# What's wrong with me?



## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Serous question.
Why, oh why, do I have to be so difficult?!

Most people find a nice pattern that they like and they make the piece and are thrilled.

I have to spend an hour making my own pattern.
I know what I want something to look like, but can't find it.

So.. I struggle and measure and sketch and curse and make a scribbled note mess that becomes my pattern that I follow.

It would be much easier to just make a pre-existing pattern, wouldn't it?

Sigh....

But I have finished and am ready to cast on.
Yay! I guess.

But why? :flame:


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

LOL!

You have always been difficult though, right?
I mean you do the same thing with recipes too, dont you?

I like to follow patterns for my first try at something new, so I get the basic skill thingie down.
After that? I free style a lot of it. 
Sometimes w/ disasterous results but usually not. :bowtie:

I think the fiber arts really do reflect our true nature.
Like, there are people who will knit the same scarf pattern 10 times in a row. I cannot IMAGINE. 

I have met women who have knit for 40 years and never worked in the round, not even once.

Then you see people who barely glance at a garment and can make it w/o any written notes at all.

I am somewhere inbetween.
I can zone out through a lot of 'boring' parts in order to achieve something.
But gosh, I do need to learn new things in order to keep my wits.

You are actually a very disciplined person, in your own way.
I am not just saying that either. 
You know what you want and are perfectly capable in everything you attempt.

Whatcha making over there anyways?
Take some pics for us. 

Oh, and we still havent seen the brushed baby alpaca confection either.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

OMG!
I DO do that, don't I? :doh:

With the recipes and all... oh my.

You know me better than I know myself apparently.

And the alpaca confection has yet to be worn..because it was 75* degrees today, I worked outside in a thin t-shirt and still have short sleeves on with NO fire in the stove.
I did put it on briefly this evening to measure it for the NEW hooded scarf.

However... my original new pattern did not float my boat once I started working it. 
I am making another hooded scarf (one that is more flowing along my shoulders..I had to cut the other a bit shorter than I wanted due to a shortage of yarn)
And I got a huge skein of Zitron Trekking Hand Art sock yarn for $10.

I am going to have to alter the stitches that frame my face to give them a bit more heft.

Anyhoo..

The next cool day when I have had a shower etc.. I will post a pic of the alpaca scarf.

I gotta say that I am proud of myself. That is one pattern that turned out great. The joining stitches mixed with the stitches I edged it in look totally like a real person did it, not a kindergartener.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

It's Ok ,really. I take graph paper, make all kinds of desigens/patterns in repeats. Say a six stitich repeat, 4 st.repeat, 5 st repeat ect. I cut the patterns out and tape them to a small note book. Yup, looks silly,but I take this and yarn and Double points pretty much wherever I go, cause I hate sitting with nothing to do. I also knit contential more like crochet motions. People think ist's strange, but they can't keep their eyes off. I do take things apart alot, cause they have to look just "right",ya know.


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## Ana Bluebird (Dec 8, 2002)

I'm with you Chickenista. I have to make my own mistakes, learn the hard way, but that's okay/


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## betty modin (May 15, 2002)

I think what we're talking about is the difference between hobby knitters and fiber artists here. You know, like the difference between paint-by-numbers and having a set of pastels and making art. 
At least, that's the way I think of it.
betty


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

I create patterns all the time. If your brain is wired that you, you just do it. I am also amazed when I meet someone who has been knitting, or sewing, or crocheting for decades and only make one or two things, always the same way. When I taught knitting I forced students to do things they had never done before. These were women who were retired and had been knitting for over twenty years. Once I made them make socks, on dp! they made socks all the time. One woman learned how to make a moth shawl and made one for every woman in her large family. Add to that mittens, sweaters.


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## Falls-Acre (May 13, 2009)

I rarely create my own patterns in entirety, that's not to say I can't or don't, I just like a starting point. However, there is only one single designer that I've ever found I can use their pattern as written. Nearly every other pattern I've ever used I've had to alter. Even patterns published in books! (don't those folk have their patterns tested before publishing?! Sheesh!) I alter them either because they just don't work the way they're written or I feel like a slight change would (and usually does) improve the overall look.

Yes it takes longer, but don't you feel like the things you create are truly yours in every way imaginable?


