Category: Learning Project (Page 1 of 2)

Going into this learning project, I did not know just how much I would come to enjoy crocheting. I had a feeling that I would enjoy it, but I certainly did not think that it would become one of my staple hobbies in such a short time. I always need something to fidget with, and crocheting has been filling that gap for me when I watch videos and movies, am in class, or when I am bored and have nothing else to do. Plus, I get something cool, fun, and/or practical/useful when I am done.

Throughout the course, I have been able to go from a basic beginner to someone who can follow random patterns and adapt them with at least some success. I have outlined my journey below:

Week 1

Introduction Post: What Is Crocheting?

• I identified some of the crocheted things that I had been gifted or have bought myself over the years.
• I identified my goals for the semester, and outlined the steps I would take to achieve them.
• Includes links to the primary resources that I used throughout the semester.

Week 2-4

Learning the Basic Stitches: Chain and Double Crochet, Treble and Half-Treble, and the Double Treble

• In these weeks, I was learning the stitches that I would need for any and all crochet projects I would ever attempt. I wanted my foundation skills to be strong.
• I created several videos and included several photos in each post to document my progress.

Additionally, I learned:

• The difference between UK and US Terms.
• How to count stitches and rows.
• What different ply and weight numbers were, and the differences between the UK, US, and AUS Terms are.
• The weight of yarn I could use for my projects.
• How to create Reel videos on Instagram (which I would then use to create and edit all of my subsequent videos).

Weeks 5 & 6

Learning Plushie Specific Skills: Plushie Fundamentals 101 & Plushie Fundamentals 102

• I learned how to do the magic ring/loop, slip stitch, front and back loops only, stitch increases, stitch decreases, and invisible stitch increases and decreases.
• I learned how and when to use stitch markers.

Creations

• I created the crochet rose during the “101” week.

Week 7

I created my first plushie! A Duck!

• I learned how to read a written pattern! (very important)
• I learned how to close up a plushie. (also pretty important)

Week 8

My second plushie: The Side-Eye Dino!

• I found out that embroidering was easier before the plushie had been stuffed.
• I learned that I need to double-check what terms (UK or US) the pattern is using!
• I learned how to re-connect yarn to a hole in order to create an appendage (like a tail) using a standing double-crochet stitch.

Week 9

I created mini versions of Deadpool and Wolverine!

• I learned how/found my own way to switch yarn colours on any crochet project.
• I learned that tension is very important when it comes to creating identical things that are the same size.
• I learned how to work with felt and got comfortable with working with it.
• I got slightly more comfortable with re-jigging a pattern to fit my needs/available resources.

Week 10

Plenty of Christmas Creations!

I created, or was beginning to create, a frog, another dino, a mini murder, a cat sweater, and a dishcloth.

• I created my very own pattern for a top hat! (Yes, it was small, but I am still proud of it.)
• I adjusted a Chihuahua pattern on the fly to meet the sizing requirements for my cat. (Big progress there!)
•  I figured out how to crochet on the side of a piece that does not have defined stitches to go off of.

My Thoughts About Learning Online

For me, learning online is my strong suit and something that I honestly prefer doing. Yes, I do learn a lot from the classes that I have, face-to-face or Zoom, but I love to learn on my own time and at my own pace. Online spaces allow me to do that. I can also go down the rabbit holes that I want to go down rather than be forced to explore some rabbit holes at the surface level (if you know what I mean). For instance, the completely asynchronous classes that I have taken are ones that I have enjoyed the most. It is a curated group of resources and highlights about what I have to learn, and I have the freedom to dive in whenever I am ready to. Although, I will always miss the discussion parts of most face-to-face classes as they can reveal perspectives to me that I never would have thought of.

