Crochet Pet Peeves
By Rachel Choi – 34 CommentsNo matter how much you love something, including crochet, there is always something about it that can make you tick. Whether it’s just something that makes you roll your eyes, annoy the heck out of you, or even make you pull your hair out, they are all pet peeves and I want to know about them!
Here are some of my all time crochet pet peeves:
Knots in my skein – I’m pretty good at taking out knots, but just because I’m good at it doesn’t mean I want knots! I’m pretty sure that the whole point of buying skeins of yarn is to avoid having knots in the yarn. But sometimes there’s that surprising knot in the skein that always makes me put down whatever I’m making and untangle it.
Running out of yarn – I’m not talking about running out in the middle of a project, because if I’m that far off in my yarn estimate that’s just my fault. But if I run out of yarn on the last row, that’s qualified as a rip your hair out situation! Who would want to go out and buy an entire skein of yarn just to finish the last row?
Distractions – Sometimes I’m caught in a deep concentration not wanting to lose my place or idea. Then someone comes along and starts chatting with me. I don’t mean to be rude when I ignore them, but they just don’t get it…I’m crocheting here!
Counting – 1…2…3… I can count that, no problem. But when I have to count over and over again and for a very long time, it drives me nuts! Probably because I get bored counting, or my mind wonders elsewhere and then I have to start over again.
Weaving in end – I just wish that the ends of yarn would weave themselves in. It seems so tedious when I finish making something to tuck the ends in nice and neatly.
What are your crochet pet peeves? Come on, you can let it out…
I’d have to say the “running out of yarn” that you described.
I found a pattern for a cowl (in the Crochet Today magazine) that only took 1 ball of Light and Lofty, so I dug through my stash and found the ball I had had for over a year. Well, the very last row… I ran out. I counted everything over and over again to make sure I hadn’t added a row or extra stitches somewhere, but everything was perfect. I decided to finish it off like it was (one row short) and came to find that the silly thing was still too big!!
One of my biggest pet peeves is when I have the ball of thread in a little bag hanging on my arm or just sitting there and I am crocheting away and the thread will not just come off the ball smoothly as I am going. I have to pause and pull out a yard or so or else my crochet will mess up! I hate the knots in my thread, also, and the weaving in of loose ends and running out of thread before I finish!
Blessings,
Diane
I hate when I can’t find the end of the yarn (that pulls out from the center of the skein)!!
When you start crocheting with some yarn and find out that the yarn has been cut and then tied onto another strand. It’s really annoying! I also don’t like weaving in the ends because they always come out. :-\
Weaving in ends – I dont like it when i change colors and I have to hide the loose ends of the old and new yarns inside the working row. The loose ends usually pop out of the stitches and that looks bad. The other one is winding a skein into a ball (I dont find ball winders where I live)..if there’s too much yarn, i simply ask my mom to do it for me..she loves doing it 😀
When I leave a project for one second, to answer the phone, go get tea, whatever, and I come back to find a cat tangling it all up. Grr… Cute but grr…
My boyfriend and I have long hair, and sometimes shed hair gets tangled in my projects.
I hate it when you can’t find the beginning of the thread. Seems like they could put it in the same place or just not bury it. I also hate when I am counting and someone notices and starts counting also..grandkids are good at this. Still love them tho.
My pet peeve is when I find a knot tied in my ball of yarn… in my Mum’s time you never got a ball with a join in it & she taught us to join the new yarn in… without a knot – OK, on thicker yarn but a bit daunting on fine yarn. Of course I’m talking joining the same coloured yarn here…
I can remember Mum knitting my Dad a jumper with a cable feature… she always made a point of buying extra yarn for any project for Dad as he was ‘larger’ than life but when she knitted this jumper it worked out just fine until she washed it… turns out some of the yarn was from a different dye lot so he had a patchy jumper after that & Mum wouldn’t let him wear it out but he did wear it for many many years as his fishing jumper… fish don’t mind it jumpers are patchy…
1. Knots in my yarn! I hate taking the time to untangle it!
2. Checking your gauge
3. Counting… I loose my train of thought and I have to start all over again!!
4. Someone talking to me when I am trying to count..
Knots in the yarn for sure and no being able to find the end of yarn that starts in the middle of the skein, because you go ahead and use the lose end that is wrapped around but then you have your skein rolling all over the place and onto the floor and it get stuck and ugh!!! I also don’t like to weave in the ends…just because there are sooo many when you are changing colors a lot.
