Crocheting question

[fancynewbeesly]

DD1 is learning to crochet. She is using the wobbles kit. However, the one thing that is frustrating to her (and that I said will come with practice--which being 12, she doesn't want to hear) is that if it requires 8 stitches in a round, she ends up making 12 to go all around, so the dimensions are off. The tail is massive! She wants to learn how to correct those mistakes, and because I have never learned to crochet, I don't know what to say.


Any ideas that I can pass along to her?

       

[piratecat]

@zweber?

[pearbear]

I am a bit confused as to why she's doing 12 stitches if it calls for only 8. Has she followed the instructions/videos online? Because it goes over how to do increase stitches and decrease stitches. If her dimensions are off, she's probably also going to run out of yarn.

I honestly didn't find the woobles to be a good way to learn to crochet. I tried that first, but then decided to learn via Youtube videos and by doing flat pieces instead. Once I got the hang of the stitches and general hand coordination from flat pieces, I went back to my woobles. Perhaps have her try some beginner Youtube videos and just practicing on scarves for a while instead.

[pearbear]

Also, if she does continue to work on the wooble, make sure she's using the stitch marker so she knows where to start and stop! That might help.

[chocolatecake]

I'm not an avid crocheter but she call pull out/pull back on working yarn/string until all past loops/knots/etc are pulled out and redo that section. It sucks but it happens when you get off on a pattern or end up making uneven sized stitches. Does the package give overall dimensions for each area for project? Do you do each section separately and then crochet them together? I've seen the ones you mentioned but haven't done any. Tell her to hang in there, its a learning process!

I tried to learn to crochet time and time again from my grandma growing up and couldn't figure it out. When she passed, I took a class and learned fairly quickly (although not as fast as zweber did, lol !! piratecat). Turns out my Grandma was left handed so I was looking at things backward and couldn't figure out how to make my right hand do the same thing as hers.

[fancynewbeesly]

Jan 18, 2024 10:04:01 GMT -6 pearbear said:

I am a bit confused as to why she's doing 12 stitches if it calls for only 8. Has she followed the instructions/videos online? Because it goes over how to do increase stitches and decrease stitches. If her dimensions are off, she's probably also going to run out of yarn.

I honestly didn't find the woobles to be a good way to learn to crochet. I tried that first, but then decided to learn via Youtube videos and by doing flat pieces instead. Once I got the hang of the stitches and general hand coordination from flat pieces, I went back to my woobles. Perhaps have her try some beginner Youtube videos and just practicing on scarves for a while instead.

I think what is happening is it calls for 8 stitches, and then when she does 8, she doesn't complete the circle or row to get to the start, so is doing extra stitches to get to where she needs to be.

I have been trying but being 12 and stubborn, she isn't listening to me. I told her to just use yarn and practice her stitches first. Actually her fox turned out decent, just massive ears and tail....

[Wtfshouldmynamebe]

She is probably using the wrong V to crochet in at some points, otherwise it would be equal. I know when it asks for increases or decreases it can be hard to determine where to put the hook.

[fancynewbeesly]

Jan 18, 2024 10:22:55 GMT -6 Wtfshouldmynamebe said:

She is probably using the wrong V to crochet in at some points, otherwise it would be equal. I know when it asks for increases or decreases it can be hard to determine where to put the hook.

I'll pass that along. That does sound like an error I can see her making. I told her honestly practice will make things more even and you can't expect to be an expert day 1. 

But apparently because I am the mom I don't know anything. 

[AmyG]

It may br as simple as she is making loose stitches so to make it look right she's accidently on purpose putting 2 stitches in the same hole.

most beginner crochet ends up with loose and then tight stitches combined with accidental increases and decreases. they never seem to lay flat. I'd guess in some ways that makes a little sense to make something that is supposed to be round like the woobles

Tell her if 8 doesn't make it right pull out the row and do it over.
If 8 is still not right that means the row before it is also wrong.
Keep unraveling rows til you get maybe a stitch off not 4 stitches off.

[pearbear]

Jan 18, 2024 10:10:08 GMT -6 fancynewbeesly said:

Jan 18, 2024 10:04:01 GMT -6 pearbear said:

I am a bit confused as to why she's doing 12 stitches if it calls for only 8. Has she followed the instructions/videos online? Because it goes over how to do increase stitches and decrease stitches. If her dimensions are off, she's probably also going to run out of yarn.

I honestly didn't find the woobles to be a good way to learn to crochet. I tried that first, but then decided to learn via Youtube videos and by doing flat pieces instead. Once I got the hang of the stitches and general hand coordination from flat pieces, I went back to my woobles. Perhaps have her try some beginner Youtube videos and just practicing on scarves for a while instead.

I think what is happening is it calls for 8 stitches, and then when she does 8, she doesn't complete the circle or row to get to the start, so is doing extra stitches to get to where she needs to be.

