Favorites in Crochet?
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I love those colors, so cute! I'm just doing a bunch of baby blankets becaue everyone in my family decided to have babies at the same time. XD
I'm curious why everyone got started, saw a cute piece or inspired by a friend?
I needed a way to sit through all my familys band concerts, in the era before fidget spinners, and my friend who did both crocheting and knitting said crocheting was quicker because the stitches were bigger. Do you guys find that to be true?
Thank you! the colors were just whatever I had available so they're kind of random.
I had been interested in crochet for a while but I think this thread really inspired me to try! I just started crocheting but it does feel faster to me. I think it feels easier too. I'm getting better but the magic ring that starts most amigurumi projects drives me crazy 😂
Here's my first attempt which turned out nothing like it was supposed to:
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This photo is not stretched 😭
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Out of curiosity, were all your yarns the same brand, material, and weight for your first amigurumi attempt? It looks like a pokeball, so I'm guessing it was supposed to be a sphere and not an ovoid shape. I've never really had something turn out the wrong shape in amigurumi unless I was mixing different yarns together. Though I suppose varying tension in stitches could make a shape go wobbly, too. The little kitty plush is adorable, though, I love it~
I originally got started with crochet because I saw an aunt doing it and wanted her to teach me. No deeper motivation than that. c': I think I was something like eleven or twelve the first time I picked up a hook. I kept it up for a couple years, then put it down for a few because I didn't have time or money for it. Picked it up again in uni after stumbling upon my first amigurumi pattern (a Totoro pattern that I made for my best friend) and kept going with it because it helped me manage stress (and I could make gifts far cheaper than buying something, I just had to sacrifice time for it). Then once I figured out how to pattern, there was no stopping for me because suddenly I could make anything I wanted, exactly how I wanted, as long as I was willing to go through the trial and error process to get the shapes right.
I'm not sure I'd say crochet is exactly faster than knitting, at least not for certain projects. Blankets, though, if you're using tall stitches like US treble stitch, I'd wager it's faster. Though experienced knitters can really make their needles fly, so maybe it just comes down to what is easier for your hands to do.
xe/they/she
Designing is so fun! Once I started remixing patterns and making my own desgins I went crazy with it. I find it really hard to do the same thing twice; I can do it straight when I'm trying to learn a new stitch but after that I have to fiddle with it or rework it to do it again.
I remember trying to make circular blankets - there was a lot of error in that trial! And I only did it twice. XD
& Queenspazzy All this amigurumi talk makes me want to try it, is it easy?
After making a few other things I realized I was doing a bunch of things wrong. My tension was way too tight, I could barely get the hook through for most of it. I also wasn't counting my stitches or following the pattern exactly. 😬 I almost undid the entire thing but I kind of like having it to see how much progress I've made. And you're right all the yarns I was using were different brands. I would love to see some of your finished projects if you feel like sharing!
I've only made 3 Amigurumi type things but I think it's pretty easy! I've only made things using YouTube tutorials bc I still have trouble reading patterns but there are a lot of free patterns on Instagram
Yesss, I love designing! It's really nice to see, like, a motif or something you really like and be able to apply it to things outside of the pattern where it originated, allows for so much more variety!
I'd say amigurumi is pretty easy. Generally you'll only be working with the US single crochet stitch (though sometimes you'll find a pattern made in US HDC or DC), which makes it very approachable for pretty much all skill levels. I think sewing the pieces together is harder than making them most of time. It gets a good deal more time consuming if you get into patterning your own pieces, but I don't find even that particularly HARD after enough experience with shaping from other people's patterns.
xe/they/she
I know about pattern issues, I've been crocheting for over a decade and I've only finished a work based on a pattern once, other than that it's all been my teacher showing me or youtube demonstrations! And the once was mainly single crochets with some simple but nice looking yarn over techniques in pictures. xD Though the symbol patterns or symbol charts or whatever look easier to understand.
