Welcome back!
Spoiler alert: my boobs hurt. We’re also almost five months into cooking this baby. Crazy!
I’ve been picking up a lot of abandoned crafts, like a stitch-a-long from last year and a kit of mini diamond paintings. We also had some friends over last weekend and they talked about Woobles kits. I have a few, but the magic circle start to a crochet project always threw me. Her suggestion was just to get some cheapo yarn and practice practice practice.
In true Aries fashion, I prefer to run before I can walk. (i.e. Amigurumi is what interests me about crochet, but I’ve had friends tell me that I should probably just start with granny squares. I refuse.)
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I can’t remember how I stumbled across this organization, but it’s called Loose Ends. If a crafting project is left undone due to death, illness, or disability, you can find a volunteer to finish it.
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Sarah was back on the Fixing Famous People podcast to talk about Akon. It’s available wherever you listen to podcasts.
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The ever smart, ever topical Kayleigh Donaldson is over at Pajiba, talking about the ragebait economy,. Thanks, I hate it! (Not the article; I mean ragebait.)
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Lara: I really enjoy the TikToks that Mickie (@vainausten) makes. She’s a punk and obsessed with Austen and makes these really enthusiastic videos. They’re great.
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
I personally find Amigurumi way easier than granny squares. I have yet to complete a proper granny square, I just can’t seem to get the knack. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
I lose focus when I get bored, so I started crochet with fillet crochet and complicated edgings. Whatever works for you is fine, “easy” is not the same for everyone. I literally can’t do projects that are just 1 stitch repeated endlessly.
I learned to crochet with Woobles kits. Their videos are SO HELPFUL. Plus, they already have the magic loop started for you in the kits so you don’t even have to learn to do it at first if you don’t want to!
Agreed: craft what interests you. What’s the worst that happens? It’s too hard, so you reassess what interests you? It doesn’t come out perfectly (which is in fact a good thing because the gods punish hubris)? You need a lot of help? A thing you are doing to occupy free time takes up a lot more of it than it absolutely must? The hardest part of any crochet project I have ever done is starting simply because there is so little to hold onto, but I don’t think any crochet is all that hard. Practicing on cheap yarn is all well and good, but make sure it’s something you enjoy touching, so the sensory joy helps counterbalance any learning curve frustration.
And if, for some unfathomable reason, it is ever really important to you to learn granny squares although you dread them, there are great non profits that make afghans for people in need, I mean, I guess no one *needs* a handmade afghan, but like, for kids who are graduating out of foster care, or people in shelters, or those who lost everything in a natural disaster etc. Anyway, there’s organizations that are always accepting granny squares, or yarn, or people to turn the yarn into granny squares, or assemble said granny squares. So it’s a way to learn skills for free and gain community yadda yadda. But like, only if you want to! I bet there’s something for people who want to learn/gift amigurumi for kids in hospitals or something, and if there isn’t, there should be.
My mother taught me crochet when I was five or six; it’s really only maybe four basic stitches, what matters is how you put them together, and that part is up to you. Whatever you make will come out better if you enjoy making it, and it doesn’t need to be perfect; any errors are just your personal signature. Right now I’m making a bunch of tiny Magic Mushrooms for cosplay swag for an upcoming convention. It took me eight or nine tries to get the formula down, so some are better than others, and all of them are different in small ways, but the people I give them to will probably love them the way I loved all the tiny swag items I got last year (like a tiny crochet bowl with a fruit charm attached, and the miniature knitted Mjolnir). It’s 15 minutes a day for me, and a smile for someone who will appreciate the gesture.
I find this both funny and totally accurate re: granny squares vs. Amigurumi as a starting point:
https://www.tiktok.com/@elysemyers/video/7260099465845968171
@Amanda, I’m with you. Could not figure out a beginner Wooble, even with videos, with or without the magic circle. A dear friend tried to teach me, and after two frustrating hours, suggested we take a break. I lust after Amigurumi patterns, but will continue to look at them from afar. Best of luck in your endeavors.
I don’t know if it helps, but a magic ring is just a big ole loose slip knot that you work your first round of stitches in. I definitely spent a lot of time starting and restarting magic rings when I was learning.
I have personally given up on magic rings. Yes, it’s cool that you can pull them shut. No you can’t do that if you just create a loop with a few chain stitches. But you know what? There’s a yarn tail – like right there! And that yarn tail has to be woven in. Might as well use it to, I don’t know, close the hole you made with the chain stitches. I’m just saying. It’s much easier. It doesn’t tangle. It doesn’t get stuck and cause the yarn to break. I can make a 3-chain loop correctly every single time. I’m like one out of five for magic loop. And absolutely NO ONE can tell the difference when I’m done.
book_reader_ea01sj71r4, I do exactly the same. Reasonably experienced crocheter, never been able to do magic loops, I just chain 3 or so (number depending on yarn thickness and how many stitches are going to go into it), join them into a circle and crochet into that, stitch closed if needed at the end.