of my patterns at Geocities today, welcome! I'm glad you found me. I don't know when Geocities let the word out that they'd be shutting down their free web sites this year, but they certainly didn't tell me. Strange, because I've been paying them a monthly fee for extra bandwidth for several years. At any rate, another crocheter notified me in time to get things moved over and set up before the shutdown. Hope you like it here!

Be sure to bookmark me at yarncrazy.com, rather than yarncrazy.blogspot.com. I am the owner of yarncrazy.com, and can easily re-point the domain to a new site in the future if need be.

Patterns for purchase - Yarncrazy Crochet Book 3

In addition to all of my free patterns, I have three e-books available through Lulu.com. Each book contains six 12-inch square patterns and costs just $6. Here are the squares that you'll find in Book 3. To purchase these patterns, just click here: Yarncrazy Crochet Book 3

Ring Around the Rosie:

Elizabeth:

Honeycomb:

Wallflower:

Parlour:

Cobblestone:

Patterns for purchase - Yarncrazy Crochet Book 2

In addition to all of my free patterns, I have three e-books available through Lulu.com. Each book contains six 12-inch square patterns and costs just $6. Here are the squares that you'll find in Book 2. To purchase these patterns, just click here: Yarncrazy Crochet Book 2

Skydivers:

Roulette:

Pulsar:

Medallion:

Congress:
Circus:

Patterns for purchase - Yarncrazy Crochet Book 1

In addition to all of my free patterns, I have three e-books available through Lulu.com. Each book contains six 12-inch square patterns and costs just $6. Here are the squares that you'll find in Book 1. To purchase these patterns, just click here: Yarncrazy Crochet Book 1

Sundial:
Modern Mum:
Winding Stair:

Gridlock:

Chariot Race:

Andromeda:

Lace Petals

After designing the fourteen-petal flower in Flower Burst, I was feeling kind of brave about working with motifs that didn't have some multiple of four in them. So Lace Petals with its six-petaled flower was the next design.

Here is the pattern: Lace Petals

Flower Burst

Flower Burst began with some simple loops around a central circle. When I counted the loops I'd made and saw that there were fourteen of them, I scratched my head. It's not too difficult to turn a round motif into a square if the number of petals/bumps/stitches/whatever on it is a multiple of four. But fourteen? That would be a challenge. So I worked on it for awhile, and voila! A fourteen-petal flower square.

Here is the pattern: Flower Burst

Afghan joining hints

I love making a nice variety of different squares and then joining them into a beautiful afghan. I have put together a few of my hints about the joining method that I use.

Here it is: Chris's afghan joining hints with lots of photos

Double-Framed Lace

Double-Framed Lace and Happy Hearts are the two patterns that I had published in the Heartmade Blessings fundraiser e-book a couple of years ago. Since it's no longer available to purchase, I've been given permission to republish the patterns here for free. Thanks, Edith!

Here is the pattern: Double-Framed Lace

Happy Hearts

Once upon a time, there was a great e-book published by Heartmade Blessings as a fundraiser. I had two patterns published in the e-book. It is unfortunately no longer available, so I checked with our fearless leader and obtained permission to republish my patterns from the e-book here for free. Happy Hearts and Double-Framed Lace are the two patterns. Thanks, Edith!

Happy Hearts is a fairly complex pattern that will present a nice challenge. Find yourself a quiet spot to work the first time you make one!

Here is the pattern: Happy Hearts

Mandala

It's so hard for me to choose favorites from my patterns, but Mandala is always near the top of my list. I love the center design, and it's another of the squares that is beautiful in a single color. I've made many of them in multiple colors as well, and they are gorgeous, too.

Here is the pattern: Mandala

Butterfly Garden

The biggest hit of all of my patterns, Butterfly Garden had far and away more hits than the others on my former web site. This pattern has several things going for it - it's beautiful, it's fast, it's flat (less postage to mail for charity crocheters), and it's fun. The butterflies appear magically after two rounds of very uninteresting-looking chain stitches. Very cool!

Here is the pattern: Butterfly Garden

Cygnus

Cygnus is my personal favorite of my constellation squares. It's also a fast square to make.

Here is the pattern: Cygnus

Pavo

Another in the series of constellation-named squares, Pavo is super fast and easy to make.

Here is the pattern: Pavo

Draco

Draco is one of a series of squares that were named after constellations. The others are Cygnus and Pavo. All three are fairly simple patterns that look harder than they are, and they all look great in a single color as well as in multiple colors.

