Crochet Pattern Design: Find Your Signature Style

Overview

“Like all creative people, I’m inspired by other people - mostly by those who choose to live a happy life caring about nature and simply being kind towards each other. I’m sure everyone who once was a pioneer of any craft was an amazing person. Crafts and hand-making build better communities, they give people a tool to be part of something. My favorite craft person is a Finnish crochet book author and a teacher, Mary Olki. If you take a look at any Finnish craft magazine from the early 1920s to 1960s, you will find her name written there. She was the woman who single-handedly brought the world of crochet into my country after World War I. She not only taught crafts and mended skills to women, but also wrote several books about crochet. Mary Olki passed away decades ago, but even today you can find her crochet books in our libraries. The other people who inspire me are the Wayuu tribe women from Colombia and Venezuela. This ethnic group creates the most amazing crochet bags to sell and by doing that, they support their lifestyle and craft. Many years ago, when I was writing my second book, I was sitting in my room in Helsinki when I found the photos of the Wayuu mochila bags. I was simply mind-blown! Their colorwork, patterns, crochet, and weaving were something I had never seen before, and I spent days searching and learning more about these amazing women. Many years later, I’m still inspired by their work and own a handmade Wayuu bag myself. We talked about women crocheting in Finland, Colombia, and Venezuela. This means the art of crochet is known worldwide! The traces of the technique lead us to mid 19th century France, which makes it more recent than many other handicrafts. Crochet was a lace-making technique at first - check the term "Irish Lace" if you want to learn more about the history of crochet. Crochet, also considered as knotting, was made with a small hook and it took hours to make a lace bust to a dress. Even being such a time-consuming craft, crocheting did employ many women back then. You can also find many crochet artifacts from textile museums around the world. The pieces are usually small pouches to carry on a wrist made with slip stitches. To make such a piece of crochet, you don’t even need a hook - a tapestry needle will do. I find it very inspiring to know that crochet is this famous! We can have crochet workshops around the world and not even speak the same language. We just follow each other's hands and repeat the stitches.”

In this video lesson Molla Mills addresses the topic: Influences, which is part of the Domestika online course: Crochet Pattern Design: Find Your Signature Style. Create your own tapestry crochet patterns and turn them into unique works of art that reflect your personality.

Partial transcription of the video

“Influences Let's talk about influences. Like so many other creative people, I'm also inspired by other people. I'm inspired by people I see on the streets, on my travels, anywhere, but mostly, I'm inspired by my mom. Ever since I was a little girl, my mom took me to all of the workshops she went to. She was always, and still is, a super hardcore crafter. She wanted to try everything, every single craft you can find. We lived in a small town called Kurikka. My mom still lives there. There was this place, Kansalaisopisto, which is like a school for grownups, where you can take workshops of al...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Crochet Pattern Design: Find Your Signature Style

• Level: Beginner
• 99% positive reviews (789)
• 23245 students
• 4 units
• 19 lessons (2h 52m)
• 10 downloads

• Category

  Craft

• Areas

  Accessory Design, Crochet, DIY, Fiber Arts, Pattern Design, Textile Design