Craft update: slow progress on my lacy crochet stole

On getting downhearted and the possibility of giving up

It’s been a while since my last post. This isn’t because I haven’t been doing anything. Quite the opposite. For one thing I cycled through the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara Desert to celebrate my birthday. I also turned 50. Half a century on the planet! Then I got ill, so I couldn’t do anything.

I have, however, been working on my crochet stole. It’s not going well. Again. I don’t know how many times I’ve crocheted the current row of single crochets, but it’s far too many. The issue is that every time I get to the end, I’ve got the wrong number of stitches. I’m either one over or one under.

I can’t work out why. I have the right number of cable stitches in the row below and all I’ve been doing is crocheting one single into the top of each cable. It is easy to miss a stitch or add one in a row, but to do it multiple times is unlikely. And yet that’s what I must have done.

Never gonna give it up

Part of me would like to give up on this design. It’s been a disaster from start to now, and at this point it feels like I’ll never finish it.

I don’t like giving up on projects. Although I have got a crochet throw that I’ve made all the motifs for but never got round to joining and a knitted minidress that’s still on the needles. I think other than that I’ve finished everything I’ve started. I should probably frog that dress and use the yarn for something else.

But this stole is really trying me. Getting to the end of a row of single crochets that’s 442 stitches long and finding you’re one over or under – for the third time – is demotivating. Pulling the whole row out again is upsetting. The thought of starting it again is overwhelming.

I’m not going to give up. But I am going to take a break. Put the hook down and do something else for a while – catch up on Stranger Things maybe. When I’ve put a bit of time between me and this project I might feel more enthused about it again.