Well I have sort of spilled all the beans on the home page of where it all started and what the history of Die Boervrou website is ( check that out here ) so lets see what else I can tell you about myself and how my crafty life started.
I have a always been an crafty person and my Dad bought me my first sewing machine when I was five years old ( I still have it by the way) My first item on the sewing machine was a skirt. My Mom cut the fabric and helped a lot to get it done. I remember it so clearly, it was a soft pink cotton fabric with white patterns on it. She helped me add a lace trim to the hem and I was the most proud 5 year old in the world with my new sewing machine that I could actually use! Unfortunately I do not have a picture of it, at the time taking pictures was not as popular as they are today.
I have so many more stories but this one has to do for now. My grandma teached me to knit and my first project that I remember was a yellow scarf with some sort of dropped stitch technique where you wrap the yarn a few times around the needle and then later just drop them off and it created this long pieces of yarn strands in the work. I cannot remember what happened to the scarf and if I ever finished it.
A friend of my mom teached me to crochet and for some reason all I remember of it is the baby booties that this friend knitted and She gave me the “recipe” for it and I knitted some of them too. I still have some unfinished ones in my drawer today. I cannot remember what project I was crocheting, but I do remember a few very suspicious looking granny square blankets.
Life happened and between school and daily tasks on the farm (helping with animals and the time when we had a dairy – milking cows before school and after ) there was not much time for too many crafty things other than sewing.
At the time when I was in Primary School my mom and I went for a few sewing lessons to make our own underwear, sweaters and jackets. I even went for a few classes on my own, which included making baby grows and oven mitts and a teapot cozy. That was lot of fun, we would each take a different lesson for a different item and when we got home immediately show the other one what we learned!
I kept sewing and made some garments for myself and I made the odd crochet project now and then. I found knitting very hard, as the stitches was always tight and I could never tell if I am doing it right or not. I used to say I am a crocheter not a knitter.
I decided to invest in the Knit and Stitch Magazine Series that came out one year to try and improve my knitting skills. It helped but I still struggled with the tight stitches. Only a few years later I found out that I wrapped my yarn in the wrong direction, creating twisted stitches! All the squares in the blanket that I made ( it fits on a king size bed!) are made with twisted stitches. Buy it still keeps us warm and I am so happy that I was able to make that and learn so many techniques.
The turning point that turned me into a knitter was when I could not find socks in the shops for my husband that lasted more than 2 months before they were full of holes ( maybe I just shopped at the wrong stores, who knows?) Anyway so I saw people knitting socks on YouTube and I thought who on earth has time for that? Eventually I got so frustrated with the socks and the holes that I decided to give it a go. My first attempt on dpns was disastrous to say the least but I kept going. I got hooked in that first attempt of knitting in the round, wow I LOVED it.
Eventually I found a proper yarn shop where I could get my hands on Chiaogoo knitting needles and 9 inch circulars that changed my life. To date ( January 2026 ) I have knitted 63 pairs of socks!
My first design was the yarn cake cozy for 100g yarn cakes with the 50g version shortly there after and I use them to this day with every project I make. I designed a few sock patterns after that and then branched out to cowls, a scarf and even a sweater pattern. I definitely knit more than I crochet at the moment and love very moment of it!
Leave me a comment and share your crafty life story with me!
