I finally bought a crochet hook! yaaay

Cafe Society
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I got one of the really big, fat, plastic hooks and a skein of pretty yarn (total cost, under $10!). I figured it would take fewer stitches to make something of an appreciable size with a bigger hook, plus it will be easier to count big stitches than little ones, and mistakes will be more obvious as I’m making them. I know there is a lot of stuff (patterns and how-to videos) out there on google. I think I will just fart around learning and making some basic chains for a week or 2 until it becomes automatic, though.

I was kind of wondering, do I really need a pattern to crochet stuff? And do I absolutely have to count stitches, or can I eyeball them? I’d like to make a scarf as my first real project. I would like to know how long that might take to learn, and how long to actually make one (in terms of man-hours). It would be nice to make scarves for two or three people by Christmas. And are socks hard to master? They seem like they would be pretty complicated :3

I have had a wee-bittle experience with the yarn/thread in my life… I learned how to crochet single chains when I was 13 or so (but never learned how to link chains or turn corners or knot the end to prevent my work from unraveling). And I learned how to cross-stitch a little. I made a potholder on a loop loom, once. But that was all over a decade ago, so basically I’m starting out fresh. I can hand-sew a button, if I need to, but that’s really it.

Anyway, I am excited about finally picking up a hobby that isn’t related to computers, so… yay for crochet! :smiley:

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Yay! Congrats & Have fun. There are comprehensive free tutorials at the Lion Brand website.
http://learntocrochet.lionbrand.com/

Patterns: no you don’t need one, especially when you’re just starting out. Crochet lends itself well towards freeform and improvisational handwork. That said, when you want to achieve a particular result, as in making a garment or stuffed toy, a pattern is a lot less work than figuring out for yourself!

Counting stitches: yes, you do have to do this. You WILL lose your place and put in a smaller or larger number of stitches than was needed and then your thing wont lie flat or it will have wobbly edges. You can get stitch markers, or just use paperclips, to help with counting.Over time you will need to count LESS but it will be years before you won’t have to count ever, if that ever happens.

Note that using a big ol’ hook and a worsted weight yarn like Red Heart, you’re going to get loopy lacy fabric.

Ravelry.com is a social networking/project organizing/ message board/giant yarn and pattern database website. There are thousands of searchable, cross-referenced free patterns available there, as well as patterns available for paid download. C’mon in! The water’s fine!

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Crochet’s pretty straightforward when you aren’t doing patterns that require counting stitches or switching yarns to make pictures and whatnot. If you’re doing scarves I’d recommend doing a row of about how wide you want it, and then doing single crochet until you get bored, then you can throw in double crochet sections and balance it out on the other side so the scarf turns out symmetrical.

Once you get comfortable with the basics of single, double, triple, etc, the basic wave or ridge pattern isn’t too tough. https://www.google.com/search?q=crochet+wave+pattern&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1333&bih=568&sei=%20THurTpPzEM_ImAXs8JySDQ

If you don’t have a ravelry account, go check them out. They have a lot of patterns that are easily searchable.

ETA: Beaten to it! But I’d say that counting stitches isn’t so important with something like a scarf, as long as you’re can check and see that you’re at the end of the row and not adding or subtracting stitches. So I guess counting is important unless you don’t need to count?? :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the advice! And for the link to ravelry, I’d never heard of it.

I’m really looking forward to getting started. I’ve been trying to attain some balance in my life lately, since I’ve basically been addicted to information for over 7 years now. It’s nice to think about slowing down a bit and making something with my hands!

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The other nice thing about crochet is that once you’re comfortable with it, you only need to glance at it every so often (say to find the hole initially to start the stitch-- the actual stitch itself can be done by feel). So during the winter when you only feel like watching a movie, you can have something to show for yourself when it’s done other than an empty bag of popcorn. I do most of my crochet in the winter. :slight_smile:

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I’ve been making giant granny square afghans and just about nothing else for years. I crochet while listening to audiobooks, so I don’t want to count or think about anything but which color comes next.

This lady’s videos on YouTube are pretty good for learning new stitches. She’s very easy to follow and has just about every level of tutorial.

Good luck!

