I’ve been a knitter for a long time. I’ve tried to crochet in the past and although I know how to make some basic stitches it’s not something I ever felt comfortable with.

So what changed?

At Yarndale 2014 we launched the mirrored linen stitch cowl pattern. It was a huge success. Most people loved it. The people who didn’t share the love were those who really wanted to make the cowl – but who wanted to crochet rather than knit. So I started playing with a crochet hook and came up with a crochet version.

I’m very much a beginner with a crochet hook, and there have been some things that I didn’t really expect.

1. Crochet uses a lot more yarn than knitting. I knew this, but I was still surprised by how much more yarn it took to crochet things. This led to me actually using all of the yarn I’d taken on holiday.
2. Multi coloured yarns work up very differently. It wasn’t until I used the same yarn to knit and crochet a cowl that I realised how differently. That’s great fun because it lets me thing about using colours in a whole new way.
3. Even really slow crochet (as done by me) is a lot quicker than knitting.
4. Working in the round is like knitting in tat it’s still possible to put a twist into your work as you join it into a loop. Sods law still applies so I did this on the 4 ply and not the chunky version.
5. Crochet diagrams are prettier than charts for knitting. They’d make great prints. They’re a lot harder to draw a line through when you get to the end of a row or round.
6. Crochet unravels very fast. This is especially true when you think that you’re just winding some loose yarn back onto the ball.
7. Crocheting in public gets me lots more weird looks than knitting. This may be due to my expression of intense concentration.
8. I cannot crochet and watch tv. Well I can but I will have absolutely no idea what is going on. Drama with subtitles needs knitting.
9. You need different stitch markers for crochet. Otherwise you’ll find that you’ve decorated your work with stitch markers and they are embedded in your work. It could be a great effect, but it wasn’t what I was planning.
10. When you crochet your last stitch you are finished apart from perhaps darning in a few ends. There is no casting off. That feels very weird. Weird in a good way when the alternative is casting off 600 stitches. But weird.

What unexpected things has a new craft thrown at you?