I've moved my patterns yet again, so I hope that it won't confuse you too
much. I've been having a huge problem hosting my PDF files on Blogger, so
I've decided to try something completely different. This is a great time to
remind you to bookmark me at yarncrazy.com, rather than
yarncrazy.blogspot.com, or yarncrazy.posterous.com, or any other place. If I
move the files, I always fix the forwarding so that you can find me.

In addition to all of my free patterns, I have three e-books available
through Lulu.com. Each book contains six 12-inch square patterns and costs
just $6. Here are the squares that you'll find in Book 3. To purchase these
patterns, just click here: Yarncrazy Crochet Book 3

In addition to all of my free patterns, I have three e-books available
through Lulu.com. Each book contains six 12-inch square patterns and costs
just $6. Here are the squares that you'll find in Book 2. To purchase these
patterns, just click here: Yarncrazy Crochet Book 2

In addition to all of my free patterns, I have three e-books available
through Lulu.com. Each book contains six 12-inch square patterns and costs
just $6. Here are the squares that you'll find in Book 1. To purchase these
patterns, just click here: Yarncrazy Crochet Book 1

Here's a fun pattern for you. It's a larger version of the Cable Hearts
square, with lots more hearts - 3 dozen of them, in fact. Perfect for a baby
afghan. If you've made the Cable Hearts square, this should be a breeze for
you.

Little Dahlia is another quick 6 inch square.

Gem Star is a quick-to-make 6 inch square.

Admit it - you've got a ton of yarn scraps, right? Here's a way to do some
serious stash-busting. Yoyos are just tiny crochet circles, and they only
use a little bit of yarn. When I measured, I found that my yoyos take less
than ten feet of yarn each. So use up your little bitty scrap balls! Once
you have a pile of yoyos made, I have a way to join them while minimizing
additional pesky ends to weave.

The method that I devised is based on Priscilla Hewitt's flat braid joining. I love the flat braid for joining squares, but when it came to joining yoyos with a separate strand of yarn for every yoyo, I drew the line. I wanted the same look without all the ends. My method lets you join a row of however many yoyos you want with a single strand of yarn. My giant afghan pictured below (photo #3) had only 50 ends to weave for the yoyo joining, versus 1500 that it would have had with the original flat braid method!

After designing the fourteen-petal flower in Flower Burst, I was feeling
kind of brave about working with motifs that didn't have some multiple of
four in them. So Lace Petals with its six-petaled flower was the next
design.

Flower Burst began with some simple loops around a central circle. When I
counted the loops I'd made and saw that there were fourteen of them, I
scratched my head. It's not too difficult to turn a round motif into a
square if the number of petals/bumps/stitches/whatever on it is a multiple
of four. But fourteen? That would be a challenge. So I worked on it for
awhile, and voila! A fourteen-petal flower square.