Wow, I can’t believe this semester is over and my learning project is done . . .  but is it really? 

• At the beginning of this project i didn’t know a lot about crocheting. I knew a single stitch and realized that I was doing a double stitch wrong. This project motivated me to learn more about crocheting and learn how to read  patterns which have always been confusing to me. I have watched my mom and grandma crochet blankets, dishcloths and so much more. It has always wanted to learn and be able to make different items by crocheting. This learning project was special to me because my family has been handed down many different crocheted items made by family members that have passed years ago. I think of crocheting like a family tradition and I’m glad I got the time to learn some crocheting techniques. 
• I have learnt different types of yarn to use for different projects I was starting. There are numbers for the different sizes of yarn to use. Yarn is also made of different materials like cotton, wool, silk, cashmere, polyester, nylon, acrylic, and more. 
• I learned there are different hook sizes and different hook sizes are used for different projects. 

Of course i learned different stitches like 

• Single stitch 
• Slip stitch
• Chain stitch 
• Double stitch 
• Half double stitch
• (youtube video for all of these stitches)https://www.youtube.com/watch?

These are the different type of dishcloths patterns I have made and used 

• Waffle stitch dishcloth 

  

• Round crochet dishcloth

  

• Victorian lattice square I turned into a dishcloth

  

• Easy dishcloth (First dishcloth i made)
• I have made 4 dishcloths this semester

These are the different technologies I used to help me learn how to crochet 

• OSnap!

  

• Youtube
• Many different websites (which I found the most useful)
• Tik tok 
• Pinterest  

Reflection

• I have come out of this learning project with two blankets, four dishcloths and a lot of knowledge. During that time I have finished a blanket and started a new one. I have learnt how to follow a pattern and now I don’t really need to follow youtube videos. I now know my way around a crocheting website and understand what they are saying. 
• Throughout this learning project I also got the time to research different crocheting techniques like graph crocheting and how to make lace patterns with tiny strings. There are so many resources when it comes to looking for crocheting patterns and so many things you can make. 
• I often found myself crocheting when I needed a break from school or when I just needed something to do. This learning project has taught me a lot of things like i don’t always have to endlessly scroll on my phone when i don’t have anything to do, i now can find a crochet pattern and learn that. At the beginning of my journey Iwas scared that I would lose focus or just wouldn’t be able to follow a simple pattern. I had doubts at the beginning of the semester but I’m glad I decided to learn how to crochet. From this learning project I do have some unfinished projects but I hope to continue my crocheting journey. 
• This project also lets me know how many apps and resources are out there that can help me with almost anything. My mom and grandma always had books with patterns or printed off patterns on paper. I never knew that youtube, tik tok or even pinterest could help me with crocheting. I liked having the opinion from learning from a video or just reading one. 

Struggles 

• One of my struggles was learning how to hold a crochet hook correctly. I found out there was a more beneficial way to hold a hook and it does matter when working with certain kinds of yarn and patterns. 
• One of the other struggles I had was finding new resources to learn how to crochet. I know there are lots of patterns out there but none were good websites or I didn’t think the patterns were clear enough. I also wished I checked out tik tok a lot sooner because tik tok might not have a lot of patterns but there are a lot of ideas on what you could make. It also gave me inspiration to continue because of how good others were at crocheting. 
• I also got frustrated easily too, which kind of was a struggle because if it got too hard I would just quit. Which didn’t help me complete the item I was crocheting. But to get over that i started watching tik toks of crochet projects and that would motivate me to continue and get better at crocheting. 

 

To answer my own question, my crocheting project is done  – no it’s not. I found a new hobby that I actually enjoy. Throughout my schooling I have learnt that I need to find time for myself and I think crocheting is something I could keep on doing because it is something that I enjoy. I also love to see the finished project I made. I liked to choose the colours and see how it would look all together. 

• My grandma used to crochet and all of her items she made were beautiful. This weekend when I was home, I was looking at a decorative table cloth and asked my mom where she got it. She said that my grandma had made it. I have always wondered how to make something like that. So I looked it up! I’m not sure why I haven’t thought about looking it up before. 

• 

• I found a lot of youtube videos but not a lot website that explain the patterns. There is also a lot of examples on pinterest for lace doily patterns. I found this video Crochet Small Lace Doilies Vintage inspired project that explained how to make it step-by-step. I would use the video to learn but I wouldn’t say it would be the best tool for learning. There are words and instructions on the top of the video while they are showing the steps to crochet the lace. I wish that there were some speaking instructions instead of the calming music that is playing in the background. I would use this video because the quality of the video is good since this type of pattern is using smaller hooks and yarn. It’s nice that I can clearly see what is happening in the video.
• Why this type of crocheting scare me. . . the yarn you use is small and I feel like it would be harder to control the yarn. The hooks you have to use are also small and I think it would be tedious to use. Overall next week I would like to create an doily and show it to you all next week.

