Jump to content

Crochet Assumptions - What annoys you most?


Recommended Posts

that I'm wasting my time, that drives me crazy

 

Over the years I've gotten the whole bit about my "homemade" things being "cheap..." but I don't get that now...and even back in the day it only happened occasionally...

 

What gripes me now is the above...that people think that if one "makes" things and does it for "free" they are wasting their time...or that I have "too much time on my hands..."

 

Oh and while I do love the new funky crochet stuff out there, I really am starting to see red with the whole, "It's not your grandmother's crochet..." I like most crochet disciplines...and I love the old Victorian up through the 1950's thread crochet...and if that's "Grandma" crocheting...well so be it...

 

Mainly my pet peeve is the whole "waste of time" or "has too much time on their hands" assumption.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 94
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I agree with everything everyone has said. For me, I think the biggest thing is "Well, it's not a real hobby...Not like 'this' is." My roommate said that the other day. It was not a good conversation.

 

Another is something my MIL said last week. I offered to make her mother a lapghan. I had one that was about 25% done and thought I could finish it in the time I had to finish it but the entire project with all the yarn was in Shreveport. MIL said, "Well, it'd be a lot easier and cheaper just to rebuy the yarn there." Actually, no, the yarn would have cost more than the gas used to go to Shreveport not to mention the work I'd already put into the project.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Also some people think it's wrong for a 20 yr. old to crochet what's up with that crocheting and knitting has no age limit."

 

See, I just don't get this...I NEVER experienced this in all my years of crocheting...this has to be a fairly new thing that's been cropping up in the last 10 years or so. I learned how to crochet when I was 11...and I crocheted all through the 70's and 80's and 90's and NEVER had anyone say it was an old fashioned hobby...I just don't get where that's coming from...and the whole bit about knitting vs. crocheting seems to be a fairly new thing too, because I never had anyone dis my crocheting in that way...that it would have been better to knit the item in question over crocheting it.

 

Good for Aelita for challenging that knitter's comments in ER. I'm not sure you changed her viewpoint about crocheting...everyone has preferences, however, you did prove a point to the lady that asked the question. Good for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I also get the "when do you find time" comment daily. I'm a natural born multitasker. I have a small ds, but so do half these people that ask me this, but here's the kicker...when I sit to watch tv or watch my son I don't just veg out. I enjoy being busy and my ds sees this and he likes to try out my blankies and hats and my hooks. My chibi case is his favorite. This is my "ME"time so sometimes I stay up too late. People just don't take the time to understand that different people have different hobbies."

 

I just blasted my cousin for something similar recently. She does crochet and yes she is a very busy person...works full time, is very social, always has things on her plate...I get that...but she then tells me that "she hasn't had time to work on a babyghan for her granddaughter..." and I just went off...she's got an hour long commute, part of which is on a ferry boat...don't tell me you can't take your project with you and work on it...how about when you (meaning my cousin) watching tv that you can't be working on that 'ghan...or how about on your lunch hour. I reminded her that when I worked full time I also was extremely active with my creative endeavors...I crocheted or sewed on the bus, on my coffee breaks, on lunch hours, while watching tv, while at ball games, while visiting friends...back then I called it "stealing time..."

 

My cousin said, "I knew you'd get on my case...and yeah,you have a point." When whatever is a priority to whomever, it will get done...I just don't buy the whole "I don't have time" bit for everything anymore...we'll see how long it takes her to get this 'ghan done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oncology charity leader and told her i would be more than happy to make cancer hats for their dept as i have nothing better to do! she never even asked me first that is what upsets me.Then this woman starts calling me putting presure on me to do it even though i explained nicely that for 1. i knew nothing about them "offering my services" and 2. i don't know the first thing about making hats." i tried to be polite about it and say that i would like to help but am just not able at this point.The woman gave me a sad story about how the auxilry people don't help out any more for all of these sick cancer patients and how I of all people should know how it feels to not have a hat to wear.So i gave in and said if she could find others to join a group and teach me to make the hats i would see what i could do to help.well she got me to give her my e-mail address with the premiss that she would contact me only when there were other people to help.well that isn't what has happend.she keeps emailing me asking how many i have done etc and do i want patterns! ugh.:thair

id tell that woman to stop harassing me or i'd go to her boss, and id NEVER make anything for her department

 

ok onto my peeves

*crocheting is for old ladys

 

*knitting vs. crochet nonsense (i do both)

 

*crocheting doenst take much time

ive had yarn sitting for a full size ripple afghan for awhile and mom asked me why i dont take it back to the store since im not touching it... i had to explain to her that it will get used for the blanket, but im just casually working on it so it'll take awhile, she hasent bugged me since

