It’s a familiar story – you buy yarn, complete your knitted project, and inevitably have not enough yarn for another project. Eventually, however, enough yarn will build up to make a stash-buster blanket. I have too many ottomans and storage bins filled to bursting with yarn. I refuse to count them.
I am much more skilled at knitting than crocheting. Always on the lookout to strengthen weaker skills, and seeing a number of gorgeous granny squares on Pinterest (link is to my blanket board), I decided my stash-buster needed to be crocheted. There also may have been another motive for choosing crochet over knitting: crochet was easy to toss in my master’s gown’s sleeves. (Priority number one for graduation: keeping my hands busy.)
Since May, I have made five squares of varying sizes and am working on a sixth (and my second Sophie’s Garden). I’ve also made Julie Yeager’s Sun Catcher square, Spiraling into Spring, More V’s Please, and In Like a Lamb. As for the layout, or what the other squares will be, that all remains a mystery. I select squares and colors as whim dictates – going to my ottoman and storage bins, I start pulling out colors that draw me in in that moment. I follow that up by going to Pinterest and selecting a pattern that speaks to those colors. Or vice versa. Since I’m only 5½ squares in, it’s too soon to start determining layout, so I have to wait a bit longer before that part of the project.
While I still prefer knitting to crochet, there is something very rhythmic and meditative about crochet. Sitting there as I Netflix and crochet, I almost go in a trance – chain, chain, yarn over, loop, pull, yarn over, loop, pull, yarn over, loop, pull, pull, repeat – it’s very soothing. Unfortunately, I can not crochet for very long as my hand cramps very easily during crochet. Any tips for how I can crochet better? While I have improved in other areas of crochet (invisible join! So beautiful.), the basics – for instance, how to avoid repetitive stress injury – still elude me.
Spinning a corn-free yarn 
Your squares are beautiful and quite intricate. The only thing I can think of with the cramping is that maybe because it’s a newer skill you are not letting your hands relax. Though I find both knitting and crochet can hurt my hands if I do too much at a time. I either swop tasks or relax for a few minutes, once I feel the strain, then pick it up again.
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Thanks! And thank you for the advice — I always tell myself to take breaks, but I get in a groove and not much springs me out of it.
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