3KCBWDAY7 - Crafting Balance

Crafting Balance 
Are you a knitter or a crocheter, or are you a bit of both? If you are monogamous in your yarn-based crafting, is it because you do not enjoy the other craft or have you simply never given yourself the push to learn it? Is it because the items that you best enjoy crafting are more suited to the needles or the hook? Do you plan on ever trying to take up and fully learn the other craft? If you are equally comfortable knitting as you are crocheting, how do you balance both crafts? Do you always have projects of each on the go, or do you go through periods of favouring one over the other? How did you come to learn and love your craft(s)?

 I am definitely a hooker.  Now, I'm not one of those people who think one is better than the other.  I do know how to knit.  I taught myself how to shortly after I finally got the hang of crochet.  My sister, not realizing that I didn't knit (some people don't know there's a difference between crochet and knit), bought me this book:

Source: barnesandnoble.com via loves2experiment on Pinterest

There was the cutest mermaid costume in the book and I took on the task of knitting all three of my girls mermaid costumes for Halloween that year.  Insanity, I tell you.

Not the best picture to showcase my work, but you get the idea.

Honestly, other than a scarf, that's all the knitting I've done.  I have tried a few other projects, but just never finish them.  Knitting doesn't feel as natural to me and I'm slow.  Yes, I realize the speed comes with practice, but I'm not a very patient person.

And, this is just my own personal thing... I can't keep up with needles.  My kids don't mess with my crochet hooks, but those knitting needles are irresistible.  When I started those mermaid costumes, I swear I started the first one 4 times because Zoe kept pulling the needles out.  I can leave my crochet projects out and if the hook disappears, I might loose a stitch or two.  But knitting... that has to be put up if I so much as leave the room.  I got better at putting the needles back in without losing much of my work, but it's still a pain.  Plus, they make good swords for my tomboys and we just don't need any eyeballs impaled on needles.


I do want to try more knitting projects.  I love trying new techniques and just expanding my knowledge so it does tempt me.  The girls are getting older and less likely to disturb my work.  The day is coming, but until then I'll be pretty monogamous to my hooks.

3KCBWDAY7

3KCBWDAY6 - Improving Your Skillset

Improving Your Skillset
How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how's your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

Despite the fact that I've only been crocheting about 2 years, I honestly feel like I'm a fairly advanced crocheter.  I've definitely worked patterns classified as such.  I love learning new things and challenging myself, so once I got hooked I jumped in with both feet.  If I see a pattern with stitches I've never tried or that looks really complicated, I get excited. 

I picked up the language of crochet pretty quickly.  When I first picked up a pattern, I was just baffled by the abbreviations and terminology.  Charts are still a bit tricky for me, I prefer my directions written out.  With amigurumi, unless there is something unique about a row, all I need is the stitch count for that row.  I've condensed a pattern written out over several pages to just half a page before ;).

I am able to improvise my own patterns and figure out some patterns just looking at the finished product.  I've written and shared a few of my own patterns, and I hope to do more - possibly to sell. 

There are several techniques I haven't tried yet, such as Tunisian crochet, that I would like to try eventually.  Right now I want to get more into overlay crochet.  I'm finishing up a few projects and I think my next project will be something from this book:

Source: amazon.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

As for knitting, I'd say I'm an adventurous beginner.  I'd like to try another knitting project before the year is over.  Time is key, though.... there is just so much I want to try but not nearly enough time to do it all.

3KCBWDAY6