What was your biggest disappointment with crocheting?

[the-crocheter]

Regarding myself, I had NO disappointments so far (Can you believe this??) The only trouble that I had, was with the patterns on other languages. I'm from Russia, but don't tell me that I automatically can understand patterns in Russian. I taught myself crocheting in English from English books and I still can't understand patterns that are written in Russian even though I know abbreviations. The thing is, they are written in really formal professional "language"--there is a chematic and requirements, # of stitches to chain and practically, that's it!! No written patterns row by row what to do with EVERY stitch. Try to decipher!

[JoAnn]

That I don't have the time to crochet more and learn new things!!!

[yarndiva]

yeah the Russian/European/South American patterns assume you know how to make increases, decreases based on the pattern stitch diagram and measurements.

 

Personally, I just use the pattern stitch and make my own patterns based on that...it's too hard to figure out otherwise

[scc51055]

mine is the lapghan i made and didnt turn out very good been crocheting a long time and this is the first thing i made that has really disappoitedme

[Me&P]

I hate that a lot of stitches are girly. I have a lot of friends of the XY genre and it's hard to make anything for them. That is why I taught myself to knit - so I could make them manly scarves (and, hopefully, someday, hats.). lol

[amdm]

The fact that crochet does not have an equivalent of knitted rib. Blpsc looks ribby, but has no elasticity. It stretches alright, but does not spring back.

[Addey]

The first afghan I did compleatly dissapointed me. I made it out of Lion Brand Homespun of suqares. The suquares themselves went well and the joining wasn't as bad as it could be. I'm dissapointed because either I didn't know how to deal with ends or soemthing and the whole thing has unraveled on me. I couldn't even salvage the scraps for anything usefull. I learned the hard way that changing colors with homespun is a bad idea unless you leave really long tails woven in and tie a knot in the end to prevent unraveling....

[Mommy2Max]

My biggest disappointment is looking back at the gifts I gave people early on when I was learning to crochet and when I examine my stitches, etc. they look awful to me now!

 

Several years ago, I made my husband an afghan with a lot of color changes in it (a new endeavor for me at the time) and didn't leave the ends long enough to weave in properly. I left the ends about 1" long, knotted them, and just wrapped them around the ending stitch a few times, which of course didn't hold well. So after it's been washed a few times, there are all of these 1" pieces of yarn sticking out all over the place on this afghan. It looks awful!

 

But he still snuggles up with it, so I guess it's ok. Making him a new one now!

[jimbo]

That i don't know how. As a crochetier, i'm a good hook maker.

[missamorphosis]

My biggest disappointment with crochet is that it doesn't get the same respect and exposure as knitting does. I think it's annoying that crochet is oftentimes lumped in with knitting, rather than being categorized on its own, as well as recognized as the craft that it is.

 

I did a rant on this already elsewhere. If you want to read it, you can find it on my blog, A Crocheter's Rant.

[PBLKNP]

Mine has to be the time and effort I spent crocheting the Lion Brand "Flattering Jacket" in Homespun. It came out horribly, due to an error in the pattern with the pockets (that's now in their errata, I'm glad to see). It was the sort of mistake that you discover when you finally sew the pieces together, so it was going to be impossible to undo everything and redo the pockets. Factor in the fact that anything made with Homespun "grows". The upshot is that I now have an ill-fitting, overly long jacket, that I can't even bring myself to donate to the Salvation Army, on account of I wouldn't want to subject anyone else to it.

[angeltears]

My biggest disappointment (so far, anyway) would have to be a pair of legwarmers I made a few months ago. When I started crocheting them, they fitted my legs just fine; but wearing them caused them to stretch - until the only way I could keep them on was to tie ribbons around them to keep them from slipping down my legs. I'm not sure where I've gone wrong. I had followed the pattern (stitches, yarn weight, gauge) exactly! Maybe it was the yarn (Sirdar Supersoft Aran)? I could unpick the stitching (that will be a pain) and the woven-in ends and just frog the whole thing, but that's going to take ages and I can't be bothered right now... at least they do keep my legs warm. I think I'll stick to scarves, squares and afghans for the mo, though

[hookdonU]

Any mile a minute pattern. I've done 3 of them now and every time I have a really tough time figuring out where to put the stitches when I turn the corners.