Here is the pattern: Draco

Birthday Flower

This square was named Birthday Flower simply because I designed it on my birthday. I like this pattern because it's very simple to make it look totally different just by changing colors at different points in the pattern. All three of the pictured squares used this pattern.

Here is the pattern: Birthday Flower

Star Overlay

Star Overlay was inspired by a pattern found in a very old book that had a snowflake which was crocheted and then overlaid onto a square. The concept was intriguing, and Heartmade Blessings was in need of a new star square pattern to use in comfortghans destined for families of soldiers. In Star Overlay, you first create the star. Then after making a few rounds of the square, the star is crocheted right onto the square (no sewing it on later - I hate doing that).

Here is the pattern: Star Overlay

Kaleidoscope Blossom

This pattern is a little bit different from most. The flower is made first, and then the square is formed around the base of the flower. It's a little bit confusing the first time you make one, but isn't too difficult as long as you read all of the descriptions carefully.

Here is the pattern: Kaleidoscope Blossom

Bearghan

This pattern was developed by my crochet friend Pat Liles. She asked me to take her handwritten instructions, test them, and get them online to share. Bearghans are only a little bit more complicated than the average afghan, and kids love them. Give it a try!

Here is the pattern: Bearghan

Waldo's Puzzle

So, do you love patterns that are a little bit of a challenge? Waldo's Puzzle will probably fit the bill. This square is named after my paternal grandfather. Waldo was such a puzzle aficionado, and could figure out any manual puzzle involving rings, string, and bits of wood in a flash! The rings in this pattern remind me of Grandpa and his puzzles.

Here is the pattern: Waldo's Puzzle

Supernova

Supernova was inspired by a pattern that I found in a very old pattern book. The pattern was for a table runner made from crochet thread. It was a much more fussy pattern, with lots of popcorn stitches and other poofy stuff on it. I kept the basic four-pointed starburst part of the pattern and improvised the rest. This is a quick and fairly easy square.

Here is the pattern: Supernova

Windowpane

Windowpane was designed during a week when we were having all of the windows replaced in our house. I spent so much time shopping for the new windows and watching the replacement work that I was seeing windowpanes in my sleep!

Here is the pattern: Windowpane

Esther's Square

Esther's Square is another pattern in memory of a special person in my life. Esther is my maternal grandmother. She patiently taught me to crochet when I was about eight years old. She passed away in 1998, and I miss her very much. This is a fun pattern that looks kind of complicated, but is actually quite fast and easy. It's also very easy to memorize.

Here's the pattern: Esther's Square


Here's a gorgeous example of a full-sized afghan using Esther's Square. The picture was sent to me by Ginny and Robin, who make afghans for dialysis patients to use while they are undergoing treatment. I am tickled that they have given me permission to use the photo.

Eyelet Lace and Tilt-a-Whirl

If you're a fan of post stitches, Tilt-a-Whirl is the pattern for you. It's loaded with them!

Here is the pattern: Tilt-a-Whirl


Eyelet Lace is nice warm square without holes. It reminds me of the lace on the edge of my grandmother's apron.

Here is the pattern: Eyelet Lace

More early patterns

Ad Astra is a square that I designed in early 2003. The very day that I was preparing to publish the pattern, the space shuttle Columbia disaster occurred. I thought the star design made a very fitting dedication to the space program, hence the name Ad Astra, which is Latin for "to the stars".

Here is the pattern: Ad Astra


Eternal Braid is a very special square for me. I haven't told many people why. Back in 2003, my younger brother Brad took his own life. This square was in the design process at the time that I received the terrible news. I took my yarn and hook with me on the airplane as I flew to New York for the funeral. On the three hour flight, I think I completed five squares! I had been trying to come up with a name for the square, and had the "braid" part, but couldn't figure out the rest. After Brad's death, the "eternal" part just clicked into place. It's still one of my favorites, and each time I see one in a completed Heartmade Blessings comfortghan, it feels like a small tribute to my brother.

Here is the pattern: Eternal Braid

My very first crochet patterns - way back in 2002

Cable Hearts was my very first crochet square pattern. It's fun to make, but fairly easy.

Click here for the pattern: Cable Hearts




Pinwheel is another of my earliest patterns. It uses the same stitches as Cable Hearts. Give it a try!

Here is the pattern link: Pinwheel

Moving patterns over from Geocities

I guess I've been living under a rock, because I hadn't realized that Geocities (where my free patterns currently reside) was going to be shutting down later this year. So it must be time to finally get my patterns moved over here. I've had this blog for a long time, but never have done anything with it. Once I get the patterns moved over, I'll change my forwarding of my yarncrazy.com domain to point here instead of to Geocities.