Since I finished the hat I was making, this week I just began work on a project I was asked to do by a family friend, a small blanket for a baby. I knit it in alternating purls and knits (the two stitches in knitting) and plan to make it even longer so that it is taller than it is wide. They won’t need this blanket until early July, but I wanted to get it done quickly and thought that Genius Hour was a good way to challenge myself to get it done early. I will aim to finish it by next week but I don’t
Because the project is nearing its end, I wanted to reflect on my project and my progression through it. I am happy that I did not just spend the last weeks doing repetitive sewing, and instead focused on areas I actually wanted to target with this project. While I didn’t plan to include knitting, I felt that it was acceptable to add since it is similar to crochet and these hobbies often overlap somewhat. I am proud of my progress and while it may not be a very obvious difference in my work, I feel a lot more comfortable when approaching large projects in both knitting and crocheting. Additionally, I’m glad I learned more about how much work making a blanket out of smaller parts is and I definitely will try to finish the project I started, although I’m glad I didn’t devote my Genius Hour time to it and instead continued practicing with the skills I actually intended to develop in this project. This was the primary goal of the project, so I am very glad that this is the outcome that has occurred and overall I would say that while this project did not go exactly as planned, I am still happy with the result.
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This week, I knit a whole hat! I have included a progress picture and the final picture below.
I am very happy with this progress and glad I decided to expand to knitting as well. Being in this project has made me think about my final goal and since it was originally just to crochet a blanket, I have technically finished it. However, the true goal of this project I would consider now to be increasing my skills in knitting and crochet, and with the expansion of this project I feel like I am satisfied with what I have done. The hat I knit used a technique called cable knitting. You can see how I have done this in the section at the top of the hat where some of the stitches appear to cross over one another and appear like a twist or braid. This is done by using a third needle to take them off the main needle and hold them elsewhere. I haven’t had any actual finished projects I have been able to use this technique with and I am very satisfied with the outcome. I would also like to mention that this is my first time actually making a finished, usable piece with knitting. I wasn’t honestly expecting to finish it this week but I ended up finishing it in only a few days since I dedicated a huge amount of time to it because I was enjoying making it. The main difference between knitting and crochet is that one is done with only one hook (crochet) and one is done with two (knitting). Many pieces can be made in either technique but I personally find projects like hats or clothes to be more visually appealing when they are knitted. Next week I will be starting a small knitted baby blanket for a family friend who has asked me to make one. I have the yarn ready and am ready to start this project although I don’t believe I will be done by the end of Genius Hour, but it will be part of my progress for next week. This week, I continued joining the hexagons. I perfected my method and managed to get 9 of them joined. The major problem I am encountering is that this is taking a bit longer to join the individual parts together than I thought and I am concerned that finishing the blanket to the scale I would like will not be possible by the end of the project.
Each hexagon is about 4 inches wide, and I believe I will try to make it 9 hexagons wide for now until I can add more, making it 36 inches wide. Please keep in mind that this is only for now and I will add more to make it larger as the project progresses. I am thinking of expanding the scope of my project to include knitting as well since I have recently picked up that hobby and would love to incorporate it. Instead of only doing blankets, I could challenge myself to make knitted projects as well such as a hat or scarf. Since I don’t foresee this hexagon project ending up as a full-sized blanket, I am considering changing the course of this project to just improving my knitting as well as crocheting skills rather than blankets specifically. While these two crafts may seem very different, they can be rather similar in some ways. With how I have been able to improve my crochet ability, I would love to focus on knitting for the remaining weeks of the project. This seems to be the most productive approach I can see because of the issues mentioned with the hexagonal blanket. While I do think it is possible to finish, it will simply take a much larger amount of time than is remaining for this project. Additionally, finishing it will not help me with the original goal of the project since it is a repetitive process that I do not think will help me sharpen my skills in the area I was planning to. So, with the few remaining weeks, I want to make smaller projects in other areas I want to improve in. This week, I decided to try out the sewing techniques that I will be using for the final project. I tried a few methods such as using the slip stitch with a regular crochet hook, but I think simply sewing the pieces together will be the most efficient way to do this. If I manage to find a faster method of doing this, I will definitely be switching to that since this decision isn’t completely final. I did sew together three finished hexagons to test out this method. If I do decide to use this method in my finished piece, then this will be the starting point that I will build off of.
