Took me a year and a half to make my first cosplay
Second was a month cuz I made one piece and bought the rest. Dress came from China, so customs and all that delayed it
Yeah sure my most recent one was under a week but I was also challenging myself to get it done before the anime came out lol
The current two I'm working on...I should get back to them lol

I feel like I would probably never finish a full cosplay outfit. XD
Unless it was really simple like just a dress and boots/shoes. Or stuff that could easily be purchased.
Actually, pass me a boxy forest green blazer and I'm all set to be Daria...
(Who no one probably has even heard of...)

It took me a year and a half to make a half-apron. 2.5 weeks to make my Jaws skirt (which admittedly I would have had done in a couple days but I had to rip and re-cut stuff).

In terms of yarn crafts, I have a scarf I started probably 6 years ago, 2 blankets from 2 years ago, 2 shawls from 6 months ago, a fox from 2 years ago, a whale from a year and a half ago.

If I ever finish all my WiPs, it'll look like I was really crafting fast. Especially hold off on sharing that they're done until I've completed most of them. Except maybe the blankets. I'll probably frog one of them since it was mostly just testing something and I think I'm only 5 or 10 rows in anyway.

so at the moment, i'm working on another panel for my geeky heirloom blanket. what i've been doing with the panels thus far is each panel is its own project, so i've finished 8 panels, and that feels better to me than only 50% of the blanket.

i also have a blanket i've been working on since April of 2018 - crochet blankets do not take me this long to make. but it's a large blanket, and when it's done it'll be about 6 feet tall, i'm just over the half-way point now. but - it's crochet cables; and there was a time where i wasn't sure how much yarn i'd need, so i added another color, and still didn't think i'd have enough yarn to make it as big as i wanted... and the yarn is from AC Moore, so that's a whole 'nother pandora's box too... BUT, now i have all the yarn i'll need to finish it, so i just gotta finish it. but... smaller projects call to me. like more socks....

100% feel that small project thing.

My biggest problem is mainly that I want to do too many things so I go through periods of just being overwhelmed and shutting down and then starting new projects that I want to make. Rinse and repeat.

But after finishing the shawl that's still almost done because I didn't touch it last night and Derpy's skirt, I'm gonna take a break from finishing projects and from my big project list for this year *points at sig* and time out how long it takes to make some specific projects for a class that I may teach this summer.
I don't want to do just boring basic scarves and hats, but at the same time, those are the easiest projects to make.... xP

if you're teaching, you want to start with the small projects so your students feel like they're accomplishing something. it was like that at Michael's when they had their previous teacher/classes set-up (it's now a community classroom, and now anyone can teach. story for another time.)

i once had a customer come in, i believe it was actually a father & son, and the son wanted to learn to crochet and he wanted his first project to be a blanket. whether or not they took my suggestions, i suggested starting small, like a potholder, coaster, or skinny scarf, because a project like a blanket can drag on and on and feels like it's taking forever, especially for a first project.

i would teach a 'basic' hat or scarf, because it's learning how the process works, and they're small enough projects for a student to hold up the finished item and say "look what i finished!" :D

I mean, I'm not saying start off a beginner class off with a blanket or stuffed animal or anything. But like....maybe fingerless gloves which is the same basic method as the hat, but with the benefit of also teaching how to do flat panel knitting on a round loom for the thumb hole.
Because literally everyone when I say I made...pretty much anything with loom knitting goes "oh, I thought all you could do on those was hats and scarves!"
Or even small panels of various beginner friendly stitches (starting with the 3 main ways to do knit stitches and the purl stitch and then going up from there) that can be sewn into a scarf or blanket.
But I want to test those first.

fair enough. there's more to loom knitting than most people realise.

three ways to make a knit stitch... i only know two!

