Weekly recap: Last week I decided I was going to learn how to crochet for my free inquiry and ordered some supplies, meaning I spent most of this week waiting for it to arrive. Once my supplies arrived I organized a bit and got right into practicing. I watched a couple videos on youtube, first was Bella Coco‘s “HOW TO CROCHET FOR ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS | EPISODE ONE” which taught me how to make a slip knot to put on my crochet hook and how to chain stitch. I also watched Simplydaisy’s “How to Crochet for Absolute Beginners: Part 1” which taught me how to crochet a single crochet stitch. After watching the videos I made a few chains to figure out how to comfortably hold the hook and yarn and then I tried to single crochet stitch. This week I also stopped by my local yarn store, Sooke Yarn and Fibre, to see what they had in stock. I met the owner of the store and had a great discussion with her. I told her about my free inquiry project and some of the projects I want to accomplish over the coming months. She was amazing and shared lots of free resources with me, as well as letting me know she could order special items for me if I was ever in need. She gave me her business card and I look forward to keeping her updated to my progress.
Below I’ve included an image of all my work over the week. Each of the chains took between 5-10 minutes and my attempt at a few rows of single crochet stitching took about 2-3 hours over a few days. It may not look like much but I had to unthread my yard and start over a few times which took a while.
Progress, successes and struggles: Ideally I would have accomplished more this week, however, between waiting for my supplies, other classwork and feeling under the weather it was hard to find time. I had a lot of small victories with my crocheting this week. I had zero experience and was able to get the motion and general idea of it relatively quickly. It kind of reminds me of my Rainbow Loom which is a toy/craft I used to love as a kid. One of the challenges I’ve been having this week is trying to control my yarn tension. When crocheting you want the yarn you are stitching in to have some stress, this is called yarn tension. I’m struggling to not pull the yarn too tight as that makes it challenging to pull my hook through. I think that is a skill that will develop with time and a bit more intentional practice. I also realized part way through crocheting my larger piece, I wasn’t doing it correctly as I got a bit too eager and didn’t want to rewatch the video explaining how to single crochet stitch correctly. I’m not sure what the stitch I ended up with is called or if it has a name but I think it looks neat nonetheless. Moving forward I’m going to try and follow along with tutorials a bit closer, just while I’m still grasping the basics.
Overall thoughts this week: So far I’ve really enjoyed teaching myself how to crochet and it’s filled my week with some positivity. I love looking for project inspiration and coming up with different ideas. My great grandma had a yearly tradition where she would knit a pair of slippers for everyone in my family and fill them with goodies as gifts for christmas. Everyone in my family loves her slippers and I hope that over time I can develop the skills to be able to make similar slippers and continue the tradition. I was also so pleased with my visit to my local yarn shop, the owner was so friendly and excited to help me with my project. I also came to the realization that I should probably start with a plan for now as I was kinda aimlessly creating my larger piece which was nice in some ways but I think it would be more motivational to have a goal when creating. I’m hoping over the next week and can get a bit better at stitching and start making small projects like crochet hearts or granny squares.