Crochet Patterns – Page 2 – Hooked on Häkelmaschen

Little Boxes Shawl – An Easy Filet Crochet Shawl Pattern

Unfortunately, I was not able to commit to any major test projects this year. The deadlines for these tests are sometimes very tight. When there are a thousand other things to do, it’s very difficult for me to meet them. And it’s been a very busy year for me so far!
Luckily, though, I’ve found some private crochet time in between, where I’ve been able to go at my own pace.

This is how a new shawl was created!

Strictly speaking, it also was the result of a “bad buy” of yarn.
Or, to be precise, it wasn’t a “bad buy”, not at all – the yarn is great! It just – as so often – didn’t fit the project I bought it for. So I looked for something else to make with it … and the Little Boxes Shawl was born!

I recently wrote down the pattern and it has now been fully tested

So here it is, my

Little Boxes Shawl

The shawl is made in Filet crochet, a very old crochet technique. If you do not know this technique yet, I just summarized the basics about it here.

My sample is made with Lang Yarns Baby Cotton Color. The colour I used is # 0025, a mixture of Navy, Purple and Sage.

Baby Cotton Color is a 100 % cotton yarn and has 180 m / 50 g. It is nicely soft and lovely to work with.
But of course you can use any other fingering (#1) yarn you like. Or even any other yarn you like!

I used nearly 250 g (5 balls) and a 2,5 mm hook.

My finished and blocked shawl measures about 31 x 180 cm (12,2 x 70,9 in).

The Pattern

Since it is just a simple Filet pattern, I decided to post the graph for the pattern here as a free version.
The written instructions are available for a small fee on Ravelry. Besides the row by row instructions (and the chart shown below) they also include some tips on how I made my shawl to make the boxes look square.
The pattern is written in US terms.

My sample is made over 71 stitches and 22 repeats in height. The size of the shawl can be adjusted by adding or reducing repeats.

So here you go with the

Little Boxes Filet Chart

This pattern / chart is my intellectual property, so please respect my copyright and do not claim it as your own. You may print a copy for your own use but please don’t alter, distribute or sell it. You may sell items made from this pattern in small quantities but no permission is given for mass production. Thanks for understanding and respecting!

I hope you have fun! Happy hooking 💕

Happy Granny Square Day 2023

Today is Granny Square Day!

It looks like Granny Square Day has become a kind of tradition in the crochet world. Since 2014, every year on 15. August, people from all over the world post their (Granny) squares on social media, mainly on Instagram. The original idea was, that all the squares together on IG would look like a colourful Granny Square blanket. Just search for the hashtag #grannysquareday2023 and you will see what I mean.

Last year I posted Ana‘s Sweet Marigold Square. She designed it especially for the Granny Square Day and I had the pleasure to test the pattern. This year I decided to show one of my own designs.

One of my own designs sounds a bit like having a huge pool of designs to choose from – he, he.
In fact, I don‘t!
Sometimes it just comes over me and then I grab my yarn and hook and start combining stitches … I am still learning … Sometimes something emerges that I like and perhaps develop further. Sometimes I just discard everything …

This is how the small square here was “born”. Something I like and thought I could at least show on Granny Square Day. ( It is based on my very first square that I designed over a year ago, but never showed anywhere. )

So far it doesn’t have a name – and no finished pattern, only my notes. I do not yet know exactly what I will do with it.
It’s a 6″ square, maybe I’ll develop it further into an 11″ or 12” square? And combine both, the small and the big one to … ??? We will see!

First I need to write down the pattern properly and maybe take some detailed photos. And think about a name! So there is still a lot to do.

My sample is made with Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/6, a DK or Light worsted yarn. Colours are Jeans Blue (#29), Light Jeans Blue (#28) and Pearl Gray (#73).

I hope you like it!

HAPPY GRANNY SQUARE DAY!

Soap Cozy

Revised pattern

Have you already seen ‚Grünschnabel’, my pattern for a little soap cozy?

I wrote this pattern back in 2021 after I started (more or less) banning plastic from my bathroom. You can read about it here.

I have just revised the pattern and the new version is ready for free download on my ‚Patterns’ page.

The size ( 9,5 x 10,5 cm – 3,75 x 4,25 inch) is big enough for a soap bar of about 7,5 x 7,5 cm ( 3 x 3 inch). But in the new pattern version I have also added some notes on how to adjust the size if needed.

The soap cozy you see in the picture above is made with Schachenmayr Catania in the colour # 130, Creme with a I-cord in # 399, Malve. It is worked with 18 starting chains and 18 rounds. As I used a different yarn and a bigger hook (2,75 mm) the size is similar to my green ‚prototype‘.

I hope you like it!

New Colourway

Mere Curiosity

I have spent the last days with translating the Mere Curiosity pattern into German. Oh dear! Since German is my mother tongue I actually thought this was a good idea. Well … I hadn’t considered how long it had been since I had worked with a German pattern! In some places it was really difficult for me to find the right terms. I hope I have done it well! Any feedback is welcome!

