Meet the 16 Crochet Designers in Crochet for Christmas

Design Wars founder Salena Baca has come together with fifteen of the terrific crochet designers from Design Wars to create a terrific new Christmas crochet book. Crochet for Christmas: 29 Patterns for Handmade Holiday Decorations and Gifts has crochet patterns that are both traditional and unusual, striking a great balance between the cutest holiday kitsch that we want and the chic, contemporary gifts and accessories that we need for the holidays. You can read more about my thoughts on the book over at About.com Crochet. Today I thought I’d highlight the wonderful crochet designers in this book.

1. Salena Baca

Salena began creating her own crochet designs in 2009. three years later she founded Design Wars, in which crochet designers can compete to bring about the best designs in the indie publishing craft world today. The crochet hood she created as the first pattern in this book is cozy and stylish at the same time.

2. Sascha Blase

A La Sascha is a knit and crochet designer whose Fair Isle crochet hedgehog is one of my favorite patterns in this Christmas crochet book. Some of her work I’ve featured here on the blog in the past:

Crochet kiss potholder pattern

Crochet robot pattern

Crochet rhino taxidermy

3. Crystal Bucholz

Crystalized Designs shared a lot of great information about her crochet design, especially her broomstick lace patterns, in an interview done by Underground Crafter. Her crochet cowl pattern in this Christmas book makes beautiful use of a unique star puff stitch that’s really pretty.

4. Susan Carlson

Felted Button is one of my favorite crochet pattern designers. I’m in love with the rainbow colored crochet blankets that she creates – always managing to come up with new designs. she’s put her eye for color to unique use in this Christmas book where she’s designed a “countdown to Christmas” calendar garland.

5. Pamela Dajczak

Sincerely Pam taught herself to crochet in 2012 and then began making her designs available to others the following year. Her crochet iPad cozy, designed in a Christmas tree motif, is another of my favorite patterns in this new book. She has several other crochet patterns in the book as well, and I truly like them all.

6. Carolina Guzman

Carolina of One and Two Company specializes in crochet appliqué patterns and designs for the home. She has created a set of cute Christmas ornaments for this crochet book that would dress up any tree with a big smile.

7. Alessandra Hayden

I adore the work of Alessandra from Just Be Happy. Most recently I shared the lovely crochet mandala that she contributed to the Mandalas for Marinke project. Her Christmas Lights crochet cup cozy brought a smile to my face as I flipped through this book. Some of her crochet patterns that I’ve shared from her before include:

8. Abigail Haze

Abigail Haze is a Pennsylvania crochet designer who loves to celebrate the feminine form through her patterns. She doesn’t disappoint with her Glamour Top crochet pattern, a lace-top crochet shirt that would be great to gift or to wear to any holiday gathering.

9. Sarah Lora

Sarah of Ball Hank n Skein enjoys a variety of different fiber arts and shares crochet tutorials and patterns with the world. I love the versatility of the crochet cowl that she created – it can be worked vertically or horizontally and works as a unisex design.

10. Tara Murray

Tara of Mamachee learned to crochet from her mother but didn’t really get hooked on it until she became a mother herself. She is clearly inspired by her kids as you can see from the beautiful kids’ crochet patterns she comes up with, although she makes many other wonderful designs as well, including the two-tone boot cuffs in Crochet for Christmas.

11. Danyel Pink

Danyel Pink is the Editor-in-Chief of Happily Hooked magazine and a terrific crochet designer in her own right. Her snowflake headband is a great accessory for the winter season. Some of her other designs that I’ve shared recently include:

12. Jennifer Pionk

My favorite thing about crochet designer Jennifer Pionk is how she takes a design and expands on it in so many ways so that we can see the potential in it. Her themed sets of crochet patterns (like the Chasing Chevron set) are great to explore. I can definitely see making many of her crocheted slippers for gift giving!

13. Charissa Ragsdale

Charissa of Mad Mad Me does a great job of incorporating color into her crochet patterns. She has created a terrific Christmas tree crochet skirt pattern that is mostly white with little touches of the classic red and green for a contemporary take on a traditional design.

14. Cara Louise Reitbauer

Cara of Heritage Heartcraft began crocheting in the 1970s as a young child and continues to feel the ties to her family through her crafting. I love that she uses tall stitches in her Holly and Ivy Kissing Ball crochet pattern

15. Rohn Strong

Rohn is a knitting and crochet designer whose prolific work can be found in most of the major craft magazines as well as through his own books. He does great work with wearables so it’s no surprise to find a fabulous cardigan from him in this Christmas book, worked in Tunisian crochet to have a bit of a knit-like style. I recently shared his crochet pi shawl pattern here on the site:

16. Joana Ventura

Joana of Frayed Knot learned to crochet as a child, picking it up again once she had kids and making her way into crochet pattern design. Her crochet arm warmers wrap up the book nicely with a single-color version and a five-color striped version so you get more bang for your buck.

Get inspired for holiday crafting with this Christmas crochet roundup.