Learning to Crochet Part 1 - Chaining and Single Crochet

Welcome! I was going to do a tutorial on one of my favorite stitches, but I didn’t want to leave anyone out who doesn’t know how to crochet yet. So here’s my easy tutorial on learning how to crochet.

Supplies you need:

• Crochet hook (any size, I recommend not starting out with a gigantic hook or a tiny hook because it could make learning a little more challenging. I like to use a size G or J which are both very common)
• Yarn
• A comfortable place to sit

The first stitch we are going to learn is the chain. You will most likely see this abbreviated as CH and this is the base for pretty much any project you will work on.

Starting off you need to make a slipknot. Take the end of your string and drape it over your pointer finger with the long end on the left side. Take the long end and bring it across the bottom of your finger staying under the short string and bring the long side up through the hole that your finger was in and pull tight. Your loop should be adjustable, if you can’t resize your loop you’ve done it wrong.

Ta-da! Slipknot 

Place the loop that you’ve just created over your crochet hook. Take the long tail on the yarn and wrap it around your hook once and use your hook to pull it through the original loop. This should give you 2 loops, one off the hook and one on.

This is what 10 CH looks like

Wrap the yarn around the hook again and pull through just like the first time. Continue until you have 10 loops off the hook and 1 on. Your chain is complete and should look similar to this (keep in mind I’m using a gigantic hook so my holes are bigger than what yours should look like)

Moving onto the next row- make sure your row is facing the same way as the picture. Otherwise you'll end up with a not-so-hot mess. This next stitch you're going to learn is called the Single Crochet and you will see it abbreviated as SC. Starting on the second loop from the one that is on your hook (skip the loop right next to the one that is on your hook). With the original loop still on your hook, slide your hook underneath the top portion of your chain.

Yarn over and pull it through just the top loop so you should still have 2 loops on your hook like the picture shows to the right.

Yarn over again and pull through both loops leaving a brand-new single loop on your hook.

Continue on down your row until you finish the last stitch.

 CH 2 and flip your project over so it is pointing in the same direction you started out in. Starting in the last SC stitch you did, stick your hook underneath the top strand on the front side only. (Some patterns will tell you to do the back strand or do both strands, but if doesn't say anything about which side you're supposed to use then it most likely wants you to use the front one). Yarn over and pull through just the top loop to make 2 loops on your hook. Starting to sound familiar? It should! This is exactly how you created the previous row. At the end of every row, make sure to CH two and then flip over before you start the next row.  

You now know the basics of crocheting and can start on simple projects :)

Have fun practicing and I will see you back here for Learning to Crochet Part 2 - Double Crochet, Treble Crochet and the Half-Stitches.