SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Cozy Textures Afghan Kit Club

It’s been a year in the making, and I’m so excited to finally share the news with you! I had the honor of designing the latest afghan for Annie’s Crochet Kit Clubs.

When the folks at Annie’s asked me to design an afghan that explores textured crochet stitches, I couldn’t wait to get started. I love playing with crochet texture! I made sure to include all my favorite stitches in this design – from clusters, popcorns, and picots to post stitches, shells, and fans. Not only is the Cozy Textures Afghan filled with touchable texture, but worked in a range of eye-catching jewel tones, this cheerful blanket is entertaining from start to finish.

Read on to learn more about the afghan and how the kit club works, plus get a behind-the-scenes look at the year-long design process for this blanket and an exclusive interview with me.

How the Kit Club Works

Annie’s Cozy Textures Crochet Afghan Club is a monthly subscription of kits. Over the course of 12 months, you’ll crochet this festive afghan made of square motifs and striped panels. About every four weeks, a new shipment will arrive with all the yarn and instructions you need to crochet new squares and stripes. You’ll master new skills and stitches as you create 21 different motifs, 7 striped panels, and a very unique border. Plus, you get exclusive access to online video tutorials.

At the end of the journey, you’ll not only have learned a lot of new stitches and techniques, but you’ll also have a treasured blanket to show off.

Behind the Scenes

Follow along on my journey from concept to the finished kits

This project began back in early October 2023. My husband and I had just returned home from our annual leaf-peeping road trip, when I noticed I had an email about an exciting opportunity to work with Annie’s to design an afghan for their kit club program. I didn’t even need to think twice – the answer was a resounding yes!

After I agreed to the project, I spent a few months working with the Annie’s kit club team to brainstorm, sketch, and work out a design that we all loved. Here’s a collection of some of my early sketches, swatches, and inspirations.

And here’s my final sketch for this design.

Next, I chose all the textured crochet stitches that I wanted to work with and made lots and lots of swatches.

Then, with still more stitching, sketching, and swatching, I designed the 21 different motifs and 7 striped panels. Coming up with all the individual motifs and stripes and making sure that they fit together nicely was a bit of a challenge, but I really enjoyed it. I love problem solving, and this blanket was like a big puzzle.

Once the team and I agreed on the design, I was free to crochet the blanket and write the pattern. I also had to weigh all of the yarn as I went to make sure that the yarn needed for each kit would meet shipping weight limits.

I got so into weighing yarn that since completing this project for Annie’s, I’ve adopted the practice for all my own designs. And that’s good news for you! All of my future patterns will contain very detailed yardage information for the yarn required.

I finished the afghan and shipped it to Annie’s at the end of February. After writing the pattern, which walks crocheters through making the motifs and stripes, assembling them, and adding a border, I worked with a tech editor to make sure everything was perfect.

You’d think that would be the end of the story, but nope – there’s more!

Next, I got to work with the lovely and talented Tara Orchard at Annie’s to write the scripts for the 12 tutorials that accompany the kits.

In June, I traveled to Annie’s studios to film the tutorials over the course of a week. Do you remember the show “Knit and Crochet Now!”? I used to watch this show religiously when it aired on my local Create TV channel. Many of the episodes were filmed at the Annie’s studio. I was absolutely thrilled to discover that I would be working on the very same set as my favorite how-to show!

These video tutorials are designed to help you crochet the afghan from start to finish. Even before you make the first stitch, I’ll demonstrate all you need to know to get your blanket off to a good start, with topics such as choosing the right hook, how to hold your hook, how to make a gauge swatch, how to block your motifs, and more. Then I walk you through how to crochet each motif, round by round, and how to crochet each stripe, row by row. I also show how to add a border to the striped panels and prepare them for assembly, join the motifs and stripes into strips, assemble the blanket, and add a unique border with charming little corner pieces sewn in. Each kit comes with access to these videos, and each video is about an hour and fifteen minutes long.

Doing all of this instruction in front of the camera was exciting and a little scary too, and definitely a lot of work. But the folks at Annie’s were so nice and patient with me. Not to mention, from the editors to the stylist and videographer, they all have years (in some cases decades!) of experience, so I knew I was in good hands.

Writing this now, it’s hard to believe that I actually pulled it off! Just like most worthwhile things in life, it was one of the most challenging but also most rewarding experiences of my career. I’m so grateful that Annie’s chose me to design this stunning afghan for them.

Click here to check out the Cozy Textures Afghan Kit Club.

And as an added bonus, here’s an interview I did with Annie’s:

Annie’s Interview with Jennifer Olivarez

How long have you been crocheting and who taught you?

My mom taught me to knit and crochet as a kid. During summer breaks, she would teach my brother and I arts and crafts. She is an amazingly talented woman. Anything we wanted to learn, she could teach us. She taught us needlepoint, sewing, quilting, spinning, weaving, stained glass, oil painting, pottery, drawing with charcoal and pastels, among many other crafts. So I learned crochet as a kid, but it wasn’t until I was out of college that I discovered it again and really got into it. Once I made my first granny square, I was hooked, and I’ve been at it ever since.

How did the design for the Cozy Textures Crochet Afghan come to life? What inspired you?

I was initially inspired by geometric quilt patterns, which led to the layout of squares and rectangles in long strips. But after that, I was very focused on creating a blanket project that would provide an entertaining experience for crocheters, regardless of their skill level. That really drove every aspect of the design. From the wide variety of stitches to the different assembly techniques, I wanted this to be a blanket project where everyone can learn something new and have a great time doing it.

What’s your favorite stitch from the afghan and why?

My favorite is definitely the Picot Stripe pattern in Kit 4! I designed this stitch specifically for this blanket. I knew the panel needed a flashy, vibrant stripe to offset the stripes of aqua and teal. By working picots in one color and simple groups of double crochet between them in another color, I discovered you can create a unique wave. Best of all, this stitch is so much fun to make!

Be sure to check out the video for Kit 4 where I share some tips on how to make the picots so they stand up straight.

What specific crochet skills will be strengthened by crocheting this afghan?

This afghan gives crocheters the opportunity to learn and master a wide variety of textured stitch patterns. Throughout the kits, you make both squares and stripes using stitch patterns that progress in difficulty from basic stitches to the more complex. I made sure to include a lot of fun stitches, like popcorns, picots, and clusters – things I really like to make and I hope others will have fun making too. Plus, many of the stitch patterns are used in both the squares and the stripes. This way you may learn how to work a stitch in the round in a square motif and then get to try it again in rows in a striped panel. I find that doing something twice like this strengthens the learning experience, and it’s fun to see how a stitch pattern looks in two different applications.

Color is also a big part of working with texture, so I made sure to include places where you’ll work a textured stitch pattern in multicolored stripes as well as one solid color. It’s always interesting to see how color can enhance or alter the way a textured stitch pattern looks.

With all of the stitches and techniques I cover in this blanket, by the end of the journey, you’ll have many new skills in your crochet toolbox, as well as a gorgeous blanket to show off!

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Having you in my crochet circle means so much to me. I aim to publish 4-6 new patterns every year, along with video and photo tutorials. In addition to announcements, here I’ll share crochet tips and tricks, yarn reviews, and a peek into my design process. But I’ll only send you crochet content that I think you will enjoy. In the meantime, you can contact me by replying to this email or crochet@JenniferOlivarez.com. I would love to hear from you!