Written by: Kristen Moore

Published on 03/03/2024

Welcome to the third post of my newest blog series on crochet pattern designing! If you haven’t read the first two posts, I suggest you start with those!

Crochet Pattern Design - Designing With Originality

Crochet Pattern Design - Getting Started

Now, let’s jump into my next topic - Helpful Tools and Resources.

Crochet designers rely on many different tools during their process of forming and writing a great crochet pattern. During my personal designing process I prefer to use the Notes app on my iPhone and type out the pattern notes as I go.

But when you’re done with the design there are some more helpful tools you’ll want to know about to get your pattern ready for the tech editing process, testing process, and then for publishing.

Some of the software you’ll find helpful to use for writing and formatting your crochet pattern are Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, or Canva.

If you’re the type of crochet designer who likes to write out your pattern with pencil and paper beforehand, I would also recommend transferring it digitally to a type of Notes app or Word document before you begin to format and edit your pattern.

I always prefer to be safe than sorry…and just in case you lose your papers or something damages them, you have your pattern backed up to refer to when you’re ready for formatting.

Now, let’s say you finished your design and it’s finally all ready to be formatted into a PDF!

PDF stands for a Portable Document Format. This is the best file format to use to make your pattern easily shared, uploaded, and printable for your buyers.

CANVA

For me personally, I enjoy using Canva to create my patterns. With Canva you can easily download your pattern as a PDF when it’s finished!

You can also use PowerPoint or Adobe Illustrator if you have those. I recommend using Canva because it’s free and easy to use for a new crochet designer. And just a disclaimer, I am not sponsored by Canva in any way - I just really like using it for patterns!

While Canva does have a pro plan that you can pay a yearly subscription for, I’ve found their free plan to have enough content for me to still create beautifully formatted crochet patterns! If you want even more options, you can always upgrade your account at anytime.

I might upgrade to the paid plan at some point, but for now I’ve been pretty happy with what’s available without it.

To use Canva you can easily download the free app on your phone/iPad, or login to your account through your internet browser.

As a stay-at-home mom I don’t have a ton of free time to sit down and edit patterns (IYKYK), so a lot of the time my edits happen in small increments throughout the day when I have a minute to pull up Canva on my phone or iPad. I’ve been able to edit my patterns when I’m waiting to pick up groceries, standing in the kitchen waiting for dinner to be done in the oven, or even when the kids are playing quietly together for a few minutes (rare, but it happens!).

It’s been an AMAZING tool for me to use so I hope you try it out too!

Bottom line, I just want you to know you don’t need a bunch of fancy software to get going with your first pattern. I spent several months wondering how other people did it and what the best way was to jump in. My hope here is to share with you the steps I took for designing my first pattern and what I learned through the process/what process works the best for me.

LIGHTROOM

The second tool I enjoy is using the Lightroom app for editing all of my instructional pattern photos. It’s a FREE app and includes some really great presets to use to make sure your pattern’s instructional photos are clear and consistent (SO important!). While optional (you can always edit your photos straight from your phone), I think it’s still helpful enough to mention!

Make sure you also check out my post here, 5 Tips for Taking Amazing Product Photos With Your Phone for some helpful info on taking better photos!

You really want your instructional photos to be clear and well-lit so other crocheters can easily follow them and create the beautiful item you worked hard designing!

Here are a few examples of some instructional photos.

You want to make sure the photos are cohesive, well-lit, and easily understood.

Now that I’ve mentioned the two tools I use, let’s get into a little more detail about formatting a design:

Once my design is done and ready to be formatted into Canva, I create my own design using an 8.5” x 11” sized file format following the pattern template I’ve created to use for all of my patterns.

