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When choosing patterns...


Krakovianka

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...is there anything you look for that would make you NOT want to do a project. I realize this could be asked for all patterns in general, but thinking mostly about thread. Okay, you're going to make a doily and you're looking online or at the 2,417 patterns in your collection. What will you choose...or NOT choose.

 

I hate picots--I mean, I hate making them, not the way the they look. I compromise with myself in this way--I will make any number of picots in the final round for a finished look, but if a pattern is full of picots in the middle rows...that's a deal breaker. No matter how much I might like the design, I probably won't make it. I'm not quite as adamant about written instructions vs. diagrams, but I do vastly prefer the diagrams. I will make a pattern with written instructions if I love it, but if I'm teetering in the balance between two, the diagram is going to win.

 

Anyone have quirks about what you prefer and/or hate in patterns? Do you prefer back-and-forth filet to working in the round? Do you hate squares or circles? Do three-dimensional patterns give you hives? Do you despise motifs or love them best of all? Do you avoid Victorian frills?

 

I'm just curious!

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I hate popcorns! I hate having to take my hook out just to complete a stitch. don't much like a few other stitches but i pretty much avoid anything with popcorns. happy enough to do bobbles.

 

motifs too. although they can look awesome i am just not a fan of sewing and joining and all that rigmarole! and too many colour changes falls into this category too.

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No there is really nothing that will stop me from making a pattern. I love filet, and diagrams but will do anything if I like the pattern. In fact I love to try new stitches.....sometimes it makes me hold the hook different. It is funny really I will look through my books and all of a sudden a pattern will jump out at me, I mean I can have looked at that pattern hundreds of times and not wanted to make it and all of a sudden it is the one....not sure why, maybe has to do with what I am making it for or what size thread I am working with or just what type of mood I am in.......not much help am i?.

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I loooooove diagrams. I'll choose them over written directions any day. I'd prefer close pix with a written diagram because, let's face it, directions can be really hard to follow.

 

I hate making picots too. They never look right for me.

 

I did one filet piece that came out about 3 times the length it was supposed to be and became impossible to block. I'm still figuring out what to do with it. How do you block a 40 inch rectangle? LOL The advantage is that they are really fast and somewhat mindless, but you have to pay close attention to the pattern or you could find out 3 rows later that you messed up.

 

I love the look of motifs but I don't like sewing them together and hiding ends is a much bigger challenge with thread than with yarn.

 

Sometimes I just have to give up and admit a pattern is too complicated for my skill level.

 

One thing that I do love about doilies is that once you get the repeat figured out, you don't have to look at the directions again until the next row. Makes the piece go by faster and easier to do. I love symmetry. So why am I working on an odd-shaped piece right now? LOL

 

Good question!

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i love crocheting almost any pattern/style/shape I like. I am o.k. with picots the single stiches are killing me, row by row, round by round. The piece I work never gets bigger.

 

I kind of like patch work if they are not hundreds of motifs, I made once and I am trying to avoid to make large pieces. If they are runners etc. I am fine with them.

 

I do not know how to follow written inst. I love diagrams, If there is no diagram available I just try to make similar and sometimes it turns better than picture. (Sometimes not)

 

I love to work with fine threads and tiny hooks.

 

Recently I started to work with polyester threads too, finished work looks and feels like silk.

 

Demet

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I'm not comfortable (yet) working just from a diagram--unless it's a chart for a filet piece. I'm fine with written directions, and I'm hoping to get some books that feature written directions and diagrams so that I can get some practice making sense of diagrams.

 

Like many others, I'm not an enormous fan of picots; I usually just grit my teeth and bull through them. I also don't much like any stitch that involves "yo, pull through all umpteen loops on hook" when there are a lot of loops involved; invariably, I drop something or lose the tension and have to redo the stitch. I'm pretty much okay with joining motifs; in the past, I haven't liked to do it, but the trade-off--work with motifs or hold pounds of hot yarn in my lap--well, after making two huge afghans this Georgia summer, motifs are looking a little more attractive.

 

Aside from the heat of all that yarn, there's the weight of the piece you have to hold up to a comfortable working height... The secret, for me, was to put a pillow in my lap and rest the crocheting and my arms on the pillow; when the pillow got too warm, I just flipped it over and had the cooler side against my lap. (And for people having vision trouble: try putting a pillowcase on the pillow, and choose a case that contrasts well with the thread/yarn you're using. A nice, solid, contrasty background can be a big help.)

