My Weekly Swatch Day
One day of my working week is dedicated to stitch pattern research and crocheting swatches.
Spending time on crocheting something I don't need at the moment while having so many interesting projects in progress seems like wasting time and I always have to push myself to do this, but it's an important part of the designing process. To try something new, to learn new stitches, combine different stitch patterns, or invent something unusual. One of the hardest, boring and unwanted tasks for me which actually matters the most!
I changed my attitude to such tasks as swatching and weaving in ends as soon as I decided to start thinking of them as essential parts of the whole crocheting process. Before that, I thought of these as separate tasks, and “crocheting” was only the time I spent with a hook and yarn in my hands. This little change made a big difference and changed my feelings about the amount of time it takes to create a project, making the whole process less stressful and more enjoyable.
I lost the feeling of impatience and hurry during the swatching process because swatching means I'm already working on my project: I can see the beauty of the stitch pattern and how well it works with the yarn, visualize how the entire design will look and make sure that the sweater will fit my figure and I won't run out of yarn, all because I made and blocked the swatch, which allowed me to calculate yardage and measure the proper gauge.
And I stopped having a feeling of accomplishment right after working the last stitch. While I still have the ends to weave in and need to block the finished item, it is still a project in progress. The pseudo-finished project no longer taunts me since it's not considered finished until it is truly finished, with all its ends woven in and it's off the blocking mat; that's when the feeling of accomplishment comes!
Spending time on crocheting something I don't need at the moment while having so many interesting projects in progress seems like wasting time and I always have to push myself to do this, but it's an important part of the designing process. To try something new, to learn new stitches, combine different stitch patterns, or invent something unusual. One of the hardest, boring and unwanted tasks for me which actually matters the most!
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| In the photo: a combination of star stitch, ribbing in back loop and linen stitch pattern. |
I changed my attitude to such tasks as swatching and weaving in ends as soon as I decided to start thinking of them as essential parts of the whole crocheting process. Before that, I thought of these as separate tasks, and “crocheting” was only the time I spent with a hook and yarn in my hands. This little change made a big difference and changed my feelings about the amount of time it takes to create a project, making the whole process less stressful and more enjoyable.
I lost the feeling of impatience and hurry during the swatching process because swatching means I'm already working on my project: I can see the beauty of the stitch pattern and how well it works with the yarn, visualize how the entire design will look and make sure that the sweater will fit my figure and I won't run out of yarn, all because I made and blocked the swatch, which allowed me to calculate yardage and measure the proper gauge.
And I stopped having a feeling of accomplishment right after working the last stitch. While I still have the ends to weave in and need to block the finished item, it is still a project in progress. The pseudo-finished project no longer taunts me since it's not considered finished until it is truly finished, with all its ends woven in and it's off the blocking mat; that's when the feeling of accomplishment comes!
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