This work caused me to make a few less hexagons than I would have liked to this week, but I did finish the unfinished ones from last week and make 3 more. However, I was able to test out a few different ways to join pieces together which I did not know previously. I will be able to take these methods into my future work and continue to learn from them. I want to learn the certain situations where these different methods of joining would be ideal to use, and make sure that my current plan matches the method I plan on using. I still want to make a graphic depiction of how the final blanket will look, and from here on out I believe I want to start focusing more on sewing the blanket together. My goal for next week is to have at least 8 hexagons joined together. If I cannot manage that, I want to at least gauge if I think I can get the project done at the blanket size I plan to do, and re-adjust if I don’t believe I can make it. In order to make up for the time which I lost last week to change the design of the hexagons, I made quite a few this week. I now have 16 in total completed (9 from this week and 7 from last week). You may notice in the photo that not all of the hexagon borders are complete, but I will have this done hopefully by tomorrow. These are done separately because the other color of yarn must be cut off first and the white color for the border attached. I believe that I am getting into more of a rhythm with this blanket, which is a good sign because I had some difficulty completing the last one.
Next week or the week after, I want to test out sewing the hexagons together to make sure that the method I plan to use is viable. I will test out different sewing stitches and research them to see which will be the most effective for this situation. With only 4 weeks left of the project, I feel like I am on a good track to complete this project. I believe I will aim for a slightly lower number of hexagons for the final product since this is my first time doing something like this with crochet, and I am inexperienced in sewing. I may only attempt to make 25 hexagons or less. However, I will need to look into this further to see that I will have a number which will make a square-like shape. I will test this by using a software like Photoshop to make a visual representation of my plan. Please keep in mind that the hexagons shown in the photo below are only the ones I made this week! I still have the other 7 from the other two weeks. I spent the majority of this week altering the previous hexagons that I made for the blanket. I decided to change the design slightly so that it would be mostly the same but the final round would have two chains to emphasize the points on the hexagon. This is what the original pattern called for, but I changed it when I decided to make two double crochets instead of three in the last round. I also added the white border to all of the current hexagons. I made one more hexagon to add to the blanket as well.
I am confident that this will be the final design for my hexagons, and I will be able to spend the rest of the time in the project making as many as I can. I still want to aim for the amount stated previously, meaning I will have to work a little faster, though I don’t believe it will be a problem. If the need arises, I can sew the blanket in a smaller size so that I can have something to show for the end of the project and then add onto it after. So far my decision is to sew the squares together so that I can practice my sewing ability and provide a new area for me to improve on throughout this project. I should be able to test this by sewing two squares together as practice. Throughout the hexagon blanket portion of the project, I believe I have learned an important lesson that you should completely finalize a design before attempting to make it. Although, I think it can still be a positive thing to change how you are working on something if it is not coming out the way you pictured it. Overall, crochet is a craft which is largely up to the creator with a large amount of freedom to make something that you like and feel happy with. This week, I have begun work on the first few hexagons for the second blanket! I have actually changed what pattern I am using. It is meant to be a honeycomb-themed hexagon pattern, and luckily the majority of unused yarn I have happened to be yellow.
I have 7 currently made, but I did change the pattern slightly so I do need to redo one of the rows for two of the hexagons. Fortunately, this will not take much time. I want to make roughly 30 or more hexagons total over the next 4 weeks, which will leave me with 2 weeks to join the hexagons together. So far, I am very happy with the progress I have made. Having half of the project done halfway through the allotted time is an encouraging sign. Currently, I am doing my best to research ways to join the hexagons. I have one method which appears to be the best to use. However, this method of joining was intended for use in projects with square tiles. I definitely want to make a final decision on how to do this at least before Week 8 or 9 of the project. It's possible that I could simply sew them together. I see this as an option especially because I want to practice my sewing skills, and it seems less complicated and less tedious than joining the tiles using crochet. I will have to add the white border seen in the right hexagon to all of them, but this will not take much time. It will also not be too much effort to remove it if the need arises. I also wanted to add the patterns I used just in case anyone was interested. The first blanket was heavily inspired by a website called Daisy Farm Crafts; here is the link to the pattern. The hexagonal pattern for this blanket is a slightly modified version of the Honeycomb Hexagon pattern from a blog called Purple Chair Crochet, found here. I changed the pattern by using 2 double crochets in Round 3 instead of 3 double crochets. This week I have finished my first blanket. I am very happy with my progress on this blanket, and while it took slightly longer to complete than I thought, I am glad to finally see it done. My final row count added up to 50. This is not as large as I wanted to make it, but this was only due to yarn constraints.
