Bad Experience, Discouraged

[BlondieeAggiee]

Hi everyone.

 

I've been lurking around these boards for several months now. I started crocheting last year and have enjoying it until tonight. Now I'm discouraged to the point I'm listing my pattern books on half.com.

 

I finished an afghan for my boyfriend's sister's new baby. I was incredibly proud because the baby isn't due until November, and here it is the end of August and I've finished it. It turned out absolutely beautiful. I used Red Heart Super-saver yarn in red, blue, yellow, and green. The pattern I followed is in Vanna's Afghans All Through the House, it is the Playful Primaries pattern. The pattern is single crocheted blocks, each semicircle done in a different color. It was by far the best thing I'd ever made.

 

I took it to the laundry today to wash out all the dog hair I'd crocheted into it...and it disintegrated! Yarn was snapped and frayed all over, many of the blocks had come apart. I came back home and cried, still pretty upset now. I guess I should've stuck to cross-stitching.

[RebeccaVelasquez]

i'm coming in a little late on the advice end.... looks like everyone else did a great job.

i'm chiming in...... WHEW! aren't you glad this happened when you washed it :wha

 

chalk it up to experience, girl and move on: NEXT!

 

hey, am i reading your name right - Aggie???

shall i say 'howdy'?

[Ambersafghans]

Hi Aggie! Welcome.

I'm a bit late here, but I was wondering if you knew exactly what happened. Was the yarn you used new? Do you think it was a knot errer? I'm curiouse because I sell afghans. And I want to make sure that I'm doing everything right.

I'm glad it didn't cause you to stop crochet totally! And thinning out projects is a good idea.(8o ) I've yet to.

Anyway welcome!

Amber

[Guest SamplerLady]

I don't feel obligated to complete them anymore.

This is probably the most valuable lesson you could have learned. Sometimes we start something just to see if we can do it and then loose intereste. Sometimes it looks like a really neat project, but it isn't once we get into it. To be able to frog a project you are no longer interested in and move on is a great skill. And it releases yarn for other projects and keeps the guilty pile of UFOs from overtaking the real UFOs! Congrats! Many, many crocheters never learn that lesson and end up making something they hate or hiding it and feeling guilty! )

[RebeccaVelasquez]

absolutely no wasting time around here

start 15 projects you love - like me:o

[Donna]

Something good came of this disaster though...I was able to step back and decide which projects I really wanted to continue. I wasn't happy with the way two of my projects were turning out, and now I can just put those down. I don't feel obligated to complete them anymore.

Absolutely! Move on to something that makes you happy. :)h We all start projects we later decide we don't want to finish. Don't waste your time on something you've changed your mind about. :thumbsup

[RebeccaVelasquez]

oh, how i miss the sound of the corp marching past the dorm at 5 in the morning.:zzz

class of '04? finish in dec?

 

i would LOVE to move back to CS. i miss it.

[BlondieeAggiee]

Wow, thanks for all the advice & encouragement! I was only leaving about 3 inches or so to weave in at the seams, that was probably part of my problem. In the future I'll be sure to leave six.

 

There may have been something in the washer. I live in an apartment community and we share a laundry room. I looked in the basin, but it was pretty dark and I could've missed something.

 

I got a lot of the loose ends weaved back in last night, now I just need to repair the seams. Won't get to it tonight though, school starts today and I'm back to working nights.

 

Something good came of this disaster though...I was able to step back and decide which projects I really wanted to continue. I wasn't happy with the way two of my projects were turning out, and now I can just put those down. I don't feel obligated to complete them anymore.

 

Rebecca - Yeppers, I'm an Ag. Proud member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2004, at your service. My family says I'm asking for trouble, being a blonde Aggie.

[Donna]

Don't be discouraged! There is a lot to learn when you are new to crocheting. When you are joining a new color or a new skein, leave a tail of 4-6 inches on each (both the old and the new) to weave in. Myself, I crochet over the end for about 2/3 of the way and then weave it back in the other direction using a yarn needle. Make sure the ends are secure and not easy to wiggle out. If it doesn't feel secure when you're doing it, it won't hold up in the washing machine.

 

Also, when whipstitching, I leave a 4-6 inch tail just as I would if I were joining a new skein. Make sure your initial whipstitch is secure (go over it a couple of times), so that when you pull on it, it can't be yanked out easily. Do the same when you get to the end of the piece of yarn your whipstitching with--make it secure. Then go back and work in the ending and beginning tails.

 

It's all about the ends!

 

Get back up on that horse! :thumbsup

[Guest kitchwitch]

Aggie

 

Same thing happened to me when I washed a jacket of granny squares. You can probably sew up the seams with a tapestry needle and no one will ever notice - except you:))

[Guest SamplerLady]

I heard that!

Welcome to the forum, Pam. Please keep all our secrets!!!!! )

[froggy]

I heard that!

[Guest SamplerLady]

How discouraging! However you are in good company. Some disaster like this happens periodically to all of us. It doesn't make it any easier to know others experience this when you are going through it, but in retrospect and after one takes a deep breath, it does help sometimes.

 

Is there any chance there was a sharp surface or something in the washing machine/dryer? If you didn't notice the yarn having weak spots as you constructed the afghan....something had to make the yarn give. As a general rule, acrylic yarn doesn't just come apart in that many places. Did you use the same yarn for joining the blocks as you did for making them?

 

Whip stitch is one way of joining. One can also use single crochet on the front side of the afghan to create little "frames" for each square.

 

When weaving in ends, using a blunt yarn needle, I always make sure I go in at least two different directions to make sure they don't wiggle out. I go left and then up or down or go right and then diagonally and back. Also try to pierce the threads so they tend to "grab" the ends and keep them in place. I find just crocheting over the ends doesn't make them secure enough to keep from wiggling out during washing.

 

Now don't tell any one this....but sometimes when I know an afghan will get washed alot, I will.......... shhhhhhhhh.......... tie square knots at the color changes and then weave those pesky ends in. Insurance, one might say! )

[BlondieeAggiee]

After I calmed down a bit, I made a late trip to Walmart to buy a lint roller. I've cleaned off all the "debris" from the washing machine disaster, and it isn't as bad as i initially thought. One main joining is totally destroyed, and part of another. There are several holes where the yarn gave, but it looks like all of it was where I joined two pieces together.

 

It looks like if I repair those seams, weave in a bunch of loose ends, and attach a "Hand Wash Only" tag, it'll be OK.

 

I joined the pieces using whip stitch. This was the first thing I've done where I had to join several small blocks, I guess I did something wrong. Anyone have any joining advice?

[MommaChelle]

Oh I am so sorry that happened!! Dont be discouraged!

[froggy]

Oh My Goodness! I am so sorry this happened to you. Please try not to be discouraged. Try to think of it this way at least you did not give the gift yet and it happened to them. If it "HAD" to happen I would have been glad it happened to me and not them. Maybe thats one way you could look at it.

[Deb]

Aggiee... I'm so sorry this happened to you.

 

Don't give up!!! Is there any way you can mend it? Any way at all???