Day 5 - 3/31/15

Last night and today I've been working on a 20 stitch crochet piece, using double crochet.  I was using counting and had the correct number, but the piece was all goofused up.  I asked my crocheting friend Rosa at work and she said that I needed to start the first stitch directly above the one below it.  She said she never counts (!) and if she doesn't like it she just pulls it out.  She's an insanely talented crocheter and it was refreshing to hear the "don't worry, have fun" motto.

Anyway here's what I came up with:

I'm still very proud of my accomplishments.  Crocheting seems to be a bit more loose and free-wheeling than knitting.  I have a pretty severe OCD/anal retentive thing going so it's good to challenge my "by the books" mentality.

Day 4 - 3/30/15

My first Monday of the challenge.  It will be interesting to observe how my mind might try to divert me from doing things.  I know what I want to do which is to work a few foundation chains and start to get the hang of it because it's proving very challenging.

I'm able to go back even though it's been challenging getting started.  I am constantly having to re-educate myself on magic loop or sloppy slip knot.  I cannot do the sloppy slip knot without trapping the yarn.  I cannot pull it shut.  I have a hard time starting the magic loop.

But despite this I have done a couple.  The green one was done correctly but I did the other one backwards (looped into the front instead of the back.

I'm rather proud.  So despite some bumps I'm moving forward.

I have a real Project Oriented mentality with crafts.  I have a hard time with just relaxing and not caring.  Just practicing the stitches makes you so much better.  But I get into this mindset where I feel like I'm wasting my time not working on a project.  I want an animal to hold in my hand.  But I realize that I'm just not there yet.

So I'm super proud to present my continued advances into the world of crochet.  I have a lot of experience with knitting but crochet still feels funny.  But I can tell that this is going to be a fantastic way to make toys and I can't wait to master this.

I've found another awesome crochet teacher in Stacey Trock.  I'm taking her crochet amigurumi class in Craftsy and it's just amazing.  She introduced me to crocheting into the back loop, instead of both.  I didn't realize that there were different ways to do it.  And after some experimenting I really do like the back loop method.  It's easier and I find it simple to see the next loop.

I'll probably do some more practicing tomorrow.  I also want to continue practicing my double crochets in rows.  I'd love to do a double crochet knitted scarf.  

What I mean to say is that I am going to crochet a lovely scarf!

Here's me with my kitty Trini from yesterday.  See you tomorrow.

Just kickin' it with the kitty

Day 3 - 3/29/15

An intellectually creative morning.  I did the introduction to the Craftsy Amigurumi class I mentioned yesterday.  I'm all super-duper-nutty-excited because this class gives you the tools to design your own stuff, rather than having to get patterns.

Mind you, I may need patterns for my Baymax, Yoshi, Mario, Darth Vader, etc., but I want to make my own stuff.  Have someone send me a crazy drawing and make a crochet piece out of it.

Oh, hey - Here are some before pictures of a knitted kitty I found buried in my project bag (that's another blog post right there.  Don't get me started) in a large plastic bag.  Surprisingly I've done almost all the hard work and all that was left was to put everything together.  By the way, This kitty cat doesn't look much like a kitty and in the final version I mixed up the arms and the legs.

Dat's a lotta yarn ya got dere boss!

 Neat!

I have become death, destroyer of worlds.

So after sewing everything together I realized with a grin that I put the arms and legs on backwards.  Kitty looks sorta gangly but he has character.  Plus the psychedelic Knit Picks Chroma I used (I have so many yards of Chroma it is crazy - my wife thinks I'm nuts) gave it a whacky touch.  Knitpicks Chroma Page.

Here's the finished product.

That's one beefcake kitty.  He likes posing on guitars.  He's such an egomaniac!

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with him yet.  I just give away my knitting pieces.  I suppose I could sell them but I get such joy out of giving them away.

That's a Les Paul goddess.  A very rare guitar!

A face that any mother could love.

Spindly legs you got there...

So, is writing this blog an act of making?  I mean, I know it is, but I don't want to count it!  NO!

My kitty is blogging with me.



Craftsy has a project page!

Craftsy Project Page

I have a Ravelry page!

Alec's Ravelry Page

And in the end, mind you I got my room cleaned, I organized all my yarn, etc.  Got a lot done.  But creatively - oy - working that foundation chain!!!!!!  Rant to come:

Day 2 - 3/28/15

I had a very creative Saturday.  Since I am obsessively working to learn the skills I need to make my little amigurumi goodies, I decided to master the "magic loop" technique in crocheting.

This is a way that you can make a tube and have the end be sealed.  If you make a 6-chain and use a slip stitch to join it, you will end up with a hole, and that's no good if you need to stuff your work.

You actually crochet the first row over a "tail" and when you're done with the row you just pull the tail and it closes up the chain.

Anyway, in the morning I worked on it and finally got the hang of it.

But, Patti and I wanted to make something.  Patti was going to use her chicken fried chicken recipe and I wanted some special potatoes.  I thought I wanted to make mashed potatoes but that sounded boring.  So I made up a potato recipe.

I quartered some redskins, put them in a mixing bag with salt, pepper, brown sugar (lots) and 3 strips of bacon cut up.

