(no subject)

I appear to have taken up crochet. I wanted to learn how to do it mostly because there are certain knitting techniques that require a bit of crochet, but I'm enjoying it in its own right, though I have to say that I prefer the look of knitted fabric. On the other hand, it is great for mats and the like - I'm making a set of placemats for a friend at the moment.

I found it easy to pick up - I basically taught myself with the aid of Simply Crochet magazine's recent special "Granny Square Collection" (our local newsagent is great...), and some youTube videos. Occasionally I found the patterns a bit confusing, but I figured it out quickly enough, and the advantage of crochet over knitting is that the fabric grows quickly enough that pulling back and redoing is much less soul destroying.

I found cotton yarn MUCH easier to work with than wool, in direct contrast to knitting.

Side note: it is important to realise that US and UK terminology is completely different, much more so than in knitting, where the differences at least don't create ambiguity. Crochet is another matter. A UK double crochet is a US single crochet, and a UK treble is a US double, etc. This could lead to fairly serious confusion....(actually, to be honest, I think the US terms are more logical, but that's by the by)