I opened the pattern book I bought, and I fell in love with this ruffled scarf. It just looked so pretty. So I started it, followed it 100% to the letter. For me it was just way too long, it felt awkward when I put it on. Thats when I discovered that patterns aren't perfect, and if it's not working, well change it!
The nice thing about using a pattern is that you have direction, a concept, and a goal for what your end result will be. With inspiration from the first ruffled scarf pattern I followed I thought about what I didn't like, and made a few adjustments. Thats how the Double Ruffle Scarf came to being. The great thing about trying a bunch of different patterns is learning the different ways a stitch can be used, and the shapes it can create. Sometimes adjustments are really simple, like using a different sized hook than the pattern asks for, or making the sleeve pieces for a sweater seperately and sewing them on instead of trying to make them attached and manuevering the sweater around for who knows how long, or changing the count of rows or stitches to fit a persons measurements.
I really love all of the things I've made, I just enjoy seeing it come together. One of my favorites was a set I made for the daughter of a friend. Summer Stripes blanket and pillow. It was a challenge, being the second pattern I tried to follow. I made a simple mistake for almost the first half of the blanket, on one end I was adding 1-2 stitches every row, so the whole blanket was wrinkled and crooked on one end. I counted, and counted and counted some more, and then it dawned on me what I had done. Pulled it all out back to the first row and started again. I'm so glad I did, because it is so pretty now. And my friends daughter loves it, she uses it all the time. That was hugely satisfying for me to see how excited she was when I gave it to her.
Designing, the largest photo on my blog- hairbands someone paid me to design and make. She had one photo of a knit hair band she had found somewhere. I did searching for designs of different flowers, tested, and tried a few to see what I would be the best on the band. After some measuring, lots of counting, doing a sample band as a reference, I put together the hairbands in the photos with her requested colors. I have to say it was fun, painstaking, but fun.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Step 2....BOOM!
After some playing with different stitches I decided I wanted to learn more about crocheting. It had not yet occurred to me that I would ever make anything to sell. So I looked at the pattern on the inside of the yarn label.
Thoughts"What in the???!!! Is that even english?" Then some staring, squinting, and I began to feel my brain reacting to the strain. Then.....BOOM! my brain exploded under the strain. I sat there just looking into space trying to restart. LOL Too bad my brain doesn't have a power button, or emergency switch to get my thought processing going again!
I could not believe how crazy difficult it seemed to be. Nor could I imagine ever, and I mean ever, wanting to try again. So I went on with trying to design on my limited knowledge and understanding (remember 3 kinds of stitches).
But I'm ridiculously stubborn, I kept seeing all these gorgeous photos of items people could supposedly crochet. I thought to myself, it can't be that bad, I just need to do some research and "teach" myself to read crochet language.
I'd like to say it was that easy, but it wasn't. The next several patterns I looked at were still garbbled code to me. But then I found this "I taught myself to crochet" kit at walmart. I thought, that's a good deal, why not? So I bought it. The first 3 patterns I successfully made were from that book. I have refered to it several times for different things, from the "sewing seams" part, to special stitching, and other ideas. Not to say that it was all smooth crocheting from there. It still took me some time to translate the steps of what they were saying into what it actually looks like.
By the time each project was finished though, I had people telling me that I could sell what I was making. It took me some time to put together the plan, and gain the confidence, but so far so good!
Thoughts"What in the???!!! Is that even english?" Then some staring, squinting, and I began to feel my brain reacting to the strain. Then.....BOOM! my brain exploded under the strain. I sat there just looking into space trying to restart. LOL Too bad my brain doesn't have a power button, or emergency switch to get my thought processing going again!
I could not believe how crazy difficult it seemed to be. Nor could I imagine ever, and I mean ever, wanting to try again. So I went on with trying to design on my limited knowledge and understanding (remember 3 kinds of stitches).
But I'm ridiculously stubborn, I kept seeing all these gorgeous photos of items people could supposedly crochet. I thought to myself, it can't be that bad, I just need to do some research and "teach" myself to read crochet language.
