Twenty five or thirty years ago, one of our aunts attempted to teach my sister and me how to crochet. My sister managed to stay with it, but I lost interest. I don’t know why. I liked to read, and cross stitch, and I was active in a bunch of different things at school. I probably just didn’t have the patience to pick up something new.
Circle back to today, and my sister and I are bonding again over my renewed interest in this hobby she’s loved for so long. Over the years it has manifested itself in things like small stuffed bears for the kids and our mom, fingerless gloves, last year we all got personalized scrubbies for Christmas. She makes baby blankets for the local hospital, a project near to her heart after losing her third baby and the kindness she received afterward.
Recently, she designed a filet pattern she calls “Unconditional Love.” She designed it to be scalable, so that the crafter could make it as big or as small as she likes, but she said the person testing it for her was confused on Row 2. So she doesn’t share her scalable patterns because she’s tired of people finding them confusing. She’d send it to me if I was interested. I took a look at it, and even with my inexperienced eyes, I have no idea why her tester was confused on Row 2. She did have a typo on Row 4, though, and a similar typo on Row 17, and on Row 19, she got her steps in the wrong order, but we got it worked out.
My inexperience did cause a little bit of grief. Filet patterns are done with a series of double crochet followed by chain stitches. Do you DC in the chain space or in the chain stitch itself? She said it didn’t matter, it was a personal preference. She prefers the space, but others crochet in the stitch, so she doesn’t specify in her pattern. So I asked her when it says “DC in the next 11 sts” it means both DC and ch-sp stitches? Yes, it doesn’t matter if it’s a DC or a ch-sp, it’s a stitch. It caused a bit of confusion for me in a couple of the rows, but I managed to get through it. (Row 7 was especially difficult. I asked for advice on another forum. They agreed my sister’s row instructions were just fine, but she could have made the pre-instructions clearer.)
The biggest grief though? I asked her if she would cry if I figured out a way to turn this into a sweater. I’m still thinking about it now that I have this block row done. I think it’s about to become a cardigan. Maybe.
Don't Be Latte! 