For my learning project specifically, I am grateful that I live in an age where I can find videos that physically show me exactly what I have to do for a technique. When it comes to skills like crocheting (or my old hobbies of dancing and skating), I learn better when I am physically shown a skill instead of having it described to me. My mother was jealous of me throughout this learning process, because she learns in a similar way and never had the technology that would have given her the same opportunities to learn crocheting. Without the video and picture resources I used, I would not have been able to get to the skill level where I could read the steps for a technique or pattern and understand exactly what I had to do.

I also recognize that online learning is not for everyone. If my method of learning does not work for you, I am sure that there are a bunch of people and groups out there that would be willing to help you and pass down their knowledge.

Final Thoughts

At the beginning of the semester, I truly did not believe that I would progress, or feel confident, enough to be able to create plushies. I remember the skill of crocheting plushies being deemed by many different sources as including some of the most difficult crochet techniques. I was definitely intimidated. However, I learned and absorbed crocheting knowledge faster than I could have dreamed to.

Despite all of my success, I am still not the biggest fan of doing the embroidery parts of the plushies as I do not feel that I am the best at it just yet.  Realistically, I just need to get better by practicing, find alternatives, like felt, that can produce a similar product, or start creating pieces that do not involve embroidery.  I mean… I found patterns for, and am planning to create, a cardigan and a couple of blankets, because they look cool and I want to see if I can pull off pieces that are really big. Maybe I will one day I will even be able to create my own patterns, but that’s still going to take some time.

I am grateful that this class gave me an opportunity, or rather forced me, to put aside some time for myself to cultivate a skill that I had been interested in learning for a very long time (and a skill that can get me out of having to stress out about actually buying people presents when I don’t know what they want). Thank you for this class, and thank you for this project!

My placement of the Frog’s legs.

There has been a lot going on in the past couple of weeks. Large snow storms, plans for family gatherings being set, me getting a month-long temp job, and more. While it has been a bit of a rough time, at least I could use all of the extra time I gained from being snowed in to start a bunch of crochet projects. However, it got so busy after those few days that I haven’t been able to finish most of them. A lot of them are quite close to becoming completed, but I just haven’t had the time or the motivation to do so. This is a bit odd since I apparently have the motivation to start new things, but it just is what it is.

Almost finished!!

As for the finished pieces, the first is this frog. The pattern was created by CabinInTheWoodsFR and I found it on the LoveCrafts website. It was easy to follow and outlined everything decently well. There were no reference pictures on this pattern other than the one on download page’s preview, so beginners should maybe try a different plushie or two before doing this one. In other words, get confident with reading and understanding patterns first.

Finished and looking dapper!

I think that the frog is cute! In terms of construction, this was a relatively easy project. It involved creating a large ball and then sewing a couple of very small pieces onto it. I did deviate from the pattern a little bit since I felt the pattern’s leg positioning looked too human, and I wanted to it look more like a frog. So, I just sewed the feet on the bottom and placed the back ones wider apart to give them a more frog-like look (as much as nubs for legs can actually do that). I also decided to use the plentiful felt that was left over from the Deadpool and Wolverine plushies to do the eyes instead of embroidering, because I felt that using the felt would be easier and take less time. I also added a top-hat because I felt that the frog needed an accessory. I think it looks quite dapper now. All I did for this was 5 double crochet stitches in a magic ring, 3 rounds of double crochet stitches in each stitch (5 total stitches in each of the 3 rounds), and 1 round of double crochet stitch increases in each stitch (10 total stitches in the round). This is in UK TERMS!

The sweater was almost finished here.

I also decided that my short-haired cat, Luna, needed a sweater so that she could brave the snow for longer. I followed this pattern by Niftynnifer’s Crochet & Crafts that I found on the ApronBasket website. The sweater was originally meant for a chihuahua, so I had to adjust it for my cat as I went. I was mostly successful. If I am going to be honest, the neck part of the sweater is a bit too long for her and I placed the stomach strap too far back on it. The sweater certainly works as intended, but it seems to just be a little too uncomfortable for her right now. I am trying to figure out some ways (and trying to find some time) to adjust the sweater so that the strap is less of a bother for her, but she is tolerating it (and me) for now. I truly do not know how well she will respond to this sweater over time, but I though it would be a fun thing for both me and her to try.

