Crochet Principles and Crochet Design

I would like to discuss the relationship and close connection between crochet principles and crochet design.

I would like to start with the crochet design process. Once, we as designers, have a vision or have visualised the crochet piece, we start experimenting and put the idea into practice. This process is a trial and error for many designers, if not all designers. It is a learning curve and the more experienced the designer is the easier it is to visualise and get it right the first time.

The experience level refers to the number of times the designer has created new designs. With each creation the designer learns what has worked and what has not worked which is stored into their memory on which they recall later on when they design a new piece.

The G method refers to those internal memories and the learning curve I have gone through in order to create a shawl, in this instance.

My memory tells me that I need to start a side-to-side shawl with 7 double crochet in a magic ring and if I increase by 4 it will create the perfect shape.

Or if I design a top down shawl, I almost exclusively, start with 4 dc, ch 2, 4 dc and increase by 6 each row to get straight edges.

I have also stored the knowledge of how to mix and match different stitches but maintain the optimal number of stitches in each row and accomplish straight edges when designing a shawl.

Therefore, we can conclude that designers in crochet create their designs without any formal education as they rely on their experience based on the trial and error they have gone through in their own design process.

Imagine a world where we have written expereince on the Principles of crochet!

Imagine how much easier it would be for crochet designers and how much more advanced the crochet designs would be if every crochet designer does not have to discover these rules by themselves when they design. Imagine that there are rules i.e. principles that we can rely on in written form and learn from other designers' experience. Imagine if we can take those principles as a part of our knowledge from the very beginning, once we decide to design. Each individual designer will have a stronger foundation to do so if they rely on the principles as a base knowledge.

In each science we have an accumulation of knowledge, research and experiences. The art of crochet is lacking this database of theory in crochet design or simply of connecting the knowledge of knowing the crochet stitches with the way to design.

I have started the journey of creating the theoretical framework of the practical application in crochet design.

More to come…