Freeform Crochet

I'm probably the worst person to teach people how to freeform crochet.  Or maybe I'm the best?  Haha!  I say this because I am not an expert crocheter - I honestly have no idea what I'm doing.  But I also think that when you're diving into something with the word "freeform" - you might be better at it when you don't know what mistakes you're making.  There's nothing to agonize over.  You can work thru everything and with every wonky stitch.  So in this Tutorial Tuesday I'm going to celebrate the world of Freeform Crochet.

Who knows when freeform crochet started, but the first time I noticed it was when Ana Voog started making her hats around 2002-2003 (within a year of when I also started spinning).

I just thought it was wonderful and different.  So I jumped on the bandwagon of handspun art yarn (I was #2 on Google in 2003-2004, right behind pluckyfluff!) and it's been such a fun and interesting journey to this point.  Now many spinners from the pre-ETSY days have stopped creating.  Ana hasn't made hats in years.  ETSY changed everything...now there are 10,000 skeins of handspun to choose from.  And more and more artisans are dyeing wool rovings and starting little home shops for fiber art.  Three spinning yarn books published in the past year.  It's wonderful!

And the ripple effect each of us make when we create something beautiful and unique... it never ends.  Now my friend Heather (http://www.girlwithahook.com) is making freeform crochet hats inspired by Ana Voog's aesthetic yet married with a more commercial, wearble style.  She is #1 on google now for freeform crochet hats.  I have two of her hats and I love them.  She sells them in her ETSY shop.  And she is inspiring other artisans to create their own freeform crochet ideas from handspun art yarns.  

I asked Heather to write up a little blurb for the blog and here's what she has to say:

"Freeform crochet is whatever you want it to be.  For me, I started off as a knitter and had constant frustrations with creating organic shapes and was bored with the structural nature of knitting.  That's when I discovered a woman online, Ana Voog, who was making incredible wearable art via freeform crochet.  I retaught myself how to crochet and just went with it!  It's incredible how freeing crochet can be: there are no stitches waiting to be worked on and no fear of needles slipping and work being lost.  Freeform crochet is basically crochet without patterns, without counting, without fear of messing up.  So many different shapes and organic forms can be produced this way.  For me, freeform crochet provides a great way to produce wearable art such as hats, headbands, neck pieces and anything that I want that needs an organic feel to it.  Creating a curvy, body hugging piece just comes naturally with crochet.  Now don't get me wrong, I still love knitting in my spare time, but freeform crochet will always be how I create my art."

Another freeform crochet artist is my friend Rosie Wildwoman in Depoe Bay, Oregon.  Here are some pictures of her work and her thoughts on this craft:

"I love the freedom of scrumbling and free form crochet and knitting.  My approach to these styles is an attention to the fiber-fabric-texture and color not an attention to the myriad of stitches I could use.  I have named my style.....

    Rambling:
    Ramble   rambling |ˈramb(ə)liNG|
    1. crocheting-knitting-spinning-felting for pleasure, typically without a definite route.
    2. spreading or winding irregularly in various directions 
    3. traveling from place to place; wandering.

For me the pleasure lies in combining the fabric, yarn, wool, cotton,rayon,chiffon not in controlling the fiber with a knit stitch or a crochet stitch or any stitch or technique.  I love the way the results always surprise me when they are done.....I never have a clue where they will end.....The work leads....I follow.....Thank you Ashley for the opportunity to share my work and thank you for being the one to spark my interest in fiber and to flame that interest with your incredible talent and spirit.....Hugs....Rosiewildwoman"

Below I have put together a quick video on freeform crochet.  My favorite thing about freeform crochet is that you can't make a mistake and you never know what you're going to get.  :)

Please Note: This video is geared toward students with a basic knowledge of crochet. All I know is a chain, single, and double (although it may be a half-double and frankly I don't know the difference). If you don't know what a "single" or a "double" is - then look some tutorials up on YouTube and get familar with those techniques before watching this video.