Miss Lee's Genius Hour

My blanket is taking a long time to make! Over time, holding the yarn on my left hand was starting to hurt. I researched alternative ways on how to hold the yarn. I found a great resource that has step-by-step images along with corresponding videos! As a result, I found a new way to hold the yarn that is more comfortable for me! It is called "the pinky hold technique" where the pinky is used to change the tension of the yarn instead of the index finger. This is the video I used: Crochet Guru. (2012, Jun 5). How to hold yarn for crochet - Beginner course: Lesson #3 [video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQAD3gzQGyM

On my timeline when planning my Genius Hour project, I was hoping to complete my blanket in Week 6. However, as previously mentioned, it cannot be completed in this short period of time with the materials I chose. This week as I continue to crochet my blanket, I am reflecting on my progress. I noticed that my speed of crocheting is a lot faster now compared to the beginning. I am glad that I am becoming more comfortable with crocheting as I am used to knitting. I am very fortunate of my knowledge gained from knitting as it helped me begin my crochet project a lot faster and easier. For example, I already knew hot to attach another ball of yarn when I have finished a ball of yarn, so I did not have to research this. Here is my blanket so far: (Lee, 2017)

This week I am continuing with crocheting my blanket. I find crocheting very relaxing as I can work on my blanket while I watch a TV show or listen to music. It is great to relieve stress from school work! Last week I reflected on my commitment do make a blanket and stated that I know I will not be able to complete it. I currently have 6 rows completed. Each row takes over 1 hour to complete. (Lee, 2017) I continued to reflect and I were to implement Genius Hour into my classroom, I will know that some students will require a lot of time to complete the projects they want. However this will help students learn time management skills and adjust their schedule/project accordingly. This week, I sent my sister a picture of my blanket so far. She stated that she really liked the color I chose. The yarn I used was given to me by my grandmother. She knows that I enjoy knitting and has given me lots of yarn and knitting needles in the past. I feel that knitting, crocheting and ya

For Week 4 of Genius Hour, I continued working on the blanket. I felt that I did not need to do any more research for now. I re-watched the video of the blanket tutorial and pattern several times when I got confused. The great thing about crocheting is that it is okay to make mistakes. It is easy to undo the yarn if I catch the mistakes right away! I think I was able to quickly learn how to crochet because I know how to knit. Crocheting and knitting requires the ability to know where the stiches go, if it looks right, and see if a mistake was made. I crocheted for the hour straight and it did not look like a lot had been accomplished. (Lee, 2017) This made me begin to reflect on my choice of Genius Hour project. I have known (from previous research and knitting) that crocheting projects typically do not take as long as knitting does. I thought back to the blankets that I have knitted, which have taken me several years. I should have chosen a thicker yarn and larger croch

For Week 3 of Genius Hour, I planned to continue practicing stitches and practice making the blanket using the pattern . I practiced the stitches and was so excited to start the blanket! I applied the "chain stitch" that I learned previously to begin the blanket! I found it challenging because I had to make a chain of 161 stitches. I lost count and had to redo it several times. Then I found that it was easier to count out loud to keep track. By watching the video , I learned that a "double crochet cluster" is a group of 3 "double crochet" stitches in one stitch. By the end of the hour, I completed 2 rows of the blanket! (Lee, 2017) I am proud of myself because although it was challenging right in the very beginning due to my mistakes, I persevered! For the next Genius Hour, I will continue the making the blanket!

This week for Genius Hour, I planned to find a pattern to make a blanket along with continuing researching and practicing different stitches needed to make the blanket. Although I found several patterns that I really liked and saved them on my Pinterest board, last week, I found that I learned better from watching YouTube videos. Therefore, I found a tutorial on YouTube that included a pattern . knitpicks. (2016, Jan 21). Beginner crochet blanket, full class [video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui9xW-qwyEU I really like this video because it guided me along step-by-step and I could also follow along with the written pattern. This pattern required the stitches 'sc' (single crochet) and 'dc' (double crochet). I did not know how to do a double crochet, so I researched it! I found out that this stitch is 2 times longer than a signle crochet stitch! This is the video I used to help me learn: Crochet Guru. (2012, Oct 23). How to doubl