One of your responses that I got, and I do get this at a consistent level, and it is about yarn tension and about doing exercising to make your crochet look a lot more consistent.
So I was talking to Dan last night, I was like, I don't know how to teach somebody yarn tension. It doesn't making any sense, because I think for yarn tension, I think for me it varies on your level, experiences as far as your comfort level and as far as like the amount of time that you spend on crochet.
But then he says, well, there is got to be a little more factors in that. I am like, well, yeah, there are. It all depends on the ball of wool. So for yarn tension if you have rolled up your balls of wool like so, I always put my in a bowl and the reason why, is that if I leave it on a couch or on the floor, it's just going to continually roll and it's going to get caught on things. Then you are going to get to a point where the material is no longer up pulling nicely. It's getting stuck.
So then it's just get stuck just for that little bit, and then you're forever getting up and correcting it. But if you put it in a bowl, it just rotates freely on its own. There is no friction involved. So that's what I can do with that. So then you don't have a problem with that. So that is how I would do balls of wool. I have shown that before.
The other key thing that is important is that if you have bought your wool from a store or whatever, you'll will always, and you got it like this, you will always pull from the center section. You are going to find when you are pulling it off for the very first time, when it's fresh, you are going to pull like probably wacko at one time. But that point being is that, it's not, it's just pulling nicely. It's not going from the outside where you have just like, if you go open the outside, look at that, it's getting caught in my hands already. Whereas the inside, it just continues to pull, and pull, and pull right.
The other thing that is a major factor is where you wool is, when it isn't lying like this. So what I always do, I don't put it on the floor, nor do I put it on the seat beside me. Well, what I do is for example, if I was sitting on this chair to do it, I would put it on this table here. And the reason why I would do that is that by finding if it got a wool is in a straight line coming to your hand, there is no -- it doesn't have to force it to come up and then back down, like so. If this was on the floor and I was sitting up here, see how it is pulling up like that. It's adding friction to the actual ball itself and it's adding friction to my hands where if it's stays on the consistent level, and I am working with it, I am just pulling it straight out, and I know, I am just pulling it straight out and into my craft.
So that was what I would suggest for that. So if I am sitting on a couch for example I would make sure that, I am not sitting next to the edge of the couch, I am actually sitting probably near to the middle of the couch, and then this here is actually on armrest of the couch. And I don't have a couch here with an armrest, so I can't really show you that. But that's what I would do and what I also do too for my own self is that I tend to put a pillow in between. See, I don't like to feel stressed. I think a lot of tension is created through fear of making the mistake, but we all know that crochet is very, very forgiving and we do mistake on a consistent level. But if you make mistake, you just pull it out and redo it, like it so it's forgiving, I will do that anyway.
So when I am showing crochet, and I am demonstrating with my hands all in the proper factor. When I am actually crocheting, my hands are actually kind of like closed, and the reason for it is that, I am got like 25 years 20 to 25 years, hardly a big experience that I know if it falls out, it's not a big deal. And you will be crocheting and it falls down, then they are like, oh! It is that tension of trying to recorrect themselves that causes inconsistency. So if you come to the realization that it's not going to fall over your hand no matter what, then it's not going to be a really big deal. So that's what I would do.
Wait, I had one more tip. Yes so it's just -- so I think it's lack of time, it's lack of fear and doing your project. It's the lack of adjustment. So if you are not sitting comfortably and you are fervently always adjusting yourself, that will cause tension. So if you are sitting on one couch one day, and you are sitting on another couch the other day, depending where your balls of wool are, your crochet corrections are very different.
Also, if you are getting a little bit of tension, you always stretch your project in all four direction, back and forth, up and down and then take and that tends to get the string to kind of move around in this stitches as well. And I guess that would be my answer for yarn tension.
As far as exercise to do, I would just go like a double crochet maybe, even I try to scarf if you are doing it for the very first time, and it's just getting to the level, because you will always find, when you are starting a new stitch for the very first time that you never did, you've never done before, you got it find these next four lines might be really different from what you will continue along with, and that's because you are at a comfort level with that project. So you might want to do a sample project if you are attempting a new stitch for the very first time, and you are doing full a blanket, you might want to actually attempt to do this stitch as the sample, and then pull it far, and then go for it. Then in your sample doesn't have to be that wide.
So that's what I would do with that, especially if you are doing a huge blanket, because you will see when you started. I think the best example I have with that I talk here on how to crochet and you could see in the beginning lines when it was like up and down and really tension all over the place. But you can see that he was working with his face cloth is that by the middle of the project he was getting very consistent looking and I think, and I know that's as chance, but I think I will just thank you for asking the question. So that's yarn tension.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services