Something that, at least in my experience, occurs more often for crocheters than for knitters, it getting to a point in a pattern, usually past the point of no return, and thinking something along the lines of “Is this too big?” “Is this too small?” “What was I thinking?”
I’m not sure why this has happened to me more often as crocheter than as a knitter but it has.
Is swatching the problem? Yes, and no. I think the problem with swatching is that we don’t make them large enough to get real info that affects the entire project. The poncho I talk about further down, even a good sized swatch wouldn’t have told the whole story of how much the piece would pull on itself due to the yarn used and the stitch pattern chosen.
When a swatch is small though, you can’t get enough info to make good decisions. It you are using info from just 3″ / 7.5 cm of stitching, when that is scaled up to say 24″ / 60 cm, you’re going to see the issues that didn’t show up in the smaller piece.
I have swatched much of my stitching life, not from the beginning but for a lot of it. It is only in the last two or three years that I have started making large swatches. Minimum of 6 x 6″ / 15 x 15 cm to get enough info on what the stitch pattern is going to do.
The info still missing from this is how much a yarn in a particular stitch pattern might pull the piece down, if the finished piece is to hang in any way, like a sweater for example. If this is a concern, hang and lightly weight the swatch to see what happens.
Another issue is that we do things on the fly, don’t take proper notes and then get to a point and ask “What was I thinking?”
I have a friend who crochets a lot of blankets. No real patterns just picks colors and stitches and then goes for it. No problem, until you pull the blanket out of the project bag, lay it out and see that it is longer than a twin bed but only half as wide. I asked if perhaps that was intentional and she was working the blanket width wise. She didn’t know and was getting tired of how heavy the blanket was getting and the rows were so long…
She ripped, started again and is very pleased with the new version and so is her granddaughter.
Maybe it is the slower process of knitting that makes the, very obvious, mistakes more noticeable faster?
I made a poncho for my daughter when she was three years old. Before I was keeping good records on Ravelry. It is a crocheted poncho using worsted weight yarn and probably a “J” hook. I had only been crocheting for about 6 or 7 years and hadn’t done much designing yet. I also still didn’t understand gauge or have real spacial awareness of how big the finished piece would be.
I had two different yarns and three different colors. I decided to make stripes. I tried to find the pattern, but no luck. Maybe this was my first try without a pattern. If so I would have had Mom’s help to get started. After that I’d be off and running.
I’m OC enough that things have to be balanced and have symmetry so having the same number of each color is important, which I’m sure affected the length. All this to say this project should have been ripped and changed or abandoned, but not completed. However, it was completed.
Adonijah in her new poncho at age 3 and half years old.
Adonijah in her poncho at age 21.
Now granted she is only 5′ 4″ / 162.5 cm, but that isn’t the point. This poncho was too big for her and had I not been in denial it wouldn’t fit her almost two decades later.
How much time does one spend in denial about the situation? “It’ll block out.”
What have you done out of denial? Anyone have experience with things that are too small? Please share!
Happy Making!
Azariahs Fibre Arts 