The Start of Something New: Crocheting

8 August 2013

A few years back I had nonchalantly picked up a set of knitting needles thinking I was going to sit down and learn how to knit.  The short story is that they were set aside and completely forgotten.  Many years went by and I had pretty much given up on ever having the time or desire to try anything like that again.  Well the whole returning to the States and having time as well as a need to be more resourceful and profitable in other areas I returned to the idea of knitting.  But a new question arose, to knit or to crochet?

I did a lot of extensive research into what each created and how easy or hard they were to learn.  What it came down to as far as I could tell is that the main difference between the two was the needles used.  Crocheting uses a single needle with a hook that is about 6 inches long whereas knitting requires two needles that can range in size from a few inches to a foot or more depending on what you are making. 

Crochet Hook

The reason I decided on crocheting was because it was a smaller single hook, much easier for travelling with and since I am going to going to England in a few months it made more sense.   So the next step was to acquire some other supplies, namely yarn and needles.  A quick pop over to JoAnn and I had a set of three different sized crochet needles, two balls of yard and two little books about stiches.  In total I spend about $17, with a student discount.

Two stitch books, two balls of yarn and a set of three needles

One thing that was difficult for me to initially understand was the different sizes of needles and yarn and how they corresponded with each other.   What I found out was printed on the yarn packing it says what size needle you need to work with it.  

Yarn Packaging

Needle packaging

 I would say that the most common sizes are between 2.25-5.0 mm or B-1 to H-8.  In my set I have a G-6 (4.0mm), H-8 (5.0mm) and J-10 (6.0mm).  In all of my initial attempts at crocheting I am going to use the G-6 (4.0mm) size with the yarn pictured in my supplies.

So, the first thing I need to do is get something started and for my basics I turned to a website: http://www.anniescatalog.com/pages/stitchguide/index.html?cid=3, starting with how to hold the crochet hook and then on to how to tie the slip knot which starts off your crocheting experience.  From there you create a ‘chain’ which is simply a single strand stitch.

My first attempts at making a chain stitch

From there I worked on the very basic stitches of single crochet, double crochet, half double crochet, treble crochet and the slip stitch.  These are all the basics that each come with their own abbreviations that are used in patterns on the internet and in books.  Chain is ‘ch’, single crochet is ‘sc’, double crochet is ‘dc’, half double crochet is ‘hdc’, treble crochet is ‘tr’ and the slip stitch is ‘sl st’. 

Top Left: Double Crochet, Middle Left: Half Double Crochet
Bottom Left: Slip Knot, Middle: Treble Stitch, Right: Single Crochet

What is even more interesting and important to learn, besides just how to create a single strand of a stitch, is how to make that second strand.  That is where knowing how to chain stich is important, that is how to gain height within a stitch to make a double crochet stitch larger than a half double crochet stitch.

Now I have a few basic stitches down I can pretty much start a simple project, like a scarf, choosing one of the simple stitches as the means to create it.  Or at least that is how I think you get started on a scarf.  Haha!  I suppose a little more research is needed.  Well until next time!

Brittani