A Taste of Crochet

The absolute minimum supplies and tools you need to start playing with crochet. First of a series.

Crochet is a craft where you use a tool called a “crochet hook” to turn yarn into cloth items such as scarves, bags, dishcloths etc. Crocheted cloth is best suited for items which you do not want to be stretchy. It is equally easy to make flat panels or tubes with crochet. One can also make interestingly-shaped items; corkscrew spirals, hyperbolic surfaces, spheres, etc. This makes crochet favoured for making dolls and toys with (Amigurumi). Crochet is also well-suited for making lace (do a google search for “Irish Crochet”).

What You Need For Crochet

1. One crochet hook.
2. One pair of scissors.
3. One ball of yarn.
4. One yarn needle.
5. One paper clip.

Mind you, if you shop around on Ebay, you can probably find a cheap set of aluminium crochet hooks for the price that you would pay for one hook at a craft shop. What is a “set” of crochet hooks? Don’t you need just one? Well, you only need one at a time, true. However, in order to create a broader range of crocheted items, you need multiple sizes of crochet hook, to suit different thicknesses of yarn. What material should your crochet hooks be made of? Any kind, you’re just starting off, don’t worry about it. Different people have different preferences.

What is a yarn needle? Also known as a “tapestry needle”, it is a needle with a large eye, big enough to thread medium-to-fine yarn through. What you need it for is to “weave in the ends”, that is, to tidy up the loose bits of yarn that stick out of the work at the start and the end (but sometimes in the middle too). You do that by threading the yarn-end onto the needle, and then weaving the needle in and out of the body of the work, to hide the yarn inside. There are methods of hiding the yarn as you go, but as a newbie, it would be easier to keep things simple, and weave in the yarn at the end. Hence, the needle.

What do you use the paper clip for? For preventing the crochet from unravelling when you put it down or away. See, there is always one loop at the end of your work-so-far, the loop that your crochet hook is stuck through. When you put your work down, the hook may fall out and the loop may get tugged and un-done. Some people prevent this by pulling the loop really big, so that a little tug isn’t likely to make it pull out. Other people use a “stitch marker” which can clip around the loop. But if you don’t want to buy a stitch marker, you can use a paper clip.

Where To Start

I recommend “the Crochet Crowd” as a good YouTube channel to look at for crocheting.
https://www.youtube.com/user/mikeyssmail
Also, “Very Pink Knits” has a series on Crocheting For Knitters; if you already know how to knit, you might want to start there.

What To Make First

I suggest a dishcloth as something small and simple, that you can learn different stitches with.