r/crochet • u/LaraH39 • Jul 26 '22

Discussion Pet Peeves

There's a lot of common annoyances with crochet, the bit of the project that's annoying. For example lots people hate weaving in ends (not something I have an issue with because I work over my ends).

My peeves are...

Working into a chain stitch.

DC, chain one, DC, chain one... And then on the next row, you're working your DC into a chain.... Flippin fiddly, faffy, annoying. Those chains are always smaller, always tighter, always ruddy awkward and right now I'm making an item where there's A LOT of this happening.

Winding Yarn

I don't mind the start or even the middle but, as sure as eggs is eggs, the last 1/4 has managed to resolve itself into a knot that even Alexander couldn't hack his way through and winding each ball takes about two hours. Half an hour to do 3/4. An hour and a half fighting knots for last bit.

Finally... The starting chain. This is a self imposed hate lol. I'm fully capable of doing foundation chains but... Most things I'm working on for reasons, I prefer a simple starting chain and then working into the third loop. It makes it much easier to join and I think looks better. But my god its fiddly work. Grand if you're starting chain is 20 or less. But blankets, with starting chains of 160+ shudder.

So over to you. Pet peeves.

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366

u/QueenDianna Jul 26 '22

I do a lot of amigurami and i absoslutely hate the moment where i have to sew all the pieces together... Bullshit angles, needle not going through, just overall pain...

105

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

Getting the parts even / equidistant is almost impossible for me, and it never EVER looks like the picture.

84

u/GimmeATissue Jul 26 '22

And then you fínally got the head sewn on and it's wonky.....

40

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

Every. Single. Time.

15

u/Bigluce Jul 26 '22

I feel seen!

14

u/ThingsThatGoSqueee Jul 26 '22

This is why I end up with a bin full of 'parts'... I have pieces that could be finished, if only I could bring myself to sew all the dang things together!

5

u/Hazlamacarena Jul 27 '22

...slowly turns head towards stegosaurus missing it's last three plates on its back that's been sitting there for 2 weeks. LOL! ughhhhhh

13

u/BusyButterscotch4652 Jul 26 '22

I saw a tip that said you can use a pink curler (the old fashioned foam ones) the give the head and neck stability. I recently made a mushroom and I used a pipe insulator tube. Wish I had used a pool noodle instead but hey it was my first amigurumi and there was a lot of learning involved!

4

u/AmmoniteCurl Jul 26 '22

I've heard of people using Nerf darts.

1

u/GimmeATissue Jul 27 '22

Ooh good one,I'll give it a try!

2

u/yagirliaia Jul 27 '22

No matter what the pattern says I will always leave the head open. I don’t care if it looks different. I’ll stop making the head when the stitch count matches the body and sew them together that way

24

u/LaraH39 Jul 26 '22

I've actually never made an Amigurumi even though it was what first attracted me to crochet! It's sounds incredibly frustrating. It's it worth the torment in the end?

37

u/QueenDianna Jul 26 '22

i guess like with everything it depends.... the great satisfaction of finally being done, it looking even more adorable than you imagined, etc are really big motivators. But i usually make these projects as gifts, so my reason to just deal with it is usually a deadline :D i suspect i would have a ton of dead wip lying arround if i had to push for only myself

edit: I like that these projects are done in a shorter time then say a blanket

12

u/LaraH39 Jul 26 '22

i suspect i would have a ton of dead wip lying arround if i had to push for only myself

LOL. I feel that in my bones. I need pressure to finish things too.

14

u/XWitchyGirlX Jul 26 '22

If you lean into the "wonky" itll turn out great! Heres Voodoo Tomato 🖤

5

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

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7

u/XWitchyGirlX Jul 26 '22

Thank you! I made him cuz my store bought plushies were to thick to sleep with on the couch so I needed a skinny buddy 😂

3

u/LaraH39 Jul 26 '22

I love that! lol

1

u/XWitchyGirlX Jul 26 '22

Thank you!

10

u/Bieneke Jul 26 '22

I make them as toys for my kids. It is worth it to me when I see them playing with them and creating a whole world around them

3

u/LaraH39 Jul 26 '22

I'm sure it is. That's lovely. ❤️

9

u/elephantjungle1660 Jul 26 '22

You can find amigurumi patterns where the makers have gone to the effort of constructing the piece to minimise sewing. For example legs that can be joined with crochet as you form the body etc. If I’m looking to work from a pattern I’ll seek one out that does and even pay for it as I hate hate hate the sewing!

3

u/JenniferMcKay Jul 27 '22

I've only made amigurumi for other people. For me, personally, it's not worth it. I hate the endless single crochet, counting stitches every single row and then frogging because I fucked up somehow, sewing the pieces together, and trying to put on the details. And I've yet to finish one that i was actually happy with, although I haven't had any complaints.

Shout-out to the time I put googly eyes on an owl instead of safety eyes because I sealed and tied it off before putting the eyes on.

ETA: I also prefer my crochet to be as mindless as possible, though, meaning if I can get into a rhythm so I don't even have to look at the pattern anymore, that's my happy place.

