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The Kristin Omdahl Show Ep 1178: Deconstructing a Crochet Stitch Pattern & the Math Behind Design
Welcome to Episode 1178 of The Kristin Omdahl Show!
This week I’m taking you a little deeper into my design process—not with a finished pattern or a brand-new project ready to release, but with a simple crochet swatch and a question:
How many different things can one stitch pattern become?
I’m also sharing what’s currently happening in my creative world, heading back into my archive for another Make • Modify • Move On, celebrating another Happy Moment, and sharing a quick programming note about the next episode.
What’s On My Hook?
One of the things I love about sharing works in progress is that not everything needs to have an answer yet.
Sometimes I’m making a finished project. Sometimes I’m modifying something I’ve already designed. And sometimes I’m simply experimenting to see where an idea might lead.
Which brings me to a little green swatch I’ve been playing with.
Deconstructing Sea Glass Sanctuary
If you’ve seen my Sea Glass Sanctuary wall art, you already know this stitch pattern—although you might not recognize it at first.
Sea Glass Sanctuary is a large circular crochet piece that I stretched over a frame to create fiber wall art.
But recently I started wondering:
What happens if I take the stitch pattern out of the circle?
That’s where this little swatch comes in.
I’m essentially deconstructing my own design, taking the stitch pattern that already works in an increasing circle and figuring out how it behaves when worked evenly back and forth in rows.
And once I started thinking about that, my designer brain immediately went somewhere else.
What other shapes can I teach this stitch pattern to make?
One Stitch Pattern, Multiple Shapes
A stitch pattern doesn’t necessarily belong to one project—or even one shape.
Once I understand the underlying stitch multiples and how the fabric behaves, I can start manipulating the math.
Right now, I’m exploring several possibilities:
- Even in rows — creating flat rectangular fabric
- Even in rounds — creating fabric without increasing
- Increasing in rows — potentially creating a top-down triangle
- Increasing in rounds with corners — creating squares and rectangles
- Increasing in rounds without corners — creating the circular form already used in Sea Glass Sanctuary
And each one requires me to think about the stitch pattern differently.
That’s where crochet becomes especially fascinating to me.
I’m not simply asking, What can I make with this stitch?
I’m asking:
What does the stitch need mathematically in order to become the shape I want?
The Math Behind the Circle
The original Sea Glass Sanctuary circle uses a variation on the mathematical principles behind Pi shaping. As a circle becomes larger, its circumference has to increase. In crochet, that means adding enough stitches to allow the fabric to continue expanding without cupping or becoming overly ruffled.
But this particular stitch pattern added another layer to that problem. There were places where simply doubling the stitch pattern wasn’t the answer I wanted. Instead, I experimented with increasing it by approximately one-and-a-half times in certain areas.
That allowed me to continue expanding the circle while preserving the visual rhythm and character of the stitch pattern.
Now that I’m taking the same stitch language into other shapes, the mathematics changes again. A triangle needs increases in particular places. A square needs corners. A rectangle needs corners and different proportions. And suddenly one crochet stitch pattern becomes an entire playground of geometry.
From Following a Pattern to Understanding One
This thought process also connects to ideas I’ve explored before in my book Crochet Power.
For me, one of the most exciting stages of learning crochet comes when we begin moving beyond simply following a set of instructions and start understanding why those instructions work.
- What happens if I change the stitch count?
- Where does the fabric need to increase?
- What creates a corner?
- What makes something lie flat?
- What happens when I take away the shaping entirely?
Understanding those relationships gives us the freedom to experiment. And that’s exactly where I am with this stitch pattern right now. I don’t know what all of these experiments will eventually become.
And that’s okay.
You’re seeing this one before I know the ending. Maybe one of these swatches becomes a shawl. Maybe another becomes a garment, blanket, bag or something I haven’t imagined yet. Right now, I’m working out the math. And honestly, this stage—the place where one idea suddenly opens the door to five more possibilities—is one of my favorite parts of designing.
Make • Modify • Move On
It’s also time for another Make • Modify • Move On, where I let a random number generator choose a design from my archive of more than 1,000 knit and crochet patterns.
And this week’s number is…
Happy Moments
And, as always, I want to make room for a Happy Moment.
My Happy Moment this week is rediscovering one of my own designs in the most ridiculous way. I have an afghan that I designed years ago that was never published. And where has this unpublished design been all this time? On a shelf in my closet—not carefully preserved as an important piece from my design archive. It’s been there so Bjorn can walk across the wire shelving without hurting his little tootsies.
The other day I noticed it again, and for whatever reason I actually looked at it this time. I thought, wait a minute—I really like this! Why did I never publish this? So I swapped it out for something else to protect Bjorn’s paws and rescued my own afghan from closet-shelf duty. And now it’s sitting on the couch in my studio while I figure out what I want to do with it.
After more than 20 years and more than a thousand designs, it’s kind of amazing that I can still surprise myself with something I’ve forgotten. And apparently sometimes all it takes is protecting my cat’s tootsies to rediscover a piece of my own creative history. Sometimes Happy Moments are big milestones. Sometimes they’re tiny things someone says, an unexpected connection, a beautiful moment outside, something funny, or simply a few minutes that remind us to pay attention to the good things happening alongside everything else.
A Quick Programming Note
Before I wrap up this week, I also want to give you a quick heads-up.
I’m heading out of town for work and will be away from my studio for a little while. Because of that, there may be a one-week delay before the next episode of The Kristin Omdahl Show.
But I will be back.
And there will still be plenty happening here while I’m away.
New full-chapter readings of The Sea Glass Journal are beginning, and the Wanderlust Mystery Crochet Along is officially underway, with new installments to follow.
So if there’s a little extra space between Episodes 1178 and 1179, consider it a brief intermission—not the end of the show.
There’s much more to come.
Watch Episode 1178 of The Kristin Omdahl Show
Thank you for spending this time with me and for joining me behind the scenes—not only for the finished projects, but for the experiments, questions, calculations and ideas that happen along the way.
Sometimes we know exactly what we’re making.
And sometimes we start with a swatch and ask:
What else could this become?
Let us make time to create, share, and inspire today and every day.
xoxo, Kristin
About Kristin Omdahl
Kristin Omdahl is an author, designer, and lifelong maker with more than 20 years of experience creating crochet and knit patterns, books, tutorials, recipes, and creative projects. With more than 1,000 designs published worldwide, her work blends creativity, technique, curiosity, and a love of storytelling.
She is the host of The Kristin Omdahl Show, where she shares the creative process behind what she’s making, explores ideas and rabbit holes, revisits more than two decades of creative work, and finds inspiration in everything from yarn and color to recipes, math, travel, and everyday life.
Kristin is also the author of The Sea Glass Journal, a novel about creativity, self-discovery, and beginning again, set against the beauty of coastal living. Its world continues to inspire many of the recipes, patterns, projects, and stories she shares.
Explore The Kristin Omdahl Show, more than 1,000 knit and crochet patterns, tutorials, recipes, books, and more at KristinOmdahl.com.
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