Category: EDTC 300 (Page 2 of 2)

Despite my wish to move onto plushies right away, I unfortunately still had some skills that I needed to learn. This week, I learned about stitch increases and decreases as well as how to use stitch markers. These are arguably the most important skills that I had to learn as I would be using them the most while creating plushies. I mean… the magic ring skill from last week is really important too, but I probably will only use it once or twice per plushie. The increase and decrease techniques I learned this week will be the method I use create larger plushies or to close them up easier, and it is likely that I will be using those techniques at every point during the creation of a plushie. See the video below for a demonstration of my newly learned skills.

I have a whole host of sources that aided my learning this week. The most sizeable source that I learned from was Hopeful Turns’ How to Crochet for ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS playlist (this is the same person that made the rose video I used last week). I learned how to do stitch increases for the single, half-double, and double stitches, and I learned stitch decreases for the single, half-double, and double stitches from their videos (US Crocheting Terms). I was not exactly sure which stitches I would need to know increase and decrease techniques for, so I just did them all (because why not?). The decrease technique videos from Hopeful Turns were also where I learned that I had one less technique to master. I had assumed that the “Single Crochet Two Together” skill on one of my chosen patterns was some entirely different thing, but it turns out that it’s just another way of saying “single crochet decrease”. Woo Hoo! One less hurdle to get over before creating a plushie!

There’s nothing more annoying than having to put your crochet piece and hook down, pause, and re-wind a video multiple times when you are learning how to do a crochet technique. Hopeful Turns’ videos, thankfully, did not have this problem. Their videos allowed me to practice and execute increase and decrease techniques right alongside them, and they went through each step of each technique several times. There was no need for me to put down my work at all!

Also, the lack of attention span in me really appreciated that these videos were so short. However, I would advise anyone that is just starting to learn crocheting to watch these videos a little later in their learning journey (i.e. do the same steps to progress that I did). The length of the videos means that there is a bunch of information packed into a short amount of time. If you do not know/remember/understand the basic stitches, you will not be able to follow these videos very easily. If you do get to this point in your learning, you may want to put the videos on a slower speed just to be sure of where exactly you should put your crochet hook. Did I do that to make my life easier? Nope. But you should definitely learn form my stubbornness.

My stitch markers. I think I will use the smaller ones for rows/rounds and the bigger ones for limbs.

Once I had learned all I thought I could learn from the Hopeful Turns Playlist, I took a look at my whiteboard list. I thought that I was about to wipe the board clean, but I actually had two more techniques to learn! The invisible increase and invisible decrease techniques were not mentioned on Hopeful Turns’ playlist, so I completely forgot about them. During my search for tutorials, I stumbled upon The Woobles’ Invisible Single Crochet Decrease Video and Knit Grit’s Invisible Single Crochet Increase Video. I learned that the “invisible” versions of these techniques are meant to create smaller holes in a plushie and make plushies “look better” in both creators’ opinions. I wanted my plushies to look the best they could, so I was all in!

Both videos were very informative and actually gave many different ways in which invisible decrease and increase techniques could be executed. They both went through the process, and each of the different ways, slowly and thoroughly which I really appreciated. Both videos encouraged the viewer to choose the method of execution that best suited them. If I’m going to be honest, the open-endedness of the videos kind of scared me. I didn’t feel qualified enough yet to make those decisions for myself, because I still very much feel like a beginner. However, I figured out which methods for invisible decreases and increases were the easiest for me to do (as you would have seen in my demonstration video).

To use the stitch marker for a row, you have to place it underneath only the v-part of the stitch.

Finally, I needed to learn how to use stitch markers. I knew that I would never be able to remember where one round/row ended and another began if I didn’t learn how to use them. PlanetJune’s video on the use of stitch markers was more informative than I could have even imagined. They explained how to use stitch markers for the basic purpose of marking the beginning of a row/round, and they explained how to place stitch markers to mark where sewn-on limbs or embroidered features would be placed. I knew that some of my plushies would require assembly like that, but I never clued in to the fact that I might have to mark where those limbs went.