 

*making a baby item means im pregnant (and therefore "easy") or that my friends are

i did a good bit of work on my friends baby blanket at school, i got so many "are you pregnant??" questions, one of my friends still jokes me about it

but i also got a lot of positive attention for my work so that was good

 

*crocheted/knitted animals look poor and homely -grandmom (crochet and knitter)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All of the people I know are aware of the skills required by this. But what shocks them is that it takes me four days to make something like a cradle purse. A week, or more, to make a Care Bear! That is, of course, between cooking, cleaning, playing with the kids, grocery shopping, helping with homework . . . The list goes on. They seem to think I set aside time just for making things, like an eight to five job. Yea right, like I have time for that! I don't think I could actually sit there ALL day like that anyways. I would go crazy!

I always get people saying I should charge more for the blankets I sold before. But if I did, who would buy them? Not the person that says that! But at least they know what it's worth.

 

I am a part of a moms group online. They give every member a cute title. They put my title as the "Domestic Idol." I think they did that just because I crochet, and that's an old fashion thing to do. The other's in the group that do crafty things are called things like "Crafty Momma." I am not very domestic. My house isn't very tidy, it's clean, there are just things lying around everywhere. And I don't like to cook, I am not in the PTA, even though I am involved with my sons school work. So I don't see how that makes me a "Domestic Idol." I just don't let it get to me. I don't really pay attention to the titles anymore.

 

OK, I'll stop rambling now! LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I must agree with most that has been said here, Though it is uusually children that ask me to make them things.

I have been asked to make a blanket but had to explain that it takes four weeks and there are two others in the queue.

My peeve is that people ask me what I am knitting then when I say I am crocheting they look disapointed and change the subject.

It`s a good job I am addicted to crochet or I would poke them with my hook lol.

Though I must admit to taking my crochet to a knitting group and they seem to be more interested than mean about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here in the uk, I think knitting is more popular, its deffo not something anyone without grey hair should do! ( being only 37 myself, I don't quite qualify yet!) its something that none of the other women I know do, something that just hasnt been handed down from older generation to the younger...Its automaticaly assumed that everything I make is knitted even when I say I can't knit!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My biggest pet peeve, I think, is people who look at me crocheting and make a reference to my "knitting" or, worse yet, "sewing". :rolleyes

 

I'm fortunate to be a manager at work, because our owner affords me a few more priveleges than the hourly employees. One of those priveleges is that I am allowed, when we are not busy, to crochet on the job to keep from being bored. Well, just the other day, one of our guests came to the desk and asked "How old are you?" :blink I just kind of looked at him and asked, "Why?" and he said, "aren't you a little too young to be doing that?" :reyes I told him that crochet was very popular among all age groups and he made a comment about never having seen anyone younger than his grandmother "knit", so I told him "well then it's a good thing I'm not knitting, isn't it?" :loser

 

Our owner actually approached me the other day and said that he wanted to talk to me about my crocheting. I thought "oh boy, here we go. He changed his mind and I'm not going to be allowed to do this while I'm not busy any more", but I was wrong. He told me that we are going to be opening a gift shop, and he thought it would be a great idea for me to make things to sell in the gift shop! I asked him would it be a consignment type of thing, and he told me "no, whatever you make, you can keep. I have enough products of my own to sell, I don't need your money, too." :yay I have a few things that are my own design that I am going to make a number of to sell, but I'll have to come up with a few more. I'll also look for patterns where the person who wrote the pattern gives their permission to sell the items, but I've been rolling a couple of sweater patterns around in my head for a while now, and this is a great incentive for me to actually MAKE the sweaters. I have a feeling, though, that I am going to run into that stone wall of "Wow! That's a LOT of money for a sweater!" :sigh I guess time will tell.

 

Elle

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My pet peeves are the same as a lot of you, but mainly it's people thinking that I can make them things in the blink of an eye.

 

I too used to crochet during my breaks at work. One day an Indian lady came up to me in the break room with a hook and roll of cotton, pointed it at me, grunted and said "you make me shawl". It wasn't a question, it was a statement, like a demand that I make her a shawl. I was not impressed at all. I didn't know this woman from a bar of soap, and I don't appreciate being bossed or grunted at!

 

No one asked me to make anything for them after that confrontation. I did have someone ask me to teach them to knit once. So I set a day, brought in some needles to show her, and she was all disappointed. She meant crochet, and just didn't realise there was a difference until I started showing her.

