General Crochet, Patterns, Stashbusters

The Ravelry Favorites List…

stitchshyofnormal

We all do it. It might not be specifically Ravelry, or it might not be the favorites list in particular, but you know we all have that “to make” list for our favorite crafts. Or books to be read. Or recipes we totally plan to make. You find exciting ideas, and you add it to the list. Then you add…and add…and add.

I want to be fully open and honest with you guys. I have been on Ravelry for 11 years (yes, ELEVEN) according to my profile on the site, and every so often I go through and pare down my favorites list. I did that again today, and I had nearly SIX HUNDRED on there. I didn’t look at the very beginning as I started clearing it out but when I did notice it was at five hundred eighty-eight left. And that’s ridiculous.

So I’m doing a little challenge for myself, sort of inspired by a no-buy challenge. And kind of adjacent to my stash-busting goals, but not restricted that same way. I’ve been surprisingly good about yarn purchases since my move (when I realized I badly need to destash) and I feel like I have a better handle on my overflowing stash. It’s not growing as quickly, and it might even be shrinking a little.

I narrowed down my Ravelry favorites list by half, down to exactly 300. And now my goal is to work through this list! When I make the thing, I will delete it off the list. (Or if I give the pattern a fair shot and decide it’s not for me, but I will only allow myself to do this a certain number of times that I haven’t decided yet.)

I’m not going to pretend that I’ll be perfect about keeping you guys updated on the progress of this goal because it might get annoying for you to all get three hundred of these posts. But I’m going to try my best to keep you in the loop on where I am on this goal, and I’ll share the projects I find interesting! If you want to see as I work through these, follow my Instagram (astitchshyofnormal) to see the WiPs and hopefully a lot of finished items.

Do you want to join me in this challenge? I would love to have peers alongside me working through our to-be-made lists! Or at least make me feel better by sharing your similarly enormous list numbers. Any little bit of empathy here makes me feel better about myself. To be fair, the list was accumulated over eleven years of stitching. When I put it that way, suddenly I don’t feel quite as bad! Just don’t ask me how much money I’ve spent on yarn and patterns over those eleven years.

General Crochet, Life

Plans Up Ahead

stitchshyofnormal

Good afternoon everyone!

I wish I could come here and say that I’m celebrating my return to this crochet world with a big pattern release or something, but to be honest I barely have a WiP to speak of.

What I’m currently working on includes a baby blanket for my best friend, and a design for the fall that’s only about 4 rows in so I couldn’t show you much yet at all. That’s the reality of life with a baby!

To be fair, I have indeed done a lot in the past year (which I think is roughly how long I was “slacking” on taking this seriously). It doesn’t always feel like it, but it’s true. I moved up to a permanent salary position in my company, making just a little bit more a year but having a lot more security and flexibility. I worked on some super cool projects at work. I made it through a relatively smooth and calm pregnancy, then a not smooth or calm birth of my son (but he’s now healthy and happy!) I upgraded my baking skills from “decent” to “actually pretty good”.

And I did crochet. A lot, actually, before he was born. I made lots of toys for little one, and started a few blankets for him but never finished any of them for some reason. I was able to test patterns for a few designers, even maternity sizes in some of them which was a fun new experience! I didn’t really design anything because I couldn’t find the energy and drive, but I plan to fix that now.

All of this is to say, I know I don’t have much to show you all right now.

But I’m going to try my best to figure out this world all over again.

What would you want to see here? In the past, I’ve struggled to find the identity of this blog. I’ve done a little bit of reviews, some free patterns, some general discussion, and some tips and tricks. But I need to narrow that down.

What do you look for in blogs nowadays? Would you enjoy patterns? Sharing the work of other designers and creators that I enjoyed? Just chatting? I’m not trying to make you guys do the work for me, I just want to know what you would like so I can try to share more of that!

Let me know, I love hearing from people!

