The end of the semester is upon us, and the curricular requirements of documenting my crochet journey are coming to an end.  I’m so glad I had a reason to finally get into crochet!  It’s been something I have wanted to try for a while and this was the push I needed to actually start.

Overall, this learning project was successful.  I went into it knowing nothing, and have come out with a solid beginner understanding of crochet!  I’ve learned that I am willing to fail and try again, which is important even in low-stakes tasks such as making stuff animals.

I have learned about various online resources for crochet, which I will share below.. I have gained confidence sharing my thoughts and opinions in an online space.

Here are my weekly recaps of my project, click the titles to visit each post!

Week One – Gathering the yarn, not knowing what to expect.

This week, I gathered yarn, found a local yarn enthusiast community, and truly believed that I would patiently sit and practice my crochet skills before starting the project.  This was incredibly silly, considering I am not a patient person, and I need to see results pretty quickly or I lose interest.

Week Two – Failing at Magic Circles

This is a pretty funny post to revisit, as I have now made about 50 magic circles and they are so easy!  That first week was a little disheartening, but I trucked on!

This week I used two different resources, a website called Sarahmaker, linked here, and Youtube.  I discovered that videos work much better for these basic skills than reading instructions and following pictures.

Week Three – Finished my first whale

It was super messy but so soft and cute, and my kids have adopted it into their stuffy family.

This was a huge step in my learning.  I unraveled and restarted this project numerous times.  I realized halfway through that I was doing my single crochets incorrectly.  BUT I had already added the safety eyes, foolishly, which meant I could only unravel the whale to the row where the eyes were. In the ensuing weeks, I have had to reinforce the fins and tail multiple times since my first round of sewing the pieces together was so sloppy.  The poor whale didn’t stand a chance against the snuggling of two kiddos.

Week Four –  Read all about it!  A redemption whale

This week, I used the Smore website to make a newsletter.  I made a second whale and compared and contrasted.  For whale number two, I worked on changing colours, which went better than I had expected it to!

I started making some Youtube videos to document my learning, and started with a Smore walk-through.  It felt a bit silly, but feel free to watch it!

 

In general, my second whale looked more like the pattern.  Still not perfect, but way closer than the first attempt.  Unfortunately, whale number two did not pass the child snuggle test and this poor whale has been collecting dust.

Week Five – Soft and Fuzzy!!!

I started my third crochet project this week.  My goal was to only use Youtube and watched a video start to finish for the entire project.  This was an incredible way to learn to crochet.  The instructor dropped so many tidbits of information in her voiceover and I learned a lot just from listening and watching her process.  The turtle was incredible, passed the snuggle test and I gifted it to my friend’s child for their birthday.

Week Six – Looking at Apps

This week I didn’t have much interesting to show.  I started a couple ambitious projects and trucked away at them slowly.  I used this week to see what sort of things I could put on my phone that would help out with my learning.  I was surprised at how few useful apps exist for crochet!  I found one excellent app, called Crochet Genius (linked here for Android) (linked here for Apple)and used this week to do an overview of it.

I also learned that I prefer the fancy, expensive yarns over the cheap ones, but girl mathed my way through it since these projects were gifts for my kids.

Week Seven – Finishing a little bunny

I finished a rabbit for my four year old this week!  I still haven’t done the pom pom tail, but this rabbit has aced the snuggle test. This week I did a little Tik Tok video to show my learning and spent some time exploring the world of crochet on that app.  All in all, tiktok is fantastic for giving me ideas for projects, but I struggled to follow along with most of the instructional videos on there.

Week 8 – A look back on my learning

This week was a little stagnant for documenting my learning, so I took the opportunity to look at how far I’ve come since the first week.

Week 9 – I graduated

I moved on from stuffies and started to work on a shirt. This was my first exploration into Etsy Crochet Patterns.  I also used a video tutorial. There were huge steps in my learning here.  Creating something to fit my body, and learning lots of different stitches!

Week 10 – Continuing  the Shirt

I kept working on my shirt this week,  and continued practicing how to wind a skein of yarn into a ball.

Final Thoughts

1. Youtube is an excellent source of valuable educational information for learning new skills!  I found myself going to Youtube even if I was focused on using a different tool for certain skills. I have many Youtube videos saved for future projects.
2. I think online learning is a great way to pick up many skills.  At this point of internet ubiquity, there are countless resources for almost any skill that someone would want to explore.
3. The quality of resources on the internet varies widely and it takes time to hunt down good resources that work for each individual.
4. Documenting my learning was the most difficult part.  I could sit and play with yarn for hours, but spending the time to document my progress, discuss my resources, etc, was hard to remember to do.  It made me feel like I needed something to show and that I had to parade my new, enjoyable hobby in a way that made me look good to other people.  These feelings were hard to get past and I procrastinated on my posts frequently.
5. I thought a lot about the rich history of fiber crafting, and how it was often a time of community, often among women.  I did try a video chat and crochet with my mother, and it was so difficult!  I enjoy the quiet calm of crocheting alone, but it would be nice to explore the community aspect of knitting and crocheting in a group.
6. I really enjoyed the comments I got on my posts.  People were so kind and encouraging with my progress.  It was nice to receive that positive feedback on my work!