 

I find I like working from patterns displayed on my laptop. My laptop is open right next to where I work, and I can highlight a section of the directions I'm working on, rebreak lines of the directions into more sensible groups of stitches, type numbers at the end of a line to indicate how many repeats I've worked, and type "START HERE" in the file to mark my place when I need to stop working for a bit. I can enlarge the file on my screen to make a photo bigger and flip back and forth between the two. (I'm not sure how I'll like working with diagrams and charts on the laptop--you can't highlight bits of diagrams the way you can highlight bits of text--but I'm about to start a filet piece, so I'll find out soon...) I need a printed version of a pattern for when I'm crocheting away from home, but that actually doesn't happen often.

 

On thread patterns: So far, I'm intimidated by Patricia Kristofferson's "doilies with a twist." I've read the directions* for the spirally pieces, and the thought of doing all those stitches just to create one of many tiny coily-bits...ouch! (*You chain a designated length, then work three single-crochets in each chain.) The results are pretty, but there are lots of pretty thread pieces that don't require quite so much labor-per-inch.

 

I find I need a lot more practice with blocking. I have a blocking board with a grid on it, but I need more practice--more skill--blocking round and oval pieces. (I'll probably reblock the oval Summer's Blush piece I did from Katchkan's pattern--the leaves in the green part look more straggily and irregular than they should, and the white "fence" part looks uneven in the blocked piece.) I've been trying to figure out how to create a guide for blocking round pieces: maybe a bit of lightweight cloth with circular guides stitched on it...something I could pin to my gridded board and use as a guide for round pieces. (My mother warned that I should hand-stitch my circles...that stitching them on the sewing machine might pull the cloth along the bias and make my circles less round than they should be.) I have a 12"x18" board that's marked in circles, but you can't block a round doily bigger than 12 inches on it. And I'm probably going to invest in a bigger blocking board. I'm learning that my 18"x24" board has its limitations, too; my first doily measured just over 17 inches and just barely fit. (The back of the blocking board is solid, velvety black and provides a very good background for photographing doilies...) Anyway, I'm probably going to stick to straight-edged or truly round pieces for a while, and save ovals for when I'm feeling more adventuresome.

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I hate working picots because in order for them to look really good, they have to be blocked which is totally annoying in a wearable, for instance, which will be washed at some point.

 

I used to hate trebles, but don't mind them now. I see their use.

 

I dislike patterns that don't have at least some lacey intricacy.

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I also LOVE diagrams (usually a deal breaker for me, too!)and REALLLY don't like filet (hives, migranes, and throwing either the WIP or pattern across the room). Not crazy about picots, but will tolerate if the pattern is right!

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oh yes, too many sc in large amounts and i wont touch the pattern!!

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I love doing doilies and fillets (for table runners) once in a while. I hate patterns with long chains, 'coz a doily like that (spider web) easily entangles with just about anything.

 

I will never touch WRITTEN patterns or in text form even if I love the pattern so much. I can take written patterns only with amigurumi 'coz they're mostly in single crochet stitches.

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I agree with the others about doing SC - can't stand it! A lot of work for little payoff. But with the doilies I've made so far, I have to say I really don't like picots. If I see a pattern with a gazillion picots, I'm probably not going to make it.

 

Having said that, I'm pretty flexible on size/style, and although I like laciness, I prefer simpler, cleaner lines. The Star Doily (http://www.angelfire.com/folk/celtwich/StarDoily2.html ) that I made for the doily swap is so far one of my favorite patterns, from a design/style perspective - it's elegant, clean, simple but very attractive. I don't go for overly ornate for myself, although if I were making it for someone else who liked ornate, I'd certainly go for it (and hope it didn't have a gazillion picots).

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Count me among the picotphobes. But they will not keep me from doing a pattern. Same for filet, long chains, and pineapples. I haven't mastered the bullion, but in a pinch, I can substitute a ntreble of the appropriate height. I will choose diagrams over written patterns, since diagrams show me how the stitches form the design.

 

I rarely make patterns with a lot of tiny parts that have to be sewn together; I want to crochet, not sew!

 

I also avoid patterns that require you insert extra stitches at irregular intervals to make a round come out even. For example, a pattern with eight sections becomes a pattern with 13 sections, so you have to insert 5 extra sets of stitches to get the sections to fit evenly. It can be done, but requires concentration and close counting.

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i really enjoy a challenge, so the more challenging-looking,the better. I don't like stitches that take forever to do, or pieces of a larger whole that take forever to do. I don't like to do stitches that are longer than double-trebles, and even then I don't enjoy doing them very often--if too many of them are in a pattern, I try to adapt it, if at all possible. sIF not, I try to suck it up and deal with it. This is why I enjoy Irish lace so much. Each piece is a challenge, and if I get bored with a particular motif, I remember that it doesn't really take all that long to make it and I can soon be off working on another piece. I can put all the different pieces aside in my little motif box (a small cardboard box I bought at Michael's that is just the right size for Irish lace motifs) and save them for when I feel like arranging them into some sort of order.

