‘Sarah Makes’ is a new series featuring projects by CYC’s very own Sarah Guenther, who serves as the PR Coordinator. Each month Sarah will try a new project and write about her experience. Stay tuned for next month’s project!
As you may know, I recently started learning to crochet (you can read about it here). As with any new endeavor, this experience was challenging at first. If you read my previous post, you know that I am not a naturally patient person. I started with the basic stitches and finally finished one whole swatch without any major mistakes.
For my September project, I decided to try granny squares. I wanted something that was still relatively simple (and small) but more advanced than crocheting row after row of the same stitch.
So one morning in the office I looked up video tutorials on how to make a dishcloth. After realizing that I’d already basically made a dishcloth (just with different dimensions), I decided to try something a little more difficult.
My roommates have made plenty of granny squares and I wanted to stay on par with their work so I set out on my first attempt. I followed a Wool and the Gang tutorial closely, as in second by second, to make sure I was completing every step correctly. After a minute or two I realized that I was already completely off and that I’d need to start over.
I restarted the video (and my square) several times before making any progress. The thing with granny squares is that they follow the same basic progression as you go around the square, but it takes a while to understand and remember the pattern. I thought I understood the pattern but I KEPT messing up with the increases and as a result my corners were rounded, not square. After trying a couple more times (and this was already after a couple attempts), I finally got it down and completed an (almost) perfect granny square.
I worked on granny squares for a day in the office and later when I got home but then left on a week-long mission trip and forgot all about them. Then life and work got busy and I stopped crocheting altogether. In the midst of writing this blog post I remembered that I was supposed to write about granny squares but that I completely forgot how to make them! As I write this post, I am re-teaching myself how to make a simple granny square.
What’s the lesson here, you ask? Don’t learn how to do something and then completely abandon it for almost two months! Had I stuck with it and kept practicing I wouldn’t have had to learn all over again! I eventually got it down again after my one-and-a-half month break, but it was frustrating as I knew I’d done it before but was having trouble again.
That’s all for now, folks. Stay tuned to our Instagram in the coming weeks for exclusive sneak peeks into my October project!