I really should have written this post in April but I got a bit too into my current crochet projects and procrastinated (okay, this is a very familiar story by now but it’s true) BUT I really did want to spend some time looking back at some of the crochet projects that I’ve done over the past year.
As some background, I picked up crochet due to my poor Chinese skills. I was visiting my sister who lives overseas last April, and she is an accomplished knitter. Like, seriously accomplished, the sweaters she knits are amazing. And I remembered that I knitted a bit during my university and was inspired to pick it up again. But because I didn’t really have any materials, I decided to buy a kit on taobao.
What came was a crochet kit. Which was a bit of a shock, but since I already had it, I decided to use it and a new hobby was born!
My first project was this very terrible looking bag, which I still use now and then. In retrospect, it was a good first project because it only had one type of stitch and it was quick enough that I finished it without getting bored. This led me to my second and third projects, which were also bags! The second project was for my sister and I actually crocheted almost the whole thing wrongly (I crocheted front loop only thanks to the first project) but it still looked okay, albeit it was a bit small. The second did a bit better and my mum still uses it as a lunch bag.
And it was… more bags from there! There was a whale pouch made (and I’ve since made a few other small pouches as Christmas gifts) as a quick change of pace before I attempted my first partial (unintended) improvised project – a Ghibli Sootball bag where I couldn’t read the instructions, found a different but similar video, and then ran out of material halfway through. I actually quite like this bag, because though it’s small, it does fit my phone and my kobo and that is useful enough.
I’m going to skip over the next bag I did, and then for a change of pace, I made a Little Prince cushion cover. I had a lot of fun with this one – the pattern was fairly easy to do and it was very soothing, so I’d like to attempt something similar again in the future! This shop that I bought the kit from also has a ton of fun projects, so I also made some banana cat keychains using their patterns.
The end of the year was pretty much gift season, so I did a lot of small little pouches (basically they can fit a small case (for earbuds) or keys and two quick and fun bags. I also made a Patrick Star costume for my nephew and it turned out to be wayyyy too big for him, so we’re still waiting for him to be big enough to wear it.
Early this year, I started on a new project – which was to make something a little more intricate. I wanted to make a shawl that could be buttoned up into an infinity scarf OR a short jacket. Unfortunately, my crochet style led to a few problems, i.e. the button holes were too small for the buttons given (I should have used the buttons as a guide, not the stitch counts). This is probably because I tend to crochet tight/small – or at least, I think so because all my projects have been on the small side. I also made a HUGE mistake when blocking – I left it on a wooden floor thinking it was safe and the brown colour from the wood transferred over to the cream wool!! It’s somewhat gone now, and I guess I have a nice shawl/scarf but this was definitely one of the harder projects even though it is essentially just a rectangular block!
Because the shawl was so hard, I decided to take a breather and do… yet another bag hahaha. It’s a good thing most of my bags are gifts or I would be drowning in them by now. But this one was fairly simple and actually the largest bag that I crocheted. I was drawn to it because of the cable pattern that I had assumed was something that only existed in knitting and it turned to be really fun!
My current project is actually a set of three doilies. When my fiancé’s grandmother found out I was into crochet, she gifted me a very old crochet pattern book from Vogue Japan and it has some beautiful lace patterns. I’m also really enjoying knitting from a picture rather than a printed pattern, so I’m making a few to give as gifts. So far, I’ve finished two and I’m working on the third.
After that… well, I’ve got a lot of leftover yarn so I need to focus and use projects that will finish up the yarn, like this coaster that I did in-between the doilies. I might do a few more of these because I love how cheerful they are, and I think they would make good gifts!
Looking at my first project and my current one, I’m actually very happy about how far I’ve progressed in a year! I don’t think I’ll be doing much more complicated projects in the future (where I am seems to be a good level for me), I’ll probably just vary the project instead. If you crochet as well, please let me know because I would love to have more crochet friends!!