It Always Starts With Something Small

I wrote an entry before about taking on an African Flower Challenge. I needed to finish 540 pieces of hexagon motifs using only mercerized cotton to make an afghan/blanket with a size of 4x6 ft. Just an update, as of today, I've finished 513 already. The bigger task ahead is putting them all together. I will make my final reveal of the finished product this month (finally).

Let me tell you why crocheting sometimes doesn't make sense at the start. When you start with a round, you kind of doubt if it could look beautiful. You can't see the potential yet. The rounds look imperfect and you get very conscious of every stitch. Every seeming imperfection is highlighted.

Then you add another color. You get even more doubtful if the second color makes sense. It probably looks uglier. Somehow you can see the hexagon shape you're trying to achieve, but it's not enough to convince you you're getting somewhere.

Then you add another color and you can see something taking shape. You're driven to keep going.

Another splash of color convinces you that you are heading in the right direction. You're practically dying to finish it so you don't take any breaks. Even if your hands are beginning to hurt, you still want to continue and see it to the end. The seeming imperfections at the beginning don't count anymore.

You just breeze through the second to the last round. It looks better now with the added color. It would have been hideous if you just stopped at the previous one.

So you finally make it to the last round. You clean the loose ends and you're done. Great. Now you start thinking of the other pieces you still have to make and what you have to do after you crochet those pieces. Daunting, but achievable.

Crocheting is pretty much a journey from beginning to end. There's a finality to it, but it takes a lot of patience to get you from Point A to Point B. Patience more than skill actually. You learn the skill by having a lot of patience practicing. So don't be overwhelmed when you want to make something big. Take it one stitch at a time :)