I’ve been crocheting for three years now, but I still consider myself a beginner-intermediate crocheter, as I mostly stick to making the same things: basic hats, bags, and pouches, which are pretty much just rectangular or circular shapes made of single, half, or double crochets. This year, I’ve been a bit more adventurous with my projects and even bought some patterns for the first time! Next year, I’d really like to learn how to gauge swatch and make a properly sized wearable (not just accessories like hats and bags), and learn more about different types of yarn. If I have the bandwidth for it, I’d also like to learn C2C crochet and Tunisian crochet.
Favourite crochet projects of 2023
After sharing my incomplete crochet projects of 2023, I suppose it’s time to share my favourite crochet projects of 2023!
This past year I crocheted many more love letter book sleeves for gifts and have loved the meditative process of this familiar project. I also tried some new things that I didn’t get around to finishing, mostly due to getting stuck in the design process. But there were also some new things that I did get around to finishing. They’re far from perfect, but I’m (generally) proud of them all the same!
Incomplete crochet projects of 2023
Time is an illusion! Annual goals are arbitrary! Incomplete projects are not failures! There is time yet!
Crochet has been a lesson in living for the journey, not the destination. A testament to this is how compelled I am to share my incomplete crochet projects, not realising until now that I have yet to share my completed projects (this intro is the last part I’m writing in this whole post, trippy). Maybe that post will come haha. Back to the point. I don’t need a million hats or bags or coasters or book sleeves, but I love making them! I’m happy to make the same things over and over, to make different things, to gift away things I’ve made. Frogging work isn’t so unbearable (mostly). Because as long as I’m crocheting, it doesn’t matter so much to me that it’s taking me ages or I’ve had to restart. This is the joy of a hobby, where the reward is in the doing, not some prize at the end.
That said, the amount of Baby Baggus I have lying around with my half-finished projects is getting out of hand, so I’ve gathered my crochet works in progress as a way to take inventory, expound my mental (and technical) blocks, illuminate actionable steps forward, and get your feedback too! There are some projects I’ve simply not gotten around to finishing and some I’m genuinely stuck on.
I made a bag and a hat
The latest hobby I’ve taken up during the panini has been crocheting! I happened to have a set of crochet hooks and yarn from a past knitting project, so I figured I might as well look up some Youtube videos and give it a shot. On the first day I learned how to chain and single crochet, on the second how to double crochet, on the third how to weave in yarn and double crochet a checkerboard pattern, two weeks later I had a lumpy checkerboard bag to tote around, and a month after that I had a lumpless one.