I must be getting old! (or I've always been)
Thankfully I had my mother to help me from an early age. She never sat down without her fingers wrapped around a crochet hook and it's been said by ones who knew that my little baby fingers would imitate her hand movements as I watched her. I do remember growing up and always seeing her with a paper in her lap that she was reading. As I learned how to read regular writing I would start to pick these papers up and wonder: What is this? Some secret code, a mystery language?
I kept at it and eventually made my first short doll dress, It was dark green with white and gold trim and I even made her a beret hat. Then Mom read an article in the newspaper, of all places, on how to enter the craft fair at the State Fair of Texas here in Dallas, she had always wanted to and we never knew how. She let me enter it and I was very surprised to win a blue ribbon.
Because even though I love the whole youtube movement where we can practically learn anything just by watching a video, I still like following a crochet pattern.
I've been questioned by my friends: how do you read one? it doesn't make sense. And it got me thinking, that I couldn't always read crochet patterns, I needed someone to help me.
Free PDF Printable below!
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| How to read a crochet pattern printable guide, page 1 Image Preview |
Thankfully I had my mother to help me from an early age. She never sat down without her fingers wrapped around a crochet hook and it's been said by ones who knew that my little baby fingers would imitate her hand movements as I watched her. I do remember growing up and always seeing her with a paper in her lap that she was reading. As I learned how to read regular writing I would start to pick these papers up and wonder: What is this? Some secret code, a mystery language?
From a very early age, she let me play with yarn crochet and she taught me the chain. I was never allowed to cut the yarn, I just had to keep making chains and then pull them all out for fear we waste the yarn. [She was raised by a Depression-era parent] She had tried to show me the single crochet but I couldn't get the hang of it, and I also couldn't remember how she did it so I just kept pulling on loops till I had a large knot. So then I would just go back to making chains. Later she let me buy variegated yarn which made the chains a little bit more interesting. (For all her not wanting me to waste yarn, years later I still had a box of the pretty yarns she had let me buy but never waste, that had been crocheted and pulled out a dozen times. Anyways she took them and made me a blanket out of them, it's one of my most loved keepsakes from her.)
So what got me to learn how to read crochet patterns? Well at the time a crochet magazine company with its roots in Big Sandy, Texas was Annie's Attic. And Annie Potter had designed all kinds of doll dress patterns. [Shout-out to Annie's Catalog https://www.anniescatalog.com/] When the patterns were on sale my mom would buy them for us and I loved looking at the pictures. The problem was Mom didn't like making them, they were very complicated and took a long time and she rather makes doilies and blankets. So I got to the point I just had to figure these pattern things out. So I started with a single-page pattern and I kept asking my Mom how to do each step. I think it was a flower I made first with black and white variegated thread if I remember right.
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| How to read a crochet pattern printable guide, Page 2 Image preview |
So now I want to pass on the secret to reading these mystery patterns to you. Once you conquer them a whole new world of crochet awaits you. From vintage patterns to crocheting off-grid! That's right you don't need electricity to crochet using a printed pattern. So go for it. I hope these guides help, you can download the pdf with the link below. If you have any questions or would like me to add something, feel free to make a comment and I'll see what I can do.
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