I have been trying but being 12 and stubborn, she isn't listening to me. I told her to just use yarn and practice her stitches first. Actually her fox turned out decent, just massive ears and tail....

Aw the fox was my first Wooble too! I'm sure it's still very cute. The ears are a pain to make. I'm sure she'll get the hang of it soon.

[pearbear]

When I was first learning I made my kids scarves for their stuffed animals and dolls. Maybe that is something she could try doing as she learns the stitches. I bought tons of cheap yarn in fun colors and went to town on Youtube.

[fancynewbeesly]

Jan 18, 2024 12:11:26 GMT -6 pearbear said:

Jan 18, 2024 10:10:08 GMT -6 fancynewbeesly said:

I think what is happening is it calls for 8 stitches, and then when she does 8, she doesn't complete the circle or row to get to the start, so is doing extra stitches to get to where she needs to be.

I have been trying but being 12 and stubborn, she isn't listening to me. I told her to just use yarn and practice her stitches first. Actually her fox turned out decent, just massive ears and tail....

Aw the fox was my first Wooble too! I'm sure it's still very cute. The ears are a pain to make. I'm sure she'll get the hang of it soon.

I told her for the first time ever crocheting she did something not super easy (like a blanket or scarf) and it came out cute. She is still mad at herself though.

[ireland105]

I found crocheting in the round very hard at first, and I ended up putting more than one stitch in the same spot a lot (so essentially increasing when I shouldn’t have). It sounds like that might be what is happening for her. If she gets to the end of a round and still has more space, then she has probably done inadvertent increases so more stitches fit per row. Until you get really good at seeing increases, the only thing to do is to remove that row and try again. And she’ll need a stitch marker at the start of each row to know where to remove to. Then count the row before to make sure it has the right number of stitches before trying again on that row.

It looks great for a first project! I saw a very cute video on Reddit of someone who showed how much better hers looked with each try. I hope she’s not too discouraged.

(And I’m a super lurker, but I remember zweber posting her crochet projects and I was thinking that there is no way those were her first projects - like a perfect bear then a sweater. Turns out it was all fake. I crochet a lot and my first sweater was super wonky!)

[roselab]

I just wanted to commiserate. Before Christmas, my dd (who is also 12) decided she wanted to learn how to crochet, so she asked for crochet kits/yarn from everyone who asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and picked out a kit from Amazon to be from mom/dad. We open the mom/dad gifts on Christmas Eve, so when she opened it, she disappeared up into her room to work on it while prepping food for that evening. I heard some weird noises, and I went to check on her with my hands covered in food still, and she was FLIPPING THE F OUT because she had been working for hours and couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do, and she had even thrown her scissors at her wall and put a small hole in the wall (she has anxiety and struggles with things that don't come easy to her, so I wasn't surprised, but this was the worst flip out she had had in forever). She was mostly upset that she was thinking everyone was going to get her crochet stuff, and she was going to hate all of it and have no fun gifts. I got her calmed down, and then luckily that night when celebrating with family, my SIL got her a Woobles kit, which I told her had much better directions than the Amazon kit (there were almost no directions for that one, and she had watched youtube videos trying to figure it out, but really couldn't). The next day she completed most of her 1st Wooble (also the fox! She did the tail but still hasn't finished the ears...she's not home right now but I can ask her if she has any suggestions for your dd) and then moved on to a chicken from her other kit, and said that the Woobles directions did make it a ton easier. But she had also watched all the youtube videos 1st. We have since had a therapy session where she talked about this experience, and her therapist now has her thinking through what might go wrong before starting any new projects, in order to prepare for things not to be perfect and be ok with that.

[fancynewbeesly]

roselab

School and art/drawing/crafting come SUPER easy to her. So when she struggles in those areas she gets even more frustrated because she isn’t used to it.

[mapleme]

I love Woobles, but I do feel like they start out suuuuuper easy and then suddenly they're all, "Follow this code for the next 16 rows" and you're suddenly in the deep end. That fox is adorable and 100% better than my first crochet projects.

[pearbear]

Jan 18, 2024 17:08:18 GMT -6 fancynewbeesly said:

roselab

School and art/drawing/crafting come SUPER easy to her. So when she struggles in those areas she gets even more frustrated because she isn’t used to it.

She sounds so much like me. I had a little meltdown last year when I wasn’t an instant crochet master. I’m sure she’s going to get it in no time.

[roselab]

I was just scrolling and my dd is next to me, and she saw the picture of the fox and was like, hey, that looks as exactly lopsided as mine! in an excited voice.

She agrees that your dd is probably doing increase stitches (even though I don't know what that means, but she just clarified it's putting 2 stitches in the same hole), and that if she realizes halfway through, she could do decrease stitches (which she says is turning 2 stitches into 1 stitch) the rest of the row so it doesn't get too big.

[YakkityYak]

I don't find woobles easy for beginners. When I started I just found a beginner book on Amazon and it helped me learn fast.

This is what I bought

a.co/d/emex16y