Well, I’ve done lots of the blanket, which unfortunately means I’ve made lots of mistakes! The blanket will be fine but I’m not sure how useful my services as pattern tester will be.
This is where it was last time I blogged about it.
Then I had a lovely evening crocheting with my friend lizzy while she knitted a hot water bottle cover. It got this far then
Then I did the odd few rows, and then went to a crochet morning at our church. I did a couple of rows and realised I’d missed something out so frogged. But then I realised I hadn’t frogged far enough, and to get it right I’d have to frog back past my new ball of wool join and lose about 2 inches of work. Well, that would just be too disheartening, so i keep going and decided i’d have a pair of leaves missing and a bigger gap between the flowers.
So tonight I’ve kept going and have appreciated they loan of a spindly spool thing that I put the wool onto so it unravels without going everywhere. Thank you to lovely Ann from church for lending it to me. I normally take wool from the centre of the ball, but i felt the colours would match better if I started from the outside of this second ball.
Here’s where I’ve got to now after an evening of sitting listening to my sister reading a loud from little town on the prairie to my niecephews as I crocheted… I felt like I’d gone back in time!
Just need to make the final flower and then make the blanket the right length and do the border.
Here’s a close up of tonight’s flowers which look different to each other when they’re supposed to be the same, and which have big gapey holes in the bottom edges. Other than those two issues I’m quite pleased with them!
I’m getting better at living with and adapting as a result of my mistakes in crochet, but I’ve realised that I overestimated my ability as a pattern tester, and I’ve also learnt a very important lesson that it helps to tick off the tows on the pattern as you crochet them. On my defence I didn’t do that because I thought I would want to use the pattern more than once, but I’ve now realised that problem can be overcome with different coloured pens!!
I am loving that spindle thing! I always wondered how to use the yarn from the outside of the skein without it going everywhere. I am to the place I make a copy of a pattern so I can mark up the one I am using.
Love the colors in that blanket.
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Thank you. It was just rather a lot of paper to copy when I don’t have a printer at home, which is why I was rather more precious about it!
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That would make a difference!
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I too prefer knitting from the inside of balls, but yes, sometimes you just have to deal with it! Lovely work on the blanket 🙂
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Thank you. I’m pleased how quickly is growing now.
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Hi Julia! It’s great to see an update 🙂 I think you’re too hard on yourself, making mistakes is part of the process 🙂 Just a tip, if you don’t want those little holes to the side of the flower when you make the big flower, you’ll need to use tighter TR stitches. This is something I also struggled with initially, but there is a good tutorial on how to keep them nice and tight here: http://web.archive.org/web/20150721211706/http://www.justagirlandahook.com/the-trouble-with-trebles/
It seems the blog actually no longer exists, but that link is for a web archive version of it 🙂 I hope this helps! And I look forward to seeing your progress!
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Oh cool… Thank you for the advice
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or you just photo copy the pattern to make a working copy and jot down your notes and row counting on that ^^
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I should probably have done that really, only the pattern is something like 17 pages long!
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The blanket looks lovely, Julia 😍 It’s amazing how much you got done 🤗 Crocheting and being read to….what a treat. 💕 Don’t get discouraged…whenever I just wanna put something far, far away, I remember my very first attempts at crochet. 😝 Once you do that you realize how far you’ve come.
I’m looking forward to seeing the finished blanket! 😘
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Ha ha ha! My first ever attempt at crochet was a granny square that was so loose you could see all the individual strands of wool. I wonder if I can still find it in the loft somewhere or if I despaired and threw it away? I certainly didn’t crochet again for several years after doing that!
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😂 Sounds about right 😉 I always thought a gallery of first projects would be a fun one. But most of those pieces are probably in landfills all over the world 😅
But don’t you feel better now about your beautiful blanket? 🤗
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Yep! Definitely! 😄
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Yay! 🙆🏻 💕😁
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Hahaha…this wanted to get outta here 🤣
Where was I? Okay….yesterday I had a ‘brain blockage’ while starting a new project. It took me a few rounds to get to the ‘Duh’ moment. 😜
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I think it’s turning out beautiful Julia! Any mistakes you may have made aren’t noticeable. I love the stripes!!! I also love that spindly thing! When I’m working with 2 strands of yarn at a time or when I need to ball my yarn – I use empty coffee cans to hold the yarn in. It keeps balls of yarn from rolling all over the house and keeps the 2 strands from getting tangled. 😀
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Gosh… I don’t have coffee cans big enough! But that’s a good idea. I’m just glad ann said I could borrow the spindle on long term loan
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