Men's Crochet and Basketweave Scarf

An area that could use a lot of development is crochet menswear. It can sometimes be difficult to find a pattern that is more masculine to wear or to create. Of course gentlemen should feel free to wear whatever they like in whatever color they enjoy, but the simple styles that many men prefer are hard to come across. I am the sort of person who believes that anyone should be able to crochet without fear of judgement, whatever your gender or age. Sometimes folks run into opposition from clueless jerks who portend that crochet is only practiced, and should only be practiced, by little old ladies. Not true! Just like colors, crochet is for everyone! Perhaps an explanation for the lack of masculine patterns is the lack of variety in fashion for men in general. It seems to me that in every store I visit women have more clothing options.

One stitch that I have found works well for masculine items is the basketweave stitch. It is bold and clean. I decided to make a basketweave scarf for my dear husband.

 

The fabric is very cushion-y and flexible. I have heard some people claim that no crochet can hope to rival the flexibility of knitting. To them I say, meet the basketweave! For this particular scarf I used wool.

What are your favorite stitches and patterns for men?

Update: By request, there is now a tutorial for the basketweave stitch.

Cat Catastrophe

You can't win 'em all. There will be some things in crochet that come more naturally to you than others, and you will have to work extra hard to overcome the difficult parts. My mountain to climb is sewing on amigurumi limbs. I butchered this delightful cat pattern because I sewed it together all screwy-like. Poor Lavender (that's her name). Well, at least Ranna found her irresistible. Notice the flash of little kitty in the second picture. She is such a little photo-bomber!

I spent a lot of time on Lavender and put a lot of love in her, so I was really happy when my good friend adopted her as a toy for her baby and her cats. There is room in this world for a slightly off-kilter cat amigurumi after all! In the meantime, I need to work on my sewing skills.

Amber Bee Bag

I have so many pattern ideas in my head that it feels like it could explode. It seems like I can't finish my projects fast enough because there is always another awesome plan waiting in the wings! Writing this purse pattern was extremely satisfying because it came out exactly as I had imagined it. I present to you my Amber Bee Bag.

I opted to leave the pattern plain and simple so that folks can add whatever embellishment they'd like to their bag. The pansy pictured as an example is based off of this free pattern, but the pattern was so difficult to follow that I just made most of it up. It might also be cute to attach a costume pin to this bag.

I named this pattern the Amber Bee Bag after my best friend, Amber B. Be on the lookout for more patterns named in honor of my friends and family.

Friday Focus: Dendennis

Hello! Friday has arrived once more and thus here is another Friday Focus, sent to you with love from out here in the blogosphere. Today I'm shining a light on up-and-coming designer Dendennis who lives in Amsterdam. He specializes in amigurumi and has some super cute patterns, both complimentary and for sale. Let's hear about his crochet adventures.

Who taught you to crochet? How long have you been doing it?

That's a good one. My mother taught me the basics a long time ago. But in 2012 I decided to pick it up again and used YouTube for the basics. You can find everything there!

Why do you crochet?

It is addictive. The first dolls I made were for my sister-in-law, she was pregnant and my girlfriend asked me to make an amigurumi tooth for her, because she is a dentist. That was my very first original design.

Crochet Favorites

I've learned the most on writing my own designs and how the amigurumis are put together with the book Zoomigurumi from amigurumipatterns.net. I really love every animal in that book and made several of them to really learn crochet. For my animal dolls I like to use Stylecraft Special DK and I like Phildar Coton 3.

What are you working on right now? What is your next project?

At this moment I'm working on developing several new dolls for a special exclusive line. And my next project will be finishing the pattern of my Wreck it Ralph free pattern.

A few finished objects...

I had so much fun working on this doll. A couple of years ago I designed a logo for the company of friends of mine. Although Bill is not as fat as the logo you can see the similarities. 

My own graphic design company is called De Hazen which means The Hares in Dutch. That's why I just had to make a Hare doll. Although everybody thinks it's a bunny it is definitely a hare. He is so sweet with his pointy ears and his big tail. With the use of different colors you can easily customize him.

Also funny to mention is my first Friday of the month event "Bring Your Amigurumi To Work Friday". This event is meant to create a smile at work. Choose your favorite Amigurumi, bring it to work, make a picture and post it on Tumblr or Instagram with the hashtag #BYATWF and see every funny amigurumi in a work environment. If you don't have Instagram or Tumblr, just use another social media tool and share your photos. Yeeeah!

What a fun guy and what awesome patterns! You can tell that he has an eye for detail and shape when you look at his pieces. I am totally in love with the Aang amigurumi. I think Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best cartoons ever made, how delightful that Dendennis wrote a pattern based on it. You can find out more about Dendennis and his work on Ravelry, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Friday Focus: Joyce Lewis

Another Friday is here! I hope all of my American readers had a great holiday yesterday. Today's Friday Focus highlights Joyce Lewis, whose Croco-Dahlia afghan block has become extremely popular. She has several more awesome patterns for you, including more afghan blocks. And guess what? Many of them are free! As a designer myself I know how much time and effort goes into pattern development. How kind and generous it is of Joyce to post some of her patterns for free! She is on her way in the crochet world; designing more patterns, being featured by other famous crocheters, and even co-writing a book! Let's hear all about her.

My name is Joyce Lewis and I go by Dunnica on Ravelry. My parents lived on a street called Dunnica when I was born and I figured it was such an unusual name that there wouldn’t be too many people trying to use it…so I made it my username.

