So Frustrated!

[AidanM]

Today has just been really frustrating for some reason. I can't seem to make anything work the way I want it to. The socks I made fit funny, the filet chart I tried to read confused the unholy c**p out of me, and I am at a loss of what to learn next. I feel like I've come up against a wall and there's nothing to be done about it.

[Cordelia]

So stop trying...take a mini-vacation from your projects for a day or two!

No harm in that! Get re-energized and pumped up again! Sometimes if you try to hard the love is lost, and we don't want that do we?

 

Here you look like ya need this:

[dhaunae]

I agree with Cordelia; put the hooks down and walk away. Read a book, go for a walk, paint the bathroom chartreuse ... do anything but crochet. It's amazing how a little break can refresh and energize you. And then if you still have trouble with that filet chart (I'm betting it'll make a lot more sense when you're less tense and frustrated), post it here and let some of C'ville's talented residents take a crack at it.

[faithpa76]

Put down the hooks and step away from the yarn!! Seriously, it's good advice. And if when you come back, you're still stuck, ask for help. We've all been there a time or two!

[Stacey]

I agree--the more tense and frustrated you are, the more likely something is to come out wrong. When nothing's working for me, I'll go play with the dog and the cats, read a book, mess around with some other craft, anything else that's relaxing. Sometimes I have to take a break for a couple of days, sometimes it's just a matter of getting un-frustrated by doing something else for a little while.

[mamaoso]

Okay what you do is: Throw it across the room and say to h-e- double hockey sticks with it. Pick it up tomorrow and it will be fine. Everything works out, no problems.

[crochetlady100]

I agree walk away for a while and come back. It will all work out, it always seems to.

Trish

[AidanM]

Ya'll are right. Ever since I learned to crochet this summer, I've been living and breathing it for about 3 months straight. (Hey, when you've got nothing else to do..) A break is exactly what I need.

[donnalynn2]

I agree with everyone else. I went through a really rough patch this summer where nothing I did turned out and then I'd be 1/2 way done with a pattern and find out that I had made a major mistake early on and basically had to start over. I gave myself a brief rest (a few days) and was as good as new! Sometimes you need to hit your "reset" button!

[lene]

Ditto what everyone else is saying. I find that when the crocheting seems to be less pleasure, more pain, the best thing for me to do is channel that creative energy elsewhere for a while. I may take a break for just a day, or even a week or two -- whatever I feel like. I tend to turn to my books, or to writing, or I spend long periods in the kitchen, baking or cooking labor-intensive foods. Or I may get out my beads and make lots of earrings and necklaces, or make a cloth doll, or... You get the picture.

 

This feels very much like the "spells" I go through with my reading. I may spend months reading lots of books about periods of history I especially enjoy, then move on to reading mysteries, then spend some time wallowing in romances, and then move on to some great SF/F. Don't know why I go in spurts as far as genre, but I do. Maybe you just are crocheted out for a while, and need to feed your imagination some other fodder.

 

Enjoy it! You come up with such cool stuff, I'm sure you'll find plenty of intriguing things to do.

 

Lene'