How to Crochet: Learn the Basic Stitches and Techniques. A Storey BASICS® Title
128
How to Crochet: Learn the Basic Stitches and Techniques. A Storey BASICS® Title
128eBook
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Overview
Get hooked on crochet and bring handcrafted charm to your home and wardrobe. Sara Delaney provides easy-to-follow illustrated instructions for joining, fastening off, selecting color schemes, and much more. Learn how to read crochet patterns and work a basic chain with single or double stitches. You’ll quickly be on your way to crafting your own pretty potholders and delicate scarves.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781612123936 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Storey Publishing, LLC |
| Publication date: | 09/06/2014 |
| Series: | Storey Basics |
| Sold by: | Hachette Digital, Inc. |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Sales rank: | 443,535 |
| File size: | 18 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Sara Delaney is the author of Design Your Own Crochet Projects and How to Crochet. She has been designing and writing her own patterns for more than 10 years. She teaches crochet classes online at Craftsy, and she lives in western Massachusetts.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Getting to Know Your Materials
Every person has a basic set of tools needed to complete their job: Batman has his utility belt and cape, the plumber has a monkey wrench and pipe snake. Crocheters have a set of tools too, and knowing how to choose the right tools will make every project that much easier.
The One Essential: A Hook
The first and most important tool to get familiar with is the hook. While it may seem to be one of the simplest tools there is, it can be quite complex. Hooks are available in lots of different materials, and each has a different feel and interacts differently with different yarns. You'll want to experiment to find which materials you like using.
Common Hook Materials
* Metal. Most metal hooks are slick and smooth. In fact, they can be quite slippery, allowing the yarn to move very easily over the surface. This type of hook works well with all kinds of yarn.
* Wood. Whether made from maple, bamboo, or laminated layers, wooden hooks have a textured surface that gives them a bit more grip on the yarn. If you're working with a slippery yarn, this kind of hook can help you hold on to the yarn and "slow down" the stitches.
* Plastic. These hooks are fairly smooth but can have a bit of grip. Depending on what fibers you are crocheting with, you may or may not need the grip.
Parts of the Hook
Whether you are using a tiny steel hook for fine Irish lace or a superlarge hollow plastic hook for rag rugs, the basic parts of the hook are the same. Understanding the anatomy of your hook will help you to better understand the construction of your stitches and help to avoid some pitfalls of gauge and construction. Each manufacturer offers its own combination of the elements described below, and no two companies are alike; many companies even produce more than one style to appeal to a broader audience. No one hook works for every crocheter, and you may need to experiment with several styles before you find the one that is right for you.
* Point (also sometimes called tip or head) (A). This is exactly what it sounds like. It is the leading edge of your hook, and it's what will guide you into your next stitch. There is no standard style for this part of the hook. You will find that some manufacturers make hooks with very sharp points and others with fairly blunt, rounded points, as well as everything in between.
* Throat (B). This is the tapered portion forming the actual hook that allows for grabbing and pulling the yarn. There are two distinct styles for this section of the hook:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
* Inline or cut-throat. These hooks have a solid and straight cylindrical shape all the way around and a notch that has been cut out of the cylinder.
* Non-inline or molded. These hooks have a tapered throat. The cylinder of the hook gets narrower toward the underside of the hook, and the hook itself may be pushed slightly forward from the main cylinder of the hook.
* Shaft or neck (C). This is the space between the throat and the thumb rest, or handle, of the hook. The circumference of the shaft is what determines the hook size and is therefore where your stitches should be made.
* Thumb rest (D). This, too, is just what it sounds like: a place for your thumb to rest on the hook. It's an optional element, and some manufacturers do not include it. It's typically where the hook size is noted, even if there is no flattened thumb rest.
* Handle (E). The handle may be as simple as a continuation of the hook cylinder or as elaborate as a highly engineered, ergonomic shape meant to fit perfectly into the hand.
Understanding Hook Sizes
Using the correct size hook for your yarn is crucial to a successful project. While you can use very large hooks with very fine yarns to create open, lacy fabric, the opposite is not true. If your hook is too small for your yarn, you will have trouble successfully grabbing the yarn and creating stitches, and you may create a fabric that is too dense for your project. Most modern patterns specify both a hook size and yarn weight to start with. And if you're not working from a pattern, start by using the recommended hook size on your yarn's ball band. (See also the Craft Yarn Council's Standard Yarn Weight System, which contains suggestions for appropriate hooks for a range of yarn weights, here.)
