January, 2026

So... I may have made a mistake that both amused and frustrated a local crochet artist.

Actually, I totally did. lol

So a couple years ago I had an idea for my daughter's birthday gift; a blanket. But not any blanket. A handmade blanket.

I wanted to make a blanket big enough to fit over a full sized bed, was slightly weighty, and soft. At first I was thinking of making it a quilt, but I don't have the space or equipment for that, so I opted for a crocheted blanket.

I figured that a crocheted blanket would take 6 big skeins of soft yarn. You know the kind. You find it at Walmart, is soft, ombre coloring, the yarn is thick but not giant, and the skein is about 3 times the size of the regular ones. So, I went to Walmart, bought 6 skeins of yarn, a hook that looked like the right size for the size of the gaps I was looking for, and brought my supplies home to get to work.

Now, here's the thing. I had really only been taught how to create a chain and watched as some hobbiests worked on their projects. But, I figured, if I can make the chain the right length and then make all the loopies in each link of the chain, then I will have a blanket guaranteed to be the right shape and size.

So, I took out my newly acquired supplies and got to work. I made the chain fairly long, just eyeballed the size of the blanket on the full bed, and got to work attempting to make a blanket.. Push through the chain, grab a loop, pull it through once, do another loop, pull it through the loop on the hook, and move on to the next link in the chain.

It was a fairly simple process. In name.

The tension was off, it was hard to get my hook through the loopies, and it was taking FOREVER!!

I ended up talking with crocheter about my difficulty, and she suggested that I switch from the thick plastic hook I had been using, to a smaller metal hook. I didn't think it would make that big of a difference, but I was willing to try anything to get my hands to stop cramping while working on my daughter's birthday gift.

Lo and behold! The metal crochet hook sped up my time by a huge amount! I was no longer doing 1-3 rows a night. I was easily making it through 6+ rows. I felt far better about my progress and now I could focus on the work. Right? Wrong.

There were still the product frustrations. I had some rows that were nice and soft and fluffy without being filled with random holes, and then there were the rows that were tight, small, and hard. There were rows filled with random gaps, ends of the blanket that had weird loops sticking out the side, and some of the rows that were a mix of all of the problems. And, to top it off, I ended up buying 6 more skeins of yarn, because the original ones were obviously not going to be enough. I had already put three skeins together in the process, and I was only a fraction of the way through!

Then there was the shrinking problem.

I had worked hard to make sure that I had been going through every single chain link/loopie. And yet, my blanket was shrinking with each row. At first, not very noticeably. But then by a quarter of the way through the blanket, I couldn't deny it any longer.. If I didn't make a change I was going to have crocheted a giant triangle.

What?! Wha... how?!

After looking it over thoroughly, I guessed that it had to be the tension issue. It made sense. Afterall, I had been going through every chain link, so it's not like I was making fewer loops, just tighter. So, I decided to try and work on loosening my tension, relaxing the loops, and seeing if I could make the oddball shape into a pattern. Concave, converse, then repeat. I was hoping it would look more like a big scalloped edge design then a mistake.. adapt and make it work, you know?

Now, why is it that I didn't just undo my work and start over, you may be asking. Simple really. I was dealing with a sunk funds fallacy. I had already invested.. ahem... nearly TWO YEARS into this project by this point.

yeah. You read that right. Nearly two years in and I was only 1/4 of the way done. smh. At this point I felt as though I had to make it work!...right?

And I did keep trying to make it work too.

But, then we moved.

New house, new community, etc.

I stopped working on my blanket.

And there it sat.

At the end of my bed.

Waiting...

This project was mentally weighing me down, and mocking me for the obvious problems I was having.

I was struggling to build up enough courage to face what was supposed to be a relaxing and fun gift.

Who was I trying to kid?! I was overwhelmed by the scale and work I still had to put in, and underwhelmed and even embarrassed by the thought of presenting this flawed piece to my daughter. So I searched for a crochet artist to help.

And boy! You should have seen her face when she saw my attempt and how I was doing it.

First, assuming you know even a fraction of crochet more than I did when I first started this project, you should know that I had been making a blanket, a full sized one at that, by using singles.

Which, according to this artist is the hardest, and worst, way to make a blanket.

It will be super dense, making it nearly impossible to wash. And apparently there's a thing called "blocking" which requires you to get the entire project wet, stretch it out on a board, and then tack it into place in the shape you want.. Oh my. This was not the small and simple project I had thought it was.

And then she sat me down and tried to teach me how to crochet..

Doubles, singles, half doubles, trebles, slip stitch?? Back looping vs front, hook size and yarn size are supposed to match?! Try holding the yarn threaded through my fingers, don't forget to count..

Pull the brake, hold up.. wait, what? I have to count each stitch!?

Yes, she says. And then you need to be able to do increases, and decreases.

Which, when she launched into that...smh.. Who was going to tell me that all those crocheters are out here doing engineering mathematics formulas in their heads, just to make a sweater!?!

Sewing I can understand, that is pretty simple. But crochet?.. I left that lesson with my eyes looking like the emoji, all swirls, and with instructions to completely undo what I had done (which apparently called frogging?) and to switch over to either half doubles or full doubles... if only I could remember what those were!

At least I have a really big ball of yarn to attempt to make this blanket now.

Maybe it will be ready for my daughters next birthday..