Luna with the pretty much finished sweater on!

As for the unfinished pieces, they are meant to be presents for my internship co-op teachers. I felt bad about not being able to gift them something last year, and I wanted to send them something this year to show my appreciation. I still am low on money due to the Inclusive Education Certificate that I am currently pursuing, but I now have a new skill that I can use to create something handmade that will hopefully come across as something more meaningful. Although, it is turning out to be more like a New Year’s gift with the mail strike and the fact that I might not finish everything before half of this month is over.

• The first unfinished creation is a dino that is in the Kipling school colours. I used the same pattern that I did with the last dino. I have this 90% done as I just need to embroider the blush and mouth. The frog is also meant to be a part of this gift, because frogs often represent wisdom and this co-op teacher had a lot of experience, taught me a lot, and is wise.

The front view of the unfinished Dino.

The side view.

• The second, third, and fourth unfinished creations are a mini murder of crows (yes, a group of crows is called a murder). Their bodies are finished, but, like the dino, I need to put some finishing touches on the faces. Eyes and beaks are all that’s left. I followed the duck pattern that I used for my very first crochet plushie creation.

The buttons in that lid are going to be their eyes!

• The last unfinished thing is the dishcloths. I wanted to give both of them something that could be used practically along with these plushies, and I figured that dishcloths would be something I could do that was faster and easier than other things. I used this pattern from Crochet Dreamz that I found on ApronBasket.
  1. I have created a test dish cloth. I switched the yarns too early, so the white border is a bit bigger than it should be. The stitches of the border also look lopsided due to the fact I did not place each stitch the exact same distance away from the edge of the piece.
  2. I also had to literally test this cloth as a dish cloth, because I do not have the best yarn. The cloth works just fine and is okay in the washer and dryer at normal/medium heat levels with other things. It did seem to shrink slightly, but it was not noticeable until I literally measured the length and width of it. Jeanette’s Blog Post did tell me that acrylic yarn is okay to machine wash as long as it is not going to get washed constantly, gets washed with other things, and is not dried on an extreme heat. If these things do happen it could get more rigid and less soft (it is the opposite of that right now). I mean, realistically the dish cloth being a little bit rigid is a good thing as that should help with getting rid of the hard stuff on dishes more easily.
     

     My (mostly) successful test dish cloth. I used a yarn that changed colour as it went, and it somehow came out with this cool diagonal pattern!

Thank you for following my learning journey, and I hope you enjoyed seeing my creations as much as I enjoyed learning and making them!

Up Next: How Far I’ve Come

The finished and stuffed Deadpool head.

As I mentioned last week, I realized that I needed to start thinking about some Christmas gifts for my family. I am currently a cash-poor student, so I wanted to find something that costed little but still felt like enough. My family won’t expect much from me as they know my financial situation, but I still wanted to give them something. I stumbled upon this new website, ApronBasket, that had a bunch of new and cool patterns. I found a bunch of blanket patterns and a sweater pattern that I liked, but I also found patterns for small Deadpool and Wolverine plushies that were created by eliyarnart. (These patterns are laid out well, are easy to follow, and have helpful pictures to ensure that you are on the right track. I would recommend these patterns to anyone who is interested.) I went to see the Deadpool and Wolverine movie with my Mom and Dad in Humboldt this summer, and I figured the plushies would be a cool memento of that.

I started with the Deadpool plushie, because the winged mask of Wolverine one was intimidating. Long story short, I accidentally picked the hardest one first.

The little legs.

The finished and stuffed legs and body.