• When I was scrolling through Tik Tok, I found an interesting type of crocheting that I didn’t even know about. It’s called graph crocheting and it’s where you can make any picture by following the picture that is drawn on to a graph. I didn’t even know you could do this type of crocheting. For my learning project I am not trying this but I decided to write a post about it because I would like to learn more about it and to let other people know what this is!
• Crochet graphs are visual crochet patterns.  Each square on the graph represents one stitch.  Instead of following a series of written instructions, you follow a graph. Crochet graphs are used to add designs and images to your crochet project.  I learned that each square represents one stitch and each row in your graph equals one row in your crochet project.
• I am learning from this site because it easy to read and straightforward. Sometimes when the site has a lot of information and a lot of pictures I find the instructions hard to follow. The site is called wood camper crafts. 
• I think for graph crocheting you can actually use your own pictures if you convert the picture to a graph. I think that is pretty cool because sometimes I feel bored following someone else’s patterns. I first learnt about this on Tik Tok and I saw someone make a cardigan and some shirts. I wouldn’t say graph crocheting is for beginners but something definitely to learn about.
• An example of graph crocheting
  

  @classicskycrafts

  My first crochet graph! Its not perfect, but I love it! Now should I make it into a wall hanging or a bag 🤔#crochet #crochettok #crochetgraph #crochettiktok

  ♬ Makeba – Jain

For my big project I’m working on I chose to make a blanket but I wanted to do one that I have had practice on but also didn’t want to do simple or easy one. I kind of like using a pattern close to my dishcloths I have been making. I realized that granny squares and dishcloths kind of use the same techniques. I mean they are both square patterns but have different uses. I also decided I wanted a challenge because I’m using different colours and switching them almost every two rounds. 

I have been learning what tension means when it comes to crocheting. Sometimes tension is a good thing and sometimes it can be considered bad. It depends if you want the stitches to be tight or looser. I have been looking at Bella coco crochet for some tips and tricks on tension. One that I didn’t really think of is how the yarn is rolled. I noticed that when I was crocheting that I would sometimes get knots and tangles, but the site said that you could cake the yarn and get a yarn bowl to help. It also says it sometimes depends on how you hold a hook and how much pressure you have while holding the yarn. I think that tension is something i sometimes struggle with and it was nice to read this article to help me 

When I went to Michaels to pick out colors for my blanket and decided I wanted a darker theme to this blanket. I thought a brown and darker white would look good but I needed another colour so I was thinking black but then I thought it wouldn’t look good. I ended up choosing a darker red colour and I have been working on this blanket for a week now. In my opinion the colors kind of look like the colours from the 70s. I swear my grandparents may have a blanket with the exact colours I have picked out. Though the more I look at the blanket, the more I’m liking the colours and how it’s turning out. 

• I finished my blanket! Since Christmas i have been working on it and i’m finally done. Looking back on my journey from start to finish, I have learned a lot. I think that the single stitch I was doing is time consuming. It looks nice but takes a long time to complete a bigger project. I learned to research how much yearn you’re going to need because at your store they might sell out.  I liked working on this because it gave me something to do but also made me practice some of the simpler stitches that I don’t really want to learn.  
• I have already decided my next project is going to make a granny square blanket. I’m going to make a granny square blanket from daisy cottage design. I chose this blanket because it’s similar to what I have been learning with dishcloths. 
• This site is neat because there are a lot of free patterns and the pattern for the granny square blanket is even drawn out. There is even a video too. 

  

I’ve been keeping a secret . . . when I picked to learn how to crochet I wasn’t a complete beginner. I picked crocheting because I wanted to learn more about the types of stitches and more items I can make other than blankets. I actually started crocheting around Christmas before this class and crocheting was the perfect choice for me because I already started. Since Christmas i have been working on a blanket. I’m about to finish it and decided to share my journey on making it. Some of the things i have learned when making this blanket:

• Buy all your yarn at once because it might be gone the next time you go buy yarn. I had to use a different colour of green because there wasn’t any of the other green left. 
• Know how many balls of yarn you’re going to use (i’m down to my last ball of yarn and i’m not sure if it going to be enough)
• I learned that I’m using a half single stitch and a single stitch. I thought I wasdoing a single stitch then a double stitch but I learned I was wrong and was in fact doing a single half stitch. 

  

There is a lot more that I learned and I am glad I decided to make this blanket because it gave me experience. Since I’ll be done with this blanket in about a week, I have been recently looking up other ideas for blankets. I have been getting my ideas from Tik Toc. I used Tik Toc regularly but i have never thought to use it to look up crochet patterns. I found many good ideas on what I should try next. I found a project I liked and on their Tik Toc page there was a link to their website. The website is called Yeezhee. There are patterns and many different 3D projects that I have never seen. This website was easy to navigate and it is nice to look at. There are so many different colours and pictures that help me explore Yeezhee. 