Technically 4. But I don't like one of them as it's always too tight for me.
1. E-wrap
2. Flat knit (too tight imo)
3. U-wrap/U-knit (similar to flat knit, but a bit less tight)
4. Traditional knit stitch

i know #1 and #2, and agree that the flat knit is too tight. i'll have to look up the other two when i'm home after work :)

U knit is kind of a hybrid of flat and e-wrap where you wrap your yarn around the front and side of your peg then take the bottom loop over and off the peg so it's got a bit more slack than flat knit, but is similar in execution.
And the traditional is where you put the yarn across the top, use your hook to pull it under the bottom loop on the peg, creating another loop in the yarn, then pulling the loop on the peg off and putting the loop you made onto the peg. Basically the reverse of the purl stitch.
It takes a bit longer to do, but is easier to control your yarn tension and is the closest to a needle knit result.

right, i've seen a vid with the traditional knit stitch then. the U knit sounds confusing, but i can find a vid later, it's fine. :)

It's really not as confusing as I made it sound. XD

yeah, i get that

Man....I'm bad at explaining things...this is gonna be one wild class!
XD

it's different when you have the yarn and loom right there to show people how to do it

edit: found a vid of the U-wrap. you explained it rather well; i just needed to see it as well.

Lol. Very true. I still have no confidence that I'll be good at teaching. But I'll probably do it anyway. XD

i'm sure you'll be fine :D

Yeah, I'll probably build it up in my head so much that I'm super nervous the first day, but then will relax and be fine after that.

i don't remember how my first day went when i taught crochet. a lot of my classes were one-on-one, and although Michael's didn't really allow that, i talked to all my managers and made sure they understood that i knew all the ramifications and minutiae of having only one student... and they were all okay with that.

Tbh, it's possible that I could either end up with only a few students or 10+.
It's the big class that scares me more than anything. I'd probably handle one on one or even just a small group of 2-3 better than anything.
And since I'm the one doing the teaching, I can probably set my own limits, but don't want to make it too small of a class or the executive director may decide it's not worth doing.
*shrug*
Idk.
Of course if it ends up flopping, I can probably still arrange to teach at the library or even just sitting at a coffee shop. There's one customer, specifically, at JoAnn who is really excited at the idea of me teaching them loom knitting. XD
Mainly because I have a mermaid pattern and she is OBSESSED with mermaids. Lol

i never had a class larger than 4 students. i learned that if someone caught on quicker that the others, i'd let them do their own thing, and didn't check in with them as much as someone who was still trying to figure out how to hold the hook and yarn.

i have also met students at a Starbucks, the library, or a Barnes & Noble.... i gave out my business card and had my own pricing. instead of going through Michael's. i need to start keeping my cards on me again while i'm at the register...

I've done painting classes at Michael's
Once I was literally the only student. That was fun
Also drawing classes with a different person, but still at Michael's. She would step by step, and I'd just be "naw" and be about twenty ahead and she'd be all "why are you here again lol" and we'd have fun. Like once we drew a bird, there were others in that class so while I was waiting for the next step of my big boi I made a little angry one. As in two-thirds the bird's height was it with a wide open beak screaming at the big boi who just didn't care. He was content lol
Also came with a branch they were sitting on per the class

that made me giggle, actually :)

Finished my nearly done shawl! Yay!
Now to work on Derpy's skirt. 8P

woohoo!

i've also noticed on your list you have an entrelac shawl - i've made some crocheted entrelac blankets, so i'm curious to see how yours turns out!

The pattern is not the greatest (they chose to use greyscale photos so it's hard to see what's going on in them properly), but should be manageable. Debating if I want to use one of my yarn cakes for it because the gradual color shift in it might be really pretty or just solid color.

either one would work- i've made lots of stuff with gradient yarns. :)

I'll have to pull out my yarn cakes this weekend and let you pick! From the ones I have 3+ of just to be safe.

ooh, cool! :)

I think I've got 2 tubs of yarn cakes plus a few that I pulled out to use for projects that I changed my mind on for now.
But not too many that have duplicates. I think I have teal and red ombres that I bought for a blanket for a friend. But they decided they didn't want to be my friend anymore so now I have no project in mind for them. And a lot of Knit Picks Chroma in the colors Party Hat and (I think) Ferris Wheel, and I want to say also a tan/grey/cream that I was gonna do a blanket with before changing my mind, but also a lot of others that I can't remember if I have more than one of or not...even though I just went through them a couple weeks ago. Lol.