[crochet123]

UGH...trying to crochet in the round without it curling up. Thats annoying to me..and disappointing when you want something to look pretty.

[adagio]

I'm disappointed with the fact that every so often I hate the look of double crochet! Especially if it is loose. If it is more tightly compact it doesn't bother me too much.

Also, I'm disappointed with how tedious tunisian work is. I used to enjoy it, but now I just want to scream and pull my hair out over how slow it is.

[wiz3283]

That there are never enough hours in a day to crochet all that I want to.

[klouised]

When I run out of yarn/thread. ha ha. Actually, I have problems with when I make small rows back and forth, like for a strap, and it curls. Ugh. I hate that.

[chrissyf]

my big disappointment is with stores and thread manufacturers...there are many stores that are no longer carrying thread...the ones that do rarely carry colors unless it is size 10...nothing smaller unless you order cebelia online and even then colors are limited

[CLLinda]

My biggest disappointment with crochet is that it doesn't get the same respect and exposure as knitting does. I think it's annoying that crochet is oftentimes lumped in with knitting, rather than being categorized on its own, as well as recognized as the craft that it is.

 

I did a rant on this already elsewhere. If you want to read it, you can find it on my blog, A Crocheter's Rant.

 

 

I agree fully on this one. People just figure if you are working with yarn, that you are knitting.

 

[mclendon1]

that I have to have a full time J-O-B & can't spend all my days crocheting!

[cris]

I agree fully on this one. People just figure if you are working with yarn, that you are knitting.

 

2nd person to agree with the statements about lumping crochet in with knitting. One of the reason's I'd prefer a crochet only social/charity group... which doesn't seem to be happening anytime in the near future.

 

For me personally, my disappointment is with myself - that knowing how to crochet for so long has not helped me grasp the concept of "gauging" anything and that my tension sometimes gets whacky. I have to reallllly watch my afghan and scarf ends to make sure they don't hyper-expand beyond the other side. Some symmetry is desired.

[Aluajala]

Hey that's funny - I'm from Russia too and I've taught myself to crochet using tutorials in English. Still don't know much of the abbreviations in Russian and the schemes sometimes frighten me too. But that's no big deal because there are so many wonderful patterns in English!

The biggest disappointment for me was that unlike knitted crocheted clothes have holes and thus aren't always appropriate for our winter. So for me crocheting is for amigurumi and decorative thingies like doilies or afghans and knitting is for socks and other clothes.

[eurolyons]

The fact that crochet does not have an equivalent of knitted rib. Blpsc looks ribby, but has no elasticity. It stretches alright, but does not spring back.

I do not find this to be true...Mine spring back...but after a while can stretch out until washed again...and I find that true even of knitted ribbing sometimes as well.

 

What's my disappointment with crochet? I naturally crochet (and knit) loosely...this can be a problem when trying to make a wearable once in a while. I tried to make a jacket once and just could not get the dimensions right regardless of how much I measured and measured and rechecked my work. The pieces, especially around the shoulders kept stretching...

 

I don't have really any quibbles about crocheting...the more I crochet, the more I like it...

[Flia]

Reading through the thread I tried to think of any disappointment in crochet. Maybe when my creative mind overloads with ideas, and not one of them can overtake the others.

[MaryPat]

My biggest disappointment is that I was clueless about threads when I made a tablecloth in 1973. It was well crocheted and has stayed pretty much whole, but the thread was not a good thread. In 1973 I was poverty stricken and crocheting was a luxury, so I'm sure I bought the cheapest thread. Now it shows.