I've only just started thinking about using it for some photography projects, so I'm just looking at simple shapes like maybe some hearts at the most complex. Is the stuffing relatively cheap? I've seen some titles and labels on small projects promise a 20 minute project, namely a tiny octopus. I expect there's a learning curve and lots of trial and error, but once you get a grasp of it, do some projects actually take that little time?
xe/they/she
Oh my gosh I love the Cat Noir. I haven't watched that show recently but was watching every episode for a while. I'm still trying to figuring out tension. The cat head I made is supposed to be half as big as it turned out but I used a 5mm hook instead of a 2.5. The spacing of the stitches turned out okay though! Not too many visible holes. I'm so impressed by your original designs, I love the orange MnM too 😋
Yes I need someone showing me what to do, especially if there's a new skill involved! I get confused easily and I get discouraged when I get confused x) I haven't made one yet I bet a heart wouldn't be too hard to make. This youtube channels tutorials have been really easy for me to follow and she has one on little hearts! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Mc8KrIWEM&t=2s I made the cat head by following her tutorial on bubble the catster. 🐱
xe/they/she
Thanks for the tip on plastic bags - I have a ton of those lying around and it saves me a trip to the craft store! I'm just making some little elements to hopefully use as texture in some shots later so thats perfect. I don't even know when I'm going to do it - I'm in the middle of finishing a photography project and two crocheting projects. Well, in the middle of one blanket, I still need to start the other blanket.
Thanks for the video, you guys both said it was quick and easy - but that looked even quicker than I imagined. I might even be able to sneak some of these hearts in on a night or two before finishing my other works - as dangerous as starting a new project in the middle of another one is!
What are you guys currently working on?
My current WIP is a blanket made out of a bunch of eye-shaped motifs (my pattern calls them "marquise motifs," but they look like eyes to me), though I'm not working very hard on it at the moment. (Books, games, and other crafts are eating a lot of my attention currently.) I saw the pattern during one of my regular binges going through pattern pictures online, and immediately thought it would make a nice The Magnus Archives tribute if I changed all the colors, so off to the craft store I went to find yarn. The one I'm doing now is strictly by the pattern, so it'll be throw blanket size, but if I like the way it comes out, I'm hoping to make a bedspread to cover a full-size mattress.
xe/they/she
That sounds fun. I tried googling it but jewelry came up. Which is always find to look at, but... maybe a little distracting. I've not been working very hard on my wip either - it's a blanket made out of flowers - there's a daisy stitch where you shape a flower and you just keep making flowers till it's a blanket - but no asembling afterwards.... I'm not really sure how to describe it. But it's yellow, green and white for a baby girl. Then when I finally get done with that I can make this morrocan tile stitch with black as the second color so it looks like stained glass....also for a relative whose had a baby. Is stained glass a too adult theme for a baby? I was more thinking of the mother who loves black, but I don't want to do a boring thing, but I also don't want to do a weird thing... I was going to use all the dark and jewel-tone colors I had like red and dark blue and dark green and purple for the other colors...
Ooh, a flower stitch with no assembly? That sounds amazing, I don't make many large motif items because assembly takes so much time, and there are always SO many yarn ends to weave in. (The only reason the eye blanket got a pass is because I'm pretty sure I can weave most of the ends in while I work since it's crocheted together mostly instead of sewn together.) I don't think stained glass is too adult, it sounds cute to me! And at any rate, babies grow up eventually, so if they keep it long enough it'll still be perfectly suitable once they're grown!
xe/they/she
Plarn jewelry does sound so uncomfortable! I prooooobably should have said that I was looking up 'marquise motifs' when the jewelry came up, my bad. xD
I was trying to find a video of it to link when I couldn't rightly describe the flower stitch, but I figured out why, it's called a daisy clover stitch and sometimes the clover stitch, but I found it! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EWbEkNhMEs8&feature=youtu.be
Yea, so I'd been set on stained glass for while but I had this doubt when I told you about it, so I'd looked up cool baby blanket ideas aaaand found a cute pattern to have the blanket double as a dragon costume... aaaand then as I was looking it up right now... the kindle version of the book is on sale for $3.00... so now... I'm really tied... https://www.amazon.com/Fairytale-Blankets-Crochet-Fantasy-Themed-Childrens-ebook/dp/B09C1PQZMG/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Ooh, I love the look of that stitch! I tracked down a diagram for it, I'll have to try it out sometime, I think it would make a lovely shawl.
