This week I finished my whale:
I ended up taking it apart and redoing it multiple times. I got halfway done and the pattern said to do a row of BLO (back loop only). I looked up what that was and realized I had been doing a BLO stitch the entire time! The first half of the whale, I really struggled with tension and missed lots of stitches. YOu can see the holes and wide gaps in the top of the whale:
Some things turned out really well! I think the tail is absolutely adorable (took three tries!). I adore the lopsided little fins hahaha. I struggled with some parts of the tale, including connecting the two fins together. There are also some missed stitches and gaps!
I think my decreases and closing stitches look really good. I’m quite proud of how that turned out.
In general, this whale very much improves as I go along, the stitching rows tell a story of my slowly improving.
Resources used: I used a mix of an online, written pattern, linked here, and various youtube videos.
I read through the pattern and anytime an instruction came up that I didn’t understand, I looked up a video on how to do it.
Next steps:
What I would like to do is make another whale with the exact same resource, but add in some colour changes. I would like to compare and contrast my first attempt with my second attempt.
Hi Kelsey, I think your whale looks cute and turned out great! I totally get the struggle with tension control as I chose to learn how to crochet for my learning project and tension control is something I’m working on. I find after doing the same stitch over and over you eventually get in a groove and keep going. I can’t wait to see your future projects!🧶
Hi Kelsey!
Your whale is adorable! I tried learning to crochet a couple of years ago. I was able to make a few granny squares before giving up, but I was debating using my unused materials to re-start, but I remembered the brain energy it takes to figure out what the heck I’m supposed to be doing, and even more so when trying to figure out what I did wrong. This is not an easy skill to learn, so I am very impressed by your whale, I am excited to see what you make next!
Cheyenne
Hi Kelsey,
Your whale turned out so great! I cannot believe that is your first project. I appreciate how honest you are by showing some of the parts that you would like to improve on next time. It is hard to keep trying at something when we feel like we have made mistakes, but we have to be more gracious with ourselves. I tend to be a bit of a perfection so I find the flaws in everything which makes me not like it anymore. I started knitting a few years ago and my first creation was full of flaw. I somehow kept adding stiches which my grandma still can’t figure out how I did. Needless to say it did end up being the same size that it started out as. This had turned me away from continuing on until I realized that I wasn’t really doing it for the end product I just liked creating something. To this day I still knit and am definitely still improving. Thank you for sharing your adorable project.
Karley