How I learned to Crochet

Crocheting; a necessity if you want to make amigurumi.
I have always had a vague interest for crocheting, but never ventured further than an interest. The only thing I could crochet was a chain. With my fingers. 8)

But now that I wanted to create amigurumi I had to learn how to crochet properly.
During a visit I had told my godmother (meetje) about my intentions. She immediately got out a box full of crochet hooks, where I could pick out some needles in different sizes.
Now that I had the hooks, I had to figure out how to hold these things together with the wool in such a fashion that crocheting was easy. My first attempts resulted in the giggles for my godmother and in soar hands for me. But laugh all she might, she could not explaining how to do it properly, so it was more than clear she was not the person to teach me.

Then I decided to resort myself to the World Wide Web. Nowadays one can find anything online, so why not how to crochet?
YouTube proved to be a big help in my search for tutorials and through a couple of YouTube videos I have ventured my first tentative steps into the world of crochet.

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How to crochet – Bethintx1

Through the lessons of Bethintx1 I have learned how to hold the crochet hook with the wool. The first four lessons give a detailed view of how to crochet a granny square, which immediately teaches you several different stitches.

Personally I have only followed lesson 1 from start to finish because (1) I found the woman’s voice extremely irritating; and (2) the constant need to pause the video’s to try a new step wasn’t really convenient. I have browsed quickly through the other lessons for tips and tricks.

• Lesson 1: Basics
• Lesson 2: double crochet
• Lesson 3 : Row two of granny square
• Lesson 4: Finishing granny square
• Lesson 5: Taking care of the tails
• Lesson 6: Changing colour

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Crochet 101 – tjw1963

For me these lessons were much more interesting, because each lesson focusses on a certain stitch.

• Chain (with slip knot)
• Slip stitch
• Single crochet
• Half double crochet
• Double crochet
• Triple crochet = Treble
• Quadruple crochet

FYI: Amigurumi are usually made using chain stitches, single crochet and double crochet

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Amigurumi tutorial – Hook and Needles

This series of tutorials is THE find if you want to learn how to make amigurumi. The series consists of 3 lessons.

• Lesson 1
  • how to hold your wool
  • chain stitch
  • single crochet
  • increase & decrease
  • crocheting in the round, magic ring
• Lesson 2
  • reading patterns, abbreviations
  • DIY: crocheting a little ball
• Lesson 3
  • other stitches: slip stitch, half double crochet, double crochet, triple crochet/treble
  • front and back loop
  • changing colour
  • embroidering faces

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And that’s about it. With the above lessons I learned how to crochet and how to make amigurumi. Of course, it also involved lots of practice, cursing, trying, retrying, etc., but when you learn something new doesn’t it always go like this? Practice makes perfect!