“I’m bad at crochet.”
I’ve heard variations of that sentence many times, and most of the time it doesn’t actually tell me anything about the person’s crochet ability.
It tells me how they feel about their crochet.
Usually, something has happened before they reach that conclusion.
They have seen somebody else’s beautiful work and compared it with their own. They have tried to follow a pattern and gotten completely stuck. Maybe they have tried several patterns and started wondering why everyone else seems to understand something they don’t.
Or perhaps they think they crochet too slowly.
Somewhere along the way, a problem with one project becomes a judgement about themselves.
Instead of thinking, “I’m not ready for this pattern yet,” they think, “I’m not good at crochet.”
Those are two very different things.
When Comparison Becomes a Measure of Ability
It is very easy to look at somebody else’s crochet and forget everything you don’t know about how they got there.
You see the finished blanket, the beautifully even stitches or the complicated garment.
You don’t see how many years they have been crocheting. You don’t see the projects they pulled apart, the patterns they struggled with or the skills they practised repeatedly before they became easy.
You only see the result.
Then you compare that result with wherever you happen to be right now.
That isn’t a particularly fair comparison.
The same thing happens with speed. I don’t believe that crocheting quickly makes someone a better crocheter.
Crochet isn’t a race.
Being able to make something faster doesn’t necessarily mean you understand it better, and taking longer doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong.
Sometimes you simply crochet at your own pace.
Sometimes the Project Is the Problem
One of the biggest confidence breakers I see is people choosing projects that don’t match where they are yet.
It is completely understandable.
You see something beautiful and think, “I want to make that.”
There is nothing wrong with wanting to challenge yourself, but there is a difference between a project that stretches your skills and one that requires foundations you haven’t had the chance to build yet.
If every row introduces something unfamiliar, the pattern uses techniques you have never seen before and you are still trying to remember your basic stitches at the same time, of course it is going to feel hard.
That doesn’t mean you are bad at crochet.
It might simply mean you jumped ahead a little too quickly.
Sometimes the project isn’t even too difficult. It just isn’t the right project for you.
You might choose something because everyone else seems to be making it, only to discover that you hate working the stitch pattern. You might start a huge blanket when what you really enjoy is the satisfaction of smaller projects.
None of that says anything negative about your ability.
It tells you something about what you enjoy.
And knowing that is part of becoming a more confident crocheter too.
Confidence Needs Foundations
When someone repeatedly struggles with patterns, it is easy for them to assume the problem is them.
Often, though, what I see is someone who has collected individual crochet skills without having had the foundations properly connected.
They know how to make stitches, but they don’t necessarily understand what they are looking at.
They can follow a video, but when something changes slightly they don’t know how to adapt.
They have been shown what to do, but not always why they are doing it.
That missing understanding can make crochet feel much more fragile than it needs to.
Everything works until it doesn’t.
Then confidence disappears.
Building stronger foundations changes that because you start recognising what is happening in your crochet. You understand your stitches more clearly. You can look at your work and notice when something isn’t right. You become better at working out what has happened instead of immediately assuming you have ruined everything.
That is where self-trust starts to grow.
Rebuilding Trust in Yourself
Confidence in crochet isn’t about reaching a point where you never make mistakes.
I still make mistakes.
It is about knowing that a mistake doesn’t automatically mean the whole project has gone wrong.
You can stop.
Look at what you have done.
Work out what happened.
Undo a little if you need to.
Then continue.
The more often you do that, the less frightening mistakes become.
You also begin trusting your choices more.
You might decide to change a colour because you prefer something else. You might choose a project because you genuinely want to make it rather than because you think it is what a “good crocheter” should be able to make.
You start becoming less interested in measuring your crochet against somebody else’s.
And more interested in becoming the crocheter you want to be.
That, to me, is a much better measure of progress.
If you have been telling yourself that you are bad at crochet, I’d like you to question whether that is actually true.
Perhaps you need more practice.
Perhaps there are a few gaps in your foundations.
Perhaps you chose a project that wasn’t right for you yet.
Or perhaps you have simply spent too much time judging your work against somebody else’s.
None of those things mean you can’t become the crocheter you want to be.
Inside the Full Membership, we work on exactly that kind of growth. It isn’t only about giving you more patterns to make. It is about helping you understand your crochet, build your skills and become confident enough to trust yourself as you learn.
Because the goal isn’t to crochet like somebody else.
It is to feel good about the crocheter you are becoming.
Seona x