This week I made the finishing touches to the blanket by weaving in the ends left over when I switched my yarn so that they are not visible on the finished piece. I also did final work by smoothing out the blanket and fixing up the ends. I intended to use another ball of yarn this week, but I made an error in counting my remaining yarn and did not have any to use. This was what led to the blanket being smaller than I wanted. I have learned one important lesson, and that is to make sure you are using the correct size crochet hook. This blanket should have been larger, but I accidentally used a smaller sized hook than was intended to be used for the thickness of the yarn. This error caused the blanket's stitches to be denser, making the blanket heavier and using up more yarn. However, this can be beneficial in a way because it is more suitable for use in the winter when it is much colder. I have changed my plans for the next blanket slightly. Instead of ordering new yarn for the project, I will use scrap yarn that I have lying around. This will mean that the blanket is slightly lower quality since the yarn I use will not have been intended to use together. This will mean that I can use up yarn that I have no other use for, however, which is why I believe this is the best option. Below I have enclosed three pictures: two of the finished blanket, and one picture of the blanket lying flat folded vertically in half with a pencil for scale. I apologize for the blurriness on the final picture; my phone's camera has issues with taking pictures of faraway objects. Also, keep in mind this is the blanket folded in half and therefore the picture only half of the actual blanket's size. This week I decided to practice the pattern I will be using for the second blanket. The idea that I am following with this blanket is making many small sections then crocheting them together to create a large piece. I have never done anything like this at all, and I am hoping that I will be able to persevere through joining the sections since it is very time consuming to complete.
I found two patterns which I tested by making a copy of each pattern. Since the yarn I will use will not arrive until the week after next, I just used some spare grey yarn I had, so keep in mind that the final piece will not be the color I used here. I plan to use three shades of pink yarn plus some cream yarn for the border. I am thinking this could be used as a carpet for my room or as a decoration to hang over a piece of furniture. I far prefer the left option since it will be less likely to be too crowded with stitches and the second one was incredibly awkward to crochet since the stitches were so bunched together. I had already decided upon using a hexagonal pattern since I was inspired by a photo I saw of a blanket that used a similar pattern, although it used many more different colors than I am planning to. For the next week, I will finally round up all of the remaining yarn I have left in the correct brand to make the first blanket as large as I possibly can. While I am waiting for my new yarn to arrive, I want to make one more practice hexagon so that I can make sure I am ready to use the actual yarn. This week, my row total has reached 50. Unfortunately, while counting my rows, I realized I forgot to switch stitches a few rows ago when I should be doing so every 10 rows. This creates the checkerboard-like effect that you can see on the photos of the blanket made by alternating front and back post double crochet stitches. Because I forgot to make this step, I will have to undo quite a few of my rows of my rows, so my row total will technically reach 50 instead of 56 for this week.
Given that my total is 60, I have finished 14 rows this week. This is even more than I finished last week, and I am happy with this progress. I may not be able to complete as many rows in the coming week, however. This is because I am planning on working on another crochet project unrelated to my Genius Hour project. The reason I have not posted any new pictures of the blanket is because it is rather difficult to view progress through these pictures. However, I will post another photo either when it is completely finished or next week. The progress should be apparent comparing the beginning of the project to the end. I am very quickly running out of yarn, so I want to spend the next week finishing this blanket, then spend the week after working on techniques and the pattern I want to use for the next blanket. One of my largest concerns is delivery time in case I run out of yarn. I thought I would be able to finish with only buying 10 skeins of yarn, however I am not certain if this will be sufficient or not yet. As I progress through the project, my skills are being tested and improved upon. The basis of crochet is learning the basics and building off of it, and I feel like making such a large project has helped me immensely in continuing to master the basic stitches. |
AuthorEva Miller, a high school sophomore with an interest in crochet and a desire to learn how to persevere through large projects. Archives
May 2021
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