It’s easy to come up with reasons to not follow your dreams of becoming a crochet pattern writer just yet. One of the reasons I hear a lot is not being a good enough crocheter or not knowing enough techniques. But how good a crocheter do you need to be to write crochet patterns?
If you prefer to listen, then the podcast I recorded on this topic is below or click here.
Writing And Crocheting Are 2 Different Skills
The first thing to acknowledge is that crocheting and writing are two completely different skills. How much knowledge you have about how to crochet and different techniques has nothing to do with how you write a pattern.
Pattern writing is like a recipe. You have to explain each step taken with all the ingredients (stitches) and the amounts needed (stitch counts) along the way. Now I can cook and follow a recipe, but I’ve never tried to create a recipe from scratch. I’ve no idea if I’m capable because I’ve never tried.
The same is true of writing a pattern. Unless you’ve tried to write one, you simply have no idea how good it will turn out simply because you’ve never taken that leap and given it a go.
How good a crocheter you are has no relation to how good a crochet pattern designer you will be. So just give it a go!
Learning As You Go
When I started writing crochet patterns it was a leap of faith. I had no idea if my pattern would be any good, I had no clue if anyone would want to buy it, I was afraid of getting loads of refund requests because it was rubbish.
All of these were non-existent fears. My pattern turned out well, people bought it (and still do) and no one has ever requested a refund. In fact when a mistake has been found in my pattern by a customer, they’ve been really sweet about it and were just happy to have helped. No refunds have ever been asked for!
But how good a crocheter was I when I started to write crochet patterns?
Average.
This was my first ever crochet pattern. I called it the Smooth Ripple Blanket and I think we can agree that it’s pretty simple. There’s not a huge amount of skill needed to make this blanket at all.This is where I started. An average crocheter making simple, easy patterns.
It still sold. It sold a lot!
This pattern still sells now all these years later.
I didn’t have a massive crochet skill set when I created this pattern, I didn’t have mastery of tonnes of techniques. In fact I’ve become a much more skilled crocheter since starting my crochet pattern writing career BECAUSE I wanted to write patterns.
When you have an idea for a pattern in your head you then need to figure out how to make it. They say necessity is the mother of invention, and it’s absolutely true! I’ve had to discover new crochet stitches, new techniques, how to shape things, how to join pieces. My crochet skills have increased so that I could bring my ideas to life.
The 50 Stitches sampler blanket was my first big, complex pattern and I had to learn a lot of new stitches and techniques to create it. Needing to learn new skills didn’t stop me and this blanket has been one of my biggest sellers ever year since.
Just Good Enough
So how good a crocheter do you need to be to write crochet patterns?
Just good enough to create the design you have in mind. If you can crochet it, that’s all the skill you need. If you have ambitions to make more complex or bigger patterns, then you will learn the skills you need over time. Your crochet skills will grow as you complete more and more designs.
But if that’s not your ambition, then stick to your current crochet skill level. Simple and easy designs are always in demand and you can make just as many sales from selling simple patterns as you can from big, complicated designs.
You don’t have to know everything about crochet to write patterns. You just need to know enough to create your latest design. So your current skill level is not a barrier to writing your own crochet patterns at all – it’s just a convenient excuse for you not to do the the scary new thing right now.
It’s Time To Stop The Excuses
If you’re finding these kind of reasons to put off pursuing your dream of becoming a crochet pattern writer, then it will never happen.
These reasons are just excuses we tell ourselves so we can put off doing the scary thing. But new things are scary, they make us feel uncomfortable and vulnerable but if you don’t push past the fear your dreams will never come true.
The designs we choose to crochet and write patterns for are a window into our personal self. Showing those off for the world to see feels like baring a part of our soul. It is a scary thing waiting to see what people think – lets face it people on the internet can be cruel for no good reason. But if you do it and keep reminding yourself that the opinions of strangers on the internet should not impact our life decisions. You will discover it’s not as scary as you thought and actually you will find a group of people who will love your designs and what you create.
Get Your First Pattern Written
There is never going to be a perfect time to get started. You will always be able to find a good excuse to put off writing that idea you have spinning round your head:
- The kids have lots on at the moment
- The weather is rubbish and given me the winter blues
- The new season of my favourite show has just been released.
Any excuse is a good excuse if you’re really unsure about how well your new direction with your crochet will be received. But where does it actually stop, when do you decide that you’re finally going to do this and stop wishing you could?
If it’s time to stop the excuses and make your crochet pattern design ambitions a reality there are several ways that I can help you.
- Join us in our Crochet Pattern School free Substack community here – a space to discover more about being a crochet pattern writer.
- Subscribe to the Crochet Pattern School Podcast – a new episode is released every Tuesday and delves into the practicalities and questions surrounded all aspects of making a career from crochet patterns.
- Grab your spot on my Crochet Pattern Writing For Beginners course which includes 6 months support on Slack.