I hate weaving in ends since it takes forever and they pop out or look noticeable. I also hate counting, especially when it is a big project and you have to chain 100 or something. It is so easy to loose track, even if you are marking along the way. All it takes is someone to start talking to you or to hear something odd and you loose concetration and your count and have to start over.
I hate it when I buy thin yarn and theres a big bulky piece in it
The two things I hate the most: 1. Counting out the beginning chains, it is boring and soooooo easy to mess up, and 2. Weaving in ends after changing colors, I try to not use knots because I was told they make a weak point but I’m always paranoid the ends will come out and the piece will unravel.
I despise granny squares!! For the same reason most others give, tying in ends. It does not bother me with changing colors, just granny squares. One small square with just 2 colors leaves me with 4 ends! I hate them!!! Otherwise, I LOVE to crochet, knots, rolling into balls, losing count, none of that gets to me. Happy Crocheting All!
My pet peeve is sometimes I manage to hook less than the number of plies – two or three instead of all four in four ply yarn or however many ply yarn I happen to be working with. And then not noticing until several rows later. About then I wonder if I am going blind! Another thing is if it is something that is made of motiefs I will not make it. Weaving all those ends for the motiefs as well as the ends for the joing of the motief — Grrrr! Double Grrrr.
Several of the ones you mentioned, the last three definitely (Weaving in ends is the worst, I HATE it). But with Amigurumi, one of my biggest annoyances is the construction when all the parts are finished. Often patterns aren’t very good at describing how best to put the different parts together and there really aren’t any awesome guides for certain types of construction (for instance, they’ll have a guide showing you how to attach limbs but nothing on how to attach antennas. My Gabu’s antennas were limp :'( ) And I’m not really great at sewing so it’s just even worse.
I have to say counting….. why does it seem like I get a different number every time I go back and recount???? Do stitches magically appear and disappear? And then when I am sure I got it right and start the nest row, guess what I counted it wrong for the fiftieth time!
All of the ones mentioned before, actually it was funny reading the pet peeves, I found so many of my same thoughts being repeated,I think I would also include thin yarn which keeps splitting from your hook and,,,,,,,not being able to understand a pattern,although it would seem simple enough, Often times I feel frusterated and want to throw the pattern across the room , I keep thinking i graduated high school honest, why don’t I get it lol
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Knots that randomly appear in the middle of the skein…or random splits. It also aggravates me that my larger skeins somehow spread out and become 2 or 3 times their natural length no matter what I do. I also hate how my hook seems to disappear whenever I put my project down or take it from one place to another. Finally, as someone else mentioned, I hate that my amigurumi never seem to be assembled 100% correctly. The sewing part seems to be the hardest, and I’m not sure why.
I learned how to untangle yarn from, of all things, a novel! It is about Newfoundland and is called “The Shipping News” and each chapter starts with something about sailors’ knots and has an accompanying drawing. One chapter mentioned how to untangle knots: do NOT just pull on the yarn (this makes a knot!), but GENTLY tease the yarn into a loose oval shape. If there is still a knot left (and there usually isn’t), you will be able to easily pull it apart with your fingers. Also in this book is a great Newfie joke about a trucker who was driving and knitting with his hands through the steering wheel.(Real men knitted in lots of the north country.) A trooper pulled along side of the trucker and yelled “Pull over! Pull over!” The trucker yelled back through his open window: “Why no sir! Tis a cardi!” Compulsive knitters & crocheters, can you relate to him?
My pet peeve is abig tangle in the yarn half way through your project. I get so invovled and then wammy, a big old knot. Drives me crazy!!!
The biggest peeve that I have comes from something I love dearly.
My Dog, Oliver, is my best bud. He sits with me when i am working on a project and watches TV. I love having his company but I hate what he leaves behind. Everytime I get finished with a peice I have to look over it over and over and over again to pick out all of the Oliver hairs!
-happy stitching
Weaving in the ends!! The worst!! Also, problems with my arms that cause them to hurt when I crochet. Very, very bad.
All the above – been there. Also,why is most of the yarn now days need to be rewound,as in
sock yarn? Company’s aren’t endearig themselves to buyers.
