Ribblr of the Week - Meet Ellie! đź’ś

Say hello to Ellie @MadebyEllie - our new Ribblr of the Week and designer behind MadebyEllie! :confetti_ball:

Tell us a little about yourself:

Hiaaa my name is Ellie!! Some things you might not know about me is I’m a homeschooled teen, a Christian, and I obviously spend most of my free time crafting :sparkles: Other than fiber arts, I love baking, making art, and spending time with my family and cousins (Fun fact: I have a really big family with about ~30 cousins, most of which live in my area, so we are all really good friends, which as a very shy homeschooler, it helps to have friends built into your family :see_no_evil_monkey:)

When did you start crafting and how?

For pretty much as long as I can remember I have had a deep love for crafting. My crocheting journey all started with my mom trying to teach me. The *first* time she tried sitting me down and teaching me was probably when I was about 7 or 9, but I only got as far as learning to chain until my brain couldn’t comprehend it anymore. Later when I was a bit older, I got gifted some yarn for christmas and my mom said she would try teaching me to crochet again. So on January of 2023, my mom helped me to crochet a beanie, you might be surprised to hear that I actually didn’t crochet for months after this, it wasn’t until best friend (who is my cousin, of course lol) learned to crochet, this gave me the motivation to pick up a hook again. By then I had forgotten basically all of what my mom taught me so resorted to youtube videos to relearn crochet, and managed to freehand a little bag that was probably just as scrappy and bad looking as my first project, but unlike the first beanie I had made months before, this little bag got me excited to make more, so I watched a whole lot more youtube videos, discovered the most magical place called the :sparkles:yarn isle​:sparkles:, and continued using most of my free time to crochet, I’m happy to say I haven’t stopped ever since :revolving_hearts:

And how did you start designing?

After I passed the beginner phase of being a crocheter and started understanding written patterns more, I began to sometimes right down things I freehanded for my own use. Publishing my own patterns never crossed my mind, much less even seemed possible, until I found Ribblr. I was immediately intrigued by the ePatterns and was amazed by how accessible Ribblr made it to write, test, and publish your own patterns. So I began transferring some of the “patterns” I already had written in my notebook (my bee, and bunny pattern) to Ribblr, and then started designing new patterns on here and have had a lot of fun doing so :smiling_face:

Do you have a favorite craft type?

I would have to say crochet is my favorite, it’s where my love of fiber arts began and I have always put the most time into this awesome hobby, *but* I have been getting a lot more into knitting so that is definitely creeping up there as a second favorite!!

What was the most memorable project you worked on?

Hmmm, I honestly don’t know if I have worked on a specific project that stood out above the rest in terms of being memorable, but I did knit my first sweater last year which definitely made me more confident in my knitting. For crochet though, I ~~kinda~~ recently freehanded a mossy nessie and used needfelting to add the moss and details, so that was for sure one of the funner and more interesting projects I’ve worked on :seedling::dizzy:

What are you currently working on? Be honest - how many WIP do you have right now?

Okieee let me see… at the moment I have two patterns in the works (which will hopefully be close to done or in testing by the time this is out, *hint hint*:duck::pig:), one pattern test I’m working on, a knitted frog I have started, a bag that I’m crocheting, a knitted sweater that I haven’t worked on in a longgg while, a temperature snake, anddd probably plenty more that I have either abandoned or forgotten altogether :face_in_clouds:

Which of your makes/designs are you most proud of?

Ahhhh no it’s too hard to choose :sob: I do love my Flower Frog pattern, although it’s a simple design, I think it turned out really cute. I also am super happy with my frog that I knitted, it was my first attempt at knitting amigurumi, and I have to say that I am very proud of the result, I still made plenty of mistakes but he just turned out so precious and he always brings me a smile when I look at him :face_holding_back_tears:

What inspires you to create/design?

My inspiration can come from anything really!! Sometimes I see something in my everyday life that will strike inspiration, sometimes one of you guys on the Ribblr community create an adorable pattern that I just have to make, and sometimes I’m simply bored and start creating to give myself something to do with my hands that will bring me joy ^^

What is your usual process of designing?:

It normally starts with drawing out my idea, most of the time I just make a rough sketch to get the idea of the shape I want, and then I go straight to my yarn and hook and try my best to shape it right, writing down the basic form of the pattern as I go. If I need to make a difficult shape I sometimes even cut out a stencil from paper and lay my work next to it every row/rnd and make whatever decreases, increases, or different techniques I need to do to get the shape and size just right. All of this obviously comes with a lot of trial and error, *and* frogging. Once I come up with a design I’m happy with, I start converting my notes and rough pattern into the Ribblr ePattern format, sometimes crocheting multiple of the design so that I can take extra pictures, proofread the pattern, and then put it into testing!!

Any favorite song, book or movie you would like to recommend?:

Some of my favorite movies that I’d recommend are- Napoleon Dynamite, UHF, Princess Bride, and Nacho Libre. If you can’t tell, I like less serious and more silly movies, I guess these all fit with my sense of humor :sweat_smile:

What is your favorite feature on Ribblr?

Like I mentioned a bit before, I really love how Ribblr makes it so easy to create, test, and share your own patterns!! I also love how Ribblr has built a wonderful community full of fellow crafters <3

What socials can folks find you on?

You can find me @something.made.by.ellie on Instagram!

Which 3 - 5 designers/patterns on Ribblr are your favorite? (We will share them :

Some of my favorite designers are: @PickledSweet @xhunni @Scarletskies @ArielC @Bobacat123 And so so many more!!!

Thanks for being here this week Ellie, it was a pleasure to read about you!

Want to read more?
Check out all our previous featured Ribblrs here.

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Check out MadebyEllie

61 Likes

congrats on ribblr on the week!! it was so interesting to read about u and i absolutely adore your patterns, especially your flower frogs! the mini is sooo cutee too!! :heart_eyes: your also so kind, u deserve itt!! :two_hearts::tada::partying_face:

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congrats on rotw! :tada: I love your patterns so much <3 they’re so adorable!

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Congrats Ellie!

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It was fun reading about you! Congratulations on Ribblr of the week! :blush:

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Congrats on ribblr of the week! :growing_heart: I enjoyed reading about you :heart_hands:

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Aaaaaaaah thank you sooo very much Ribblr for featuring me, it means so much :pleading_face: :growing_heart:

Awww thank you sooo much :sob: :heart_hands:

Thank you sm :revolving_hearts: :revolving_hearts:

Thank you cen <333

Thanks smm!!

Tyyyy :face_holding_back_tears: :two_hearts:

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Congrats on ROTW Ellie!!! You really deserve it!:sparkling_heart:

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Congrats on ROTW!! It was great getting to read about you. I’ve been a fan and follower for quite some time. I enjoy all your work. I’m glad you decided to give crocheting another try. We are all blessed to have you here with us :heart:

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Congrats Ellie!! Your lil frog guys are super cute!! :heart:

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ahh congrats on rotw ellie!! i’m so happy for you, i love your patterns :face_holding_back_tears::pink_heart:

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Eeee yayy congrats on rotw Ellie!! :tada: I enjoy reading about you <333

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Congrats Ellie! It was great learning more about you! :two_hearts:

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Congrats!!!

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Congrats Ellie u did itttttt

I love ur shopeeee

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Congratulations Ellie!!

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You deserved this! Love ur patterns.

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Congrats on ROTW Ellie!! :partying_face: Your patterns are so cute!

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yay ellie congrats!

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Oh my gosh, I love to meet fellow homeschool teens!!!:blue_heart::blue_heart::blue_heart::blue_heart:

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