Who taught you to crochet? How long have you been doing it?
My mother showed me how to crochet when I was young, but I failed to see the full potential of the craft at the time. A few years ago, she asked me to chart a pattern for her and I spent some time online tracking down information for the project, that’s when I ran across Ravelry and everything changed. I began to see what people are doing with hooks and string these days, and wound up hooked on it myself. 

I found the Cyber CGOA [Crochet Guild of America] group and became involved with the “Home Work” project. “Home Work” is a knit and crochet pattern book published in 1899 and the group members are working to produce samples of every pattern in the book. I discovered that I enjoy deciphering the cryptic instructions written at a time when every little girl was expected to know how to knit and crochet. Some of the patterns are full of misleading instructions, not to mention blatant errors, but once translated into modern terms they turn into beautiful laces, garments for children and adults, and home décor items. We hope to exhibit many of the samples at the Conference in Charlotte/Concord in October.

Why do you crochet?
I’ve tried a few hobbies in my life but this one has stuck with me. It’s not just the portability and the ease and the convenience, it’s the creativity and the productivity. Other hobbies require that you go to them, but crochet tucks itself into your bag, goes with you, and when you finish a piece you know that you have made something unlike any other. You pour yourself into it and it shows the world who you are. Is there anything better than that?

What are you working on right now? What is your next project?
I have just finished a new afghan block, but it’s a huge secret until the release date so I can’t show that to you. Right now, I’m working on a book with Deborah Burger. She is writing the patterns and I’m doing the tech editing. It’s been interesting to see how an established designer works and develops her patterns, and I’m having a lot fun testing them for her. The book is due out in the Fall but we hope to release a few of the individual patterns this Summer.

Also, my Crocodile Flowers are making an appearance in Margaret Hubert’s new book, “Granny Square Flowers: 50 Botanical Crochet Motifs and 15 Original Projects”, due to be released on November 1st of this year. She used one of them in a project and I can’t wait to see the book!

A few finished objects...
Here is a sample that I did for the “Home Work” project, and all of the samples can be seen on Ravelry.

    © dunnica

I’m probably best known for the Crocodile Flower patterns, the first one was the Croco-Dahlia. This was the first pattern that I wrote completely from scratch, and it was full of errors when I published it on Ravelry. I learned very quickly that patterns have to be tested by people who know what they are doing before the things are let loose on the unsuspecting public. Now, I have several good friends who vet my work and correct my mistakes for me. 

    © dunnica

Lately, I have become fascinated by Tunisian crochet, it’s a calmer, quieter motion than standard crochet and the fabric is unique in texture and drape. This is my take on the classic keyhole scarf.
The stitch I used is easy to do and it results in a fabric that is thin and slightly elastic. And, I love the way the scarf stays in place.

   

 © Joyce Lewis 2013

Isn't she awesome? Such great patterns and so well spoken! You can find all of her current designs on Ravelry. Thank you so much for joining us, Joyce! Be on the lookout for her upcoming publications.

If you or someone you know would like to be featured, you can contact me at illuminatecrochet@gmail.com. So far I have been doing all of the selection myself, but I would love to be exposed to new designers that I haven't heard of!

It's Getting Hot In Here

Better make a trivet. I hadn't thought of crocheting a trivet until a good friend of mine requested one as a birthday gift. So I made two! Oddly enough, they turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated. I used a nice cotton yarn from my LYS. The best fabrics for use with hot items are cotton and wool. Remember, these trivets and similar crochet pieces are meant for use with hot lids or warm pots from the stove, not for cooling things from the oven or for high temperature cooking on the stove in a wok. They will catch on fire or at the very least be blackened if you use them improperly.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's check out my trivets. The first one looks like a mandala in my opinion. The free pattern can be found here. The directions indicate that you should use a CD to fill it, which I didn't do. I was worried about the plastic warping and it seems to be just fine without one. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Although I made it as a trivet, I think that this pattern would work really well as a coaster. It's certainly much better than many of the other 'coaster' patterns I've seen that would probably leak everywhere. I may also explore expanding the size and using the pattern as a small, round purse.

The second trivet I made is of a more traditional style.The directions for it are here. This pattern also requests that you use plastic, in this case plastic drink rings, and I did not. Instead I made six rings by chaining circles and then doing rows of single crochet around those circles before proceeding with the pattern. The result was really sturdy. I also like the understated and classy appearance that the single color lends it as opposed to using multiple colors. The natural beauty of the crochet stitches really comes through.

Both projects were really fun to work up and I would definitely recommend them. The recipient enjoyed them. Success! Too bad I can't crochet a trivet big enough to fit the entire month of July on it. Maybe then it would cool off...

Come Fly with Me

Man, I sure do have a propensity to use song titles and lyrics in my blog posts. I hope you're a music lover! Anyway, back to crochet...I have a good friend who awesomely flies planes in his free time. He owns his own small plane that he takes out on nice days. I felt like making him a small crochet gift for being such a great guy and a plane was the obvious choice. This lead to me finding the best amigurumi pattern ever. Seriously. At no point was I confused or uncertain. The directions were super clear, especially for a free pattern! Angela Van Camp really did an excellent job with this one. I didn't even mind sewing the extra pieces on, and I usually hate that.

I had some felt lying around so I decided to experiment and add details that way rather than crochet the colors in. Gotta love the propeller! My results were pretty good, but in the future I think I will crochet the colors directly into the piece as written in the pattern.

I could totally see this pattern being paired with a themed baby blanket as a shower gift, or perhaps embroidered with initials for someone who is going on an extended trip abroad. In any case, I really enjoyed completing this pattern. Now get up there, where the air is rarefied!