Genius Hour with Isis

The sweater, as predicted, is going very slow. I haven’t been very productive in the last few weeks, so the second shirt is still in progress as well. I have a habit of not being able to finish something without starting a hundred other things in the process and because of that I’ve managed to finish the second blanket, start a third, make a scarf (which was really random seeing as I dont wear scarves), and a couple little squares. The practuce is good though, I’m definitely getting better.

I was looking at the first blanket I made and I noticed that it was really wavy and uneven. I sort of fixed it on the second by switching from left to right loops when crocheting because before I was sticking to only one side which made it curl and bend.

So far I am on track for my original plan, which was to make clothing. I finished the shirt, and it looks okay… but it definitely doesn’t fit. I think I measured wrong when I was figuring out how big to make it, but that is fine because now I know how to make the shirt, and i’ll just make it again with different measurments. I’m thinking I could try to make a sweater or cardigan or something like that to go with the shirt. That probably wont be done by presentation day but i’ll try to get it finished as soon as possible.

I still suck at making baby blankets, but I’m getting good with regular blankets. I hope to have a second one finished in the next week or two so that I can compare them and find what works best.

This week I’ve made some more progress. I’ve spoken to the people at the stores that I get supplies from to see if they had any tips. They showed me how to do some new stitches that would apply to things I could make in the future. They also showed me that if you make the loops larger it’s much easier to thread the string through, and it makes the shape more even.

I have decided to make a shirt. I started on it and I would say it’s about half-way done so far. It should be finished in a couple of weeks. I have started a few side projects as well. I am trying to make baby blankets right now. I have found that it is quite difficult to do because the string is so small. I have one almost finished, but it’s very uneven and just overall bad. I’m hoping to get better at working with small string.

I have sucsessfully got the idea of how to keep the rows straight, which is big improvement for me. I finished the blanket and I’m really happy with the way that it turned out.

I really need to work on tying off the yarn when its finished. I looked up how to do it but it didnt really make a lot of sense to me so I’ve been doing it the wrong way to mak sure it wont fall apart.

Next week I will try to begin on the clothing. I am confident enough in what I’ve done so far that I think I could make something in a few tries. I don’t know what I’m going to make yet.

I finally figured out how to do the basic stitch. I think it’s either a single or a double crochet stitch, but I honestly have no idea. So far I’ve made a stringy blob for practice, a scarf, and about half of a blanket before I ran out of yarn. I’m going to make a run to the store this weekend to pick up some more yarn, but I may have to re-do the blanket, because I recently learned that the best stitch for a blanket is a half-double crochet stitch. It looks a lot different than the one I’ve been doing. I don’t know if the type of stitch is super important, so I might just finish the blanket the same way that I’ve started it, but I think the bad part about the stitch I’m doing, is that it’ll make the blanket too thick. For now, I’m going to continue practicing the way that I have already learned to do, and I’ll start trying out the half-double stitch.

For my genious hour project, I’m going to learn to crochet clothing. So far, I don’t know what clothing yet, but I’m hoping to make more than one item (like a set). I’m not going into making clothing right away; I plan to make things that are slightly easier, like a blanket or a small cloth as practice.

What materials I’ll need:

• 8mm hook
• size 7 jumbo wool yarn
• 5mm hook
• size 2 cotton yarn

Hello! My name is Isis. I am a grade 8 student in Edmonton, Alberta.

For the first genious hour, I’m thinking of trying to crochet. I think that if I’m able to make things like clothes, it could be good for saving money. Right now, I know absolutely nothing about it. I have a few friends who know how, and I’ve been wanting to try for a while, but I obviously have to learn first. Today I’m going to watch a few videos on how to do the basic stitches first, and I’ll move up to doing more difficult things later on.