Leah here and as I promised I'm here with some crocheting 101 lessons! I hope you all are excited as I am about this! Please remember that you may not be a wiz at it straight from the get-go! And if you get frustrated (as everyone does learning a new skill) it's okay to put it down and come back to it later when you're feeling up to conquering the yarn! (I've had to do that more times than I can count).
After a lot of long hard contemplation I decided that a scarf would be the best project for the first time crocheter for a couple reasons... Since it is a long repetitive project by the time you've completed it you've learned how to control your tension. And about the importance of counting while crocheting (to ensure that you're not dropping or gaining stitches)... Tension control and counting are crucial for all other crocheting projects you'll be enjoying in the future! Also the scarf pattern I'm teaching you today is extremely simple, which will allow you to not become overwhelmed by the idea of trying to crochet.
First make a slip knot as shown...
To start off our project you need to make a chain (written in patterns as ch). Then chain is created by looping the yarn over your hook and pulling it through the loop you hook is in... Now in our scarf our chain will be our width... I chained 8 to make a scarf for my teddy bear... Feel free to make this scarf as wide or narrow as you wish
Vala! You have a chain row!!
Starting with the 2nd chain from the hook you're going to do a single crochet all the way across (sc in patterns). To do this you're going to insert your hook into the second chain from the hook put the yarn over your hook and pull through the first loop. Put the yarn over your hook again and pull through both loops, making your first sc! Now do this all the way across, you should have one less single crochet stitches than what you chained... From here on counting becomes very important!
ch 1 (chain one counts as first single crochet) turn the project and sc in each sc across. (Sorry about any confusion I'm goal is to teach you all how to crochet and how to read the pattern at the same time). Make sure to count your stitches as you go to be certain that you don't drop or gain any...
Repeat previous step until the scarf is at the desired length, making sure to count the stitches in each row. Now if you have the same amount of stitches but it's thinner in one spot and thicker in another... this is where tension comes into play... You may have noticed in previous pictures how I'm holding the yarn that I'm working on with my other hand, draped over my pointer finger... This is to help control tension... Unfortunately it's not really something that I can teach you but more of a trial and error type of thing... In theory you'll be able to control your tension some by the time your done with your scarf... assuming it's a human size and not a teddy bear size that is ;-)
Cut the yarn with about 5 inches to spare, knot in the last sc and tuck in your ends using the tapestry needle, or your crochet hook. Please note that you can't just cut off the ends and call it a day... cutting them off can cause them to unravel making all your hard work be for not...
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Supplies for next week
- We're going to need some more yarn... I'm thinking I'll do three different colors (a ball of each) that'll give me more than enough yarn and some color to play around with... You do however many colors you want! (Remember you're imagination is your limitation)
- Hold on to that H hook!
- Tape measure... We have to be certain that our squares all add up to be the exact same size (that's called gauge).
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