Crochet is awesome, well I think so anyway. I taught myself as I’ve mentioned before through YouTube and perseverance. It takes time to get it to look right, but once it clicks and you get the tension and the stitches the crochet world is your oyster.

I’ve been helping some ladies to learn patterns and to crochet from knowing nothing and I think I’ve stumbled onto t what the hardest part of learning is.

It’s…

*Pause for effect.*

Holding the yarn and your work in the proper hand in a comfortable way.

There are a lot of different techniques for holding your yarn, which helps get the correct tension in your work. When you start out crocheting this will be the oddest thing you have to do. I use an odd method as I have numb fingers so wrapping to yarn around them doesn’t work for me, I have to hold the working yarn in the palm of my hand and have it slip over my index finger. I hold my work with my thumb and middle finger. It might sound like I’m running the yarn loose, but I keep a pretty good tension with this method.

Are there any tips or techniques you’ve used to hold your working yarn? I’d love to hear how you hold it.

You’re all awesome.

So far! Oh, and some of my own too.

Crochet is a funny thing, people who do it are seen as magical creatures who make yarn into amazing things just from wiggling a funny looking stick around. It does take some practice to get going to start with, but it is very much worth the effort. It can quickly become a brilliant hobby / obsession and maybe if you’re brave enough a booming business (crosses everything).

The internet has some awesome tips to help make you a better crocheter. These are some of the ones I’ve found most useful.

• The basics – The Crochet Crowd learn to crochet series This entire play list will help you get started if you’re just setting out. It’s how I learned. I’d recommend this or finding a local beginners class, you make lot of new friends that way too! (US terms used.)
• Amigurumi – All about Ami posted this, that covers everything you need to know about making your amigurumi look great. It’s not something I’d suggest jumping into before you get the basics right, but once you gain confidence then go for it.
• Safety eyes – I use a smallish washer to push down the back fastening of the eyes, saves your fingers and is quicker than fiddling with little bits of smooth plastic. A rubbery surface underneath stops the eyes from sliding around too.
• Stitch markers – very useful to have, invest in some as soon as you can. They’re quite cheap to buy, but some are not very good quality, shop around. I use one on unfinished projects to keep the last stitch from accidentally being pulled out, trust me, it always happens on the complicated projects that you have to rip out to make sure you redo it correctly.
• Crochet terms are different – The UK crochet terms differ from the ones used by people in the US, I’m not sure how it varies in other countries, please tell me if you know. The conversion is important as it can make projects look very different. The easiest way to tell if your pattern is in US terms is if it has single crochet in it, usually abbreviated to sc. Here’s a chart from Mollie Makes magazine that shows you what the equivalent stitch is in the terms you use.
• Find a local crochet group – Not only will you make lots of new friends, you’ll also get great advice from people who are as interested in crochet as you are.

There are many more tips to add, I shall do so soon.