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Thanks for the link, and for the pictures! Your blankies are gorgeous. My great-grandma passed a few of those down to my mom, and she still uses them. Big finished projects like that are inspirational in the “hey, maybe one day in a couple years I could start to make something like that!” way. :slight_smile:

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You are soooooo cute. Let me kiss your ikkle head! Mwah!

Now, about socks: those are usually knitted rather than crocheted, because crochet makes a much thicker fabric than knitting. There are some people who crochet socks with tiny little hooks and tiny little yarn. I think if you re-define your project as “slippers” you’ll be happier.

Enjoy your crochet. It’s much more relaxing than knitting. You only ever have one stitch to worry about dropping, and that makes all the difference.

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Moved MPSIMS --> Cafe Society.

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Congrats on acquiring the Yarn Addiction! Welcome to the fuzzy side, we have cookies (presented on crocheted doilies).

Not really, but if you want a definite result it is often easier to use a pattern.

Yes. It get easier with time, but you never completely give up counting.

Excellent choice! That’s what I recommend as a first project.

That varies from person to person. I’ve seen people pick up the basics very quickly, others struggle for awhile.

I usually suggest beginners work on small “sample” pieces, trying to make squares or rectangles with various stitches for a bit until they get comfortable and a little consistent. Don’t stress out if the first few look messy and misshapen - you learn a lot by making mistakes and errors so it’s all good experience. Practice, practice, practice! Once you can produce a reasonably square or rectangular shape in single or double crochet you can just keep going until it’s long enough to be a scarf.

The best thing about scarves as an early project is that they don’t have to be perfect. The edges can be a bit wobbly, the stitches all slightly different sizes, and so forth and it will still function as a perfectly good scarf and, once folded/wrapped the flaws probably won’t be noticeable. Perfection not required for good results.

While it is possible to get more than one or two done by then that might be a bit ambitious for a new crocheter. However, if you really enjoy it, and you feel motivated, go for it!

Socks are considered advanced work. really, anything that’s a fitted article of clothing is a bit advanced. Socks require that you follow a pattern and have a very exact and consistent size of stitch, which you are unlikely to have at this point. Making those 2-3 scarves first will help you towards the consistency required for something more advanced like that. Nothing wrong with socks, of course, and there are some nice crochet sock patterns out there these days, as well as slippers, but right now you might want to see that as a future project. Get a few scarves and a blanket or two under your belt, first.

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Slate article about Ravelry.

I resisted joining because I found it annoying that you couldn’t preview the content without joining. Don’t be me. Joooiiinnnn usssssss.

By the way, if you’re shy of following patterns, which I was for years, I would recommend Freshstitches patterns. Here are some free ones. They’re really detailed, and clearly explained, come with pictures, you can visit the site for good tutorial videos, and Stacey, the designer is really sweet and will be happy to answer questions if you hit her via email, Facebook, or Ravelry. (BTW amigurumi is a Japanese word meaning “small, cute, knitted or crocheted stuffed toy.”

You can acheive almost any effect with crochet that you can with knitting, depending on your technique. Colorwork, garments, objects, blankets, rugs – all are very doable (right now I am working on this, my first fitted garment) You can definitely make socks, but as others noted, you’ll want to be very consistent in your stitches before you try a project where size matters.

My first ever project was a scarf where I just tried all sorts of different stitches until it was long enough to be scarf like.

These days you can get a solid range of fairly nice yarns at big box craft stores. There are also amazing internet stores for yarn like Knitpicks.com, Yarn.com, and Colourmart.co.uk. Jimmy Beans Wool Watcher is the woot.com of yarn. :slight_smile: Watch out - yarn is super addictive! (there’s a reason why they call a yarn accumulation a “stash.”).

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I LOVE granny squares, like you said, no thinking or counting, apart from which colour comes next? I’m making a granny oblong blanky for my upcoming niece, using this as a starting point. I’ve done it in nature-y colours, dark green, country blue, bone and chocolate brown, and it’s looking nice, if I say so myself. And so easy! Seriously, I love working in the round.

Of course, I still have all the tails to work in. Anyone have a favourite method to share?

rachelellogram, welcome to the hobby! Enjoy!

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It’s too late for the work you’ve already done, but going forward, by using the Russian Join, you won’t have ends at all.