General Crochet, Life

A New Beginning!

stitchshyofnormal

I feel like I’m in a movie. The protagonist is faced with this big decision to choose a new path and change all these things, or go back to their boring life.

No, it’s not that serious at all, actually. I just had it pointed out to me recently that I need to kind of make up my mind if I’m serious about this crochet thing or not. Is it something I actually want to put more effort and time into, and try to eventually do it as a job in some capacity? Or is it just a hobby for fun, which is also perfectly fine? I just needed to “pick a lane” in a way. I wanted to take it seriously but wasn’t putting in the effort, and didn’t really realize that until recently.

So this is a start. I’m not going to come on here and say that I’m going to publish strictly-scheduled writings every first and third Tuesday or whatever…but I’m going to actually come on here and share stuff more often. I needed to decide if I’m serious about this, and my answer is that I am.

I can’t put as much time into it as I used to ten years ago. I would get home from work and have hours to crochet! Even when I was in college (online), I would be so sad that I “only” had a couple of days a week without a lecture or homework to work on. That online degree got me a nice step up in my company, which means I’m in a semi-desk job now, which offered me more time in the evenings…until my son was born.

Now time is not a thing anymore. I still touch yarn! Once or twice a week, he goes to bed peacefully or I get up on a weekend morning before him, and I get half an hour to work on a WIP. It’s lovely, and I think now I really savor those moments more than I used to.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my new chaotic life with baby. But that’s one of the reasons I’ve really slacked on this hobby stuff lately. And that’s why it was a good time to decide if I even want to put in the effort, or if I want to leave crochet as a hobby that I pick up for fun and leave as entertainment. But no, I do want to share designs and review patterns and put in the work. It just won’t be the hours a day of work I used to think I could devote to this world.

If you read all my ramblings, thank you for being here. I’m flattered that people kept coming to this site even when I’ve been so inactive lately. Now that I’m putting in the work and I’m going to share my thoughts and ideas again, I hope we can get to know each other better!

If you’re new here or you found my site through my reviews on other places, please share a little bit about yourself! I’m not going to wipe my old posts but I do intend for this to be a fresh start. So let’s get to know each other!

What would you like to see here? Reviews, original patterns, techniques and tips? Anything and everything? Please let me know!

General Crochet, Product Review

Susan Bates Twist + Lock Crochet Hook Set Review

stitchshyofnormal

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all having a lovely 2023 so far. Mine has been mostly filled with work but I’ve found some time here and there for things like baking and of course, crochet.

When I was at a local Joann store recently (not my main one that I usually go to but one close to work), I discovered this tool that I hadn’t seen before–the Susan Bates “Twist + Lock” Interchangeable Crochet Hooks! I had heard of things like this but I wasn’t aware that this brand had released one. And I noticed that it looked like you could have one hook installed in the top and another stored in the bottom, so you could have two constantly available in the one tool. I was intrigued, and there was a sale for 25% off, so I went for it!

Since I hadn’t heard of this one before, I wanted to share my thoughts with you guys. That way if you’re considering picking it up for yourself (like a couple of you on Instagram mentioned), then you can see the experience of someone else to help decide if it’s right for you!

First of all, the basic details if you don’t want to read all of my ramblings:

  • What I bought was the combo that had the handle as well as a 5mm (H) hook and a 5.5mm (I) hook. There were other options to buy a full set of various sizes, or just extra hooks if you have the handle, and it looked like there’s even a yarn cutter available that somehow fits in somewhere!
  • Price: the one I bought was $16.49 on sale, regularly $21.99 (this is Joann pricing, other sites/stores will vary)
  • First impression: it’s acceptable, honestly. 7.5/10 if I have to rate it on the spot. I have thoughts about how it could be better but would I keep this in a project bag? Yes. Will I buy more sizes? Maybe.

