I was going to do a post about my latest finished projects (runes and earrings), but right now I want to rant about the elf poncho I'm working on. It's such a cute design, and the pattern was pretty easy to follow to the start, but now it's just turning crap.
My main gripe about clothing patterns is that they always call for wool yarn (at least all the ones I've tried or want to make), so you can block the article of clothing into shape. I can't wear wool because it makes me itch, and I'm poor, so I always use acrylic because it's non-itchy and cheap. You can't really block acrylic, or anything not natural, so I always end up with a project that is misshapen and doesn't fit right. It just seems so darn cheap to me that in order to get something pretty, who cares about the work put into making it correctly; it's all about soaking it and tugging it into shape. Can't there just be a pattern where what you crochet is what you get? That works for the things I've designed- granted I've never designed a sweater or something big yet, but crocheting the actual size and shape works just fine for the acrylic sleeves, gloves, and waist cinchers I've made.
I guess tugging it into shape works for if you're making a design that conforms to your body shape, but a poncho is a one size fits all thing- the tie in the back determines the tightness.
So now I've got a poncho that doesn't fit right (maybe I can try sewing the neck down so it doesn't stick up so much?). To make it worse, the pattern completely loses all comprehension when it gets to the hood. How the heck are you supposed to turn a giant rectangle into a round hood shape? (Whenever I've made hoods for dolls, I always start with a circle- because, you know, heads are round.) The pictures of the pattern don't have anything with the front of the hood, so I can't see how they got the hood to not stick out all pointy and angled over the face. And I'm lost as to how to attach it- I still have no clue what the difference is between "front" and "top" and "back" and "bottom" on a hood. Isn't the bottom the back? And the top, which you'd think would be the top of the head (or the "right side" of the crochet), is actually an end that I need to crochet around, but I can't figure out what end. It's driving me nuts!
So basically unless I can guess correctly for the hood and/or sew the neck down so it isn't sticking up, I may have to frog the whole thing. I'm going to try crocheting my own round hood, but I've only ever done those for dolls, so I'm not sure how different it would be for human sized. If that works, and if that'll keep the neck from sticking out so much, I may be able to save it and end up with something pretty. On the plus side, if I'm doing my own thing for the hood, I may be able to make it pointy, which would look cool on an elf thing. ;)
Ugh, and this is why I so rarely use patterns or make clothing; the finished product always makes me look so incompetent when I'm really a good crocheter, just because I can't block it into shape. Maybe I can do my own thing to what I have so far to make it prettier and to make it lay right- that's what I usually do, anyway, so I'm hoping it'll work this time, too. *crosses fingers* I know I want to add extra rows to the bottom, too, so that might help weigh down the neck.
Long rant, but I've been having a bad week, so I'm getting annoyed at little things at this point. Heh. I'll try the pattern again in the morning and hopefully it'll all work out. :)
5 comments:
oh dear ... sounds like a disaster. you know what i do when something like that happens? put it aside and do something new. come back to it when you're ready and you'll be surprise how different you would see things and how much new ideas come up. now... the mind is just one track so no use thinking about it.
i can't really see the rectangle hood thingy, cos there are no pictures so i can visualize what you are saying. (i'm more of a visual person :) but i do make my costume hoods rectangle. rectangles have 2 long sides and 2 short sides right? i sew together one long side and one short side ... and leave the other 2 sides open. the long open side would be where the face is and the short open side is where i attach it to the neckline of the cape (or whatever i'm sewing with the hood) so the hood would have a pointy sort of head. i dunno if that helps :) well... i'm sure you're much better than me when it comes to fabric and fiber work :)) good luck!
Sending sympathetic thoughts your way! There was one sweater pattern that drove me nuts. After frogging the sleeves 4 times, I finally stuffed it on the closet shelf. That was 3 years ago and I still haven't finished it. Usually, I just throw out the pattern and do my own thing. If you can make doll cloths, no reason you can't make people sized. After all, we're creative people. That's what we do, right?
daaaaaang. been there plenty of times.
small thoughts- can you put a leather lace at the neck, would that prevent it from sticking up?
can you change the shape of the hood with stitches on the underside so it is pointy, but not rectangular?
Since I never trust patterns that other people write... my tactic is to take apart a piece of clothing that I like (or imagine what it would look like if I took it apart). When I knit a sweater I'm ALWAYS measuring my work against a sweater that I like.
If you don't have an already made model garment, then there's always the "make it out of muslin first" tactic.
I hope it works out for you. :)
Xav
Luthien- I decided to just put it aside for a few days, but now I'm having some ideas of how to fix it, so that's good! :D I think I'm going to try to make a long, pointed fae hood anyway, so I'll just ignore the silly rectangle they want me to do. ;) But your description on making a hood makes a lot more sense than what the pattern is calling for!
threadsofmagique- Yeah, I'm creative- I should be able to do something for this, right? LOL! Hopefully it'll turn out. :)
Julie- if my new idea of making a hood doesn't work, I'll probably try adding or adjusting stitches.
Xav- That's a really good idea! Another thing I thought of kinda like that is to make something doll-sized, and if it works that way, it will likely work for human-sized. :)
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