The head of Deadpool was easy to start and complete as it was similar to the base of the other plushies that I had completed. The legs and body, however, were a rough time. I had issues with different tensions in both legs so they are different sizes unless you carefully mold them to look similar. I was not about to retry the one leg because switching the yarn colours (red to black and back) was painful. I originally used the method I learned from this YouTube short by HollyAuna (very informative, very clear), but I was worried about the ends not staying where they should.  In the end, I just started tying knots when changing the yarn colours, because I could hide them on the inside of the plushie. I had to make the knot far away enough from the inside wall of the plushie so that I had some slack in the yarn to work with, but had to put it close enough that it did not mess with the tension of the next stitch. I was mostly successful at finding that happy medium.

Little arms.

The finished project (pink belt and all).

When I tell you that changing the colours was tedious, I mean it. I had to change colours every few stitches and had to double and triple check that I did the right number of stitches prior to switching colours, because I couldn’t exactly go back and fix it. The body realistically didn’t take me that long to do, but I would not want to do it again because of all of those colour changes

Finished and stuffed Wolverine head.

Less colour changes. Yes!!!!!

The arms were not as bad to do as it was only one colour change. However, I did stuff the arms even though the pattern told me not to. The flat arms just did not sit well with me, so I decided to just put a little bit of stuffing into the arms to get the exact shape I wanted. Sewing all of the parts together was easy to do as well, although I did poke myself a lot when I was sewing on the arms and the belt. (Also, the belt was supposed to be brown, but I only had peach. I figured that Deadpool wouldn’t care too much about that. Probably would make him feel more fabulous.) The eyes weren’t even that bad to do either even though I had to do some precise cutting. With some felt and fabric glue that I procured in Saskatoon on a recent trip (before all of the snow happened), I created a paper pattern that was the shape and size I wanted, cut the felt based on that, and glued everything together. I am proud of how it came together!

I marked the front of the plushie as well as the places for the stripes.

I had to pin the black felt as the glue dried, because it need to wrap around the head a bit.

Next came Wolverine, which I was able to finish much faster. Wolverine was much easier to do, although there still were a good amount of colour changes. There were colour changes in the legs and arms, but only one or two per appendage. The worst area was the face where Wolverine’s actual skin colour is supposed to show. Also, I had to adjust the number of stitches I was doing with my skin-colour yarn as the yarn I was using was a much smaller size. The math was difficult to do, but somehow not as frustrating as the yarn changing of Deadpool. I messed up on one of the skin colour rows, but I used the felt mask/eyes to hide that mistake, so it’s fineeeeeeee.

Wolverine’s assembly was also easy, although I did almost put the head on backwards (oops). I believe that the felt portions of this plushie are done pretty well too. I was worried about the black part not having the right size or shape, but I think my paper patterns and cutting skills were even better this time around!

Front view of the finished Wolverine.

Side view of the finished Wolverine.

Overall, I am very proud of my creations this week as they pushed me to learn a new skill, crossed some things off of my Christmas shopping list, and increased my crocheting skills overall.

Up Next: Christmas Gifts Intensify

This is the half-completed dino body.

If I’m going to be honest, I was kind of disappointed with the fact that the duck from last week was so small. I should have completely expected it as the final size was mentioned in the pattern, but I was still kind of shocked at how small it was. To ensure that I would create something a bit larger, I decided to choose the  Mini Dino pattern made by Handmade by Ani that I had found on the LoveCrafts website. I loved how the finished examples of the plushie looked, and I wanted to create one for myself.

Embroidering was much easier with the ability to flatten the main piece.

I got off to a rough start, because I somehow started the plushie by going in the wrong direction. I am right-handed, so I crochet right-to-left. For a plushie, that means that I would be looking at the outside of it while rotating the plushie counter-clockwise as I work on it. The opposite would happen for people who are left-handed. I apparently unconsciously decided that I wanted to do it the left-handed way, and I ended up doing a couple of rounds before realizing that I was straining to look at the inside of the plushie (which is a no-no). I could have maybe continued on this way, but it would have just caused me a lot of issues later on and I wanted to avoid that.