Similarly for 75%+ wool or other animal fibers, you can use a “spit splice” aka, felted join.

If I don’t use a join, I weave in as I go, every 5 or 10 tails. Having a million tails to weave it at the end is just wretched. I just thread it through the work, changing directions a few times. For something I expect to be machine washed, like an afghan, I knot in the end at the last stitch, then weave in the tail. While its not ideal for wearables or very lacy items because there will be a (very small) lump, in a blanket it doesn’t matter, and I have the peace of mind that the blanket holding together is not dependent on my weaving prowess.

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Wow, awesome! Thanks for that.

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Oh, thanks for the thread move. It seemed a mundane topic, but this is cool too. :slight_smile:

I have been watching a lot of videos to see different methods of holding the needle and yarn. I experimented holding the hook with the overhanded and underhanded methods, and I think I found the technique that feels most comfortable. I keep making chains and unraveling them, then chaining again for practice. The chains started out with very uneven stitches, and twisting a lot instead of being nice and straight and even. I’m getting better the more I make, though.

I think I need to try out a smaller hook. The package I bought yesterday had a honkin’ huge plastic one (which is too big to get comfortable with) and then a smaller plastic one, which is still fairly large compared to the metal ones I’ve seen. With a smaller hook, I think the stitches won’t have as much size variance.

It’s hard to keep even tension. Plus I keep forgetting which finger is holding the tension (index) and which is holding the chain (middle, with thumb). But it’s progress! I cut and knotted off a chain, and I’m using it as a headband right now. Because I can :cool:

Also in these videos, I’ve seen the crocheters are putting a round plastic thingy on the middle of the hook. I assume this makes it easier to hold. Are those in the yarn section, too? Does anyone here use one?

I watched an instructional video several times and made one row of 6 single crochet stitches (which I then unraveled for looking terrible). I’m sure I understand the method, and I think I know how to turn my work, but my basic chain is too inconsistent to be 100% sure that I’m hooking into the right chain-hole every time. I’m going to wait to come back to stitches until I can make a chain that’s absolutely consistent in size and twistiness. Maybe I’ll look into those granny squares, if they don’t require counting.

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Yea, I would tone it down to a metal hook for learning. Maybe a J or a K would be as big as I’d really want to go with regular yarn.

It just takes practice to make even-looking stitches all the time. A scarf would be a perfect starter project. You can always hide the first couple of rows if they’re a little uneven-looking by looping fringe through those rows.

My other little piece of advice would be to stick with lighter-colored yarn at first since it’s easier to see the stitches.

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Yeah I just went out and got a metal hook (with a nice ergonomic handle, whee). And wow, it’s so much easier to keep the stitches even and straight with this. This chain looks 500% better than the one I made on the fat plastic hook, no joke. On the side it says “US H8/5.00mm.” It was a nice medium size and feels damn great in my hand. Stitches go much quicklier and are a lot neater with a different hook! :open_mouth:

I also picked up some more yarn, and some knitting needles to play around with. If I hate 'em, I’m only out $2.50 and a few hours of time. But I’d really like to make socks, so knitting seems more logical for that. Who says one person can’t do both? =)

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Hooray! I made my first small thingy. 6 rows of 6 chain stitches each. It’s mostly squarish. I think I dropped a stitch at the end of my 5th row, which messed things up at the end.

My next mini-project will be making more chain stitches in a row (maybe 15 or 20 this time), and better counting so I don’t drop anymore! I also need to work on making the stitches looser. They’re hard to count and fit the hook back through, when they’re too tight.

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You can’t chain stitch in rows. A chain always stands off from the row, if its not the base chain (the chain you started with). most likely you are “slip stitching”. Are you inserting the hook through a stitch, drawing the yarn over, and drawing that loop directly through the loop already sitting on your hook? If yes, that’s slip stitch. slip stitch. Make sure you learn single and double crochet, as they’re some of the most basic stitches.

But anyway it sounds like you’re getting on gangbusters! Try sticking a paperclip in the last stitch, to help you see it when you come back.

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Ooh, can I share my latest crocheted sweater? I discovered Japanese charted patterns a couple of years ago and I absolutely love them. They’re a lot easier than they look, but still, I’d get in some good practice and experience before trying one.