05-21-2020

Recently decided to learn to crochet, and now I’m in a crochet manic phase. 2 projects off the hooks and immediately I needed another one. There was no doubt when I stumbled across this design that I had to do it. Didn’t have stash available in the yarn weight called for, but I do have this fabulous gradient that’s the right colorway for just this purpose. Should be plenty of yardage, but I’ll have to weigh things as we get into the last repeats to try and gauge correctly.

There is a full stitch by stitch video tutorial included with the pattern - and it’s amazing quality. I used it pretty heavily at first, as a newbie to crochet I didn’t immediately understand the directions and how they translated to stitch placement. But after the first full repeat I only needed a few check ins for confidence boosts - just to make sure I was still on track.

If you are an old hand at crocheting I assume this would be too repetitive and get boring. For me, it’s furthering my ability to read the stitches, translate the words in the directions to the execution of the stitches, and the fun of working something that feels complex. I’m the type of person who figures if you haven’t told me it’s impossible, then I must be able to do it. And if I’m going to try something new and complicated, why not do it in fingering weight dark yarn? Not the best choice for visibility, but I still managed to do it. Really excited now to see the progress through the repeats and make sure I really know what I am doing.

Finished through the set up and 2 full repeats.

05-22-2020

Now that I can get through the repeats without assistance, they are flying by. It’s very repetitive, and if this were knitting I’d probably be bored by now, but there is something magical about these skulls taking shape in just a few rows.

The rows are getting longer now, and we’re finally starting to see the shift in color to a lighter grey. I have so many other projects to get to, but I can’t seem to put this one down. It’s “new hobby” love. LOL

05-23-2020

Finished repeat with 7 full skulls. 141g of yarn remaining.

05-25-2020

Finished repeat with 9 full skulls. 105g of yarn remaining.

05-30-2020

Finished repeat with 10 full skulls. 86g of yarn remaining.

4 of 7 rows finished of the next repeat. 70g of yarn remaining.

05-31-2020

Finished repeat with 11 full skulls. 61g of yarn remaining.

05-31-2020

42g left after row 14 of the next repeat (12 skulls). Decision point - I either need to move to the finishing rows (7 of them) or finish the repeat (2 more rows) and then do the next 4 rows of the repeat plus the finishing rows.

It took about 19g to do the 4 rows. Rounding up to 8 rows, for finishing it would be about 40g. So we move to the finishing rows!

06-01-2020

Off the hook! What a fantastic crochet experience. I couldn’t stop working on it. Admittedly, it got a bit repetitive during the last few long row repeats, but even so, I didn’t dread picking it up.

I haven’t cut the yarn at the end yet - want to take a look at it one more time before calling it done. I had to redo the last row twice because I kept skipping a chain space randomly along the way. I think I have it all now, but will take one final look before I cut the tail and weave it in. Then I’ll get a final yarn weight. Would have liked to be able to use every last inch, but I got pretty close to the end.

Next up, figuring out how to block it.