I mixed the mess up and then put it in foil.  I baked the stuff in the foil for 20 minutes to get it nice and squishy.  Then I put it in the pan and raised the oven temperature to 450, essentially baking the little buggers into submission.  The mixing and the cooking in foil really combined the flavors and made it into something greater than its parts.

And behold, when I took it out of the oven, I saw that it was good.

It turned out even better than I expected.  I would have loved to add some caramelized onions but I'll save that for next time.

After eating and all that I felt really good.  I grabbed one of the patterns from Creepy Cute Crochet (Creepy Cute Crochet).  And decided to try to do the head.  I mean, what they hey?  I've been knitting for years now so how hard could it be?

There's an aspect of crochet that I really like which is that it is a lot more flexible than knitting.  There's room to fix a problem or adjust a stitch and the piece still looks very good.  My experience with knitting is that it's very exacting.  I enjoy that aspect very much.  However it's nice to just kick back.

Anyway I did it.  I don't think I did the decreases correctly and I made quite a mess of the final row, but I did it!  This is filled with air and fuzz.

"Captain, I think the planet is mushy."

Filled with air, fuzz, and love

Very creative day!  Tomorrow I'm going to start my craftsy course on creating your own amigurumi (Craftsy Amigurumi Class).  I can't get into this class until I understand the basics of crochet.  And, drumroll please, I do!

Oh, I didn't make her, but she's really cute - my cat Trini (she's missing her right leg!).

Day 1 - 3/27/15

Crochet.  I can already feel my passion for this sucker rising.  I did a 3-row double crochet that I screwed up and I don't care I'm so proud!

Skipped a couple of stitches so it's sorta trapezoidal.

But it's so...beautiful.  Full of stars.

Thanks HAL.  I'll get back to you.

And I'm almost certain more to come tonight!

9:17 pm - yeah I just spent the last hour making my first swatch in double crochet.  I am feeling so proud of myself I could bust.

I made any mistakes OK, and that allowed me to become more familiar with where to put the stitch and how loose or tight to tension the yarn.

I've been working in a chunky yarn that is nice and smooth so I can see the knots.  It's good to be able to understand what is going on when you crochet so you know when you made a boo boo.

Here it is:

Thanks to everyone who does or doesn't read this.  I love that I have no idea what I'll do tomorrow.

alec.........

Introduction - About me and Year of Making

My name is Alec and I want to be more creative.

That's a little vague but I have to start somewhere!

I am already creative, don't get me wrong.  I knit all kinds of stuff.  I play music and compose music.  It's not like I'm sitting on the sofa eating bon-bons all day long.

But I lack focus; I lack discipline; I lack follow-through.  I'm one of those "great out of the gate, lousy at the finish line" types.  Start 50 projects and finish 2.

I also lack...I'm trying to think of the perfect word.  A fun, experimental, don't take myself seriously kind of energy that would have me just make stuff to make it, without an idea of necessarily where it is going or what it will be - who cares?  Just knit!

But I still get that needling "not good enough" stuff from my critical mind.  I still hear, time and again, you did that stitch wrong, it's ugly, it's stupid, why are you even bothering with this?  You'll never be any good!

Oy, I am sure that everyone has their own special version of this voice.  For me it keeps me from playing and experimenting.  It stifles me and says that if this work isn't a "project" it isn't worth doing.  It prevents me from learning new things.  It prevents me from getting better at things I already know how to do.

My critical voice fiddles while Rome burns!

So, a few weeks ago I saw "Big Hero 6" and fell in love with the robot Baymax.  I knew that I had to make a knitted Baymax.  But knitting a Baymax would be a challenge - I mean, crocheting is so much more conducive to creating stuffed toys - or Amigurumi - than knitting is.  I have tried several times in the past to learn to crochet but I just couldn't get the hang of it.

Alright - so I HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO CROCHET! That is clear.  I went on to one of my favorite craft sites www.craftsy.com and discovered that they had added a course for beginning crochet!  Woohoo.  I purchased the course and off I went.

The lady leading the course is Kim Werker, who I personally have to thank for finally giving me the ability to crochet.  She is a wonderful teacher and just has a very natural way of explaining crocheting that makes it incredibly easy to follow.  I made a mile of chains (not really but a lot!) and practiced the stitches without counting or fiddling and it was wonderful!  So freeing!

Feeling so Free!

Anyhoo I was so enamored with Kim's work that I looked into her and found a Year of Making and just got super excited.

Make something creative every day - be it a doodle, a beef scallopini, a piece of grafitti, a sculpture, a photograph - anything - just do something creative every day.

I said to myself - I can do that.  But I want to do one better - just a tiny bit - which would be to do a simple blog post every day with a photo of what I did.  I can add anything I want but at minimum a photo and a one-sentence description will be needed for each entry.

A couple of web sites to ponder if this kinda stuff interests you:

Kim Werker: http://www.kimwerker.com/.  The only person to ever be able to teach me crochet after dozens of failed attempts.  She's my inspiration for this blog and this challenge.

Ravelry: www.ravelry.com. A source for all things yarn related.  Hundreds of free patterns to go nuts with.

More to come I'm sure.

I look forward to this journey.

Oh, and here's the Baymax pattern.