Our Winter 2025 Giving Project designer, Ana-Maria, creates beautiful, often reversible, crochet patterns for garments and accessories. Her website, Crochet Highway, features video tutorials, and her patterns include step-by-step instructions and tutorial photos, making techniques like interlocking crochet accessible to crocheters of all levels.

Read on to learn about Ana-Maria's passion for design, her forthcoming book, and her pet pigeon!

Please tell us how you learned to crochet, and how you started designing your own patterns.

It feels like forever ago, but I first learned to crochet back when I was in high school – almost 15 years ago. I randomly picked up some yarn and a hook and searched YouTube for “how to crochet …” I can’t remember what. It was probably a notebook cover, as I was a huge fan of office paraphernalia from a very young age.

The idea to design my own pieces came a lot later. It was the end of 2020 and I had just recently picked crochet back up after a long hiatus. I started with an old love of mine – amigurumi and home décor. But I quickly realized there are so much more exciting things to be discovered and thrilling challenges to be overcome by designing wearables. The idea of taking a stitch pattern and shaping it so that it fits the human body brings me so much joy. It’s almost like 3D engineering, and that excites me.

What do you like to do when you aren’t crocheting or designing?

I’m a huge animal lover – I love going to the park and feeding the pigeons, sitting on the beach and watching the gulls, as well as spending time with our own little feathered friend, Gigi. I’m also a big fan of true crime and the horror genre, and I love keeping the windows open when it rains.

We are enamored with the reversible stitch pattern in the Scorpio Beanie. What are some things you love about that interlocking technique?

How easy it is to do once you have some principles clear in your mind! Also, that it’s a reversible colorwork fabric achieved by only working with one color at a time.

What advice do you have for a crocheter who’s interested in venturing into more advanced techniques?

Everything is simpler when you break it down in its smaller components. Take a top-down sweater, for example. First, you have the yoke, which is nothing more than a flat circle with a hole in the middle. Then, you have the bodice – that’s one big tube and nothing more. Then, you have the two sleeves, which are just the same story as the bodice, but smaller.

Of course, this is an oversimplification, but this is the main gist of it. You don’t need to worry about all the minute details that make up a great sweater – that’s what the pattern is for!

If you could sit and crochet anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Probably in my house. I know it sounds anti-climactic, but I love my little crochet nook so much! The one thing I appreciate most in my crochet corner is the abundance of natural light; that always puts me in a good mood and is the main reason I love summer (the days are the longest!). Secondly, I have a bunch of my favorite projects neatly on display along with some of my yarn stash; as I stitch away in my comfy chair, I love to sneak a quick glance at them - they always inspire me!

What’s next for Crochet Highway?

2025 is going to be full of new releases! I’m going to keep focusing on interlocking crochet – you can expect a bunch of new patterns and tutorials on this technique. I’m also launching my first crochet patterns book later this year! The book is centered around reversible crochet sweaters and matching accessories, all using interlocking crochet. I can’t wait for you to see it! I’m posting sneak peeks on my Instagram page, so you can follow along for updates!

Anything else you’d like to share?

Almost 3 years ago, we rescued a feral pigeon. We had no intention of keeping her forever. However, we could not release her immediately as she needed time to recover. And somewhere along the way, we fell in love with her and she became part of our family.

What this taught me is that city pigeons are very misunderstood. They’re feral, not wild, which means they were once domesticated by humans. They’re not meant to live out in the concrete jungle, and they rely upon us to survive. They’re clean, beautiful, and sweet animals who love humans, thrive in captivity and are quite resilient and easy to care for (pigeons are the avian vet’s godsend), therefore they make great pets!

Be sure to check out the Crochet Highway website, follow Ana-Maria on Instagram @crochethighway and join the Crochet Highway Facebook Group!

Ana-Maria is the featured designer for The Endless Skein's Winter Giving Project. Your purchase of yarn to crochet her Scorpio Beanie will benefit Sparrow's Nest, a nonprofit that provides home-cooked meals to Hudson Valley families dealing with cancer.