A pattern desk run by one very stubborn maker.
HooklyShop is a small independent studio in New York making original crochet patterns and tutorials for beginners, written by someone who remembers exactly how confusing the first one was.
It started with one lopsided scarf
In 2018 I borrowed a crochet book from the library, worked the same first row eleven times, and produced a scarf four inches wider at one end than the other. I nearly gave the whole thing up. What finally clicked was not talent. It was finding one blogger who wrote out every single row and told me how many stitches I should have at the end of it.
I started writing my own patterns the way I wished that book had been written. I posted the first one free in 2019, mostly to prove to myself I could. Someone in Ohio made it, sent me a photo, and said it was the first thing she had ever finished. That is still the entire business model: write it clearly enough that people finish.
Nobody should quit because the instructions were bad
Crochet is meant to be the calm part of your week. My job is to remove every avoidable point of confusion between you and a finished object.
Clarity over cleverness
If a sentence can be misread at 11pm with tired eyes, it gets rewritten. Every time.
Beginners are the standard
No pattern ships until a genuine beginner has made it without messaging me for help.
Free stays genuinely free
The 42 free patterns have no email wall, no paywalled full version, and no bait. They are complete patterns, and they always will be.
Four things most pattern shops do not do
- Stitch counts on every single row. Not just the tricky ones, so you always know within thirty seconds whether you have gone wrong.
- Three-maker testing, one a beginner. Their questions become the pattern footnotes before you ever see it.
- Yarn substitution charts, not brand lock-in. Weight, metreage and a tested alternative in three price brackets, so you can shop your stash.
- A small-business licence included. Every premium PDF lets you sell what you make, up to 200 finished items a year, at no extra fee.
Come say hello
Questions about a pattern, a yarn substitution, or a collaboration? I answer every message myself, usually within a day.