My Sunshine Pattern Collection

A little more than a year ago I had the opportunity to collaborate with Scheepjes and the Crochet Society and I designed all four of the patterns for subscription box number 53.  I had always intended to share the kit and more about the designs last spring when it was sent out but there was a bit of a mix up and I didn’t get my own copy of the kit until well after it was released.  The kit was well received and by the time I received my own copy it was no longer available, and it felt odd to write about it. 

I now have the copyright to the pattern back, so I have reformatted the patterns for republishing.  I have formatted them in my own style, added photos, and done a translation to US terms.  The patterns are now available in my Ravelry and Etsy Shops.  You can purchase each pattern individually or if you would like to purchase several at the same time there will be a discount on Ravelry.

The pattern includes files for both UK and US terms.  Each pattern comes with access to my full video tutorial in UK terms with an option for subtitles in US terms.

Important Links

• Purchase the patterns on Ravelry
  • Waiting on Sunshine Shawl
  • It’s Alright Bouquet
  • Follow the Sun Bag
  • Don’t Mind the Rain Purse
• Buy the pattern on Etsy
  • Waiting on Sunshine Shawl on Etsy
  • It’s Alright Bouquet on Etsy
  • Follow the Sun Bag on Etsy
  • Don’t Mind the Rain Purse on Etsy
• Free little cloud and sunshine patterns

About each Pattern

“Waiting on Sunshine Shawl”

The Waiting on Sunshine Shawl is light and airy for spring (or summer or winter depending on your climate).  The pattern is designed to be reminiscent of sunshine peeking through clouds.  The two colors are alternated every row, and a “raindrop” edge is added as color A is carried up the side of the shawl.  As written, the shawl is 46×150 cm to fit in the two balls of yarn size limitation, but it can easily be adjusted in size to be as big or small as you like.   

I don’t have my original shawl sample anymore as I had to send samples to the Crochet Society for photography. The others I fully made again for the video tutorials, but I recorded the last bit of the Shawl video before I sent it off, so I didn’t have to make a full second sample. I did start making one for myself with Organicon but stop partway through. My color choice was a bit to high contrast for my complextion.

“It’s Alright Bouquet”

The It’s Alright Bouquet is a small set of patterns; a wired flower, a vase, a set of nesting bows, and a trinket dish.  The flowers are designed to be made with a light gauge floral wire, similarly to my Floral Fantasy Bouquet pattern (this bouquet was the inspiration for the Floral Fantasy Bouquet) and have a button center.  The vase, bowls and trinket dish are all made with the yarn held triple using the long chain technique and a relatively small hook size to form stiff pieces that will stand well.  The Vase is sized for a bouquet of 10-12 flowers but would also make a great crochet hook holder.   

I made another Bouquet of flowers with Scheepjes Colour Crafters Parade orange blend. This was a great way to get a variety of hues without needing multiple balls of yarn. I made all the petals for all the flowers before sorting them into similar shades for each flower.

“Follow the Sun Bag” & “Don’t Mind the Rain Purse”

The Follow the Sun Bag and Don’t Mind the Rain Purse are a pair. Both use a linen stitch like technique with popcorn stitches to create a fun textured bag.  Each are worked from the bottom up in a single piece and have the option of being a bag with handles or a clutch purse.  I find the stitch pattern very satisfying to make. 

These are all of my bag and purse samples; the yellow and blue ones are the original color way that I made while recording the video tutorial. The yellow grey purse is made with Scheepjes Terrazo and was my first full sample that I showed when I proposed the pattern idea. The blue purse is also with Scheepjes Terrazo. The big Purple Purse is made with Scheepjes Truely Scrumptious and is one of my favorites, it is like a big fidget toy.

Yarn and Tools

All 4 of these patterns were very intentionally designed for the kits to be made with just two balls of Scheepjes Color Crafters Yarn, one in Brussels and one in Goes, and a 4mm hook.  Since this is not a kit you can choose any colors.  

Scheepjes Colour Crafter (100% Premium Anti Pilling Acrylic; 100g/300m)

Yarn A: 2004 Brussels x 1 ball

Yarn B: 1820 Goes x 1 ball

4 mm crochet hook

You will also need 1 stitch marker, something to cut yarn with, and a tapestry needle.  If you are making the flowers, make sure your tapestry needle can fit though the buttonholes. 

Notions

For the Flowers you will also need 5 light gauge floral wires per flower (one for each petal), floral tape, and a button for the center.  If you prefer you could instead crochet a simple circle for the center and wrap the wires with yarn.    

Here are links to the materials I used for mine (affiliate links):

• 200 Pcs Floral Wire – 26 Gauge, 14 inch (this is enough for 40 flowers)
• 1/2′ Wide Floral Tapes for Bouquet Stems
• Wooden buttons (these come in several sizes)

The type of light-gauge floral wire you use for this bouquet can make a big difference in how easy they are to work with and how your bouquet turns out. Here are a few key things to keep in mind when choosing your wires.

• Gauge: Is Most Important! A bigger number equals smaller wires, anything heavier than 22-26 gauge will start to be hard to manipulate.
• Length: Precut lengths minimize the need for a wire cutter and start nice and straight, look for around 35-40cm in length.
• Color: The wire will be covered by your crochet and by the floral tape but can still show through between stitches.  If you are making light colored flowers (white, yellow, pale pink) then I recommend white wires.  For mid to dark colored yarns, I recommend brown wires, I find in general a darker colored wire is going to stand out less that a lighter color wire unless your yarn is very light.
• Texture: Paper or fiber wrapped wires are less slippery and a little easier to work with than bare or plastic-coated wires.  

