Crocheted Portraits

If you are looking for something different to crochet, why not crochet a portrait of someone. It's as much fun as painting. Once I got going I didn't want to stop. It was so much fun seeing the picture emerging from some yarn.

Here are two of my favourite:

John Lennon

Johnny Cash

I haven't done any more in awhile. But, I did do one more that I didn't put on my site as it's very special to me. I crocheted a picture of my husband 6 months after he died. That one hangs on my living room wall.

To make a pattern to crochet from you have to turn the photo into a graph, You do that by
using the free online graph maker at
http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/

You choose what grid size you want, either "Regular", "Big" or "XL". I chose Big. Then select the Stitch size. I chose "Needlepoint, Cross Stitch, Crochet". Then click "Browse" to find that photo on your computer that you want to turn into a grid. Then click "Submit" to upload the photo. It will be turned into a grid in a .PDF file. Download that and open it with Adobe Reader or any other software that will open it. Then you can print it out.

I always convert my photos to black and white first. You can do that in most photo software programs.  I use IrfanView but Windows has one that might work as well. It is much easier to crochet or knit a portrait using only 2 colors.

One thing to remember is when changing colors is to finish off the single crochet with the second color. For example, let's say you just did 3 sc in black and the next few stitches are white, so when you do the 3rd black sc you would insert your hook, pull up a loop, then drop the black yarn and pick up your white yarn and finish off that sc. You must do this to keep your color changes even.

Also when you work from a black and white graph photo, you will notice that some blocks are gray. I don't want to work with a 3rd color so what I do is I will go over the graph with a pencil and darken in the gray blocks that I want to do in black. Those I do not darken in, I will do in white. These blocks are usually those around the outline of the face, around the hairline, eyes, ears mouth and nose. You can tell by looking at the photo which blocks should be done in black so as to stand out in the finished piece and still keep the resemblance to the person in the photo.

I also have Crochet Graph Pattern Tips here that will help make it much easier for you when working with the yarn.