What were your beginner mistakes when crocheting?

Nobody’s born a master, and we all laugh about the things we did when we were just starting out.

Let’s collect the “beginner’s mistakes” that everyone has made here. Maybe one or two of you will realize, “Oh, I still do that too!” and that way we can all learn something :)

I’ll go first:

-At first, I stuffed my little animals with plain cosmetic cotton. They feel pretty weird as a result.

-I didn’t sew up all the ends—I just tied them off on the outside! It looks awful, and eventually it always comes undone, but somehow I didn’t realize there was a better way.

So, how about you guys? Who’s up for it? :) 

In the beginning, whenever I was crocheting in rows, I could never keep the number of stitches the same—it just kept increasing with every row! So my first pot holders weren’t square, but more like trapezoids :-)

And I always ended up with one fewer stitch at the edge. I just didn’t know what the terms “turning chain” or “turning chain stitch” meant. Some patterns didn’t even mention them at all—so getting the stitch count right was just a matter of luck.

And when knitting stockinette stitch, the stitches were always different sizes. Today I know why it had to look that way back then. You just learn bit by bit.

At first, I didn’t know why you were supposed to close a crochet round with a slip stitch when it’s so convenient to just keep crocheting. But by the time I made my first color change, I knew: if you want to avoid that jog, you have to close the round.

Best regards
Traudelina

When crocheting in rows, I had exactly the same experience as iglinz or Schnuckelina because I didn’t know where to continue after the turning chain. Unfortunately, YouTube didn’t exist back then!
When I had to close a round with a slip stitch, I’d also end up with one stitch too many or too few in every round! (It still happens to me all the time!)

To remember my beginner’s mistakes, I have to dig really deep into my memory. My first crochet project was pot holders for my mom. I still remember that we had a textile shop right in our neighborhood (they used to exist back then; today, those little shops are almost extinct) and I went with my dad to buy red and blue yarn for the pot holders. One pot holder was supposed to be red with a blue border, and the other blue with a red border. Like Iglinz’s, my first pieces also turned out trapezoidal, and it took me quite a while to figure out the mistake. ;-)
Still, the pot holders were finished in time for my mom’s birthday.

Yarn that was too thick!

For my daughter's first unicorn about 3 1/2 years ago, I bought yarn for a size 10 hook(!); the idea was to finish faster (it works with clothing, after all)
Well, that was my mistake in thinking! The unicorn is well over a meter tall, and because of the amount of stuffing and yarn, it weighs 2.5 kg.
It didn't turn out pretty because the stuffing peeks out through the huge holes between the stitches

I also used the wrong yarn.
I tried crocheting a curtain with some yarn my mom still had lying around at home. Just those little panel curtains you can hang directly on split windows.
It went really well, but it was actually pot-holder yarn, and when it was finally finished, it really looked like pot holders were hanging there.

And something that unfortunately still happens to me every now and then is leaving the tail too short to weave in the ends. And then weaving it in too briefly and cutting it off. That very often comes undone.

I learned to knit long before I learned to crochet, so at first I crocheted the stitches the way I was used to from knitting—that is, not by inserting the hook under a stitch, but into the stitch itself, using only one side of it for crocheting. Of course, the result didn’t look anything like the pictures, and I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t until I tried to learn more stitch types on YouTube that I realized where I was going wrong ;-).

That’s a great question :)

I’ve been crocheting for soooo long… I don’t even know what my early mistakes were.
But probably that I used the wrong hook size (or yarn—depending on how you look at it).
And that caused the stitches to be either too tight or too loose.
Also, back then I didn’t weave in the ends—I just tied them off. At least I tucked them inside when I sewed my crochet bags together, with the wrong sides together—which was also wrong ;)…

LG

Oh dear, those early days… The chaos started in elementary school:
my pot holders had a rather indescribable shape. Since they were also crocheted way too tightly, I couldn’t even unravel them. Man, was I proud when you could finally “make out” the first piece as a pot holder…

When it came to sewing, I went through a lot of needles, since after 4–5 cm at most—usually after a very “wavy” seam—it would go “snap” again. It’s actually a shame, because I’d really love to be able to sew (with my machine). By hand, it goes pretty well, and I’ve already sewn many meters of curtains and drapes. Of course, it takes a long time.

These days, knitting is going well. I once knitted a great cable pattern sweater for my ex. Back then, I always ended up with cool lace patterns, though they weren’t intentional. My Barbie got lots of knitted clothes. They were so tight, though, that I had to cut them open to get them off.