What makes a good crochet along? Thinking about the Stylecraft CALs

If you haven't yet heard, the days are quickly counting down to the brand new crochet along (CAL) with Stylecraft Yarns - and they've secured the design talents of the very lovely Jane Crowfoot yet again, with another tempting blanket design. Introducing Frida's Flowers.

A photo posted by Frederica Patmore (@freddiepatmore) on Feb 23, 2016 at 1:31pm PST

You probably remember Jane's design for Stylecraft's 2015 crochet along and if not, you'd know a Lily Pond if you saw one. Recognise this? I thought so.

Last year's Lily Pond CAL was designed by Jane Crowfoot and hooked crocheters everywhere with it's addictive design

I guarantee that if you are a knitter or crocheter, you or someone you know has posted something somewhere on Intsagram, Ravelry or Facebook about progress on a crocheted Lily Pond.

The online chatter with last year's blanket was phenomenally noisy and people are still making them, finishing them and talking about them (including me, I'm hooked!).

A photo posted by Lonneke (@bitterkoekje) on Feb 28, 2016 at 3:05am PST

I know crochet and knitalongs are really popular on Ravelry but I'd never witnessed such a huge community form around one particular design. Something that we all forget was a completely alien concept if you asked us 10 years ago! Makes you realise how far we've come.

Mine continues to grow - slowly!

All of the buzz seemed to center around Facebook which I think is really clever - if there's one social media site you use, above all others, it's probably Facebook.

Annabelle Hill, Sales Director of Stylecraft Yarns thinks that, 'Crocheting can be a solitary occupation, so it is nice for crocheters to feel like they belong to something and can access help and advice if needed', much like a knitting group, right? Just online.

Technology now allows you to talk about what you are making from the comfort of your own bedroom instead of venturing out to a physical knitting club

Stylecraft created a dedicated group where people could chat about the project and share their progress. It now boasts nearly 10, 000 members and a year on, people are still posting about this pattern (which is free and still available by the way!).

It's completely fascinated me and got me thinking about exactly why Jane's blanket was such a massive hit - people start crochet alongs all the time but a good design doesn't necessarily make you jump on your computer to post pictures of every tiny amount of progress you've made.

I decided to make mine much much bigger than the original, which of course takes much longer

Anticipating that Frida's Flowers will encourage even more social interaction, I stopped to ask myself just why that is. What is it exactly that got everyone talking, where others have fallen flat?

There's a few answers that I can think of and although they sound pretty obvious, in practice it's really difficult getting all of this stuff together - there's a huge amount of work gone into bringing these CALs to you, for sure!

1. Each square is more tricky than the last

Although many of the flower squares are similar there are subtle differences

It sounds pretty obvious but building up the technique as you go to me is much the same as working on any challenge - a video game, a puzzle - things get harder towards the end. It helps to keep you interested, too.

The fact that each square is so different makes them easy to identify at a single glance when you post pictures to the net, so people can get on board with exactly where you are.

2. Patterns are delivered in regular, manageable chunks

Patterns for the 2015 CAL arrived once every two weeks with four squares to make before the next arrived. Now four squares in two weeks is not much at all. CALs start to fall flat when nobody can keep up.

The progress tool on Ravelry is a handy way to keep track

As soon as people start to fall behind, that IMHO is when they stop interacting, and the project ends up in a box under the bed. To dig myself out of a similar slump, I created a very dorkly spreadsheet to track my progress - or you could use the progress tool on your Ravelry project's page.

I built myself a complex spreadsheet to help measure my progress in tangible figures. It's whatever works for you.

3. The yarn is available everywhere

And I do mean everywhere! There are a couple of options for yarns you to choose from depending on your budget - which come in a ready-made pack so you can order it in one click (dangerous!). All the good stockists had them [and promptly sold out, I might add].

People are already lining up for their Frida's packs....

4. It's pretty

It's not just pretty, it's STUNNING.

A photo posted by Jacqueline Holden (@topstitch_fleetwood) on Sep 20, 2015 at 12:34am PDT

We're all proud to show off something this beautiful and say we made it. It's interesting to look at while you're making it, and it looks good in the room it ends up in.

Not only that, but you're proud to show it to your friends and most importantly, your social media community!

You know what I mean by 'proud', we've all had that one project we'd rather not show anyone!

5. Every miniscule stage is broken down with pictorial instructions

This is a HUGE task. The lucky person has taken 8 different squares and stopped to take photos of each individual step. And then written a small paragraph to accomapany each photo. Some of these go on for >5 pages. Huge, huge job. Bearing in mind the pattern is free. We've been well and truly spoiled!

A photo posted by @shazzeth on Feb 16, 2016 at 12:24pm PST

This means that there's no getting stuck and therefore no major obstacles with this constant pictorial resource to have to hand.

Even if you do get stuck, there is someone in the Facebook group who will be able to help. There's so many of them there, it doesn't even take very long to get an answer. And they're there to encourage you to keep going and get the thing finished, too.

This is the first CAL I've ever really had a go at - I've done sock knitalongs before, but a blanket is a bit of a bigger commitment. I have been trying to understand the mentality behind blanket-alongs for years - they've really taken off and now that I've joined in with one, I completely understand.

If you are like me and you're new to crochet-alongs, now's the perfect time to have a go.

Inspired by Mexican Artist Frida Kahlo, the finished blanket is constructed from hexagons

This blanket will be more rectangular at 110x90cm, and is crocheted using Classique Cotton DK (a yarn I'm really looking forward to trying). Jane decided to use Classique Cotton because of the extensive colour palette and the way the yarn really captures the folkloric embroideries of Mexico.

I've just ordered some to design a garment with, too - watch this space!

Keep your eyes peeled on Facebook and the Stylecraft Website for more info and how to get involved. If you're on Instagram, make sure to watch out for the right hashtags so that you can be part of the community too.