Ahh, decisions, decisions. I have a hard time deciding between patterns when I find more than one I really like for gift ideas. Half the time I just save all of them, I can always use the ones that don't make the cut at a different time. That dragon blanket is SUPER cute, though. I'd be at least half tempted to scale it up to adult size, make one for myself, haha~
xe/they/she
Oh, that totally looks like eyes! I'm guessing some red and black? I thought I saw a magnus archives picture those colors. Or some of them looked black and green? I've heard good things about that podcast, but I can't do horror myself.
I don't know how well the stich will corver to corner, I thought some shawls were corner to corner.
Yeah, I was gonna buy black yarn so I could do either the stained glass or the dragon and just decide later. But my mom suggested dark grey if I did the dragon - like a charcoal as black is harsh and hard to see... which I ended up doing. shrugs I can give it green stripes, purple stripes or red stripes.... but I have some time yet to start being decisive. I also think I'm gonna deviate and do like a crocodile scale stitch because her chosen stich doesn't look enough like scales for me. At least, when I was thinking black it wouldn't have shown up anyway..... also I might go back and swap that grey for the black.... sorry if I'm all over the track / oversharing right now - I had to take one of my meds that makes me a weeee bit loopy earlier.
I was thinking a rectangular shawl, actually, instead of triangular. Although if I worked a square, and then did decreasing numbers of flowers on two sides, it might be possible to make a triangular one... Hmm, I might have to play around with this idea. Alternatively, I could work up a shawl normally and use the flowers as a border if all else fails! Doing up a couple rows in fingering or lace weight would look nice as a border, I think.
I love the crocodile stitch! I learned it to make a scarf with "feathers" on the ends. I'm sure it would look amazing on that dragon blanket! And no worries, I always spend ages agonizing over colors and patterns, my beau usually has to spend an hour watching me run back forth through the yarn aisles at the craft store, comparing materials and prices for a single project, sometimes it helps to just write the ideas down, get them out there!
xe/they/she
That stitch would look so cute as a lace edging! The reason I expect it would be hard to do is that on one edge you work up only half a flower and when your done with the blanket you go back down that side again. When I first used it I made a single string of flowers - I did it properly the first few times - doing half of each flower and going all the way down the line and coming back - but then I did some where I completed each flower and because you made a complete circle around the base of the flower the chain was leaving the flower right where it started pulling the two petals apart - anyway it looked kind of spiral-y, like cute but chaotic. I was actually developing ideas for some ragged-y cowls, like the rope-y knotted style out of it a few weeks ago - but I got distracted by the amigurumi ideas. xD
Your beau sounds sweet! Craft stores are time and money traps - I could just spend hours and hours in all three of them. xD Which one is your favorite?
Yes! I'm incredibly thankful to have someone willing to stand back and watch the madness just because the crafting makes me happy. That they are! When I know exactly what I want to do, I usually look up materials online, figure out who has everything I need in all the colors I need the cheapest, and then that's where I go. Used to be about a fifty-fifty split as to whether Jo-Ann or Michael's was the best choice, they each had similar stock and one of them was always running a sale on yarn. Now it seems like Jo-Ann is always the best choice for price and selection (I was making something in navy and gold recently, and Michael's didn't have either color stocked, I was floored, they're such basic colors), so that's where I usually end up. I love going through thrift shops and bargain stores hunting down yarn, too, sometimes I make some great finds. I have a really nice local fiber store near me, though, that I keep meaning to visit. They have a bunch of hand-dyed fiber selections from local artisans, and various notions and other bits and bobs. More expensive, of course, but what I saw on their website gave me yarn envy, so many lovely colors!
xe/they/she