Getting Started with Crochet

I started this morning with no real knowledge of how to crochet. I wanted to get up and running fairly quickly and I think I did it. In about 3 hours, I went from yarn and crochet hook to my very first granny square.

Far from perfect but not bad for as quickly as I was coming up to speed.  I tried to find a simple tutorial or directions that would take me from no-clue to getting started on a small project.  I couldn’t really find anything but I will piece together my process here for longevities sake.

First, I learned to slip-knot and chain stitch:

http://crochet.about.com/od/learntocrochet/ss/Crochet_Slip_Knot.htm

http://crochet.about.com/od/learntocrochet/ss/Chain_Stitch.htm

I very much prefer picture-by-picture tutorials over video tutorials.  I find I have time to compare all of my details with those in pictures.

Then I learned some basic stitches.  The single crochet and the double crochet.

http://crochet.about.com/od/learntocrochet/ss/Single_Crochet.htm

http://crochet.about.com/od/learntocrochet/ss/DoubleCrochet.htm

I basically did a row, pulled it all out, and started again.  After doing that for the single and double crochet, I got bored and decided to try to actually make something.  It’s always the case.  I never want to do the learning part, only the making part.  I suppose that’s why I’m writing this, to get you from learning into doing ASAP.

I looked at a bunch of tutorials but none of them really made sense.   This abbreviation chart was helpful:

http://www.crochetspot.com/crochet-abbreviations/

and this was the best picture tutorial of a granny square I could find:

http://www.purlbee.com/granny-square-project/

Oh, and as soon as I started, I realized I probably needed to find out what a slip-stitch was so I found it by looking at the abbreviations page and heading to the slip-stitch length:

http://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-slip-stitches-sl-st/

And ta-da!  Granny square.  It really didn’t take me long at all and I am at least confident that I could do a real crochet project with a little online help.  I’ve wanted to learn this for so long and finally got up enough courage.  Why didn’t I start this when I was younger?  I could have been a pro by now!  I never could get the hang of knitting.  The string just gets tighter and tighter and I get frustrated.  I’ve always heard crochet was faster and easier but I was scared to try.  Never again!

Sarah