Overall, I learned a lot this week. I am happy with my progress despite being quite impatient these last couple of weeks to learn the last few techniques for creating plushies. I did not think that I would get through them this fast, especially considering the fact that I did a lot of subbing this week. Regardless, I am proud of myself and excited to see where next week takes me!

Next Week: My very first plushie creation!

Now that I have learned all of the foundational stitches, it is time to move onto the fundamentals that I can use for almost any plushie. This week I tackled the magic ring/loop, slip stitch, front loops only, and back loops only techniques. The magic ring/loop was the most difficult technique out of the four (the other three techniques I did are slight variations of stitches I have already learned). The magic ring/loop is held together only by your hands at the beginning and can fall apart if you lose hold of any part of the yarn. Once you get your fingers to cooperate and create the anchor point, you then have to create whatever number of single (us)/double (uk) crochet stitches that your pattern asks for. This part is difficult because the circle you have now created can turn, wiggle, and warp in whatever way it wants. You just have to deal with whatever it throws at you. However, the last step makes the struggle worth it because pulling the loop closed is insanely cool and magical. Watch the compilation video below to see me demonstrate these new skills.

This shows the base row of chains and the first row of double crochet (us) in a v formation.

I had a lot of success this week with learning all of these techniques, hence why I learned so many in just one week. Granted, these techniques do not require a bunch of steps in order to learn, and the source that I used was very straightforward. The Woobles company is well known in the crocheting space for creating such a large and widely accessible library of crochet tutorial videos. The videos target people who have never done crocheting, and I think that the videos they created can teach most people anything from the simplest stitches to the most complicated techniques. The videos were made to be teaching tools and would be really helpful to someone just starting out. For me personally, they contained information that was a bit redundant at this point in my learning journey, but that just means that I am definitely learning and progressing.

Each of the v’s of double crochet has 6, 8, or 10 double crochet stitches in it. this gives it the rounded petal look.

I do want to warn people about one thing though. The Woobles plushie kits are insanely expensive. When I was looking for sources that I could use to create plushies, I remembered that Woobles existed and wanted to at least check it out. Single Plushie kits cost anywhere from $35-$45 Canadian, and the cheapest bundle I could find had four plushies at a price of $140 Canadian (plus shipping costs probably). That is insanely expensive when you can just find free patterns and use the Woobles tutorials for free. Once I realized that the tutorials were free, I definitely was not going to spend that much money. I did spend roughly $55 dollars on cheap yarn and stitch markers, but I can use those materials for far more than just 4 plushies.

Here is a side view of the finished rose.

However, this week’s events are not over yet. I really wanted to create something by crocheting, and I happened to stumble upon Hopeful Turn’s How to Make a Rose Video. It was easy to follow, and I was able to execute new stitches alongside her. The video could even be used to create different sizes of roses. You just had to adjust how many of each stitch you were doing in order to create those different sizes. I just did the size she demonstrated in the video, because it was the middle size and I was unsure how difficult making it would actually be. However, there are some cuts in the video. Hopeful Turn does not show themselves doing all of each row, and you really have to know your terminology in order to understand each step. Hopeful Turn also writes out the pattern abbreviations of each step, so I got a bit of practice with reading and deciphering patterns (I’ll definitely need that for the plushies).

Top view of the finished rose.

The process of creating the rose did take some time, but it went smoothly once I had figured out how to do for each row. I finished the rose within 2 hours (I think), and I think it turned out pretty good! I am proud of myself for trying it and proud that it also looks good. It makes me feel like I will be able to tackle plushies easily enough once I finish my list of must-do plushie techniques. I really can’t wait to start the plushies at this point. I had so much fun doing the rose, and I just know that the plushies will be a fun challenge!

Up Next: Stitch Increases and Decreases for the single, half-double, and double stitches, invisible versions of increases and decreases, and how to use a stitch marker.

Rose cat says, “Have a good day!”

This is how a video with music, voiceover, and captions looks in the mobile editor.

