In which I find out more things about fiber arts

[cahn]

Crocheting:I am still crocheting. A lot. Because it turns out that I have a lot of time in the day where I need something mindless to do with my fingers (both online meetings and while E. is practicing, which requires me to be close by and reasonably focused on what she is doing because I have to be ready to intervene at any moment to stave off an emotional outburst, but this doesn't require me to be doing anything with my hands). My kids think this is a great development and have started requesting either things I should work on or the end product of things I'm working on.

I have gotten super obsessed with this blanket pattern:


Only it takes forever for me to make one of the big motifs (about a week if I work on it pretty diligently) and I want to make 19 motifs for the blanket soo... we'll see if I've got enough staying power to finish. I've got 5 right now (3 big, 2 small). It's not really very mindless because there's a lot of pattern-following, so it also takes quite a bit more time-that-doesn't-count-as-spare, alas, but it's getting a bit more automatic at this point. On the other hand now my textiles spare time / mental energy is going towards learning knitting (see below) so this week I got nothing done on it.

(Also, lurker person, I've got the fox you linked me to in the queue to make for E for Christmas if I don't get to it before then! :D )

Knitting: So... yeah, I (re)learned how to knit last week :P Partially because mildred_of_midgard informed me that her wife said there was a way to hold knitting differently that made more sense to a crocheter, and then google and youtube searches provided me with continental knitting, so yay! But also because I kept looking longingly at the drape on sweaters and socks and shawls and thinking, gosh, I wish I could do that, and then I've lusted after the knitted version of the hue shift blanket ever since antisoppist showed off the one she made, so honestly I kind of learned how to knit so I could (someday) make it, though at my current level it will take a while until I can handle a "real" project. (I'm crocheting the crochet version, which is fun and which has the appeal that I may actually someday finish it, but which doesn't drape nearly as nicely. Though, heh, A., who does not care about such things as drape, has already claimed the end-product for himself, even though it is all of 10% done. Fortunately this one can be done as relatively "mindless.")

I had legit forgot everything I knew about knitting, so it was like learning it for the first time, basically. (I am also pretty sure continental knitting was not the kind Family Friend taught me but it definitely seems rather easier to me.)

My thoughts on knitting, having tried it unsuccessfully before but with rather more success this time:

-yeah, okay, I see how knitting is addictive. When I learned it before I was definitely not in the headspace for it and now I am -- although I think the real issue is that the thing that actually makes it addictive is the sort of soothing repetitive motion, and when I learned before I am pretty sure I never got to the point where I could do the soothing repetitive motion reliably.

-The thing that allowed me to get there was learning through googling and youtube videos, honestly -- because although it was of course nice to learn from a live person (and for many things live person is better), youtube videos are great because I don't have to be asking the live person every five minutes, "so how do you do this thing again?" and also "can you show me the hand motion for that again? Okay, now very slowly? Can you show me that ten times at half speed? Okay, now I'm going to try it myself. Can you show me while I do it alongside you? Ten times?" Which I think I was not willing to do to poor Family Friend, but man is that a good way to learn how to do something.

-I do feel like knitting is sort of an acquired taste, though, compared to crochet? like i had to suffer through the "omg you mean I have to learn how to cast on before I can even do any knitting?" and the "my stitches are too tight and I can't knit with them any more" and "how do you get the stitches through this needle anyway?" ("I need a hook!") and "wait, what do you mean there is this bind off thing too??" and "now my stitches are too loose" and "somehow my knit 1 purl 1s are becoming a complete disaster and I have 150% the number of stitches I did before" [note to self for future reference: this is because you didn't put the yarn forward enough when you purl] before I could actually start to find it relaxing and enjoyable, and I remember this from last time too (except that I quit before I got to the point where it actually was enjoyable). And even now I feel like I keep making lots of mistakes that I don't know how to fix and I've unraveled things multiple times because I'm just like "this has gone hopelessly wrong." Whereas crochet was much more of an immediate gratification "hey look I'm producing a piece of fabric already and actually kind of liking the process, and when mistakes happen I can kind of figure out why and how to fix them, often even without watching a ton of youtube videos."

-though yeah, maybe socks was a bit ambitious for a first project, what can I say, crochet made me ambitious, I guess. (Also I don't need any hats or scarves, and all the blankets I want to make, I wanted to figure out how to knit properly before I made them, so socks was really kind of the next thing to do. Because who cares if my socks are super lumpy, right?)

-lol, when I learned how to bind off I was like "this would be a lot easier to do with a crochet hook" and then I tried it and it WAS a lot easier :P Cast on too :P

-how does anyone knit with kids around?? Crochet there's only one loop to keep track of, and so when I get interrupted constantly or my child decides he wants to pull out several rounds of yarn (gaaaah) it's easy to pick the single loop back up and put it back on the hook, and when both kids decide to interrupt me constantly I can figure out where I stopped or pull out stitches until I figure it out. And when I make mistakes it's easy to rip out until I get to that point. I suppose once one knows what one is doing in knitting it is easier to know where one stopped and how to pick up stitches and such, but I don't know what I'm doing at all well enough right now. I do love it (and the fabric that knitting makes! oooooh so drapey) but I think I might not be able to handle doing anything that's not both super tiny and where I'm okay with making a ton of mistakes until the kids at least get old enough they're not interrupting me every two stitches.

Comments

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ohhhhhh! I was really wanting to make a sweater someday but was sort of thinking this was not in the cards because of lack of crochet drape, and there's no way I could knit a sweater anytime soon, but. Hm. Now I'm thinking :)

She's definitely crocheted a few cardigans and been satisfied with the results. She says to tell you it takes a long time with thin yarn, but is still faster than knitting.

[cahn]

Ha! Excellent, especially because, omg, I know i'm not doing it very quickly as these things go but I feel like knitting is sooooo sloooow. I should... probably finish up some of these projects hanging around before I buy more yarn, but I shall investigate further! Thank her for me!