Hello everyone and welcome to a brief introduction to one of my most beloved hobbies: crocheting! I picked this up during the bleaker days of a high school winter break, when my hands were getting really cold and stiff and dry, so I ordered some yarn and anti-arthritis crocheting hooks off of Amazon in the hopes that the movement would help. I didn’t actually use it for a while because I tried to learn the absolute basics (specifically a chain) and, well, it looked a bit ugly and winter break was ending anyways, so I just gave up for a bit.
At some point, I grew bored enough at home to decide to try again, this time with grander ambitions: I was going to make a flower. Though it took a lot of trial-and-error and meticulous YouTube tutorial-watching, I was able to pick up a few basic stitches and evolve into the crocheter I am today.
In hopes that your journey will be less tumultuous than mine, I’ve decided to make a little primer about crocheting! I think crocheting is a really fun hobby to pick up for anyone interested in crafts; it’s relaxing in its repetition and doesn’t require too much thinking once you get started, so I’ve enjoyed doing it while watching video essays or listening to audiobooks. Anyways, this post won’t be too long; it’ll just cover where I would recommend starting and a few types of crocheting that might be of interest to you.
The Basics of Crocheting
Materials
The very two first things that you’ll need to crochet are yarn and a hook. You can pretty easily acquire these through Amazon or your local crafts store, but I’d recommend having some idea of what you want to make before you buy (I’m assuming the target audience of this post is university students who are not looking to buy a bunch of hooks or multiple colors of yarn right off the get-go).
One easy place to start is with yarn; yarn comes in all different shapes, but they’re generally categorized through numbers, as seen on the image of a yarn label on the right. For people at the very beginning, I’d recommending getting yarn marked with either size 3 or size 4, as those tend to be the most common among popular patterns. I’d look for one that has a color (or texture!) that you’d like to use.
From there, look at the label and check the recommended hook size; on the label on the right, you can see that next to the box that says “4,” there’s a picture of two needles crossed in an X like swords; this is for knitting, so you can ignore this number. The next box, showing a hook, is for crocheting; checking how many mms it recommends (in this case, it’s 5mm) and buy a hook of that size.
Actually Crocheting
This section is probably not going to mean anything right now, but I’m going to lay out a few of the most basic stitches and terminology that you might encounter for you to reference later.
First of all, the phrase “yarn over” refers to exactly that: twisting your yarn from back to front around your crochet hook (if you’re holding your hook vertically, it should be twisting from the left over to the right– this is probably a good time to mention that I am right-handed, and this may differ if you are left-handed). This is essential for pretty much any stitch.
- Chain (abbreviation: ch): Yarn over and pull through the loop on your hook
- Slip stitch (abbreviation: ss): Yarn over and pull through all of the loops on your hook (when chaining, there’s usually just one loop; a slip stitch is usually used to join things, so there will be multiple — usually two — loops on your hook)
- Single crochet (abbreviation: sc): Insert your hook into the next stitch; yarn over and pull through, creating two loops on the hook; yarn over and pull through both loops at once
- Half-double crochet (abbreviation: hdc): Yarn over your hook once; insert your hook into the next stitch; yarn over and pull through that stitch. At this point, you should have three loops on your hook (the original loop, the yarn over you did before going through the stitch, and the loop going through the stitch); yarn over and pull through all three loops at once
- Double crochet (abbreviation: dc): A half-double crochet is called a half-double crochet because you do half of the steps in a double crochet– so, for a double crochet, yarn over your hook once, insert your hook into the next stitch, and yarn over and pull through that stitch. You should have three loops once again; yarn over and pull through the first two loops, then yarn over once more and pull it through the remaining two loops.
- Triple crochet (abbreviation: tc): Yarn over your hook twice; insert your hook into the next stitch; yarn over and pull through. Yarn over and pull through the first two loops on your hook (you should have three loops after this step); yarn over again and pull through the first two loops once again (you should have two loops after this step); yarn over once more and pull through the final two loops.
- Increase (abbreviation: inc): Make two crochets into the next stitch
Applying that Knowledge
As I mentioned earlier, I only really learned to crochet once I started actually making things; my initial plan was to figure out how to do all of the stitches, but that was a lot easier said than done. Here are a few small charm-like things that might help you start your crocheting journey:
And if you’d rather master the stitches first, you can try a video like this that basically has you practice all of the stitches on top of each other, creating a little rectangle.
Other Things You Can Make
Amigurumi: This refers to crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures! You can find tutorials for basically any animal on YouTube; these projects often build off of magic rings and crocheting in the round, and will require you to do a bit of stitching (it’s not that hard– you just have to get an embroidery needle and make sure things are neat and secure). Some tutorials to get you started: Axolotl (this one is no-stitch), frog
Granny Squares: Granny squares are exactly what they sound like: squares. They’re made in different patterns and colors, then attached together to make something bigger, like a bucket hat, a quilt, or even a cardigan. Some tutorials to get you started: Basic granny square, starburst granny square
Clothing: Crocheting clothing is a bit like cooking; it requires you to engage in a process of trial-and-error until you figure out what’s right. There are rarely exact patterns that you can follow, as you have to count out the number of stitches that fit your body yourself, rather than copying the example of someone else. For this reason, I don’t have any tutorials that I can recommend as the only limit to crocheting clothing is your imagination; some ideas for things to make (that are usually easy to find tutorials for) are sweaters, arm/leg warmers, sleeves, and skirts.
Conclusion
Well, that’s all from me. I hope this tutorial has been at least somewhat helpful, but the Internet is a wonderful place to learn how to crochet and if something I say doesn’t make sense, you can easily find someone who can explain it better elsewhere. The last thing I want to leave you with is that the limit to crocheting is really just your imagination, so have fun, experiment, and make things you like! I’ll see you soon for another post.