 

I also look at versatility when looking for a pattern. Sometimes, I know of a special gifting event coming up (i.e., baby or wedding shower), and I try to find just the "right" pattern that would make a lovely doilyghan. If working on a baby blanket, does the pattern have too many holes? Is the texture interesting enough? Are the holes too big that the yarn may break or a limb might fit through?

 

I don't like doing bobbles, either. Well, I take that back. I don't mind them so much if they don't take up the entire row or round. A few here or there is nice, but not in an all-over pattern--I guess this explains why I don't do too many Aran pieces, eh?

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I don't do motifs. I get bored doing the same thing more than once and my joins never look right.

The other thing -- spider web design. I simply won't do a doily with that design in it. I just don't like the look.

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There isn't too much that will turn me off.

No stitch daunts me. I love the look of picots and I have done so many I don't mind them at all. Bullion stitches I love, tr, dtr, trtr, quad tr, don't phase me either. Shell, clusters, fans, love them all. Popcorn stitches as an accent great. I love Irish crochet so working with motif's don't bother me much. ( I also have my stash of Irish crochet motifs waiting for me to do something with.) Though I would not want to do a repetious motif tablecloth or bedspread. But an occasional runner is not a problem. I adore doing filet both back and forth and in the round. The more intricate the design the better.

 

I am not over fond of a ruffled doily. I also find the ones that have lots of chains don't appeal to me. I am not over fond of pineapples either. (I know a minority of one.) They have been over done in my book. Cutesy doesn't do much for me also.

 

Charts, or written, it doesn't make a difference to me one way or another. It's the overall look of a doily that attracts me. The shape doesn't matter as much as the overall design. Good balance. Well thought out. I love something that says lace. A good doily should pull the eye in, take us to the edge, than draw us back in. Almost like a good painting.

I want something that will challenge my skills and make me feel good when I get it done.

 

Not that I go looking for doily patterns anymore.

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I enjoyed reading about everyone's likes and dislikes. As I suspected, we don't all like the same thing, and that's why there is such a vast array of patterns out there, to appeal to every taste.

 

Also, I've noticed that my taste has changed a bit over the years. Who knows, someday I may even love doing picots! (Do not hold your breath while waiting for that, though!)

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I don't care for filet, and I don't do anything that has bullion stitches. And anything, obviously, that doesn't look good to me (either because the pattern too busy, or because it's too open). I avoid large pieces (i.e. anything that has, say, more than 35 rounds). And patterns where there is a lot of sewing involved (join-as-you-go is fine, though). Irish crochet looks way too complicated to me. Oh, and I absolutely hate ruffles. :yuck

 

Anything else, I'll do. Picots don't bother me (and they add so much to a piece). I don't mind if there are very tall stitches (tr-tr come to mind). Clusters, bobbles, anything's fine. I prefer diagrams but will do written instructions, too. :)

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Add me to the minority that doesn't love pineapples. Although I will make designs than use them as part of the whole, I don't make designs that are primarily to make pineapples. I realize that's a judgment call, but we are talking about taste here.

 

Also, I don't make ruffles.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love doilies. I like looking at my work while it is progressing. The patterns, colors, etc are so pleasing to my eyes and mind. I did get very tired of making popcorn stitches in my painted doily, maybe cause I kept dropping one of those darn 3 threads. I am now fascinated with Irish crochet, and will keep it up hopefully. I do miss the round mandala look though with the different motifs of Irish.

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I posted a similar question under Q&A (What is your least favorite stitch?)

 

Lots of picots are a deal breaker for me too, especially the TRIPLE picot! I hate doing the sl st in the 1st ch, it is tedious to do and it looks sloppy where it stretches out that loop. If I have to do them, I modify it by slip stitching in the base stitch itself - usually a sc. (On that base stitch I go through the front loop and one thread on the body of the stitch - does that make sense?) That makes it firmer and neater and it is easier than going into a chain.

 

I also don't care for filet or any kind of pattern that is "repetitious". I think that is the fun thing about doilies, each round is different so I don't get bored.

 

Also, add me to the list of gals who skips the pineapple patterns. I don't necessarily dislike them, they are just so "ho-hum"...they've been around forever and I'm tired of seeing them (like the tired old granny square).

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