[Kitalpha Hart]

Took me a year and a half to make my first cosplay
Second was a month cuz I made one piece and bought the rest. Dress came from China, so customs and all that delayed it
Yeah sure my most recent one was under a week but I was also challenging myself to get it done before the anime came out lol
The current two I'm working on...I should get back to them lol

[Kaderin Triste]

I feel like I would probably never finish a full cosplay outfit. XD
Unless it was really simple like just a dress and boots/shoes. Or stuff that could easily be purchased.
Actually, pass me a boxy forest green blazer and I'm all set to be Daria...
(Who no one probably has even heard of...)

It took me a year and a half to make a half-apron. 2.5 weeks to make my Jaws skirt (which admittedly I would have had done in a couple days but I had to rip and re-cut stuff).

In terms of yarn crafts, I have a scarf I started probably 6 years ago, 2 blankets from 2 years ago, 2 shawls from 6 months ago, a fox from 2 years ago, a whale from a year and a half ago.

If I ever finish all my WiPs, it'll look like I was really crafting fast. Especially hold off on sharing that they're done until I've completed most of them. Except maybe the blankets. I'll probably frog one of them since it was mostly just testing something and I think I'm only 5 or 10 rows in anyway.

[trystan830]

so at the moment, i'm working on another panel for my geeky heirloom blanket. what i've been doing with the panels thus far is each panel is its own project, so i've finished 8 panels, and that feels better to me than only 50% of the blanket.

i also have a blanket i've been working on since April of 2018 - crochet blankets do not take me this long to make. but it's a large blanket, and when it's done it'll be about 6 feet tall, i'm just over the half-way point now. but - it's crochet cables; and there was a time where i wasn't sure how much yarn i'd need, so i added another color, and still didn't think i'd have enough yarn to make it as big as i wanted... and the yarn is from AC Moore, so that's a whole 'nother pandora's box too... BUT, now i have all the yarn i'll need to finish it, so i just gotta finish it. but... smaller projects call to me. like more socks....

[Kaderin Triste]

100% feel that small project thing.

My biggest problem is mainly that I want to do too many things so I go through periods of just being overwhelmed and shutting down and then starting new projects that I want to make. Rinse and repeat.

But after finishing the shawl that's still almost done because I didn't touch it last night and Derpy's skirt, I'm gonna take a break from finishing projects and from my big project list for this year *points at sig* and time out how long it takes to make some specific projects for a class that I may teach this summer.
I don't want to do just boring basic scarves and hats, but at the same time, those are the easiest projects to make.... xP

[trystan830]

Originally Posted by Kaderin Triste

I don't want to do just boring basic scarves and hats, but at the same time, those are the easiest projects to make.... xP

if you're teaching, you want to start with the small projects so your students feel like they're accomplishing something. it was like that at Michael's when they had their previous teacher/classes set-up (it's now a community classroom, and now anyone can teach. story for another time.)

i once had a customer come in, i believe it was actually a father & son, and the son wanted to learn to crochet and he wanted his first project to be a blanket. whether or not they took my suggestions, i suggested starting small, like a potholder, coaster, or skinny scarf, because a project like a blanket can drag on and on and feels like it's taking forever, especially for a first project.

i would teach a 'basic' hat or scarf, because it's learning how the process works, and they're small enough projects for a student to hold up the finished item and say "look what i finished!" :D

[Kaderin Triste]

I mean, I'm not saying start off a beginner class off with a blanket or stuffed animal or anything. But like....maybe fingerless gloves which is the same basic method as the hat, but with the benefit of also teaching how to do flat panel knitting on a round loom for the thumb hole.
Because literally everyone when I say I made...pretty much anything with loom knitting goes "oh, I thought all you could do on those was hats and scarves!"
Or even small panels of various beginner friendly stitches (starting with the 3 main ways to do knit stitches and the purl stitch and then going up from there) that can be sewn into a scarf or blanket.
But I want to test those first.

[trystan830]

fair enough. there's more to loom knitting than most people realise.

three ways to make a knit stitch... i only know two!

[Kaderin Triste]

Technically 4. But I don't like one of them as it's always too tight for me.
1. E-wrap
2. Flat knit (too tight imo)
3. U-wrap/U-knit (similar to flat knit, but a bit less tight)
4. Traditional knit stitch

[trystan830]

i know #1 and #2, and agree that the flat knit is too tight. i'll have to look up the other two when i'm home after work :)

[Kaderin Triste]

U knit is kind of a hybrid of flat and e-wrap where you wrap your yarn around the front and side of your peg then take the bottom loop over and off the peg so it's got a bit more slack than flat knit, but is similar in execution.
And the traditional is where you put the yarn across the top, use your hook to pull it under the bottom loop on the peg, creating another loop in the yarn, then pulling the loop on the peg off and putting the loop you made onto the peg. Basically the reverse of the purl stitch.
It takes a bit longer to do, but is easier to control your yarn tension and is the closest to a needle knit result.

[trystan830]

right, i've seen a vid with the traditional knit stitch then. the U knit sounds confusing, but i can find a vid later, it's fine. :)

[Kaderin Triste]

It's really not as confusing as I made it sound. XD

[trystan830]

yeah, i get that

[Kaderin Triste]

Man....I'm bad at explaining things...this is gonna be one wild class!
XD

[trystan830]

it's different when you have the yarn and loom right there to show people how to do it

edit: found a vid of the U-wrap. you explained it rather well; i just needed to see it as well.

[Kaderin Triste]

Lol. Very true. I still have no confidence that I'll be good at teaching. But I'll probably do it anyway. XD