8 Tips for Completing A Large Crochet Project

We’ve all been there. You find the perfect project, you buy all the yarn, and you start to make it. You’re excited, ready to go, optimistic, idealistic, ready to plow through this project.   It's going to be great. 

And it is great, for a time, then it starts to suck. From there your disenchantment grows until finally you would rather do the dishes than ever look at that project again. 

Finally you pack it away, vowing to return to it, knowing you probably won't. Even now, years later, you occasionally think about it and a pang of guilt runs through your chest.

I just can't complete a long term project you finally admit to yourself as you start on you 20th dishtowel. "At least I can finish you," you whisper sadly into the cotton yarn.

WAIT! Don't lose heart, it happens to the best of us, and there are some techniques that can help you maintain interest in a long project.

1. Slow and Steady - Just decide that the project is going to take a while and work it one row day or 10 minutes a day. There are two great things about this method. First, you will usually end up doing a bit more than the one row or the 10 minutes, and therefore you progress more quickly than you anticipated. YAY! Second, even if you only do the bare minimum, you will still make steady progress and all progress, even slow progress, is good.  

I've been working this chevron afghan for my niece one row at a time.

2. Pick a large project that is made up of smaller projects and then just focus on completing the small individual projects. Before you know it, the smaller components will accumulate and you will be well on your way to having a completed large project.

These african flower squares are fun to make.

Mile a Minute Strips don't take very long to make and are fun too.

When in doubt, you can always rely on the good ole granny square.

3. Use a variety of colors.

A work in progress is a living, growing entity; changing with each stitch that is worked into it. When you are working with color, this process much more apparent. Each new color changes the entire look, feel, and personality for the work.

4. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Print out a picture of the finished project and look at it each and everyday.

5.  Do projects that start quickly like a corner to corner afghan. This early progress is very encouraging.

6.  If you work well under pressure and it is a gift - tell the person about it.

7. Use a stitch that keeps you interested! This is definitely an individual choice but I find the bavarian stitch captivating.

8. Post a picture of your work on a facebook crochet group page and get encouragement to continue.  

With all these said, maybe you find your joy and inspiration right now in creating small, beautiful projects. Go with it.

Now go on and make something, anything!

Day 147: Why is Everyone Making Round Ripple Afghans?

It is not often that I make an afghan, and then turn around and make the same one again, but that is what happened when I came across this beautiful and well written pattern for the Round Ripple Baby Blanket. 

The round ripple afghan has been around for a long time and a google search turns up many patterns and color variations. It remains so popular because it works up quickly and lends itself to customization in terms of color pattern, stripe width and finished size. And it is easy, if you can work in the round and do a double crochet (dc) and a chain (c), you can make this blanket. It’s also unique - a move away from the typical square or rectangle afghan.

One of my favorite round ripple artists (I think you can call her that) is the woman behind the facebook page Spin A Yarn 32 . She gets her inspiration from flowers and landscapes and this translates into some of the most vibrant and compelling color stories I have seen. It is so simple, but so genius.

The first one I made was a traditional rainbow made with DK weight yarn.

I didn’t love this one. I don’t know, she just wasn’t working for me. I need to be in love with a project, so for now she has been abandoned, too small for a blanket and too big and thick to be anything else. Maybe one day I’ll return to her or maybe I’ll use her yarn bomb something, either way, little rainbow ripples use has yet to be determined.

The next round ripple I made was for my niece, Kaya. 

You see, during my bout with swine flu, I spent many hours lamenting the fact that I had not made enough afghans, doilies, and crochet gifts of all sorts for the people I love. I want them to have things to treasure when I am gone.  As soon as I recovered I decided to make afghans for my kids and all my nieces and nephews. I started with my sister's daughter.

For Kaya’s blanket I used some of my favorite sock yarns from project drudgery. I liked the idea that she would be wrapped in the same yarn as her cousins.  It seemed appropriate. Their shared biology made manifest in snuggly, bright yarn.

I love the way it came out and I think Kaya loves it as well. Although, I must admit that the photographs do not do it justice at all. I still need to work on my photography skills, but that is a story for another day.

The next one I made is for my newest niece, who is set to make her arrival this summer. This one makes me happy!  

I can't wait to see pictures of my newest niece wrapped up in it.

Now time to send it off 

I don’t have another one planned right now but I continue to inspired by the beautiful work people are doing with the round ripple - check out this Pintrest board to get your creative juices flowing.

Day 16: The C2C Craze

We woke up to snow! OK. . . a small dusting. But it was still exciting to watch Trixie stick her finger in it an get a delighted / confused / slightly scare look on her face.

This looks a bit like snow to me.

I don't know if you can see it in the picture but has a sheen to it, like it is covered in crystal powder.  Just like snow.

I've been crocheting for 30 years but I'm relatively new to the online crochet community.  I just joined a few facebook groups and one thing is for sure -  EVERYONE is making corner to corner afghans.

Of course I had to look into this incredibly popular crochet phenomenon.

It is a technique which uses the Crazy Shell Stitch and, as the name suggests, is worked corner to corner on the diagonal.  Here is one that I started last week with left over sock yarn.

While it is not a new technique, the corner to corner afghan has experienced a marked resurgence in the last few years.

Why is this pattern so popular?

It's easy!  Once you get the technique down you only need to know how to do a chain (ch), a slip stitch (ss), a double crochet (dc).

It's fast. Since you are starting at the corner it starts growing really fast.  The quick early progress is really satisfying in a way that other afghans are not.  Although, I must confess, as I approach the middle my work it has slowed down significantly and so has my enthusiasm.  But it will speed up again with the reduction in stitches, so there is that to look forward to. 

It is also easy to customize using various colors. I've started a Pinterest Board to show some examples.

(Excuse the dog hair in the picture. Now that is all I can see, but I am too tired to try to take the picture again. Oh no. I just saw another one. I'm going to stop looking at this picture now.)

What are you waiting for? MAKE ONE!

Red Heart provides the most popular tutorials for the corner to corner afghan.  You can find a link to the written pattern here and the video tutorial here. However, word on the street is that you should use the tutorial done by Mikey from Crochet Corner if you are a beginner. You can find it here.

This is a project that is definitely worth a try.