For the Purse you will also need a metal purse frame.  This is only if you want to make the Don’t Mind the Rain Purse (or Follow the Sun bag) as a clutch with a frame.  You can always make ether patten with handles instead but if you want a frame you need to purchase one.  I have used this metal 20cm rectangle lock frame for my original color crafters sample and this more ornate metal frame for a Scheepjes Terrazzo sample.   

Pattern Support

Video Tutorials: Each pattern includes a full length, step by step video tutorial in UK terms.  If you are more familiar with US terms, I have provided Subtitles with US terms in the English (United States) option.  There is also a conversion chart at the beginning of the video. 

To access the video tutorial, you can click on the link in the pattern or type it to your browser then enter the password provided in the pattern to access the video. There are right-handed and left-handed videos.

Jessica Wifall’s Crochet Studio: my facebook group it is a great place to ask questions of me and the community and share your creations and works in progress.

My YouTube Channel: I am slowly working on increasing my list of crochet technique video tutorials. I may not have any up right now that apply specifically to this pattern but at some point, in the future that might change.

• Techniques playlists: Right-handed / Left-handed

---

---

The Design

Since these patterns were designed specifically for a yarn kit, the process was a little different from my usual approach. Scheepjes connected me with the Crochet Society and asked me to design three patterns using two colors of Colour Crafter yarn for an upcoming kit release in February or March. I was given a small selection of colors to choose from.

To get a feel for the Crochet Society boxes, I watched just about every unboxing and project reveal video by Coco’s Crochet. I also asked whether any artwork had already been created for the box or booklet (It hadn’t). It felt important to me that the yarn colors, patterns, and packaging all worked together cohesively.

I chose the bright yellow and soft grey-blue because they reminded me of sunshine and clouds. The Crochet Society is based in the UK, and I picture February/March there as rainy and grey. So sunshine and clouds came to mind. I requested sunshine-and-cloud-themed artwork for the box and did some water colors to communicate my idea. With the exception of the shawl, the pattern names reference Beatles songs about the weather.

This is a photo I took while painting, and the two finished bits I sent for inspiration. You might notice my logo in the background; I also painted that at this time.

As I designed the patterns, I had a few goals in mind. I wanted the three projects to feel very different from one another so that everyone receiving the box would likely find at least one pattern they liked. I also wanted each design to make use of nearly all of the included yarn. And I made an effort to ensure that most of the extras included in the box were incorporated directly into the patterns themselves.

“Waiting on Sunshine” was the first pattern I designed, and the name actually came before the pattern.  I wanted the stitches to look like rays of sunshine peaking out behind clouds.  Since the pattern was limited to 2 balls of Colour Crafters, I went for an open lacy design so that the shawl could be a reasonable size.   

The stitch pattern I went with for the shawl was actually the second one that I worked up but I wasn’t sure about it at first, so I tried a lot of different ideas too. One of these I later used for my island top pattern.

The “It’s alright Bouquet” was the second pattern I designed.  I was thinking about notions that could be included in the box and thought that buttons and wires would be something that could be reasonably included.  They were also able to include floral tape which made the stems a lot easier.  The wire that was included in the box was a lot heavier than I asked for.  I didn’t find this out until I saw people opening the box.  If I had known far enough ahead of time, I would have changed the design to accommodate the wires. 

I made my first proof of concept while on a family road trip. I picked up some random DK weight yarn, buttons and wires for a Michael’s in route. I took a photo of the flowers with different button sizes to send to the Crochet Society to show them what each size would look like. I was hoping for bigger buttons so they could also be used as a closure on the bag, but it wasn’t in the budget.

The “Follow the Sun Bag” and “Don’t Mind the Rain Purse” were designed last and together.  The design I originally presented was the patten of the follow the sun bag but with the Clutch frame of the Don’t mind the rain purse.  Part way through the people putting the kit together thought that they might not actually be able to include the purse frame in the kit, so I added handle and made it a tote bag instead.  As soon as I finished the design and sent a photo of the new sample, they came back and realized that they could include the frame, so they commissioned a fourth design and included a pattern with and a pattern without the purse frame.  In my updated patterns I have instructions for both the handle and the purse frame in both patterns.

The photo I send the Crochet Society with most of the samples finished. I hadn’t made all the flowers yet and we were still discussing buttons.

Overall, I really enjoyed the process of designing for the subscription box. Having to work with a specify set of criteria of what really pushed me to be more creative and do something different. I am really pleased with what I came up with and I’m happy that I can now share them with you myself.

Custom Kits

These patterns were designed for kits, but the Crochet Society kits are no longer available, so I thought it would be fun to make some custom kits for two of my Friends. These are fantasy crochet kits that I would never expect a subscription service to put together but they are would I would put in a kit if I there was not a practical large scale production limitation. 

If you would like to see some extra yarn inspiration for these patterns and some of my favorite crochet tools and accessories, I have written about them here.

I have also written a little free sunshine and cloud pattern that is also available on that page. I made designed them to be a sort of tapestry needle minder, but they can also be appliques or jewelry.