#hookednati

At the end of the project, I gave up on making two more pockets and made just one. The one without a closure. The fourth one was supposed to go above the bigger pocket, but I thought it wasn't necessary because I don't have that many things to store.

I sewed the hook holder based on the size of my hooks, but they hadn't arrived yet when I crocheted this part, so I ended up following the original measurement and then I regretted it, because as you can see below, there's a piece left over that's no use, it's simply a raised flap. Besides, if you look at the photo above, you'll see that I sewed it on crooked. Everything here is crooked, that okay.

I also gave up on making a pendant for the drawstring because I wanted a flower and I couldn't make one. I asked my mom, and she couldn't make the flower either, so in the end I said let it go, let's keep it simple and it's useful, it achieves the purpose to close the case so I'm fine with that.

Here you can see the things I wish I had done differently. The leftover tab, and the buttons.

These buttons were made from improvisation, because I still don't understand the concept of the magic circle, and they turned out okay, but I sewed them on in a way that, after a few days of closing and opening, made me realize that at some point they will fall off.

So, I'm going to need new bottons and honestly, I can just buy them?? I wish I had thought about it before.

Basically, this is my first project and I hope to use this case for a long time. Now, let's talk about the feelings about make it, the expectations, the frustations and also the tips and cumpliments!!!

Just showing you what I'm storing in each pocket. That one without closure it's empty for now.

As I said before, I started out thinking I was going to follow a tutorial, but I let the project take me and did what I thought would be best for my personal use and to match my personality.

It was a fun project to do, but I'm also very aware of what I would have liked to have done and what I actually did. Not that they are VERY far apart, but learning to crochet for just one week (two now!), I did the best I could with what I had and it's better than not having made anything at all.

During the whole process, the thing that bothered me most was that it turned out crooked. Everything was simply crooked and I didn't know how to fix it, I redid it and it was still crooked, so I gave up and left it crooked.

One tip I was given was to use stitch markers at the beginning and/or end of each row, because that would help me get everything straight. And I'm definitely going to use that for my next project. They also gave me color suggestions and a tutorial on how to make an easy flower. I'm going to try again, but I need to buy the suggested colors before I do that!!!

My friends encouraged me a lot while I was doing it, and every time I said it was crooked, they lied to me. Which was really nice of them, because I have ADHD and I don't know how to deal with frustration, so there were times when I wanted to give up because it didn't look the way it should be in my head.

The people who know how to crochet and have seen this case, both here on Tumblr or in real life, have been lovely to me. They know it has flaws and I know they know it has flaws, but the messages were all saying that yes, it's a bit wonky, but that with practice, I'll be able to make better things and even if it's not perfect now, I've done a good job and shouldn't be hard on myself!

What I mean is: when people are creating a tutorial, they will use what suits them, the way they are used to crocheting. But, obviously, we're different people and I'm going to have a different tension, so I'll need to adjust the materials I use.

If my stitches are too tight, I'll naturally need a bigger hook; if they're too loose, a smaller hook. And if I don't know that, my work will be fan-shaped or curled up.

Yes, that's a complaint. I followed everything perfectly, undid and redid it several times because the base wouldn't stay straight at all, until I realized that the problem was that I wasn't paying attention at my own crochet and my tension was too lose. I didn't take pictures, because I was SO FRUSTRATED, but the solution was just undo everything and redo with a smaller hook!

After that, look at this magic:

Of course isn't THAT straight, but so much better than the fan-shape it had before.

I passed the whole day yesterday just working on these 46 rows, redoing and undoing. For real, I finished all of them while I was working, but then I had another problem.

It was the wrong shape AGAIN.

Can you see how I just forgot to follow the straight line on the sides? At least now I know how to make those waveforms, even if I didn't mean to. At first, I thought I could finish the 46 rows and after that, just splice a chain and make more stitches, it would get wider, but that would be better than undoing the whole thing. And, I tried, but I just couldn't do it and I couldn't find any tutorials on it.

My only solution was undo everything AGAIN. This gave me a little ball of yarn, which, thinking about the number of stitches I had made on the sides, was more than enough to finish.