I'd like to say it was that easy, but it wasn't. The next several patterns I looked at were still garbbled code to me. But then I found this "I taught myself to crochet" kit at walmart. I thought, that's a good deal, why not? So I bought it. The first 3 patterns I successfully made were from that book. I have refered to it several times for different things, from the "sewing seams" part, to special stitching, and other ideas. Not to say that it was all smooth crocheting from there. It still took me some time to translate the steps of what they were saying into what it actually looks like.
By the time each project was finished though, I had people telling me that I could sell what I was making. It took me some time to put together the plan, and gain the confidence, but so far so good!
The Beginning...Da Na Na!
So, what got me started crocheting? Well I would say it started long before I learned a single stitch, or how to read a pattern. I really owe it to my Grandma, she was always creating the most amazingly beautiful things. Quilts, afghans, baby sweaters and booties, dolls, cross stitich angels, the list goes on and on. She taught me to knit, cross stitch, sew, bake and whole lot of other things. She even taught me how to properly dust a television!
The most important lesson I learned from her in all of that was: Take my time, and do it right! If I make a mistake and don't realise until hours later, I take it out and try again!
Oh how I hated that idea when I was learning to...well all those things I mentioned. I remember once when I was about 11, I had decided I was going to knit a baby blanket, or maybe it was a scarf. I had almost more stitches on the needles than I could handle, and I had been faithfully working on it while at home. On a visit I showed her my progress, she said I was improving, and then asked what happened way back here (as she pointed at some significant holes at the beginning where I had missed stitches). I shrugged, saying something really intelligent like "I dunno". She said to me, well that just won't work Lynae, and this is what we do. To the horror of my young girl heart she pulled the needle out and gave a good yank on the thread, and pulled and pulled and pulled. It seemed like I watched forever in agony as she dismantled my blanket/scarf. I was very perturbed, and she knew it. I worked on it a little more, but I never finished that project.
However, she left me with something valuable. Everytime I'm working on something, and I discover something not quite right, it will drive me to near insanity until I discover the source, and yank it all out to fix it. By no means am I perfect at crocheting, I love it, but I do my fair share of pulling out, and trying again. When I'm done it has to be of a quality that I know she would have approved.
Now, due to the knit experience I avoided what I thought were complicated things for her to teach me, thats when we moved on to baking and cooking lol. By the time I matured enough to understand what she was trying to teach me she wasn't well enough to help me learn to crochet. But I am very fortunate, and I have a really awesome Aunt who taught me, which I must say was a lot of laughs, and maybe just a few tears. She taught me my first three stitches, and I did a few, mostly blanket shaped projects. Until this last July, when I decided that crochet is the craft for me, and I wanted to know more! That is where things start to get crazy, and fun!
The most important lesson I learned from her in all of that was: Take my time, and do it right! If I make a mistake and don't realise until hours later, I take it out and try again!
Oh how I hated that idea when I was learning to...well all those things I mentioned. I remember once when I was about 11, I had decided I was going to knit a baby blanket, or maybe it was a scarf. I had almost more stitches on the needles than I could handle, and I had been faithfully working on it while at home. On a visit I showed her my progress, she said I was improving, and then asked what happened way back here (as she pointed at some significant holes at the beginning where I had missed stitches). I shrugged, saying something really intelligent like "I dunno". She said to me, well that just won't work Lynae, and this is what we do. To the horror of my young girl heart she pulled the needle out and gave a good yank on the thread, and pulled and pulled and pulled. It seemed like I watched forever in agony as she dismantled my blanket/scarf. I was very perturbed, and she knew it. I worked on it a little more, but I never finished that project.
However, she left me with something valuable. Everytime I'm working on something, and I discover something not quite right, it will drive me to near insanity until I discover the source, and yank it all out to fix it. By no means am I perfect at crocheting, I love it, but I do my fair share of pulling out, and trying again. When I'm done it has to be of a quality that I know she would have approved.
Now, due to the knit experience I avoided what I thought were complicated things for her to teach me, thats when we moved on to baking and cooking lol. By the time I matured enough to understand what she was trying to teach me she wasn't well enough to help me learn to crochet. But I am very fortunate, and I have a really awesome Aunt who taught me, which I must say was a lot of laughs, and maybe just a few tears. She taught me my first three stitches, and I did a few, mostly blanket shaped projects. Until this last July, when I decided that crochet is the craft for me, and I wanted to know more! That is where things start to get crazy, and fun!
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