It has been striking to me that over the years I wasn't really a person who 'made' anything myself. As in....there are shops with stuff, why bother. But over the last couple of winters I have noticed that I like to learn myself some stuff. Not any rocketscience, but just basic skills where you can 'make and create' something yourself.
One of the things my eye fell on is that the crochet community is gigantic. And I do get it, because it is really cool to make something yourself. And when you watch all of these videos, it seems like anyone can do this?
So why can't I?
So last year I have drowned myself into crochetting a scarf and after the initial fuck ups, this went rather smooth and was just a fun thing to do on the winter evenings where you just don't want to watch TV all evening.
Making a beanie? Too ambitious for a starter?
I decided I wanted to make a beanie as a bit more of a challenging quest in the crochet world, but I had no idea if this was too difficult. Luckily with the world of Youtube everything on this is self exploratory by now.
I used this pattern by Ravelry which is in Dutch but you get the gist out of it.
For me the terminology is still a mystery as I have to look up every time to see what a 'half crochet' or a 'crochet' means, which in Dutch something like a 'half stokje' and a 'stokje'. I just look it up on Youtube what to do, and I guess eventually I will get the hang of it.
I used a 4.0 needle and started with making the headband. In retrospect I think I made this like 2 stitches too small for my own head, because I like stuff more baggy. On the other hand...this makes it nice and warm wrapped around the head.
After the headband was finished it was time to head over to the puffstitches which looked super complicated initially, but after a couple of tries this was really easy and fun to head along with.
This took me weeks to do. Not that it actually took weeks, but I put it away more than often, and some evenings I would rush and make a lot of progress on it. (But uhh....how do people do this without getting RSI?)
The puff
After gradually reducing the circles to the end it was time to finish off the beanie and make a puff for on top. Again...I watched a video to do this, and it involves a lot of wrapping around your hand of the thread and turning it into a package of yarn.
Wrapping two of these packages together and cutting the loops open was about it. So actually none of this was rocket science, you just need time to figure it out!
I'm actually super pleased by the end result and it fits way better than I had expected halfway through the project. The learning point for me...I have to count better on what I am doing. And that is something I really don't like.
I just want to head on headless without thinking and working the grind, not wanting to count the whole time. I know you have all of these little hooks to help you with that, but I dunno.... we will see.
Winter project done!!! #proud
I did a thing!!
Wow!! for a beginner, you are brave, resilient, and creative. This came out so lovely and we applaud your creativity. Well done and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the find and appreciation! Yeah I also thought this possible was a bit too challenging for a second project, but it was surely doable!
Super happy with the result!
That looks really cool! DIY rules! 👌
Yay thanks! I wore it toxay and it was way netter than expected:))
If it is as warm as it looks, don't doubt it! :)