Ok now for my full thoughts in more detail:

How it Feels:

This hook is on the larger side for sure! The big handle is similar to other comfort grip or ergonomic hooks I’ve seen around. With a hook installed and the other stored in the handle it measures about 7.5″ long. Without the other hook stored in the base, that takes it down to 7″ even. Something oddly shaped like this is hard to measure accurately but at what looks like the widest spot in the handle, I measured it at roughly 2.4-2.5″ around. It’s thicker than some of my largest hooks that aren’t specifically ergonomic, but I would say it’s not that different from the feel of something like a Furls Odyssey in terms of diameter and feel in the hand.

If you’re wondering, I’m not shy about the fact that I prefer and honestly kind of love Clover Amour. Like many others, I tried a lot of hooks before settling on those and they’ve been my go-to for years. They’re pricey for basic hooks but I do really enjoy them and have re-bought various sizes as I use them.

So I don’t own many Susan Bates hooks and couldn’t even find one in my craft room to compare although I know they exist around here somewhere. All this was to say I’m not usually a Bates person.

BUT…I chose to keep an open mind here and try these out with the goal of honest feedback. And I didn’t really mind it once I got going! I think it’s pretty comparable to other Bates hooks for use of stitching, like how easily it actually slips through the stitches or picks up the yarn. I didn’t personally love how it worked for that, but I do remember that’s how I feel with any Bates-style hook. I just don’t like the inset style as much and that’s not a fair judgement when, you know, this is a Bates hook that I chose to review. I consider any Bates hook like a B+ for stitching and feel in my hand, and that’s exactly what I felt this one was too.

However, the weight of the longer handle plus the extra hook in the base was slightly hard to ignore. I could definitely feel the added weight as I stitched! I’m sure you’d get used to this as you worked with it, and I can’t say how it feels with the yarn cutter instead, but I was slightly put off by this sensation.

Summary of the feel: Meh, it’s alright, but that’s more due to it being a Bates hook. 8 out of 10 “points” for this.

How it Looks:

At first look, a little silly.

I pulled it out of the package and my only thought was “okay, I’m not sure what I expected”. It’s the two hooks and a big plastic handle.

But honestly, it’s more of a novelty and a tool than anything. I don’t think anyone looks at these sets and thinks it’s absolutely gorgeous and would be a perfect addition to their coffee table display of hooks. They look at it and think how useful it would be to have two sizes in one always available in their purse or project bag. So I’m not going to fault it for that. Boring but fine.

Although I do have a complaint about my hook, though.

I used it for about twenty minutes to work up a swatch this afternoon for the purpose of this review, and some kind of coating on the rubber is peeling already! When it came out of the box I noticed a rough surface in that area of the handle but it wouldn’t affect the comfort of the hook so I didn’t mind it. Seems like I might have gotten a bit of a dud if it’s peeling. (Note: looking at their site I am far from the only one with this issue and it seems like the company is gathering information on it so that’s awesome!)

I’ll continue to use it though, and see if it gets worse or if one bit comes off and then it’s fine.

Looks summary: I would say 8 again but with mine peeling, 6/10. It’s not that pretty to begin with and mine is also damaged I guess.

Ease of Use (interchangeability):

I consider this part a win. This system was so simple to figure out. To be fair, I initially was mildly confused on which end of the hook was the top/bottom (it does seem to matter!) and was trying to put in the hook in the wrong way, and thought the product was dumb. Then I realized with the storage option on the base I might be trying the wrong side, flipped it around…and it was easy as pie.

It’s really simple to use the interchangeable function, in my experience. It’s spring-loaded on the inside but just takes some mild pressure and a quick twist to lock in the hook on the top. I can’t see it coming loose very easily either since you would need to both push down and twist in the right direction to remove it.

The base is a similar motion but you just insert it the other way, so the hook is stored inside and the gray base sticks out at the bottom.

I really can’t think of any way I’d improve this function. I first wished that the stored one went further inside and didn’t stick out as much, but then it might be more difficult to take out and I bet they had to find the sweet spot to have enough room to grip it.