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

I do as gam does and usually follow a pattern for the first time. After that its fair game. I'll alter and change things as I go, I always do that. Or if I'm knitting along and something just doesn't seem right I make it so it is. I think some people are just more intuitive that others and they just sort of get it. It's taken me a really long time to "get it". I put it down to the fact that not only am I dyslexic but Im also numerically challenged ( they are related I know). But in all honesty I started knitting seriously as a way to get over being afraid of numbers and math. Weaving too, I haven't gotten it yet.


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## SilverFlame819 (Aug 24, 2010)

I'm a newbie, and it seems as though I crochet really tightly, so all the patterns I've found for adults end up making child-sized things. I TRY to crochet more loosely, but I just don't like how it looks, and it feels all wrong to my hands!  So I have had to redo pretty much every pattern I've tried so far! On one hand, it's REALLY annoying! And on the other... I suppose I'm learning to be creative early on in the game. Last night I found myself thinking that instead of redoing beanie patterns, it would probably be easier to just keep going with the "add-on" rounds until it was big enough, and THEN switch to the set pattern of the part that actually goes around your head... All my beanies would then be slouchy beanies, but they'd be a lot less work figuring out increases! :shrug:


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## Kris in MI (May 30, 2002)

Oh boy! I do that too. Now that I'm learning to knit, and have exactly two stitches and one skein of yarn under my knitting belt, I all ready have the urge to just take off flying solo somewhere. Only those dream socks are keeping me plugging along at a slower more controlled pace (ie using a real pattern and trying making a hat first).

I do it with cooking. (We've eaten some interesting meals through the years)

I do it with baking (3 enormous graduation cakes in 5 years, each to feed 100+ people, completely from scratch and decorated without ever having a lesson or watching a youtube on how to decorate a cake)

I do it with gardening. (drives dh crazy that my garden has no rhyme or reason if you're thinking conventional layouts)

I do it with sewing. (latest project: rag doll with yarn hair. Could I just buy a pattern for one? No, I copied one from a library book about Amish dolls and ran with it, complete with embroidered face--which the book did not provide--and hair to match the intended recipient--again the book did not provide instructions for--and then made my own clothes pattern to fit it since it was 22" tall)

I do it with counted cross stitch (mix and match pieces of graphs/patterns to make my own compilations, including text)

I do it with quilting (11 quilts made, and not one from a pattern or instructions. Twelfth one done except the quilting itself--because I decided to branch out from tying or stitching in the ditch and am trying to FMQ a t-shirt quilt--two sided w/t-shirts btw--for the first time and on my regular sewing machine)

I do it with crocheting (over a decade; numerous scarves and afghans, never followed a pattern. Just recently learned to actually count stitches, lol, up until that point everything was eyeballed).

And, yes, I can feel it coming on with knitting too.

I'll just stick with the excuse that it's the sign of a creative mind. :teehee:


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

SilverFlame819 welcome to the Fold! I hope you will be come a regular poster.


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## SilverFlame819 (Aug 24, 2010)

Thanks, Marchwind.  

I've had yarn on the brain lately. Yesterday was a day off work... I pulled up a pattern I liked and tried to make myself a beanie out of it (I am _slightly_ beanie obsessed)  and found that it just wasn't working up right (they recommended too large a hook), so of course, now I have a paper full of my OWN stitch instructions... I would LOVE to find patterns that worked for me. I think I'm only creative by necessity when it comes to things like this. I would love some simple patterns that I didn't have to alter! I spent hours figuring out how many increases I needed for it to fit MY head! (And now I'm more than half-way done with it, and find myself annoyed that I left the magic ring at the start done in the larger stitching, and did the rest in smaller stitches. It's really not noticeable unless you're a perfectionist, but it's bugging me... I'm trying to not pay it any mind though, because I really don't want to undo the entire thing and start over, since I've already redone it multiple times to get my stitch count right!  )

It's not very noticeable... right? :whistlin:










Sorry! :hijacked:


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## Kris in MI (May 30, 2002)

Silverflame, it will only be noticeable to people who are taller than you and know something about that sort of thing. So, unless you're a very short woman, it will be mostly seen by guys, who will be clueless!

(There, did that help?  )


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## Lornadawn (Jan 17, 2013)

Hello I am new here. I had the same problem trying to make ear warmer headbands for my daughter so I went without patterns and winged two. I would like to share pics and see what you think I hope you do not mind. 
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/16796_501278903228971_1352979961_n.jpg
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/525996_495986197091575_109226876_n.jpg
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/18244_495986040424924_122648887_n.jpg


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