Crochet Aspirations - Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2011

We've made it to Day 6! On Ravelry lots of people are discussing what a blog week dedicated to Knitting and Crochet really means. As a blogger, who loves the medium but hasn't always been able to post as frequently and as substantively as I would like, this week gives me the opportunity to be in community with bloggers and most importantly, the prompts take some of the post pressure off. In my everyday life, I give students short writing assignments all the time because I know that sitting down and taking the time to reflect on experiences, thoughts and readings is essential to both learning new content and understanding our ideas. This exercise of posting daily for the week is allowing me to do that for my blog and my craft. I totally love it.

So, without further ado, today's prompt: Eskimmi asks,

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.

There are a lot of things that I still need to learn about crocheting. And I wish I had time to learn them all. I love clicking through the internet and seeing the wonderful finished projects that people post. I am most awe-inspired by the garments that crocheters make.

How do you do it? It takes such a long time to make anything. Clothes seem like an endless pursuit. In particular, I would love to have the time and patience to make something like this:

Go see it at Crochetology.net

Fatima at Crochetology.net is a serious designer and crocheter. Her pattern hacks, like the Doily to Dress hack above are down right wonderful. How did she take a doily symbol chart and make a totally wearable, beautiful dress? And still have time to eat and live? How long does it take to get proficient at making these types of heirloom worthy garments?

Because I work full time in a career that requires I bring a lot of work home with me and I have a little baby and a husband to share what free time I have, I craft in the few moments each day when something doesn't need my attention. I know lots of you most have the same schedule. So how do you do it?

And, let's be honest, since clothes take soo long to make, I worry about getting bored making them. While I wouldn't consider myself a fast-food crocheter (my dolls all take considerable time), I don't know if I could devote weeks and months to one project. I still have an afghan to finish from this time last year. Who knows when I'll get back to it.

I keep telling myself that one day, I'm going to make myself a lacy cardigan. Maybe this summer?

Any tips, tricks, helpful websites or books that would help me learn how to speed up my crochet clothes making skills?


Adieu,
~Dee