Make it Up

I’m making something for my sister-in-law. This is weird because, as my 4 year old put it, “she knows everything about yarn knitting!” But this isn’t yarn knitting, it’s plarn crocheting. Not that my amazing sister-in-law couldn’t manage it, she just knows I work with plarn and doesn’t have a ton of time to cut up plastic bags herself.

The pattern she sent me is for a yarn holder (yes, a yarn holder made of plarn). Instead of punching a hole in the side of a Tupperware bin and putting your yarn in there, you can crochet one. I glanced over the pattern, took the advice for a back post crochet stitch when transitioning from the base to the sides, and then just took off on my own. I’ve worked with enough patterns of this kind to just kind of make it up as I go along.

The pattern ends up being a bowl-shaped thing with a hole in the side for yarn. “But,” I thought, “What if one of the kids knocks it off the table/couch/lap where it’s sitting? The yarn will go everywhere.” There was only one solution: it needed a lid, but the pattern didn’t have one. What could I do? Well, I could leave the finished product lidless and let my sister-in-law’s yarn escape, or I could do what people did before Ravelry existed.

I could make it up myself.

All patterns are made up patterns.

I think the yarn holder is going to be pretty cute once I’m finished with it, and it’s nice to be making something with plarn that doesn’t take me months and months. Of course, it’s not using as many plastic bags as a reusable Bag the Bag is, but that’s okay. It’s going to be nice to have a finished product that doesn’t make me hate working with plarn before I’m finished with it.

Maybe when I’m done, I’ll make something similar: a basket or something. And if I can’t find a pattern for it, I’m sure I’ll be fine just making it up as I go along.