First of all…I agree with all of the above! One I haven’t heard mentioned that bugs the heck out of me is….patterns that are incorrect! You try and try and try to do what the pattern says to do, but you just can’t….then if you start really looking at it…you realize that it is impossible to do what it says to do. Just yesterday, I was making a tiny little toy bear, and couldn’t for the life of me get this one round to come out with the stated 23 stitches…I would get 18 every single time. finally, I went back to the last row where a stated number of stitches was given, then added the increases in the next row, etc….and guess what?….it came out to 18…NOT 23! Oh argh! After I got past that….the number was right on the next rows! This happens way more often than you would expect…even on patterns in books! So, next time you can’t do what the pattern says….remember that maybe it just isn’t saying the right thing!…It’s not that YOU can’t figure it out! Of course none of Rachel’s patterns are like this! 🙂
Also, my other pet peeve is really a PET peeve, since it has to do with my cat, Bubba. He wants to sit on my lap while I’m crocheting….forcing me to hold my work practically in front of my nose! I push him down into the chair next to me, so I can focus my eyes on my work, and first thing I know, I’m crocheting with wet yarn! Yep, he has it in his mouth & it is just pulling through the gaps in his side teeth on both sides! Also, I crochet about a million Bubba hairs into everything I make….sure hope no-one I make anything for is allergic to cats!
Hi,
I love all the answers. I did not see one of mine. I absolutely hate it when someone who is not even a close friend will come up to me and say “OH, If I buy the yarn will you make me an afghan or slippers or whatever ” Oh my gosh,,,,,,do they not realize an afghan is a work of love not of OH if I buy the yarn….My standard answer is….if you buy the yarn, I will through in a needle and I will TEACH you. I have had some take me up on the idea. I find them teaching later too. So there are answers to the OH, If I buy the yarn…..
For those OH, if I buy the yarn…. I quote them a price for my time and talent (which happen to be valuable to me). That stops them in their tracks! As for teaching them they usually can’t be bothered using that much of their time to learn and get to the point they can make a project.
ok well i agree withh th OH’s only cause i was dumb enough to go out and buy wool yarn (which i cant afford right now i have no income)cause a lady said she wanted a pair of wool socks 4 weeks ago i have not seen or heard from her since AHHHHH.you would think if you ask some one to make stuff you would call them back .or if you take the stuff they wanted yiu to make 4 them and then they back out cause they change their mind come on they could call. i used to like taking request by now its only family and close friends since im the only one crocheting.i better get busy with christmas presents
1.Distractions
2.Weaving in ends
3.Sewing pieces together
4.When amigurumi(?) never seems to end up like a ball but more like an oval
5.Knots
6.When you can’t understand a patter or you make the project over and over and can never seem to get it
7.When I tell my friends about a pattern and before long I have 5 request for stuff, then they get mad when a few days later they don’t get it! Crochet takes me a LONG time and I have school and tests and all that.
8.When it takes me forever to finish a pattern.
9.Counting
Being only 16 and getting arthritis in both wrists- I’m 16 (17 in February) and I always crack my wrists and knuckles. I do a lot of sports and activities that involve using my wrists. If it didn’t start to hurt my wrists so much, I could crochet for days without stopping, but after a few hours I can barely hold the hook without wincing…
I get ticked off when you see an antique pattern, clearly bragged about being an antique pattern, and then the crocheter will post “please don’t copy MY original pattern for sale or profit or otherwise!” Hello!!! It’s not yours!!! I have my Granny’s patterns dating back to 100 years ago – I would never show what I created from them and call them my originals!
I think if we all remember these patterns are published somewhere by someone, so let’s just share! I love seeing all of the beautiful creations, and some are clearly original, but after a few people copy and share, it’s a gorgeous gift to us all!
Melanie,
This may be gross, but I read Esperenza Rising ( a GREAT book, by the way) and her grandma crocheted. Whenever a piece of her hair fell out, she would crochet it into whatever she was making!!!
When people constantly drop “hints” about me making stuff for them for free. It gets really old, really fast. It’s even worse when they don’t even begin to even half-way grasp how much work it takes and if they do decide they will offer money, it’s slave labor prices.. Minimum wage where I am is 12.75 an hour. But they want me to make them things for what often ads up to about 25 cents an hour if that in some cases.