But I should check the pattern's yarn requirements...and estimate a higher yarn quantity because I'll be using a different loom and yarn than the original pattern.
I'm actually kinda jazzed about this and may or may not start digging out yarn tonight depending on how I feel when I get home from work.

it's always exciting going stash diving for yarn for a new project :)

Lol. Especially since I've mostly reorganized my stash. Except for my green trunk and the bookcase, I know exactly what I have in most of my tubs.
I have 2 tubs that are only yarn cakes, 1 tub of only lion brand homespun yarns, 3 tubs of assorted yarn skeins: some hobby lobby, but mostly red heart and other generic/cheap yarns, with a few nice bulky weights mixed in.
The book case I think is mostly partial skeins, knit picks brava, and everything else I didn't have room for in the tubs.
Smallest trunk is sock yarns, medium trunk is hand-dyed and a few other 100% wool yarns, and big trunk is...uncertain. Possibly a few yarn cakes, some pretty variegated yarns, partial jumbo skeins left over from baby blankets, expensive yarns that I'm scared to use, etc.

I'll probably be digging though my uncertains and the tubs of red heart, etc yarns to donate some to my sibling's friend who is doing hats for some charity thing where they live. Stuff that I either bought or had passes on to me, but I don't think I'll actually ever use. Like the bargan packs of cream, grey, and black yarns that I bought to do a gradient blanket with like...4 years ago. And haven't even taken out of their bags. XD

wow, that sounds like a bit of yarn.... XD

It's definitely not as much as some people have, but it's a lot for how little space I actually have in my apartment. I actually have all the main tubs in the back of my closet at the moment, but honestly I would love to someday get my stash back down to reasonable proportions so I could free up more room.

If I could eventually get my apartment set up the pinterest-perfect adult way I'd like it to be, I'd probably have a large craft desk along a wall. Ideally I would get an l-shaped desk that could go along a couple walls so I would have plenty of room for my sewing machine but also just counter space in general for my computer and other crafts. I'm not sure how I want to store my nail polish yet, but would like to get it better organized than it is now because it's so hard for me to find anything that half the time I don't bother painting my nails. I would just have maybe 1 trunk or tub of yarn, and only buy what I need for projects instead of stockpiling everything. And then mayne I could actually set my closet up properly to store clothes. Right now it's just a nightmare of random Christmas crap, yarn storage, and haphazardly hung clothes off to one side on a not stable at all extentable curtain rod type pole.

Sorry, I'm rambly tonight.

Tl;dr: It is a lot. Someday I want to downsize, get organized, and have an apartment that looks like a put-together adult lives in and live a bit more minimalistic than I currently do.

i feel like i have a lot, but i actually don't - it fits in a 9-cubby organizer, and another tote box thing.

and nothing wrong with rambling, once i get started.... well, i have written novels, so....

https://i.imgur.com/xcp8sAY.jpg
Here's mom's current project
Idk pattern but at regular intervals along loop is done off the pattern before going back to them and the loops line up to be woven together like shown
It's not done yet so the loops are all currently held together with wide plastic safety pins

Yeah, in my ideal world I'd have only 1, MAYBE 2 tubs of yarn,which would fit perfectly under my craft desk. My craft area would probably be a craft room/living room combo. Because I never actually have company over, so have no real need for a specific living room setup. Tbh, I'm actually planning on getting rid of my tv because I only use it to watch old movies on vhs and probably only used it 20-ish times in the last year. My "essential" furniture at this point is really just 1 desk, 1 bed, 1 small kitchen/dining table with stools that fit under it when not in use, and 2 bookcases. Everything else is either random storage containers of varying degrees of decorativeness or stuff I want to get rid of and/or replace with something that would better fit the space and function.
For example, I'd like to replace my bulky recliner, glide rocker, and love seat with 2 smaller matching chairs from Hobby Lobby. They're a pale pink, which I don't love, but it could be worse. And if I were ambitious enough, I could probably reupholster them. But tbh, they'll probably look okay so long as I tone them down with a neutral colored throw pillow and afghan for that finishing, decorative touch.

Oooh, that's really pretty, Kitalpha!

The yarn changes colors, too. That's all one skein

ooh very nice, Kitalpha!

cute chair, Kaderin!

Kitalpha: I suspected it may be. Still, bery pretty colors. I love yarns that stripe like that.

Trystan: Right? They had them last year, too but I missed out on buying one. But should have the money to get them this year as long as they don't sell out too quickly. There are 3 at the store currently and I'd like to buy 2 of them, but will settle for 1 if the others sell before I can get it.