If you’ve never formatted a pattern it can be a little confusing at first. If you’re looking for a template to follow, I created a super simple one for you to download to make your pattern formatting a LOT easier! It includes simple instructions and details for where to add certain items and leaves plenty of room for you to change things up and personalize it however you want to match your own style. You can find the download in my shop here! And, as and added bonus for reading this post you can use the code DESIGN10 for 10% off the template! :)

To begin, I copy what I’ve written down in the Notes app on my phone and paste it into my pattern template and then edit it all from there. This is when I add in all the details, notes, and photo/video tutorials.

Keep in mind this process takes a bit of time, especially if it’s your first pattern. The great part is you’ll get better and faster with each new pattern you design! Take your time and enjoy the process of learning.

I highly recommend you find a style and format you really love and then keep it extra consistent with all of your patterns moving forward. When customer’s know what to expect from you it builds a sense of trust. When your patterns are consistent with each other, your customers will know ahead of time what they’re purchasing and that it’s something they can rely on.

One of my biggest mistakes with my patterns in the beginning of my design journey was not keeping things consistent.

My first couple of patterns were terrible with consistency, and I ended up having to go back and update a lot of them once I really found the style I liked.

This is why if you can find the style & format you want your patterns to be in from the start, then your journey will probably be a bit smoother than mine. It does take time and patience though, so be sure to give yourself a ton of extra grace.

And when in doubt, ask a professional! This leads me to another great resource you’ll definitely want to consider when designing your first crochet pattern: hiring a tech editor.

TECH EDITING

Many crochet designers love the creative aspect of designing a pattern, but the formatting and editing can be stressful and maybe even sometimes take the fun out of it.

When I was designing my first pattern I was really stressed because I didn’t know if there were things I was missing or if I was actually writing the pattern in a professional way. Even with all of the patterns I followed over the years, I still second guessed my work. I knew if I was releasing something for other people to spend their money on, I wanted it to be reliable.

But I had no idea what a tech editor was at the time…until I came across Sweet Bird Crochet’s business through a mutual friend on Instagram and found Cherie, a Certified Crochet Tech Editor.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure about the investment at first. But I decided it would be worth it if I came out of the experience knowing more about designing…and it was the absolute best investment I made for my crochet business in the beginning of my design journey.

Cherie helped me learn what it takes to make a crochet pattern truly consistent in style and writing. She helped me understand parts of the process I needed more education on, and my designs continued to get better with each new release. I discovered more about my style of pattern writing and how I wanted every single one of my patterns to be formatted going forward.

Now I am so much more confident in my designs knowing they are professional and consistent.

If you don’t have the budget to have all of your patterns tech edited, I still highly recommend having at least one of them edited so you can work with a professional to find your style of pattern writing.

My patterns and way of formatting wouldn’t be what they are today without the education I received by working with Cherie.

Okay, so now that you know about some tools and resources you can use to design a great crochet pattern, I hope you’ve gained a little more confidence in taking those next steps to work on your design.

My next challenge for you is to do these 4 things:

Decide what software you want to use to format your patterns (Canva, Powerpoint, etc.)
Decide if you’ll want to hire a tech editor.
Take some practice tutorial photos and play around with editing on your phone or through Lightroom.
Make a list of important things you want your pattern to have (details page, photos within the pattern or a separate page with photos, an about me section, a section for tester photos, etc.)

If you haven’t noticed yet…I LOVE lists around here. I thrive off of having lists for everything I do. It helps me stay organized in my mind, and also helps me not forget the ideas I’ve had. So I’ll be using them a lot, and encouraging you to use them too!

Stay tuned for my next post where I talk about publishing your pattern and navigating the testing process! Having your pattern tested can seem really intimidating if you’ve never done it before. That’s why I am so excited to walk you through my process of navigating everything from coming up with a great tester call to using your tester’s amazing notes and feedback. It’s going to be my longest post to share, so you might want to grab your favorite drink and settle down in a comfy spot to read!

This series has been SO fun to create! If you’d made it this far, I just want to thank you so much for spending the time reading this. I hope it’s given you the confidence you need to begin your design journey!