Front view of the fully completed and stuffed body.

My other part of the rough start was not completely realizing that the terminology for this pattern was in UK terms, unlike the Duck pattern which was in US terms. I was very confused for a few rounds and ended up decreasing when I should have been doing a regular double crochet stitch. Lesson Learned: Double check what terminology is used and ensure you know what each abbreviation actually stands for on each and every pattern.

On the plus side, I had a much easier time with the embroidery. I did not poke myself nearly as much, and I felt that this face (especially the eyes) turned out better than the Duck’s did. I am very proud of the progress that I made there. Additionally, the stitching of the body went very smoothly, and I was confident in my ability to do that throughout the piece. I quite enjoyed the process of doing it too.

The 4 spikes.

Unfortunately, the good times were not going to last. I decided to skip the tail and do the spikes first. I had a lot of issues getting the spikes done as I was keeping the tension too tight, and the purple yarn that I used was really dark (which made it hard to see all of the individual strands unless it was under intense light). I kept having too many or not enough stitches in a round, and I was frustrated by time I finished them. If you look closely enough at the pictures, you can tell which one of the spikes got a little messed up because of these issues and me accepting defeat. It’s not horrible, just slightly noticeable. Then came the challenge of the tail.

The beginning of the dino’s tail.

I should note that the pattern was relatively easy to follow. Most of the things in it were things that I had already encountered, and it was laid out very well for a beginner crocheter and pattern-reader. However, the tail part of the dino started with a standing double crochet stitch. I had no idea what that looked like or what it was and I was stressing out real bad over it. I had to take a break from crocheting for a few days for reasons beyond my control, so I was stressed about it for longer than I needed to be. Handmade by Ani, the pattern creator, had a couple of linked videos that they suggested I use for this process, and I was at least glad for that direction.

When I finally sat down to attempt this new stitch, I was very confused. There were two videos linked and described similarly, so I did not know which one to pick. I just went with the first one, and that was a mistake. Knot too Shabby Crochet-Melanie’s video is probably a good one, but it did not help me with what I was trying to do. It just confused and frustrated me more as it did not explicitly explain a standing double crochet stitch. I crossed my fingers as I clicked on the second link, and it definitely did not let me down. Tamara Kelly – Moogly explained clearly and concisely how to do the standing double crochet stitch, and I caught on quickly. All I had to do was a slip knot and then a regular double crochet stitch. So much stress for something that ended up being so simple.

The big holes before.

The non-holes after.

The rest of the assembly went well. I finished up the tail easily, used some extra yarn on the end of it to cover up some of the larger holes around the tail, and began to sew the spikes on the dino’s back. I used an X or crossing pattern on the spikes to lock down the sides of each spike, and then I went up and down to secure the fronts and backs of each spike. Safe to say that those spikes aren’t coming off anytime soon.

The spikes pinned into place.

Overall, I am proud of this plushie, especially the embroidery. The side-eye was kind of an accident but I think that makes it look even better. It gives the dino character as one of my family members said. Despite the frustrations I had, I think that I would create another dino. Now that I know what to expect, this pattern is not as daunting as it was before.

Finished Dino from the front.

Finished Dino from the side.

Up Next: Plushies as Christmas Gifts??

The upside-down duck head.

As you maybe guessed from the title of this post, my first plushie creation is a duck! (What makes the title even funnier is that I don’t have any grapes at the moment.)

The rubber duck-like plushie seemed like a good place to start. It seemed like a small plushie and the pattern had simple techniques that I felt I could execute well. The pattern made me feel like it would be hard to find something to mess up and easy to fix any mistakes I made. For a beginner plushie-maker, this eased my already high anxiety.

Most of the duck’s body.