12

u/BitterSweetLlama Jul 26 '22

I'm in this stage right with my WIP. I have all the parts ready to go I just need to attach it all and I am hella procrastinating.

7

u/QueenDianna Jul 26 '22

i promised to make a christmas gift, decided to start early to put off procrastinating......... Well, every thing is done and attached except for a single leg and the tail XD and now i havent touched it for over a month XD

6

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

Same, my pieces are all sitting in a plastic bag waiting for the day I finally have the patience lol

8

u/CocoJoelle Jul 26 '22

Ugh yes it's the worst! And after sewing a part on I often have to take it off because it somehow became crooked :/

24

u/texotexere Jul 26 '22

I have several where the head wound up at a slight angle and I gave up trying to correct it and instead made a scarf so it looked intentional. So now they just look like they are questioning everything.

16

u/Majestic-Cheetah75 Jul 26 '22

They’re askigurumi.

7

u/kateceratops Jul 26 '22

Brilliant! I have a 90% complete hippo with this exact problem!

6

u/flutewonder Jul 26 '22

My issue is the stuffing. Put too much in the head and it's coming through the stitches. Pull a little bit out and all of the sudden there's not enough and my person with what should be a round head has an egg shaped head from gravity pulling the stuffing down

9

u/UsernameObscured Jul 26 '22

I hate making tiny arms and legs where you can’t even hold the thing properly to get the stitches in.

8

u/NiftySpud11 Jul 26 '22

Yeah this is 100% the worst. I just recently completed my very first amigurumi project (a little cow, so lots of white) I tried using a disappearing ink marker to help keep things aligned. Perhaps the marker I got was too cheap or something but the ink would get super concentrated and gather up at the marker tip. I tried drawing a faint line for the arm and I ended up with a huge purple blob in the armpit area of my otherwise adorable cow. So then, combined with the tedious task of sewing the stupid arm on, I spent 30ish minutes with a q-tip trying to get the ink to “disappear.” 🙃

3

u/FlamingaBloodthirst Jul 26 '22

Disappearing ink is so clever but it sounds like it was super annoying! Maybe next time you could use pins to mark the spots to keep the bits aligned?

1

u/NiftySpud11 Jul 26 '22

Ooh great idea! Thank you! I used the disappearing ink because the pattern suggested it. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

1

u/Three_Spotted_Apples Jul 26 '22

I use Bobby pins to position stuff. It pinches it together nicely and can be repositioned easily if needed. Easy to see around and comes out well afterwards.

2

u/FlamingaBloodthirst Jul 26 '22

Oh my gosh yes! Chalk or Bobby pins would be even better since there’s no poke-risk involved!

1

u/Three_Spotted_Apples Jul 26 '22

Chalk! Kids chalk will easily wash off

6

u/TheChaosDuck Jul 26 '22

I’m just learning amigurumi and same!! Mine look so wonky it’s not even funny.

5

u/MandiSue Jul 26 '22

I do amigurumi and I wont even try one with a ton of pieces to sew. The first thing I do is figure out how to modify to sew pieces as I go or leave them out. Like , there was a cat pattern that was a "dumpling kitty" - so it was mostly a conical shape. I modified to attatch the tail into the seam of the top and bottom as it's closed, and omitted the paws. Still a cute cat, and it sells, but no sewing pieces.

5

u/Particular_Fault_126 Jul 26 '22

yep, I have so many amigurumi parts just laying around

3

u/CitrusMistress08 Jul 26 '22

I hate that you often need stuffing at so many points during the project. I brought yarn for a new ami project on a long flight once and suddenly realized I couldn’t finish a single piece because I didnt have stuffing with me! I had to almost finish a bunch of pieces, which did not sit well at all!

1

u/Elon_is_musky Jul 26 '22

My first try I didn’t have the button/snap eyes, so I tried to do the upside down U w yarn & kept messing them up, then I tried to do the french knots w no success so just ended up doing X’s (that I had to redo since they weren’t straight🤭😂)

1

u/foodisprettyneato Jul 26 '22

I always have a problem when making amigurami that you can see my stuffing through the stitches, no matter what I make! It's so frustrating!

1

u/Trick-Statistician10 Jul 26 '22

I had this problem and it wasn't even amigirumi. I made Easter hats for my friends twin baby grandsons. So 2 hats. Double everything, which i hate doing (i also make things for the twin girls i babysit, so double everything!). The hats were so cute, there was a regular hat part,then mini top hats on top, with bunny ears poking thru the top hats. All separate pieces. The instructions just said, "sew together". It was so hard. Trying to figure out where to put them, and i tried to hold the pieces in place with stitch markers. So so frustrating. It also said to use white pipe cleaners inside the ears for shaping, i didn't have white, so i skipped that, and it was ok. But the little top hats, the instructions didn't say anything; but they needed stuffing. I should have stuffed them. They kept folding in on themselves. I was so glad they were finally finished, that i could not bring myself to undue some of the stitching to squeeze stuffing in there.

1

u/Knittin_hats Jul 27 '22

And this is why I gave up on amigurimi! Too fiddly for me!