To Pattern or Not to Pattern........

Working without a pattern or any pattern at all, of which free form crochet is an expression, in my experience still requires a plan or some sort of planning,

Perhaps this says more about me than it does about the concept itself. I am by nature a planner, regardless if it is very detailed or just an overall plan.

For crochet if I work without a written pattern it is often done from a pattern that I have memorised. This means, I am still working with a pattern.

Where I have more of an overall plan it is usually for bags. I know how they are constructed and I can turn that idea into a functional item.

I can also just have an idea, more often than that means the idea “blanket”. I start with the idea of how I would like to construct it. In the round, worked flat etc. I can start and decide I don’t like it and start again. I either choose to start with another yarn using the same construction idea, or I change my construction type. Then I make a start, as I am crocheting I think about how I will use my colours, as my blankets are often made out of scraps and endy bits. Sometimes when I am crocheting a new idea will strike or I just want to do something different and my construction method changes from in the round to worked flat for example.

The blankets I make are the best example that I have of free form crochet.

When the blanket is done it has a unique look as it is made in different ways and using scraps ans left over yarns, and I really like it that way. It fits into what I call my quirky hippy light ways.

As you image I have made more than a few blankets in my time. They are over furniture and used on my bed, or folded up on a chair for a cat to sleep on.

Do you make blankets? If so how do you go about it?

A blanket made as a wedding present for some friends who got married a little while ago