Hey everyone, sorry for the late post...it was a rough day. But I'm here now :) lol
So, I'm a fan of crocheting, I've been crocheting for 13 years now and I still learn new things all the time about it. I enjoy crocheting because it's a relaxing hobby that makes you feel good because you're creating something! Now, I should warn you, this hobby is not only addicting, but it can also be quite expensive, time consuming and space consuming...one day I'll share a pic of my stash of yarn and you'll see what I mean haha
A lot of tutorials I've seen for crocheting start with what's called a "single crochet" but they never tell you how to actually start off...so, I'm going to. To start most crochet projects you're going to need to start with a slip knot. Different people do it different ways so I'm going to show you how I do one, but first I'm going to show you how I hold my hook, yarn and project...
So the way I hold my hook is called the "knife" method. There's also the "pencil" method which..you guessed it, means you hold it like a pencil. The holding style is personal preference and it does not affect your quality of work. As for holding and keeping the tension of my working yarn, I just hold it with the pointer finger of my non-dominant hand...again, everyone holds their working yarn differently, you have to find a way that's comfy for you.
So, to begin you need to make a slip knot, there are other ways to start different kinds of projects but we'll cover that sometime in the future. To start off with, you're going to wrap your yarn around your fingers like so...
Then, you'll take the working yarn and wrap up and over the piece that's hanging down like so...
Now, you'll still be holding your yarn at this point (although if it's easier for you to put it down and do it this way, that's fine too) I had to put it down so I could take a picture of it. But, basically you should end up with a shape like this, kind of like the circle with a line through it from a no smoking sign. Your working yarn will be behind the circle.
Again, you'll be holding your yarn and hook while doing this but I had to put it down for a picture...anyway, you'll need to put your hook behind the yarn but on top of the circle like so...
Then pull tight, holding onto the short piece of yarn that's hanging down, you may need to pull on the shorter string to adjust it, you'll figure it out. You don't want to pull too tight otherwise you won't get your hook out and you'll have trouble making your first chain stitch. The hardest part about starting to learn to crochet is getting the tension right but eventually you'll get the hang of it and find the tension that works best for you. Some people crochet tightly and some loosely..it depends on the person and it also depends on the day!
So, to make a chain stitch, you'll need to put the yarn from back to front (also called yarning over or "YO" in patterns)...
Then catch the yarn on your hook and pull it through the loop you created from the slip stitch. You should end up with something that looks like this...
Now, depending on what you're making, you may need to do a few of these or lots of them. If you're making a blanket or an afghan for example you may have to do several hundred to get the size you want. Don't let that scare you. As time consuming as crocheting is, it's also very rewarding when you finish a project and you have something beautiful that you can show off!
Next week I'll be covering how to do a single crochet as well as some common crochet terms and abbreviations.
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