How to design a crochet pattern

Start with something you already change

If you have ever changed the yarn, the colors, the length or the width of a pattern, you have made design decisions already. A first design of your own can be just as plain: a scarf or a blanket, which is one flat shape, in a stitch you like. The steps below are the same for a larger piece.

This guide covers the designing. How to write a crochet pattern covers putting the result into words.

1. Sketch it and put measurements on it

Draw the piece, however roughly, and write its measurements on the sketch: a width and a length for each part. A blanket is one rectangle.

For the measurements, a size chart such as the blanket size chart gives the usual sizes. Basic crochet shapes shows how the flat shapes are made.

2. Choose the stitch, the yarn and the hook together

These three depend on each other, so decide them as a set. Ask what the fabric should do: be closed or open, firm or soft, plain or textured. Try the stitch with more than one hook size, because the hook changes the fabric too. See which crochet stitch to use and what a bigger or smaller hook does.

Note the repeat of your stitch pattern now: how many stitches and how many rows one repeat takes. You will need both numbers in step 5.

3. Make a swatch

Swatching is the key step. Work a square in the yarn, the hook and the stitch you chose. If the finished piece will be washed or blocked, do the same to the swatch before you measure it. Then count the stitches and the rows in a set measure. That is your gauge. How to measure gauge shows how.

The swatch tells you more than numbers. Pull it about and you learn how the fabric stretches and moves. A swatch is also the cheap place to find out whether the idea works at all.

4. Turn the gauge into counts

Divide to get stitches to the inch, then multiply by the width of each shape. Do the same with rows and the length. That gives a stitch count and a row count for every piece on your sketch. The math of crochet works the sums step by step.

5. Fit the stitch repeat and the edges

The count from step 4 is rarely the count you can use. A stitch pattern needs a whole number of repeats: its multiple. Round your stitch count to the nearest multiple, then add the few extra stitches the pattern needs to keep its sides straight. Round the rows to whole row repeats in the same way.

Check what a stitch's multiple counts. Some include the turning chain and some do not. The starting chain calculator takes a multiple and gives the chain.

6. Try it before you make the whole piece

The swatch is the first trial. If the idea does not work, change the stitch, the hook or the yarn and swatch again: it can take several swatches before one works. Some designers then make a whole first sample, a prototype, taking notes as they go, and change what does not work.

7. Write everything down as you go

Write it down while you work, not afterwards: the yarn, the hook, the gauge, every count, and every change you make to the plan. Notes made at the time are what make a written pattern possible. When the notes are complete, the next step is to write the pattern out and have it checked, by working a second sample from the written words or by asking someone else to read it. See how to write a crochet pattern.

Where to go next

• The math of crochet
• How to write a crochet pattern
• How to make a crochet pattern bigger or smaller