As the title states, I decided to use Instagram Reels to vlog my learning progress this week. I doom-scroll on there all the time, why not try to figure out another aspect of the app? I used this Riverside webpage to guide me through the video creating and editing process. I first used the webpage to see how easy it would be to figure out Instagram, and I chose to do it on the app since the process was outlined very well on the webpage. The webpage has up-to-date pictures as of writing this and clear instructions that made recording and editing right in the app easy.

This timer was the bane of my existence for a bit.

However, I did encounter a number of roadblocks and issues. First off, I had issues with the video cutting off before I wanted it to. I realized that this timer in the left-hand-side menu on the recording screen was automatically cutting off the video at a certain time, which was creating a great deal of frustration for me. I set it to 90 seconds (I assume) and I had no further issues. I could now cut off the video at the exact time I wanted to. What was convenient was that I could choose the speed at which certain sections of the video would play at any point during the creation of the video. I could change it in the editing phase or set it to 2x speed before I even began recording.

See the very top of the photo for the obscured captions.

Then came the issues with the captions. Instagram can auto-generate captions, which is an amazing feature. However, the auto-generation has its faults. It can generate the wrong words (wait instead of weight for example), but that can be fixed manually word by word. The biggest issue I ran into was that the captions refused to generate during the first 15 seconds of my video, and I could not find a way to fix it. I could not add them manually, and I could not find a video to guide me through that process. As far as I understand, it’s just the auto-generation not working as intended. This issue made me wonder whether or not it would properly pick up on the words of people speaking with different accents. The other issue I encountered was the placement of the captions. The editing tools ensured that I did not place the captions behind the information that usually covers the bottom of Instagram Reels, but did not tell me that it would be covered by text on the top. The video I linked below shows the most readable version of those captions, because the app will not let you go back and edit the video after you passed the editing stage or after you have posted it.

I also was not able to download the video to my Camera Roll after it had been posted. This can only be done during the editing stage apparently, and I forgot to download it before I posted it. I tried to find a way to go back so that I did not have to screen record a worse version, but I was unsuccessful. So, the video I posted to YouTube for easy access is a screen recorded version.

The bottom shows the volume slider that adjusts the music’s volume.

The volume button is on the bottom-left, and the delete button is cut off on the bottom-right.

What I think is a great feature of the editing deck is the ability to adjust the volume of the music that is added to the background of the video. All you have to do is select the music so that it has the yellow outline, select the volume button at the bottom left of the screen, and adjust the volume on the slide. I needed to use this feature as the music I selected was way too loud and nearly drowned out my talking. I turned it down to 5 (probably a little low but I wanted my voice to be heard easily) and it worked beautifully. The only issue is that I had to select a new song for the last 15ish seconds of the video as Instagram won’t let you play a certain piece of music for more than 90 seconds even if it is copyright free. When you select the music, a voiceover section, or video section, there is always the ability to delete it in the bottom right and choose/record something else.

Despite all of the faults I have outlined, Instagram Reels can still be a useful, and fun to use, tool once you have a bit of practice with it. Generally speaking, it is simple, straight forward, and easy to use. I am certain that I could have fiddled around with the editing deck and figured out everything on my own even if I did not have that helpful website. Also, Instagram Reels are easily accessible to a lot of people regardless of whether you are creating or just scrolling. If you have a phone and an Instagram account, that is all you need to get started.

In the Classroom, I think that something like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or TikToks could be used for short videos that succinctly show a student’s understanding of a concept, topic, etc. Depending on the assignment, this form of content could be used regularly at both the Modification and Redefinition stages of the SAMR model. It could be used to create short news videos for a journalism class, movie trailers for novel studies, a method of advertising for an entrepreneurship class, used for a science-related PSA, used in place of a short reflection on a part of history the student has learned about (this would be at the Augmentation stage), and more. Social media is a powerful tool that our students will likely be engaging with for long periods of time every day. Why not integrate lessons on how to use it into our teaching? We already should be teaching them tips and tricks to use for them to be safe on those platforms, why not help them to practice those skills during an assignment? Plus, I think that these assignment options could be more fun for students to do and can bring some much-needed variety into the assignment pool that you, the teacher, are pulling from.

Note: The resource I used for my learning project was Bella Coco’s wonderfully informative videos once again.