 

It took me a good couple of years to get my husband to stop teasing me about it as well. He'd call me Nan, which was annoying. But then his kids made up for it. One day my step daughter was sitting watching me all fascinated like, and her brother hassled me for crocheting. Step-daughters retort was "Leave her alone, she's doing what real Mum's do". I thought that was hilarious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My pet peeves are about the same as everyone else. I just hate it especially when people don't appreciate the work & time that goes into what your crochet, like being a handmade item is something bad!:eek

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My top two would have to be:

1) That there is no difference between knitting and crochet...and that I'm using a needle! (It's a hook, folks...can't you see that it's not pointy at the end?)

2) That since I'm crocheting I must be expecting...because there would be no other reason for a young woman to crochet and because people only crochet things for babies...of course!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing with the old lady stereotype is fairly new, I think. In the past women worked together and passed on their skills. Then for a long time, that didn't happen, so the ability stayed with the older generation, thus the image of granny crocheting/knitting. Now, I think it's reversing, but slowly. Also, the whole feminist movement which tried to cast off some stereotypes. And then there's the fact that I think younger women didn't have as much time as we do now. We really do have so many "servants" (crock pots, dishwashers, laundry machines) that we can squeeze in minutes of projects here and there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"And then there's the fact that I think younger women didn't have as much time as we do now."

 

The Crochet Daily on Annie's Attic (that's right under the Free Pattern of the Day) just had a whole essay on this mindset. I agreed with the essay...I was insanely busy in the 80's and yet I found or as I said I "stole time" to do what I wanted to do in terms of all things creative. If it's a priority one will find or "steal" time to engage in those activities...

 

While it's true about feminists at one time or another trying to change stereotypes, this isn't a new thing either...as far back as the the late 1800's, the sufferagettes tried to get women then to "put down their needles" if they had any hope of gaining any kind of equality.

 

I think we do need to be true who we are and what we want in our lives...I run hot and cold on Martha Stewart, but she made it okay for women to engage in domestic activities with less guilt...and she's a force to be reckoned with and highly successful in her own right.

 

In the 80's especially I lived the "feminist's dream" meaning I worked outside the home while married...but if I hadn't been able to crochet or sew or cook (i.e. be creative in that way) I would have gone more nuts than I already was.

 

I just don't get the current mindsets we're up against now in terms of things like "knitting is better than crocheting" or even "crocheting is better than knitting..." maybe for the person doing the skill, but everyone is different.

 

I don't engage in quilting, but I would never tell a quilter that their work was less than any other type of sewing. When did it get so darned competitive ('cause that's what's really going on.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Danucia - I would complain to the doctor. They shouldn't be invading your privacy and bothering you particularly when you're not feeling well.

 

In my experience, people think crochet is "cute." Actually, they think everything I do is cute. Can't figure out why.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my biggest peeves is "Crochet is cheap, hokey, tacky, and I don't want any of that [stuff] around." Gosh, can we get rid of the '70s kitsch stereotype, already?

 

"Now, Tracey, if you didn't spend all your time 'yarning', your house might be clean." What?! :eek I have a 21-month old running around, we're trying to get our condo ready to sell, and I'm also 6 months pregnant...I only crochet 2-3 times per week, and that's MAYBE during dd's afternoon nap--I'm usually cleaning at that point. Not only that, but I haven't touched yarn in months! I tend to work in thread! (Note: comment comes from MIL whose house is always spotless and admits to having not a creative bone in her body [her words, not mine] and has no other hobbies than keeping her home clean).

 

From my mom, the one who taught me to crochet 20 years ago: "I talked your aunt into not giving out any of that crocheted [stuff] for Christmas this year, and instead we're making calendars for everyone. If YOU decide to make anything crocheted, I'm telling you right now, I'm throwing mine right in the trash. I'd rather you buy me something instead." Okay, Mom...(btw, she's making everyone a quilt for Christmas, and gets them done in a matter of about 3-4 days each by making simple blocks and machine-sewing them together. Don't get me wrong, I love quilts, but she's not even taking the time to batten them! :think)

 

From dh: "Trace, let's just get everyone gift cards...My sisters aren't going to wear the sweaters you're knitting them." Um, hello? We've been married how long and you're still calling it knitting? Um, honey, it's a hook. "Crochet" means "hook" in French. While I do knit, I can't knit sweaters yet.

 

Seems like only my dad, myself, my FIL, and my dh's gm enjoy anything I've crocheted. Think I'll just stick to them this year. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh my gosh, Tracey....that's just awful and down right rude. Why on earth would anyone think they have any SAY in what gifts you are allowed to give. Sheesh!!!!

