Welcome to Bilingwool

An introduction to Bilingwool and my history in knitting and crocheting.

Hi! My name is Margaret, and I spend a majority of my time knitting and crocheting. I started Bilingwool as a dedicated space for my passions.

The name “Bi-ling-wool” (pronounced the same as “bilingual”) is in reference to my ability to ‘speak’ both languages of knit and crochet.

I started to knit and crochet around the same time in my life. For me, the two have always been intertwined. A friend of my mom’s taught me to knit, and another friend of my mom’s taught me to crochet. They taught me the essentials, but the rest I learned elsewhere. There used to be a TV show called ‘Knitty Gritty‘ on the DIY network in the mid 2000s. I woke up every morning and watched this show, needles in hand, aiming to learn something new. From Knitty Gritty, I learned how to increase stitches, decrease stitches, yarn over, and bind off. These are some of the most fundamental knitting techniques that are incredibly versatile, thus making them appear in almost every pattern.

I received a crochet kit for Christmas one year from my family, including some patterns, an assortment of crochet hooks, and an instructional booklet. This is how I taught myself to go beyond the basic techniques of making the chain and single crochet. I still have this booklet, the patterns, and the needles.

The kit that taught me to crochet beyond the basics.

I learned much of this basic education in knitting and crocheting when I was around the ages of 8-10. It was a fun thing to do, but I didn’t start to devote more time to my hobbies until I was a teenager.

I remember vacationing with my family as a teenager, waking up early every morning just to knit. I was taking a class that was, in a sense, my first ever Knit-A-Long (KAL) in which we made a basic V-shaped shawl. I finished my first ever major project in just a week. That was a turning point for me and my craft. I proved to myself I could make something out of nothing, and in the process, I found out I had a real passion for yarn crafts.

My first ever major knitting project, knitted on size 17 needles with various scraps of yarn.

As college came and went, I became more and more serious in my knitting and crocheting. What started as a fun hobby as a young girl has now turned into a devoted space for high quality materials, attention to details, and a productive daily ritual. I’m constantly working on something.

In the natural progression of my yarn enthusiasm, I have decided my personal Instagram and Facebook posts no longer cut it. I needed a dedicated space to devote to knitting and crocheting. Thus started Bilingwool.

I see Bilingwool as an opportunity to educate interested yarn enthusiasts, to share my current projects, to build a solid portfolio of my work, and to hopefully start a business. For now, the purpose of Bilingwool is to share. I want this to be an outlet to share my creativity, and perhaps to share the love of knit and crochet and encourage readers to pick up their needles. I hope you will enjoy learning with me as we continue to grow in our love for knitting and crocheting!

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