Summary of this switching function: 9.5/10. If they had a more obvious visual difference of which is the top/bottom, I would consider it perfect. (Note: there is a QR code on the box that I assumed would have a helpful video or something but it just leads to the product page.)

Actual Crochet Use:

Here is where this hook did well, in my opinion.

Like I said, I don’t use Bates hooks very often and I mostly keep them around as backup. If I’m traveling with a project I’ll sometimes bring those because if it happens to get lost I’m less heartbroken. That sounds rough but they’re just not my first choice! If I had one in one of these sizes I would have used that for this swatch comparison but instead I used my trusty favorite, my Clover Amour H/5mm hook.

Here’s my two swatches for comparison:

They look pretty much the same visually. I just swatched it up with basic HDC, the first thing that came to mind. I tried my best to keep the same tension both times and did the same row/stitch count. They look identical in size laid on top of each other, and the stitch definition looks the same as well. Below is my actual stitching with this Bates hook if you’re curious.

I’d call this basically the same in stitch results, which is awesome! It means the comfort or the difference in hook style didn’t affect my actual stitching, and I could swap this out if I was in the middle of a project and wanted to bring this set instead of my usual hooks.

Crochet use summary: 10/10, I had no issues with how it stitched up.

Overall Thoughts:

So this was kind of a back-and-forth review. I started it out thinking it was pretty nice and seemed useful, and I didn’t mind it when I used it for swatching. But then I noticed mine was peeling, and if that was a one-off I wasn’t going to care. Sometimes a bad product sneaks through and as long as it doesn’t cause any issues, whatever.

But knowing that many others had the same thing happen, there was something getting through their quality checks or an issue with their actual rubber material. Now they do seem to be helping people out with this and someone was reaching out to those reviewers asking for more information and to have a conversation with them so that’s great. But obviously the best reaction is never going to be as great as avoiding releasing the product with those issues in the first place.

If I add up all of my “scores” I get 8.375/10, which is actually fairly close to the initial score I gave it of an 8! The stitching and the simplicity really helped boost my opinion of it, and I guess the feel in my hand didn’t bother me as much since I’m trying to keep an open mind about a Bates hook. But please look to reviewers who like and regularly use Bates hooks for a better comparison on that front!

I guess I agree with my 8ish scoring. It’s…okay. It’s not the best new thing (not really that new but relatively), it’s not a “gotta have”, but if you like this sort of tool and you want to have two hooks always available in one handle? It’s fine. I wouldn’t buy another handle but I would buy more hook sizes since that’s not the part I had trouble with.

Would I consider it worth twenty bucks? Not really. I can buy two decent hooks for close to that price that are better quality.

But is it worth what I paid, with a sale and a reward voucher? Yes. I think I paid roughly 13-14 bucks for mine between sales and coupons, and it’s worth that.

My parting words are this–if you like these hooks, great! Please share that joy with others and share your positive thoughts and reviews to help balance it with those of us who were not the biggest fan. Everyone is different and we’re not all going to love or hate the same things. Like what you like, and use what you want to use.

I hope you all have a great year and get to stitch up many lovely things! See you next time!

If you’d like to check out my designs, please feel free to look through my Ravelry store! And if you want to see what I’m working on next, follow me on Instagram. I also write monthly crochet pattern reviews over on the EyeLoveKnots blog!

General Crochet, Life, Stashbusters

My 2023

stitchshyofnormal

Hey all!

It’s been a minute, I know. Having an office job is actually a big improvement in many ways, but it also means that when I get home I just don’t want to talk to anyone or even type out words anymore (I write a lot of reports on various tests all day) so I end up just kind of retreating into a hovel of yarn and/or Sims. I don’t even get much crochet done anymore since I just bounce between activities for 5 minutes at a time and then go to bed.

