About Us

Hi, I'm Dana Whitlock — welcome to Yarn Wren. If you've ever crocheted a beautiful sweater only to have it come out three sizes too big through the shoulders, or watched an amigurumi head refuse to sit right on its body, you're exactly who this site was built for. I'm a math teacher of eleven years and a crocheter of twenty-seven, and Yarn Wren is where those two lives finally shook hands.

How Yarn Wren started

I learned to crochet at twelve, taught by my Aunt Carol in Green Bay — a wonderful, no-nonsense woman who showed me every stitch but never once handed me a written pattern. So I spent my teenage years figuring out shapes on my own: why a certain rhythm of increases made a circle lie flat, and why one increase too many made it ruffle like a lettuce leaf. I didn't call it geometry back then. I just called it paying attention. Years later, after a mathematics degree and eleven years teaching algebra and geometry to teenagers, I realized I'd been circling the same idea my whole life: crochet isn't the opposite of math, it's math you can wear.

Yarn Wren is named for the actual house wren that nests in the birdhouse outside my studio window every spring — a tiny, extremely loud supervisor who has strong opinions about my yarn choices and none about tension, which is more than I can say for most of us.

What we're actually about

There is no shortage of crochet inspiration on the internet. What's harder to find is crochet that tells you the truth about fit. So that's our whole mission here:

• Garments genuinely graded across XS–5X, tested in multiple sizes, not just mathematically "scaled" from one sample and hoped for.
• Schematics included, because a diagram tells you more in five seconds than three paragraphs of finished measurements ever will.
• Plain-language lessons on gauge, ease, and resizing, so you can adjust any pattern — mine or someone else's — to fit the body you actually have.
• Amigurumi built on honest geometry: why a head shape holds up, why a limb doesn't wobble, why your increases matter more than your stitch count.
• Real seasonal, home, and wearable patterns that fit into an actual life, not just a photoshoot.

My wife Joanne, a physical therapist, is our unofficial (and enthusiastically official) fit model at size 2X, which means every garment gets tried on by a real body before it gets published, not just laid flat and photographed at a flattering angle.

Our editorial approach

I want this site to feel like sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a half-finished swatch, not like reading a textbook. So the writing is warm and personal, but every pattern is tested, every measurement is checked, and every claim about fit is one I'd stand behind with my own hook in hand. If a pattern needs a caveat — a yarn substitution that changes drape, a stitch that behaves differently at a smaller gauge — I say so. You can read more about how we test, source, and fact-check everything on our Editorial Policy page.

I also believe transparency matters as much in a hobby blog as it does anywhere else. When a post contains affiliate links or sponsored materials, it's disclosed clearly — details live on our Disclosure page — and how we handle your data when you visit is laid out plainly in our Privacy Policy.

Who's behind the hook

It's mostly just me, working out of a sunroom-turned-studio in a 1920s bungalow in Madison, Wisconsin, surrounded by yarn bins organized by weight class (I told you I was a numbers person) and supervised loosely by two elderly cats, Pythagoras and Euclid, who are no help with tension but excellent company. I design every pattern, write every math breakdown, and test every size range myself before it goes live. When I'm not here, I'm usually pinning color combinations and finished projects over on Pinterest, where a lot of Yarn Wren ideas get their start.

What you can expect from us

Whether you're brand new to a hook or you've been crocheting longer than I've been alive, my hope is that you leave every visit with something usable: a stitch explained clearly, a pattern that actually fits the size you made, or just the confidence to resize something on your own instead of hoping for the best. That's the whole promise of this site — inspiring enough to make you want to start a new project tonight, practical enough that it still fits you when you finish it.

If you want to know more about how the site runs day to day, our Community Guidelines explain how we like to keep discussions kind and useful, and our Disclaimer covers the usual sensible notes about using patterns and tutorials safely.

Say hello

I read everything that comes in — pattern questions, fit troubles, sizing math you're stuck on, or just a photo of your finished project (please, always send those). Reach out anytime at [email protected] or through our Contact page. If you're a brand, designer, or fellow maker interested in working together, take a look at our Collaboration page first — I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for being here. Now go check your gauge — I mean it.