Up Next: Magic Ring, Slip Stitch, and maybe Stitch Increases and Decreases

Once I had mastered the chain and double crochet stitches last week, I moved on to the treble and half-treble crochet stitches (known in the US as the double and half-double stitches). Bella Coco’s videos were, once again, very informative and decently easy to follow. However, I began to learn the treble crochet late at night when I was running on fumes, so I did not quite grasp every step that I needed to do at the time. I was also getting frustrated frequently, because learning a new pattern with several new steps and sleep deprivation isn’t exactly easy.

The incorrect square is on the left, and the corrected square is on the right.

The next night I foolishly decided that I had grasped every step, and, without re-watching the video, I created my 1^st treble crochet square. I realized that I had messed up on the first square when I moved on to learning the half-treble crochet stitch, so I went back and re-did it to ensure that I understood the process. As you can see to the left, the 1^st square has edges that are a bit wavy compared to my 2^nd treble crochet square. There were two critical errors that I made. For the stitch at the end of each row on the failed square, I grabbed a whole stitch instead of a loop. This caused the row below it to be pulled upwards and back into itself, which contributed to the wavy sides. The second error I made was where I started each row. I was starting the stitches on the closest hole instead of the second one over. This caused there to be too much yarn on that side of the row, making it so that the area jutted out of the piece. The newer, more correct treble square has softer edges and corners, and the waves that appeared on the incorrect one are noticeably absent.

My Half-Treble square with no issues (I hope).

I took a couple of nights off from crocheting before I went back to properly learn the half-treble stitch and commit to creating a square with it. I wanted to be sure that I was well-rested and mentally ready so that I could cope with my frustration and be able to grasp what I needed to do. My pre-planning seemed to work as the process went a whole lot smoother than the treble crochet incident. Once I had fixed the mistakes I made with the treble crochet stitch pattern, I had already prevented the mistakes that I could have made with the half-treble crochet stitch. The half-treble stitch is the same as the treble, except you just pull through all of the loops at the same time instead of going through them by twos. I created the half-treble square soon after I had started practicing, because I felt more than confident in my abilities.

I am happy to report that my stitch-counting abilities have improved greatly since my post last week. I can now confidently count how many stitches are in a row. My row counting abilities are getting better but are not where I would like them to be yet. I still get confused and am still mostly relying on the fact that I remember how many rows I counted out when I created with them. I hope it starts to get better, because I will have to rely on those abilities when I am trying to follow patterns. I am also getting more comfortable with the flow of crocheting. I no longer feel like my hands aren’t working the way I want them to, and I am starting to turn my hook in the same way that Bella Coco does. I just started turning the hook to face the bottom of the loops I am pulling through, because it made it easier to get the hook all the way through. I realized that that is also what Bella Coco was doing during my half-treble learning session.

As I mentioned last week, I learned about different types of yarn. This week, I figured that I should determine what types of yarn I would need for the plushie patterns I have selected. I am going to the city this week, so I wanted to know what yarn to look for when I am there. I know that I did not want to buy anything for this project, but I am finding that I really like crocheting. I am sure that I will want to continue learning and creating things after this class is over. Plus, the plushies that I want to create will look really bland if I only used the white yarn that I have.

My list of yarn types for the plushies and colours to look out for.

Most of the patterns I have chosen ask for 8 ply/Light Worsted yarn, which I have learned is a pretty standard size for most crochet things. I will be buying all or most of the yarn in that size due to its ability to be used for many creations (and the fact that I do not need a huge cauldron plushie). The last thing I would want is to buy a bunch of yarn that I do not end up using. If I buy any other yarn, it will be one or two spools of different colours in the 3 ply/Sock/Fingering yarn size or 4 ply/Fingering/Sports yarn size.

However, I ran into some trouble while attempting to figure out what I needed. Some patterns referred to the yarn needed as being “DK”, “Weight 3”, or “3-Light Weight”. Those terms weren’t on the Crafty Arts Table from last week, and I was really confused. I decided that I needed to look it up and stumbled upon the Herrshners’ website, which explained that these were even more terms used to refer to 8 ply/Light Worsted yarn. So many terms to learn about and keep track of!