The Daisy the Duck pattern was posted onto the LoveCrafts site by creator FollowTheYarn. The pattern was free and came in an easily accessible PDF format. The pattern is very short, as the duck is meant to easily fit in your palm, so the steps themselves only cover 2 of the 4 pages. The other 2 pages contain a list of necessary materials, what each of the abbreviations in the pattern stand for, and a very large final project picture. Speaking of pictures, there were plenty of pictures showing several of the different stages of the duck’s creation. This also helped to ease my anxiety, because I could reference those photos to ensure that I was on the right track. Above all, this was a decent pattern for a beginner like me to start their plushie journey with. (Minus the beginner-unfriendly issues that I describe below.)

Had to add some stuffing next!

There were several roadblocks that I came across (which any great journey contains). Due to plushies being circular or circle-adjacent, I needed to use a stitch marker to ensure that I knew where I was at in each round/row and when to switch to the next one. I found that also counting the stitches in each round after I had finished it, and ensuring that the final total matched what the pattern said, was a good way of double-checking my work. (I thank myself for learning how to count stitches and use stitch markers before this point.) I thought that these strategies and the skills I learned before would be all I needed to execute the pattern properly. Oh, how I was wrong.

This is round 3. It reads: 1 single crochet first, 1 single crochet increase second, and repeat that 6 times. The 18 just states the number of stitches that you should have when you are done that round.

The first actual roadblock I faced was just reading the pattern itself. I got to Round 3 and thought, “What the heck is this?” (This was maybe said in more colourful language. Probably.). I had no idea what the brackets or the comma meant, but I at least knew that single crochet stitches and single crochet stitch increases were involved. I searched in desperation for help and found Amy’s Amigurumi Adventure’s video. Their video not only taught me how to read that exact round of the pattern, but also taught me the exact meanings for the brackets, the comma, and the number at the end of everything. I applied this new knowledge as I was following the rest of the pattern. Crisis #1 averted.

This is the completed body of the duck.

Crisis #1.5 was a mixture of tension issues and large spaces between stitches. I originally blamed the yarn for its strands splitting apart and causing me issues, but, in hindsight, I think I was just making the tension wayyyyy too tight. Also, I wanted to ensure that the holes were small, but I think I was just being really picky because none of the stuffing has decided to pour out of them yet. I think that I was also too harsh with the larger holes that were caused by the increases and decreases (compared to the regular stitches). I did a comparison between the regular and invisible versions after I finished the duck (I used the invisible versions on the duck even though it was not specifically called for), and I definitely made the best choice to get the smallest holes. Crocheting is always going to leave behind some holes, and I just gotta deal with that.

I had to pin the beak in place since I needed my hands in other places.

Crisis #2 came when I had to close up the plushie. I had assumed that the pattern would guide me through that process, but, much to my dismay, it did not. Once again, I had to look to an outside source for help. I decided to head back to the Woobles tutorial page, since I knew for sure that I could find what I needed there. I was surprised to find no video when I clicked on the How to finish amigurumi link, but the 4 pictures with short, well-explained text under each were easy enough to understand, and I had my duck closed up in no time.

Beak on and one eye done!

The last steps were to create the beak and sew it and some eyes on to the duck’s face. The pattern called for button eyes, but I felt like I could embroider them decently enough. I also did not want to go downstairs to raid my mother’s button jar and probably not find matching eye-buttons anyways. Admittedly, the sewing and embroidery were probably the hardest parts of this plushie as I have not really practiced my embroidery skills at any point in my life. I was also doing this on a piece that was not flat, so that added to the difficulty level. The beak may be a little bit crooked and the eyes a little beady, but I think that I still did a pretty good job for my first real try at something like this.

Overall, I am proud of my palm-sized duck plushie. There was a lot that I had to learn in a short time, but I didn’t give up mid-plushie nor when I poked myself with the embroidering needle many, many times. There are kinks in my process that I have to work out still, but I am still excited to try another plushie!

Up Next: Doug the Mini-Dino

Distinguished Duck Cat.

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!