Okay, so, I saw this thing online about automatic crochet machines and I thought, “No way, that can’t be real.” But then I dug a little deeper and, guess what? They kinda exist! I mean, there are these industrial ones that seem more geared towards factories, not really for the homebody like me.
I started looking at these Caydo i Cord Knitting Machines, the ones labeled as “Electric iCord Maker Tool”. They looked pretty simple – just add yarn and the machine somehow makes these i-Cords. Now, that got me thinking, is it real crochet? They are more like knitting machines but with a fancy name.
I was totally hooked, you know? I had to see if I could make this work for actual crocheting, not just knitting. I ordered one online, and when it arrived, I was like a kid on Christmas morning. Unboxed it, read the instructions (which, honestly, were not that helpful), and just started messing around with it.
First off, I tried following the instructions to make an i-Cord. I put in some yarn and turned it on. It started whirring, and honestly, it was kind of loud. The yarn went in, and after a bit, out came this cord. It was okay, I guess, but not really what I wanted. It is not crocheting as I thought.
Then came the fun part – trying to make it do something it wasn’t really meant to do. I tried different yarns, different tensions. I spent hours trying to get it to make something that even remotely resembled crochet. It was a mess. Yarn everywhere, tangled and knotted. The machine kept jamming, and I swear I almost threw it out the window a couple of times.
Here’s what I tried:
- Different yarns: I used thick, chunky yarn, thin, lacy yarn, everything I could find.
- Tension: Played around with the tension knob, hoping it would somehow change the way the yarn was looped.
- Hacking the machine: I even tried to manually guide the yarn to see if I could force it to make a crochet stitch.
After many failed attempts, I realized something. These machines, they’re not made for crocheting. Not real crocheting, anyway. They’re more like a shortcut for knitting. I had a good laugh at myself for thinking I could outsmart a machine. It’s a tool for a specific purpose, and trying to make it do something else was just a silly dream.
In the end, I gave up. I learned my lesson, you know? There are some things that just need to be done the old-fashioned way. There is no simple way to do real crocheting, not like what we do with our hands. The real fun of crocheting is in the process, the feel of the yarn, the rhythm of the hook. No machine can replace that. So, I’ve packed up the machine, and I’m back to my hooks and yarn. Sometimes, the best things in life are the ones you do yourself, no shortcuts allowed.
