Okay, so I began crocheting. I thought it looked really easy and the end product looked so professional, so I bought my wool (100% cotton) and my crochet hook (of undefined size) and excitedly began. Only I really did not understand the youtube videos. So I bought a book. It was for beginners, and apparently anybody could understand it. So I bought it with great expectations.
Monday night I learnt to do the single crochet stitch. I did enough that I could make a very small dish cloth. I didn’t want to aim too high 🙂 I then learnt to end a line and begin a new one and then the double crochet stitch. And merrily sat crocheting for about sixteen and a half hours, or at least that is what it seemed… Happily dreaming of all the perfect dish cloths I would make all my grateful friends and family, I was a little perturbed when at the end of the night all I had to show for my efforts was a trapezium shaped cloth, which was heading towards being triangular in nature:
Oh, and it was a bit holey! I showed Gary, and giggling he told me to keep practicing. So the next night I began on my next cloth. This time I followed the pattern in the book. This was apparently the very easy pattern at the beginning of the book. Anyone could do it. Excellent, I thought, that must include me, right? So excitedly I began once more. One line of 35 single crochet stitches. Done. Then turn and double stitch for the foreseeable future. Foreseeable future kept me busy for two whole nights. It was looking promising to be honest. Each line seemed to be as long as the one before, in fact, the lines looked like they might be getting longer. Oh, goodie! A nice big dish cloth! I was on my way to dish cloth glory. I determinedly carried on. By the end of the second night I held my ‘large’ dish cloth up for inspection. I could see straight through it. Okay, I hadn’t fixed the hole problem then. And the size discrepancy was becoming alarmingly obvious. Also it looked like I had learnt many additional stitches in addition to the two the book had taught me…..
By this point, I was thinking maybe crocheting wasn’t for me, and I wasn’t for it. Then I suddenly remembered that lots of my blogging friends crocheted. So all you crocheting experts, could you take a look at my incredibly inferior piece of work and tell me where I have gone wrong? I think how I end a row is not right, and I think I might have a tension issue, and of course there is the matter of my home-made stitches – are you able to tell what I am doing wrong? And what on earth is causing the holes?!
I leave you with a few pictures up close:
Any advice would be welcome, and you never know your help may turn me into a crocheting cloth goddess…..
Hehe, I think I may know what’s causing the holes! But, before I get to that, (I like suspense, don’t you?) I want to congratulate you on trying! When I learned how to crochet it took me FOREVER to understand the single stitch. And I had someone teaching me and everything! Anyway, good job. 🙂 I believe that the holes are being caused by you missing stitches. Every stitch must be accounted for, and I mean that literally. As I go along my rows, I count the stitches. If you get to the end of the row with less stitches than you’re supposed to have, then you missed one! Take it from someone who used to do this all of the time!! And, eventually you’ll get to the place where you can realize you skipped one without even the total tally. I hope this helps!! Good luck on your crocheting endeavor!!
Thank you so much for your help 🙂 The problem I have is in the actual counting of the stitches. Yes I can count, quite high in fact, but crocheting takes so much concentration on my behalf that I don’t seem to be able to count AND crochet at the same time! Maybe this will improve with time….?
That was my problem too!! I know that I’m not that great of a multitasker, so it was certainly a process to get used to the moments and then add the counting… I think that this is a situation in which practice will make perfect! *cue Don’t Stop Believin’*
Yes, ma’am. We are so meant to be friends. (giggle, giggle) That is the same shape I mentioned in my comment yesterday. I am so looking forward to your blogging friends helping me, too. I have a daughter who crochets beautifully, but watching her, I still end up with that odd shape. I know I am adding an extra stitch at the end, but I CAN’T FIND THE END!
But…yay to you for trying. I love the color of your yarn and I look forward to seeing your beautiful dishcloth when you do learn how to do it properly.:)
Oh Donna YES!! Where is that darn end?! In fact where is the beginning? And who are you? Who am I? Ohhhhhh, it’s all too much information for my elderly brain to take in all in one go! SO pleased I’m not the only one! Yay!!
I’m not one to help, but I admire your perseverance!
🙂
Keep trying! Everybody’s looks like that in the beginning. 🙂 The holes or gaps are where you missed a stitch. I think the shape is coming out like that, instead of a rectangle because each row your are losing a stitch. For example, you get to the last stitch, do a double crochet, you have to chain 3 before you turn the work and go into the next row. That 3 chain counts as 1 double crochet and it completed the row…does that make sense? Don’t worry about your tension for a while, it will come naturally with practice.
Thank you! This was so useful! I unraveled the disaster and began again last night adding three stitches to the end of each line and it works! It is very nearly rectangular 🙂 Thank you so much!
you are so welcome! glad I could help…I just reread my comment and I actually meant to write: “That 3 chain counts as 1 double crochet and it STARTS the next row.” Happy crocheting!
I agree with the above comments, the exact same shape happened to me when I was first learning (and I’ve done it a few times since!). You’re not crocheting in the top of the chain 3 and so every row you’re losing a stitch. The chain 3 can quite frankly be a right pain – it took me an age to get the hang of it! Stick with it, you’re doing awesome!!
Thanks Debbie! I have tried adding in the 3 chain stitch and it is definitely looking much better than the above examples 🙂
The chaining at the end of the row was my problem early on. I kept getting smaller because I was missing a stitch. I didn’t exactly understand how to complete the rows.
I learned to crochet by making round doilies with intricate patterns using the very thin thread. Switching to yarn in order to make blankets and such was quite a change.
My friend says because I am using 100% cotton and there is no give I am making it harder on myself. I like that very much. Blame the cotton thread not the crocheter!
I agree with everyone about the missed stitches but I just wanted to say great job because you can definitely see the improvements in each photo.
Aw, thank you so much. I find it much harder to learn a new skill the older I get, so thank you for the encouragement and for noticing I am improving 🙂
My crochet projects turn out looking just like yours. I have friends both online and in the real world that make amazing projects, and I came to the conclusion I could make that same project in less time by sewing it, sometimes by sewing it completely by hand.
So, no helpful suggestions, just letting you know you’re not alone in the inability to get it to look right.
I’m the same. Love sewing, but knitting and crochet are a bit of a struggle. I am determined to get enough skill to make a dish cloth!
My partner Naomi crochets like it’s an Olympic sport, and is patiently making FIVE 64-square wedding blankets for our friends (clearly tis the season…). I watch her in astonishment because I can’t even begin to recognise the pattern in what she’s doing but every time, without fail, a beautiful square emerges from all the one loop, two loop, pull one loop back, three loops this time, another loop, more pulling, thread through that bit, pull here, do the hokey cokey… She tells me it’s a stitch she made up herself, after reading a children’s introduction to crochet book. That’s her advice – go with a book aimed at beginners under the age of 10.