I have been looking forward to this class for almost a year now (ever since Donna described it to our Knitwise group). As recommended by a friend, I first learned how to make a long chain of stitches using some leftover RedHeart yarn that I had in my knitting bag. She showed me how to correctly hold the yarn in my left hand in order to have nice tension as well as how to hold the chain of stitches in order to make crocheting the next stitch easier. Holding the yarn in the correct fashion and going through the motions of crocheting felt very awkward at first, especially since I had been knitting for almost two years and had gotten used to holding the yarn differently in order to knit my many different projects. I made a chain that was around 200 chains long, but my stitches were horribly uneven particularly in the beginning of the chain. Unfortunately when I was walking to a different place in my house, the chain got caught on a chair and was almost completely unraveled. Although, this gave me the opportunity to learn how to make rows of stitches instead of one long chain in order to make a swatch. I researched how to accomplish this and found a great YouTube video that showed me exactly how to make a swatch. My stitches had improved tremendously, but the tension was still not uniform so my swatch ended up being lopsided with one end having tighter stitches than the other end. I think I may have lost a couple of stitches along the way, although I’m not experienced enough at this time to be able to tell whether or not I have lost some or not (the single crochet stitches are difficult to tell apart at this time). Next, I found a series of YouTube videos that showed me how to make a Granny Square. I learned a lot about how the stitches are formed and their relationship with one another while making my Granny Square. I also learned the valuable skill of how to unravel several stitches in order to fix a mistake without unraveling the entire project. I am very happy with how my Granny Square turned out since my stitches and tensions are finally getting close to uniform!
Swatch:
Granny Square:
That's a gorgeous granny square. Are you sure it's your first one? I also really love the colors you chose. Counting the stitches has always been the hardest part of crocheting for me, but as I'm sure you've already figured out, it gets easier and easier.
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