Once again, I can’t wait to tell you about what I learn next! As long as all goes well, I will be starting to move into phase two of my learning journey. I only have one more basic stitch to learn before I move on to plushie-specific stitches!

Up Next: Double Treble, Magic Ring, (maybe) Slip Stitch, and a Yarn Haul (if I can find it and it’s not too expensive)

Bella Coco’s playlist was the resource that I used to begin my learning journey this week. I watched her chain video first, which also taught me about slip knots, how to hold the piece I was working on, and, most importantly, which hook to start with. (Yes, I did not even know what all of the different hooks were for.) I picked up the packaging the white yarn came in, like she had told me to do, and found what hook I needed on it. As I picked up my 6mm hook, I wondered if it would even be big enough to hold onto the thick yarn. I fumbled with the yarn long enough that it certainly felt that way.

The crochet hooks from Mom. Second one from the right is the 6mm one.

This is the hold that works the best for me.

I completed my first slip knot quite easily (although I still struggle with remembering how to do it), but learning how to do the chain properly was interesting. The process made logical sense to my brain, but translating that into my hands was a challenge. My hands are quite small (like smaller than most of the kids I teach kinda small), and I had to adjust my tension hold on the yarn since her version was not working for me. Through much practice, I finally got my hold and technique acceptable enough to create the chain without much difficulty. However, the chains were sometimes completely different sizes and some had to be redone along the way due to them being too tight for the hook to pass through. This means that I could not get my yarn tension to be consistent. I went back to the video and noticed that she used the widest part of the hook to size the loops, and I found that the trick worked wonders! With my clumsiness lessened through practice and the yarn tension issues resolved, I was able to create long chains with consistent loop sizes very quickly.

The top looks longer than the bottom. (i.e. it is warped)

After taking my time with practicing the crochet chain, I wanted to go to the next step. According to Bella Coco’s playlist, the next thing I should learn was the Double Crochet stitch. The whole square started with a chain, so I was off to a great start there. But, I still had to figure out how to adjust my grip to a piece that was now more than just a single row. That hurdle stumped me for a while, and I felt like a child trying very hard, but mostly failing, to refine my fine motor skills. All of the new yarn volume was throwing off my groove. Additionally, I was making my chain row way too tight to fit my hook through, so the extra chain practice actually hurt me in the end. The too-tight-chain also warped that edge of the square and was impossible to fix unless I went back and redid everything. The theme of too-tight-ness continued as my 1^st double crochet row became too tight for me to create the second row. Loosening the tension on the yarn felt wrong at first, but it helped me to actually move past row one of double crochet and create something that looked better overall.

Side Note: Bella Coco’s videos were clear and concise and partnered well with my way of learning, although her hands did get in the way at times. If we had technology that could make a crochet piece hover and not have anything obstruct the view of it, it might have helped me a little bit more. Also, there was no distracting music in the background, so I was able to focus on what I had to do pretty easily.

Once I completed the first double crochet square, I decided to challenge myself by using the smaller, pink yarn to do another double crochet square. However, the packaging of the yarn did not tell me what hook I needed to use this time, and I had to look up “what crochet hook to use with 3 ply yarn”. I stumbled upon a very informative table on the Crafty Arts website, which shows the UK, US, and the AUS and NZ term equivalents for yarn weight, that solved my problems. I found my 3mm hook and got to work.

The table also made me wonder whether or not I had the right yarn weight for the projects that I wanted to do. What yarn weight/thickness would I even need? (That’s a topic for another week 😉.)

My two double crochet squares. Less heavy/thick yarn=more difficulty.