 

As far as the "spotless" habitat is concerned, I used to work with a very cool and innovative boss with the messiest desk, office, and car you could imagine. But he was so productive that his ideas and advice were always in demand. When people would get on his case about his CLUTTER he would just shrug and say, "An empty desk is the sign of an empty brain". He was a hoot and great fun to work for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually,my Dbf said the same thing.He wanted me to call the doctor or the nursing admin.about it.I thought about it but didn't for two reasons.One i felt so guilty about wanting to say i just can't help you to the woman on the phone.I guess maybe the guilt comes from knowing what the other patients are going through having been there myself.but i guess the other main reason was because i'm afraid if the nurse gets into trouble for what she did she will take it out on me.(she still takes care of me at the hospital infusion clinic) I'm sure she would say something to the other nurses too.and don't know how they would react towards me if she got into trouble.Its not my intention to get any one into trouble but she really should have asked first and it's NEVER ok to give a patients private info away to ANYONE in my opinon.

 

Danucia - I would complain to the doctor. They shouldn't be invading your privacy and bothering you particularly when you're not feeling well.

 

In my experience, people think crochet is "cute." Actually, they think everything I do is cute. Can't figure out why.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That if you crochet you must be old...

That crocheting isn't as good as knitting....

That if you crochet then you should be able to knit.....

 

You hit the nail on the head Alibra. :clap Those are exactly my gripes :hook

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cannot believe the rudeness of people who actually tell you they have no respect for your crafts. I'm lucky that I haven't really encountered that. In fact, my 18 year old daughter's boyfriend thinks everything I do is so cool that he points out what I've made to anyone new who comes in the house! I wish we could convince more kids that it is wonderful so that we could get rid of the "granny" tag (which doesn't bother me too much because I am old enough to be a grandma but irritates my 21 year old who knits all the time).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many of the peeves listed by all of you are also mine. I haven't been "too young to crochet" for at least the last 40 years and I like to take my time over a project.

 

A previously unmentioned peeve is the assumption that crocheters work only with yarn. Indeed, much modern crochet does use yarn. But some lovely and creative work is still done with thread. Please don't forget us threadies

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cannot believe the rudeness of people who actually tell you they have no respect for your crafts. I'm lucky that I haven't really encountered that. In fact, my 18 year old daughter's boyfriend thinks everything I do is so cool that he points out what I've made to anyone new who comes in the house! I wish we could convince more kids that it is wonderful so that we could get rid of the "granny" tag (which doesn't bother me too much because I am old enough to be a grandma but irritates my 21 year old who knits all the time).

 

I completely agree with you. It's a perfect time to put the old adage "if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all" into action. Fortunately, all of my friends and family are very appreciative of the things that I crochet. In fact, I myself have NOTHING that I have made over the years because everything that I have made has ended up with someone else. Even if I was making it for me, it never failed, someone would fall in love with it as I was making it and when it was done I would give it to them. I give crocheted gifts to all of my co-workers at the holidays, and the nicest thing is, they love them! Every year about this time they will start asking "so what are you making us for Christmas this year? I LOVE the [fill in the blank] you made last year!" Last year I made shawls for all the women and the men got scarf and hat sets, and they really do wear them all the time! It feels so good to see the things I worked so hard on being not only used, but enjoyed.

 

Elle

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My pet peeve is actually a situation I once found myself in. I never do the same thing twice, and I'd done a jacquard baby afghan for my best friend's baby.

 

A lady at church wanted me to make one for her grandbaby, and she told me the colors of the nursery. I told her, no problem, and wouldn't charge her even for the materials, since I was doing it for the enjoyment of it, and to explore new techniques. Well, my next technique was mile-a-minute, and I was so proud of what I was doing.

 

She got angry that I wasn't making a jacquard piece for her grandbaby, and even offered to PAY ME if I would do one for her in that style. I told her that the jacquard afghan had been a 200-hour pain in the ***, and that I wouldn't do it if she gave me a $1000 down-payment. Mostly I was mad that I was trying to do a kindness, and she wanted to micromanage it. A good bit of the yarn for her afghan is still in my stash, 13 years later.

 

Go figure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love this thread! I totally agree with all the peeves that have been said. :yes My biggest peeves have been those who knit who think that crocheting is 'cute' but not really worthy of recognition:( , my mother who thinks because I make a scarf for her that I will also make one for everyone in her garden club:no , and the polite looks on people's faces when you give them a crocheted gift:angry . I have found when you tell someone you crochet, you can practically see the pics pop up in their heads of doll toilet paper covers, granny square afghans, and potholders. I personally have never met a crocheted item I didn't like! :manyheart

 

Kim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...