Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Afghan Square Sewing-Now or Later?

If I'm going to knit or crochet an afghan, I do prefer to make it in one piece. But that's not always the case.

A lot of patterns are geared for just stitching squares and sewing them together. Well, as I said in one previous post regarding your tail stitching.....you can sew them in while you go or you can sew them all when you're finished (not me!)

My suggestion is to create several squares, and sew them together. Then after each square is completed, sew it to the other squares. This way you don't have all the tails to put in AND sew ALL the squares together. Do this for each row as you go and when your next row is completed, sew that to the previous row. When all the squares are finished, you will be almost home free! You may think that it took longer to complete, but not really.....you don't have to sew much more to complete it!!!

Some projects may even ask you to crochet around the whole afghan as well. Imagine if you HADN'T sew them as I suggested? You would have a LOT of work ahead of you! This way all you have is the final finishing!!

HAPPY STITCHING, my Friends!

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

'I'm going to cry because I have to tear out all the work that I just did' . That's some of the issues we come across in our shop.

What I like to tell everyone who has to TINK (knit spelled backwords) their work (meaning to tear out their stitches) is that don't sweat the small stuff. Your knitting or crocheting is there for you to enjoy....it has nothing to do with world peace, splitting the atom or putting the first person on Mars. It's stitching. Period!

When it comes to matters of real importance....your health, family, etc., then get crazy.

There's a line from the movie A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, where Tom Hanks, who plays the girls' manager says: 'There's no crying in baseball!' I agree.....no crying when it comes to our handwork. We can manage anything. Look at it as a learning experience. You made a mistake, correct it, and move on!! Here, that boo-boo goes into what I like to call your LIBRARY OF KNOWLEDGE. You know you WON'T make that mistake again! Again, it's truly a learning experience.

So, if you have a problem with your knit/crochet project....put it down for awhile...pick it up and I'm sure you can figure it out. If not, Mama is always here to help you!

HAPPY STITCHING, my Friends!