Novice crocheteer trying the Crochet Openwork Handwarmer...

Okay… that didn’t go very well! Let me rush to say that that’s got nothing to do with the pattern, but then again: I’m a novice crocheteer, I have to translate the crochet stitches into Dutch and this yarn wasn’t the best yarn for this project.
You can find the lovely beginner-friendly pattern here:
Creativeyarn: Crochet Openwork Handwarmers

I’m a loose crocheteer and still being a novice I tend to start tight and end up much more loose in the stitches. Knowing that I already took a smaller hook, but I’m not happy with the upper end of the one glove I made. Still, I had lots of fun and this is the first somewhat bigger project in American English crochet so the learning part in dealing with all of this made it worth while! The beginner-friendly pattern made me not give up. Giving up would just have meant that I wouldn't have tried this on my own anymore. Instead I would have seen my local crochet guru and she would have worked it out, even though her English isn't great when it comes to crafts. Having had this experience I now feel quite confident: I did it all by myself! Okay, not quite according to the pattern....
One of the things I learned in the end is that I’ve been doing half double crochet all over the pattern instead of double crochet as I should have been doing. Imagine… it’s sloppy already… If I’d used double crochet this would have been one giant glove!

Tomorrow I’ll give it another try with different yarn and let’s see what will happen then :-)

I'm on Ravelry!

Before I asked an invitation I was having some doubts.

You see, it's not like I'm someone who is busy crafting every free minute of the day.
I did some knitting when I was younger (just knit & purl, that's all) and started to learn crochet last summer. I really enjoy that! I also want to learn spinning and I'm busy with my first steps in needle felting. Really... I never was really handy with clay, but needle felting feels like sculpting with wool! Amazing :-)

I don't look upon myself as very creative. I can't draw, I'm not particularly handy with all sorts of material or techniques, but wool and yarn have something about them which really attracts me. It's cool to work with wool rovings and wool tops, but all these lovely yarns in wonderful colour combinations makes me want to buy them all!
Yesterday I had to pay a visit to my LYS to buy some cotton a friend of mine needs for the small bag she's crocheting for me to go with the stole she already made and... I nearly went dizzy looking at all those yarns! I couldn't resist and bought some Lana Grossa bulky yarn for 9 mm knitting needles and the needles themselves, because I hardly have any. What to make out of it? Maby a messenger type bag in freeform knitting, just using knit&purl? Well, why not? I'll just give it a try. I had to buy plain needles, but may have a go with bamboo needles as well later on. They weren't around when I was a kid, I think they'll suit me better than plain needles.

I just changed my username on Ravelry from swirlygirl into dassenhoedster which is a Dutch word that actually doesn't exist. It means something like "shepherdess of badgers". Badgers (we have the ones with the black and white striped faces) are rarely seen around here and are an endangered species. We saw one on our most recent holiday as we did 2 years ago staying in the same place. In our most recent holiday I started to finally do something with wool and yarn so in a way they symbolize the start of all this for me! I might not be the most fanatic knitter and crocheteer around, but I have the feeling wool and yarn are finally the materials I can be creative with.