Transferrable Skills I Need to Keep Working On:

• Counting Stitches: Counting stitches is very important in crocheting, because you will not know what point you are at in your creation if you do not keep track. (I am slightly dreading the point at which I will be creating circles for plushies, because circles don’t exactly have edges.) Currently, I have to count the stitches as I go and take all of them out if I forget what number I’m on. I am hoping to eventually be able to recognize all of the stitches and count them without having to do all that.
• Counting Rows: This is very similar to counting stitches, although I straight up cannot do it yet. The one thing I have learned is that I should not count the chain line. I accidentally did this when creating my double crochet squares, so there are only 9 rows in each square instead of the 10 I was aiming for.
• Learning the Difference Between US and UK Terms: Besides the chain, there are different terms that the US and UK use for stitches. For instance, the Double Crochet stitch that I have been mentioning is the UK term. In US terms, it is called a Single Crochet. I will be using UK terms throughout this blog, but I will always try to point out what the US equivalent would be. I also have to be careful when watching videos or following patterns as the US and UK Double Crochet are very different things.
• Keep Practicing the Stitches: Simply put, I will hopefully get better at the stitches as I continue to practice them.

Next Up: Treble Crochet and Half-Treble Crochet

I am genuinely so excited to continue learning about crocheting, and I can’t wait to let you know about what I do next!

P.S. I also want to credit Caitlyn Hartman for inspiring me to create and imbed my own video examples!

Based on the title of this post, you can probably guess that I have very little knowledge about crocheting. All I know is that it involves yarn, a stick/hook or two, and that the yarn is looped around them in some way. I have only been exposed to the end products of crocheting through the things that my Aunt Sandy has created and given me as gifts, the one plushie that I bought myself, and videos I have seen online. I always thought it was cool that my aunt was able to create all of the scarfs, toques, beanies, and blankets that she did.

The bottom two rows of toques and scarves are from my aunt, and the plushie at the top came labeled as “Mushroom Dude”.

Originally, my learning project was going to be centered around learning sign language. I did want to do crocheting for my project initially, but I did not want to purchase anything. I also figured that it would get delivered to me too late. However, I mentioned this to my mom one night, and she remembered that she maybe still had crocheting hooks. We took a quick journey downstairs, waking my brother up in the process, and started digging things out of the middle section of the dresser-turned-TV stand. Lo and behold, Mom still had yarn, crochet hooks, and knitting needles that she had purchased before my brother or I even existed. She said that she had tried to get into crocheting and knitting but found that she liked making rugs more. This means that I will get to keep all of the stuff if I enjoy doing it, which I think is pretty cool.

My Plan for the Learning Project:

1) Learn the Basics. As I said, I know nothing. I need to have a basic understanding of crocheting terminology if I ever want to progress to the point where I can fully create something. (I have taken a look at some crochet patterns online and they are like gibberish to me right now.)

– I found this great playlist of videos by Bella Coco on YouTube and will use some of them to kickstart my learning journey. I have watched part of the first one, and it is slow going and easy enough for me to follow.

– It might be a good idea for me to create a vocabulary list to reference when I am first starting out. At the very least it should be a list of the words and their abbreviations as most of the patterns I have found use only abbreviations in the steps.

2) Learn the Specifics. I really would like to create a plushie and there seems to be a lot of stitches and loops that I need to learn specifically for that.

– The Woobles website has a lot of great tutorial videos for each specific skill/technique needed to crochet plushies, and I can access them for free. I will likely use those to learn more advanced aspects of crocheting.

3) Create a Final Product. My main goal for this learning project is to create a plushie. I might be overestimating my learning abilities in the timeline that we have for this class, but creating my own plushie is something that I eventually want to do someday.

-If I find that this beyond my reach, I might switch my goal to creating a blanket or something of similar difficulty that is smaller.

-For this final product, I will likely be using patterns uploaded by various people from the LoveCrafts site, which seems to have plenty of free patterns that I can follow.

These are some of the flat duct tape flowers that I kept for myself.

I have always wanted to be crafty and create something with my hands that wasn’t typed out on a computer screen and handed in for marks. Something that could be used to create both fun and useful things. My younger self created wallets and flowers out of colourful and patterned duct tape (and created a mini-business for a year or two by selling them to my classmates), although I have pretty much grown out of that. Learning how to crochet can maybe help adult me to fulfill that need again. Regardless, I am ready to learn something new and hopefully create something I can be proud of. Also, I hope I don’t get too overwhelmed or frustrated along the way.