The holidays came and went, and overall I had a decent time! Nothing too special, just a lot of hanging out with the family and baking delicious things. And then we said goodbye to 2022 and rang in the brand new year!

I’ve discussed this before, but I don’t really do a resolution for the new year. I just know it’s kind of a cop-out to “commit” to something when you know you’ll only hold to it for a month or two. Of course, if you do like making resolutions and you actually stick to them and enjoy them, that’s awesome! But like a lot of people, I can’t personally do that very well at all. So what I like to focus on is more of a goal for the year.

Last year, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t even remember what that goal was. I’m not proud of that. I think it was something vague and probably something about focus or believing in myself or something. Instead of something non-tangible like that for this year, I decided to work on an actual goal I could see progress on and have a finish line to cross.

I decided to tackle my yarn room.

Please don’t judge me for this, but I’m going to show you a picture of my yarn/crafting room. Keep in mind that we have a tiny little rental house, and shoving all of my yarn into one room was a great compromise for me and my husband! It’s out of the way, but I can still come in and grab yarn whenever I need. Obviously I do leave projects in the living room too, and I have some storage out there, but we’ve unofficially agreed that if it fits in this room, no one can judge me for it and no one asks questions.

Well, the landlord did have one comment but it was just “wow you weren’t kidding, that IS a lot of yarn!” For some reason even though I had warned him during our first tour of the place exactly what I planned to use the room for, he didn’t know the extent of it. But if you had a lovely little room with a built-in floor to ceiling bookshelf, obviously it has to be a crafting room!

Okay, enough stalling. This is the room a few weeks ago, at the beginning of January.

I’m not proud of it. It had turned into just a storage room, not even a room where I could do any crafting.

So I decided that this was my goal for the year. By the end of 2023, this room will be a usable and organized space that I can come in to crochet, or whatever other hobby I choose to pick up that works with this space.

You might be looking at this and going “it’s bad but it will not take an entire year to clean that up”. Yes, I know. Hopefully it’ll be good by like the summer or something. But the idea is that with such a long time frame for me to get it done, there’s basically no actual deadline because it’s so far away. So I can put in just an hour one weekend, but then a whole afternoon of work another time! Last weekend I just did a little bit of organizing and moving things around, but then this current weekend (when I’m writing this), I’ve spent basically the whole time winding yarn to make space!

It’s going beautifully so far. It’s halfway through the month and I can tell you that I’m sitting inside the craft room as I write this, on a cute floor chair thing my brother let me have. Looking back at that original picture there would not be space to do this, so I’m off to a good start! I’ll let you know in February where I’m at.

What am I planning to do with all the yarn, though?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

I’ve sorted all of the partial skeins that are roughly solid-colored (or tweed, tonal, etc.) into color families. I had piles of things like pinks and purples, one for all my grays and blacks, various white-cream-light tan shades, you get the picture. Then I’ve been winding up cakes of each of those groups! So I have a bag full of cakes made from my sorted stash of partials and leftovers.

I then took three of those at random and I’m holding all three strands at once to make a big ugly stash-busting floor pouf! I’m hoping this will be a great way to use up my stash and have it be an absolutely atrocious colorful mess of joy. Plus to stuff it, you can use things like blankets or old pillows, and I also plan to use some of my abandoned WiPs for more stuffing inside, even putting those to a useful purpose!

Yes, I’m very proud of myself for this. I made a giant crocheted floor pouf years ago and stuffed it with old quilts we didn’t use, and it’s traveled with me through several moves. But a couple of months back my husband mostly commandeered it and I like seeing someone else enjoy something I made. So I’m using this as an excuse to make one of my own!

So, that’s my 2023 so far. A mess, but a mess that’s going to be cleaned up bit by bit. That’s a good way to sum up life sometimes.

How about you? What are you looking forward to this year, or what are you planning to work on? Not just craft related of course, I love also hearing about planned vacations or moves or new jobs or whatever! Share your stories!