Freestyle hooking

One of the beauties of crochet is that you don't have to restrict yourself to following patterns.  If, like me, you're a creative sort, with a bit of vision and patience you can make yourself some truly original and unique pieces.

All the crocheted items that I post in this blog have started life as ideas in my head, and for those that come together without too much unpicking and rejigging, I try and write up an easy-to-follow pattern.  But others have to remain as freestyle projects, mainly because I've done so much unpicking and rejigging (and cursing) that writing up a pattern just isn't possible!

This little tie-front shrug started out as 6 balls of the now discontinued 'Peru' by Sirdar - a chunky 100% alpaca yarn.  I spotted the yarn, discounted to clear, in my local wool shop.  As I wouldn't be able to buy more, I had to make something fairly small with it.

© Hooker Chick

I began by making the back piece, then the two front pieces, joined back to fronts and then added sleeves.  I then continued to shape the front pieces, which took some time, joining the yarn at various points and crocheting single rows until the fit was right.

© Hooker Chick

With a size 5.5mm hook, I used a shell stitch pattern as follows:

On a foundation row of trebles: *tr, tr, miss 2 ch, tr 5 into same space, miss 2 ch.  Repeat from *
 
Subsequent rows, the stitch pattern remains the same, but moves along:  crochet each group of 5 trebles into the space between the tr, tr of the previous row, and the tr, tr into the 2nd and 3rd space of the 5 tr group.

© Hooker Chick

This hooded jacket is in another discontinued yarn - Cascade's 'Souk', a medium weight wool/silk blend.  I managed to get my mitts on 20 skeins, so more than enough for a largish project!

© Hooker Chick

Like the bolero, I began by making the back piece, and then continued around, adding in a chain each side to form the armholes, and then row upon row of trebles, back and forth, increasing every few rows to form a large semi-circle.

© Hooker Chick

I then added sleeves, a hood, and folded and stitched the 'corners' of the semi-circle to form pockets at the front.

© Hooker Chick

I added the flower/leaves detail at the back to hide the middle join just below the back piece, and then another flower along with a chain stitch loop as a front fastener.

© Hooker Chick

© Hooker Chick

Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn't it - but this is where the patience comes in.  I probably spent as many hours unpicking as I did crocheting, until I got it looking right!

The entire jacket is made in treble stitch with the exception of the flowers, for which I used this pattern from Attic24

So ... I hope you feel inspired now to take up your yarn, break free of pattern-following, and have a go at some freestyle hooking!   

© Hooker Chick