Getting round the tedious

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My last post featured my new blanket design for Black Sheep Wools. I hope you like the design – if you don’t crochet you might think, ‘ah, that looks pretty, I should get round to learning.’ If you are a crocheter, you might be thinking, ‘Should I start a new project?’, ‘I should finish the other 3 projects I have in my basket first?’, ‘I can see how many colours are used in that blanket, that is ALOT of sewing and weaving in ends.’

Let’s face it, some crochet projects are a breeze and others need dedication. What we need is a little psychological motivation and an eye on the prize. When I have a large project that I need to finish I have a couple of techniques I use to keep myself on track.

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1. When joining squares or hexagons for a blanket I always like to join as I crochet. It is not the easiest  method but certainly it ensures that you can see the blanket growing and the joins are robust and less likely to unravel. The Garden Route Blanket uses this technique and I have some photos in the pattern to help with this process.

2. Break the project up into sections. I either work in rows, or set myself a goal of how many motifs I will make in one sitting. Often when I am finished at the end of the day I might lay out my crochet on a chair and have a sneaky wee ‘admire’, before putting the project away in the basket.

3. Weave in ends as you go. For this latest blanket, when I got half way through joining the squares, I did all the weaving in of the ends. This ensured that it wasn’t a mammoth task at the end of the project.

4. Set yourself a fake deadline. My design work usually has a deadline. I really don’t like missing these dates, so I tend to set myself a fake deadline just so I can avoid missing crucial dates. Hopefully for you crochet and knitting is a relaxing hobby, where you can avoid the stress and time restraints of life. However we have all promised to make baby blankets that have been sat in the project basket way past the due date, and in some cases those babies have been toddlers before their blanket has arrived. Set yourself a realistic time-scale and a fake deadline.

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5. If you hate it – Frog it. (Frogging is ripping back a project). This is your hobby! If you are really hating a pattern, don’t get hung up about it, rip the wool back and make a pattern you do like. Life it too short to get hung up on a crochet pattern you are not enjoying and there are so many patterns you can get your teeth into.

6. Do a C.A.L. Lots of crocheters are loving the Crochet-A-Long projects. A new part of the pattern is released gradually as a surprise. By breaking the projects up into manageable sections many crocheters are finding this a better way of working. Why not try this kind of project to keep your interest alive.

1 thought on “Getting round the tedious”

  1. I disagree that join as you go is robust. The weight of the blanket pulls on the joins and the yarn can split apart. It hasn’t happened to me but I have seen where it has happened. A crocheted together join is study (the kind that uses slip stitch or double crochet) or sewing it together is much stronger as both have the yarn go in to every stitch. You can also plan out the appearance of the blanket in a more pleasing way too.

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