April 15, 2024: Oh, It's So Easy?

We get asked about a pattern’s difficulty every day, but that’s a difficult question to answer accurately. After all, someone’s easy is another person’s difficult and vice versa. The level of difficulty depends on what skills are required, what skills you have and what skills you feel like using.  

We’d like to suggest an alternative perspective that will help you choose whether a project is right for your skills and interest. Instead of asking about difficulty, ask about what skills or tricks you need to know or learn. All projects will require basic skills, such as casting on, knitting, purling and binding off (knit) or chain, single crochet or half double or double crochet (crochet). Many projects will require a bit more. For example, if you’re making a hat, you’ll usually need to know how to work in the round and increase (top down) or decrease (bottom up). Reading patterns is also a trick; all that jargon is like knowing another language! Using a chart? That’s another trick. And describing any of these as "easy" depends on how much you already know.

So, you can understand why describing any of the above with “easy” or “difficult” is not very helpful. Instead, if you understand what tricks you need to know or learn, you can decide whether the project will be right for you right now.  If you want a mindless project, pick a pattern where you know all the skills. In the mood to learn? We generally recommend you choose a project with 2-3 new skills. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can take on more. The goal is to balance learning challenges with enjoying the process. Too many challenges and you may find the project more frustrating than fun.