Crochet Loft exists because most free patterns are published without anyone having
worked them through to the end. A stitch count that does not add up costs an evening. A yarn
estimate that is short by half a ball costs a trip. Everything here is checked before it goes up.
Who writes this
Every pattern and guide on this site is written and edited by
Nora Whitfield. One person writes it, which is why the
instructions sound the same from one page to the next and why the counts can be relied on.
How a pattern gets published
- It gets worked first. A pattern is made before it is written up, not written
from theory and hoped over. - Counts appear at the end of every round. If you cannot check your work as you
go, you find the mistake twenty rounds later when it is too late to fix cheaply. - Yarn amounts are stated in metres and in whole balls. A pattern that says
“3 balls” without a weight is no use at the shop. - The time is honest. Where a project takes four evenings, it says four
evenings. Not “a quick make”. - The likely mistake is written into the page. If a round tends to cup, or an
edge tends to curl, the cause and the fix sit in the instructions rather than in the comments.
US and UK terms
Crochet has two incompatible naming systems and most of the frustration beginners meet comes
from landing on a pattern in the other one. Every page here states which it uses at the top. Where
a stitch has a different name in the other system, both are given.
What we do not do
Patterns on this site are free to read on the page. There is no PDF wall, no email required to
see the instructions, and no counting rounds in a video you cannot search. Where a hook or yarn is
named it is named because it is what the project needs.
Corrections
The date on a page is the date it was last checked, not the date it first appeared. If a count
is wrong, tell us. It gets fixed on the page, and a pattern that turns out
to be wrong gets corrected rather than removed quietly.
Who this is for
Anyone who has frogged an evening’s work because the numbers did not add up. Beginners are
assumed to be capable adults who have simply not done this before, which means no jargon without
an explanation and no explanation you did not ask for.