• I got bored with dishcloths. I wanted to try something different but something I wouldn’t find too difficult. When scrolling through tik tok i decided to find my next project on this app. I was looking for beginner friendly crocheting projects that would take too long to do. I honestly was having a hard time starting anything this week because I didn’t have any motivation to crochet. I didn’t want to stray too far from dishcloths because that’s the only thing I know how to make. When looking I discovered granny squares. These squares are meant to be put together to make a blanket but I just did one for a different pattern. 
• To find the granny square I wanted I found the site Sarah Maker and showed 25 different granny squares you could make. I wanted to do one that had holes and wasn’t just a single or double stitch. Sarah maker’s site was good because there were lots of pictures and there were links to the patterns for the granny square. I like that there were lots of pictures and that the pictures were clear. The pictures showed what the granny square was supposed to look like and that helped me pick a granny square out. It also let me know how difficult the granny square might be just by looking at the picture. 

  

• The granny square I wanted to learn was called Victorian Lattice Square. When I clicked on the site where the pattern would be, it led me to this site. This site gave a pdf file for the pattern and the pdf file was easy to read for the most part. The site on the other hand was a little confusing. I didn’t like the look of the site, it is dark and doesn’t really look like a website site i would usually use. There were lots of pictures but not a lot of details explaining the granny square. I don’t think I will use this site again. 

  

This week I decided to make another dishcloth because I haven’t mastered reading patterns or even making one that looks normal. I have had a lot of ups and downs during my journey on how to crochet. I kinda got bored of making dishcloths but I didn’t want to do anything that might be too hard to make. When looking at different patterns I stumbled across a dishcloth that was round and thought it would be different from the square clothes I have been crocheting. 

What I discovered that was different about going from square shape to a circle is that you’re not going row to row. You start out different in a circle pattern, you start with something that’s called a magic circle. It was honestly quite difficult starting double stitches into the magic circle but after the twelve double stitches the pattern was easy to follow and I actually found it easier to create a round dishcloth than the square ones I have been doing. 

The site I used was Round Crochet Dishcloth Pattern. I liked this site and I found the pattern easy to read. I do wish there were more pictures though. The site had a lot of ads and almost no pictures of the round dishcloth I was making. There was a link to show how to make a Magic Circle, when I opened up this site there was lots of pictures, a video and step by step instruction. I think this helped because I have never heard or have done a magic circle before. The site was nice to look at and I liked the design of it. If there were more pictures of the cloth i was making, the site would have been perfect. 

When looking at all the sites I have used, I think that it is good to see what I like and don’t like about these sites. I liked all the links she had on her website. It made it easier to navigate her site and look at other patterns. There was also links that led to materials that you could buy. It was good to see the materials they would buy because it gave me ideas of what  needed for this project. 

• This week I started crocheting and it was pretty difficult. I decided to start with a dishcloth because it is something small and I thought it would be achievable within a week. I started by looking up a beginner crochet pattern for a dish cloth and found this site.  I began looking at it and didn’t understand the site. I found the site confusing with a lot of pop up ads. The ads made it hard to determine which was the actual site and just random ads. I made the choice of finding a different site. The site I used was woods and wool. This site was more clear with limited ads. This site was actually set up like a blog and had a menu to find things easier. I liked how the website had a little bit about her and explained how she got into crocheting. My grandma knew how to crochet and I think this connected me with her site. When i was reading the pattern for the dishcloth i thought it was easy enough, then when i finished i realized something didn’t look right. The bottom of the cloth had too many chains making the cloth look ruffled. The pattern was hard to read as a beginner but luckily there was a legend that explained what the abbreviations meant. Overall I think I will be using this site again just because it is easy to navigate and there are a lot of patterns I think I could use.

Getting the materials 

• When looking at what i need to start the dishcloths i used the woods and wool site for what i needed. There was a certain type of yarn I was supposed to use and when looking deeper into the yarn it was supposed to be 100% cotton.  I think I got the right yarn and I knew I needed a smaller hook for this project. I got a pack of smaller hooks to continue with crocheting throughout my journey. 

Reflection on crocheted dishcloth

• Since I have some experience with crocheting I did understand the basic steps but I have only ever done blankets and that uses bigger yarn. This dishcloth yarn was smaller. I had to use a smaller hook which I found challenging and more difficult. I think that for my first dishcloth it turned out ok though I think for next week I will keep on doing dishcloths because I want to make one that looks normal and I also want to make one that uses a different pattern.