This week, my Genius Hour project involved a lot of trial and error. My task was to crochet and join the first two squares of my blanket. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I created the centre component of each square, given how much difficulty I had
last week with the basic stitches. Once I finished the two centres, I realized I had no idea how to change colours, since this was not explained in the
pattern that I am using. Fortunately, even though the
method that I found to do this was written for right-handed individuals, it was a basic enough concept that I was able to mentally reverse it to do it left-handed, rather than having to specifically search for a left-handed method. One thing that I am learning as I do my weekly research is that there are many more crochet resources for right-handed individuals than left-handed ones. Because of this, I was especially excited to not have to find a different resource for changing colours. After learning how to change colours, I finished both squares in no time.
The next step was to join my squares. Included in my pattern is a
link to different ways to do this. However, given the amount of difficulty I had following the other right-handed links in my pattern, I decided to do external research instead. I knew I wanted the joints between squares to be flat and I wanted to crochet the joints rather than sew them. When I knit, I always try to avoid sewing joints because it is my least favourite part of the project, so I decided to do the same with my crochet blanket. The most popular method that I found is called
join as you go. I liked the way that this looked, so I started following the instructions in this
video. This was the most difficult and frustrating part. The video explained that the gaps in the granny squares had to have an odd number of stitches, but my pattern calls for an even number. I had to undo the work that I had just done and look for other resources that used an even number of stitches. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any. All of the other crochet connections that I found were complex and highly decorative, which is not how I want my blanket to look. At this point, I decided that it would probably be easier to sew the squares together than to use one of the crochet connections that I saw. I found
instructions to sew an invisible seam and started joining my squares, but noticed that my squares were not lining up properly. After removing my sewing and starting over a couple of times, I had an aha moment. The squares shown in the instructions were made by someone who was right-handed, which meant that mine were backward. Instead of starting sewing through the left square, I realized that I had to start with the right square. Once I did this, I was very happy with the way that the beginning of my blanket looked.
I have completed my goal for the week, so there is nothing else that I have to do before next week. During that week (and Reading Week), I will be finishing my blanket. One thing that I did not think about when making my initial timeline was putting a border on my blanket. Although this is not necessary, it might be fun to do. This is something that I will look into next week.
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