However … To check the German instructions I made a new square. Originally I had planned to use four colours. After 10 rounds it looked too much like 70s for me, so I decided to add another colour. So now there is a new colourway available using 5 colours!

I used yarn from my stash, the brands are a bit mixed.

Schachenmayr Catania
# 206 – Honig
# 254 – Taupe
#+392 – Lime

Scheepjes Catona
# 520 – Lavender

Uschi Wolle Superglanz
# 63 – ?

Uschi Wolle is a German brand and unfortunately I only have the colour number and no name. I’d call it ‘Lachs’ which means ‘salmon’ in English. It is a little bit lighter than # 427 Scampi from Catania.

If you are interested you can download the new colour chart here.

mere-curiosity-colourway-3 Download

Please also see my other posts about Mere Curiosity and

Have a nice weekend 💕

Mere Curiosity

Mere Curiosity is Live

Mere Curiosity is live

Phew, I finally managed to set up the Ravelry store and Mere Curiosity is uploaded! I am really excited!

The pattern is now available here.
As already mentioned, we will donate the proceeds for the Ukraine aid to Unicef.

You will find some more details about the Mere Curiosity Square either on Ravelry or in my previous post.

Although all special stitches used are explained in the pattern: if you are not familiar with some stitches or e.g. the technique of working in the 3r^d loop, have a look at the ‘Good to know’ section. I have put together some explanations there in the last few days.

Have fun crocheting Mere Curiosity!

Mere Curiosity

What was your biggest crochet adventure last year? Besides testing all these lovely patterns mine was Mere Curiosity!

In the last year Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity has started a design group within her group of testers. Late last summer, I finally started to develop a design together with her. The result was Mere Curiosity.

What an adventure and what fun! Each of us designed a few rounds and then passed on the design to the other to continue.
Most of the work – I knew that already – was writing down the pattern with all it’s details like abbreviations, stitches used etc. Finally the pattern was tested in Pam’s test group in December. I’m just making the last little changes and then the pattern will be available in my Ravelry store, stay tuned!
We will donate the proceeds from the sales to Unicef to help Ukraine.

The finished square has 39 stitches per side and fits to Pam’s other squares. The final size of course will depend on the yarn and hook size you use.

For our samples we had the following results

Pam’s square from the pattern

Aran / Worsted Weight / #4

4,5 mm hook

24 cm / 11”

My sample from the pattern (the blue one)

DK / Light worsted / #3

3,5 mm hook

24 cm / 9,5”

The two samples shown below

Sport weight / #2

3 mm hook

21 cm / 8,5”

Fingering weight / #1

2,75 mm hook

20,5 cm / 8”

Mere Curiosity in Colourway 1

is made with Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 , a 2,75 mm hook and measures about 20,5 cm / about 8”.

Colour A – Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 – # 64 Dark Powder Rose
Colour B – Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 – # 50 Light Coral
Colour C – Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 – # 02 Natural White

Mere Curiosity in Colourway 2

Is made with Schachenmayr Catania, a 3 mm hook and measures about 21 cm / 8,5”.

Colour A – Schachenmayr Catania – # 427, Scampi
Colour B – Schachenmayr Catania – # 263, Soft Apricot
Colour C – Schachenmayr Catania – # 437, Sunkissed
Colour D – Schachenmayr Catania – # 402, Reseda

For this square I followed Pam’s colourway and only swapped colours C and D for rounds 7 and 8.

I hope you like Mere Curiosity as much as we do!

Soap Cozy

Grünschnabel – Little Green Soap Cozy

Some time ago I started banning plastic from my bathroom. At least as best as possible.

Among other things I now do completely without normal hair shampoo, conditioner and shower gels. Instead I use soap and shampoo or conditioner bars. And I love it! It not only saves plastic but also space in my bathroom.

This only thing is, when the bar of soap is getting smaller it is hard to deal with. So I got the idea to crochet a little soap sack to use with all the smaller pieces. It works very well!

After I finally found the time to write down the pattern I can now present my first own design.

I called it Grünschnabel.

Grünschnabel is a German word and is pronounced [ˈɡʁyːnˌʃnaːbl̩]. A Grünschnabel is a young or inexperienced person, a rookie or greenhorn in English. I thought that could be a suitable name for a first, and green, design.

The yarn is also a German brand, Camilla from Woll Butt. It is a sports weight (#2) cotton yarn, similar to Scheepjes Catona or Schachenmayr Catania.

My finished soap cozy measures about 9,5 x 10,5 cm (3,75 x 4,25 inch) and is big enough for my 7,5 x 7,5 cm ( 3 x 3 inch) soap bars.

It‘s a quick and easy pattern. If you like to make one for yourself you can download the pattern here.

Please note: this is not only the first pattern I have ever written down, it is also not tested yet. So if you spot any errors or have questions, please don‘t hesitate to contact me!