#crochet tension

[themysterykat]

Handicrafts like knitting, crocheting, and tatting teach you that holding good tension is a balance. You can't work entirely without tension, but you also can't brute-force tight work. You hold good tension with practiced hands, not squeezing fists.

I think there's something poetic about life there, but I don't have the braincells to express it.

[yarning-with-em]

never posted any progress photos of this blanket I'm making for friend but here we are

111 rows down, 39 to go

[things-from-strings]

was fucking around w/ color & think i may have accidentally started a baby blanket 😶‍🌫️ 🔥⭐️🔥

probably a good thing; seems like everyone around me is starting families, & what kind of crocheter would i be if i didn't make things for the next gen?

keeping in w/ family tradition, i'll stick to dc stripes & chevron patterns (& terrible but everlasting yarn lol)

[bookshelfdreams]

Hey, probably a question you have heard a thousant times. But what is the best way to get into any of the fiber arts? Books? Youtube? Actual people teaching you? (and if so how in the hell do you find them)

I started crochet and knitting but I pretty much can't get out of the basics, I can't managed to finish something that I have started cuz I always get frustrated that it's starting to look bad...

Hi! That's actually a really good question. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on how u look at it) the only way to get any better at fibre crafts, is to keep doing them. Practice really does make perfect. There is no book or video tutorial or in-person teacher that holds the one ultimate secret that will make you Good At Crafts. All of these can be valuable resources if you struggle to understand how to do a specific thing; you can be taught stitches, and how to read charts, and such things. But the only way to really learn is to practice.

This is because there are more skills involved in crafting than just knowing how to do certain stitches. Confidence, patience, frustration tolerance: you can't learn that from tutorials. These are essential skills that you need to build. And the best way to build them, I'm afraid, is to actually finish the damn thing. Even if it has mistakes. Even if it "looks bad". You need to learn how to tolerate imperfections, if you ever want to get anything done.

Now that doesn't mean you should bully yourself. If you get easily bored and frustrated, leave the scarves and sweaters for now, and start small. Potholders, dishcloths, scrubbies or coasters are all projects that finish up quickly and yield usable objects, even when they are not perfect. If you never allow yourself the dopamine rush of Fuck Yeah I Made That, how do you expect yourself to build up the resilience to stick through the parts where it is slow and difficult and makes your fingers hurt?

Here are Ravelry searches for free dishcloth and potholder patterns.

Of course that doesn't mean you should only do those projects. You can do whatever you want. The most important thing is to teach yourself that you can have success, and the only way to do this is to successfully make things.

Also, it should always be fun. If it's not at least a little bit fun, maybe the technique isn't for you. This is also an important skill to develop: To learn when to stick through a bout of frustration, and when to abandon something.

There is a very steep learning curve. But you can and you will get there. I believe in you, and I also believe that what "looks bad" to you is perfectly fine.

[newlyy]

not to be FUCKING dramatic, but crochet is intuitive and logical and knitting is of the devil and feels like every step is just made up on a whim

[ansitru]

Pink 🌸✨

[cloud-crochet]

Me, restarting my magic circle: 57th time's the charm

[zahlibeth]

she's done!

approx 41.5" / 105cm square blanket, corner to corner style

yarn is sirdar stories DK weight 40/60 acrylic/cotton mix in 826 gin fizz, 827 glow sticks, 828 golden hour, 829 mimosas and 836 invite.

pattern is from my brain - corner to corner style with seed stitch edging (this is an ENTIRE pain for the increase/decreases fyi and getting the tension to match the centre is also hard).

the coloured stripes alternate a textured pattern (seed or garter) with a central stockinette with eyelets, there are extra stockinette sections at the first and last corners to provide visual balance. The first and third stripes match, as do the second and fourth. If you check the earlier pictures you'll see I originally intended 5 stripes which would have meant the stripes mirrored round the centre and I'd have picked a third eyelet pattern for the central stripe.

the real trick is knowing WHEN to change colours so the stripes look good, if you fuck up and change when it makes logical sense, then it won't be visually consistent - you can see that on the test one i made for blocking that i just threw together months later - a lot of the colour changes should happen on the wrong side instead.

original blanket test blanket, and the moment I realised what i'd let myself in for with the scale:

shark for scale, this is Bernard:

all wrapped up now so I can't futz with it any longer!

[doggyears]

quick break from cross stitching to do the same thing... but in crochet!

Get the pattern chart here, free of charge, no donation required, etc, etc.

[tacit-semantics]

Wanted to do something quick and easy so we’re going for Tunisian crochet scarf :) pattern is ombre scarf on the purple poncho

[ace-whovian-neuroscientist]

my beloved creature! my first attempt at something this big and complicated and i’m pretty happy with how it turned out! :))

i used this pattern

[applejongho]

SURPRISE!!!! crocheted palestine bear my beloved ❤️🇵🇸

[duskandcobalt]

Here’s what I’ve been working on while listening to HOEAB 😅

[sommerlyrik]

43-48/60 Days of Productivity (because I got shit to do before September until mid-September) | 22-27/08/24

Unsorted summary of the last week:

Had a day trip to the Yorkshire sculpture park with my writing group! :) Walked sooo much, saw sheep and highland cattle, had a little writing session in the cafe.

Got rejected from a job I really wanted and where I put sooo much effort in the application and genuinely thought I was a really good fit 😭

Applied to 7 more jobs 💪🏻

Went to an interdisciplinary PhD socialising event thingy and talked to really nice people :) I love talking to non-humanities people because sometimes I get over-humanities-ised.

Ticked a wild amount of admin stuff of my list, whoop. Like, today I went through my whole admin to-do list for the week!!! Which means I can focus on my article and creative writing from tomorrow on. 🥰

Made progress writing and plotting the novella I am writing (it's set on the trip of a school orchestra, so I have to assign so many instruments to so many students! It's probably unnecessary to assign an instrument to every side character, but I also don't want to end up noticing that I accidentally have twentyfive trumpets in my fictional orchestra or something.)

Was very consistent in my chess & go practice.

Finished the headband I've been crocheting. :) Of course, it's a super tiny project, but I'm new to crocheting* and it's something a) that I made and b) that I can wear. :)

*full disclosure: I actually learned the basics of crocheting about 10 years ago, but I never felt as confident/comfortable as when I was knitting, so at one point I gave up. But I've taken it up again this year - my goal is to keep practicing stitches with regular tension this year and then crochet a striped blanket next year.

[politedemon]

2nd time trying to make this jumper and if i fuck it up again i will simply be killing myself

[knee-stockings]

so I just got my hands on the new Red Heart Granny Square yarn and it’s…interesting! It’s cool to have 5 colors in one skein to eliminate a lot of weaving in ends. Definitely some trial and error to figure out which hook/tension to use when crocheting so that the next color doesn’t start too soon or too late.

Also Yarnspirations has said that only their granny square pattern works (which is the main one I’ve been doing) but I’ve found that lots of people have made variations like the mitered one in bottom right! I’m obsessed.