Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[Guest]

so, I've been at it for a couple of days.

 

I know how to do a foundation chain and I know how to do single and double crochet but...

 

I'm finding it difficult to hold the wool properly and I think my tension is rubbish cos of that.

 

The hook supplied with the mag is 4mm and the wool is quite thick, do you think a larger hook and thinner wool would be easier to learn with?

 

any advice?

[Goosey Lucy]

Hi Poet,

 

I use the label band of the wool for advice, you should see a pair of crossed knitting needles and a size guide. The needle size corresponds to the hook size. I've not seen the crochet mag from the other thread but I'd be surprised if the wool and hook don't match.

 

Make sure you're leaving a long enough tail when you're starting, I tend to hold this in place with my ring and little fingers of the hand I hold my crochet hook in (does this make sense? It's still a bit early )

[Snowy]

It might be worth trying with a 4.5 hook, just a fraction larger. It does make a difference - your finished piece will be softer and drapier, whereas using the smaller hook will give a firmer, tighter square. It is probably worth doing it a couple of times and then unravelling it again, until holding the yarn and hook becomes more natural to you. Until then, your tension is bound to be a bit all over the place.

[bluekarin]

When I was teaching myself, I found it best to keep doing the initial slip stitch, then the chain stitches and joining them into a circle. And then undoing it all and trying again. That was I could get a feel of how my fingers were meant to hold everything all at once - I wasn't sure at the beginning I could do it. Keep at it and you'll pleasantly surprise yourself I felt like one of the kids with a painting as I kept saying 'look! Look at what I just did!'