Hook sizes can be noted in three different ways. Look for the size embossed on the thumb rest or marked elsewhere on the hook. It looks a bit like this: G/6/4.00. The letter and middle number are the American (US) size, and not every hook has a corresponding letter. The number with the decimal is the actual metric measurement of the hook. I recommend checking the metric size of the hook you intend to use against what is recommended in your pattern. US hook sizes aren't necessarily consistent, with the designation G ranging from 4.25 to 4.5 or even 4.75 mm, depending on the manufacturer.
How to Hold Your Hook
No two crocheters use the hook in the same manner, but there are two main ways to hold the hook while you crochet, and infinite slight variations on each.
* Pencil, or underhand. Here, the hook is held "above" the hand like you would hold a pencil or paintbrush. When holding the hook like this, most of the moving or manipulation of the hook happens by bending your fingers and rolling the hook between them.
* Pencil (underhand) hold
* Knife, or overhand. Here the hook is held under the hand as you would hold a knife for cutting. When holding the hook in this manner, most hook manipulation happens with your wrist. Holding the hook like this takes advantage of the thumb rest.
The Yarns We Love to Use
The second most important thing you'll need for crochet is yarn. Yarn choices are almost infinite. In today's market, you can find yarns made from nearly every material you can imagine. Traditional wool and cotton have been joined by new fibers synthesized from milk proteins, corn, and soy, as well as animal fibers from bison, chinchillas, and wild possum. You also have a huge range of sizes, or weights, to choose from, starting as small as fine sewing threads and going all the way to superbulky, ropelike yarns. (For guidance, see the Craft Yarn Council's Standard Yarn Weight System, here.)
All that variety can be quite confusing and discouraging when you're just starting out, so keep it simple as you work your way through this book. Since you'll need a lot of practice for most of the stitches you're learning, I recommend choosing a worsted-weight or DK-weight cotton — mercerized perle cotton — if you can find it. Not only is this material and weight easy to work with, you'll also be able to use many of your practice swatches as washcloths. Cotton is also fairly forgiving if you have to pull stitches out a few times to get them right. My favorite yarns for learning stitches are Cotton Classic by Tahki Stacy Charles yarns and Lily's Sugar 'n Cream. Just be sure to choose a solid color to start; variegated or mixed-color yarns make it harder for you to see your stitches when you're first starting.
Yarn Packaging
Yarn comes packaged in four standard forms:
* Cones. Yarn presented on cones means you get lots of yardage and pay slightly less, because winding yarns into smaller packages means higher costs for the manufacturer. Coned yarns are great for larger projects because you won't have lots of ends to work in.
* Skeins. This is an elongated version of the ball that can be worked by pulling the yarn from the center or working from the outside.
* Balls. Just as it sounds, this is a ball of yarn that can be worked by pulling the yarn from either the center or the outside.
* Hanks. Both handspinners and commercial manufacturers often wind yarn into a large loop or circle (usually about 2 yards in circumference) containing multiple strands, then twist and fold it to make a neat package. You can't crochet directly from the hank; you need to place the circle of yarn over the back of a chair, around the hands of a friend, or on a special winding tool called a swift. Then you can wind the yarn into a ball before you work with it.
Yarn Weights
Yarn also comes in a range of weights; this does not refer to the physical weight of the yarn ball but to the yarn's diameter. You'll find everything from cobweb weight (finer than some sewing threads!) all the way up to superbulky weights that make ropes look thin. The Craft Yarn Council has developed a standard yarn weight system that is a useful starting point, especially when you aren't working from a pattern.
How Do I Hold My Yarn?
Like the way to hold the hook, there's quite a bit of variation in the way crocheters hold their yarn. Typically, you hold your hook and yarn in opposite hands. The hand that holds the yarn controls the tension. ("Tension" describes how loosely or how tautly the yarn is held as it flows into the work.) That's not to say that you should be pulling on it, but you need to have just a bit of tension in the yarn in order to keep your stitches even. Slack yarn — or, conversely, yarn that is pulled tight — results in uneven stitches and makes it difficult to work stitches in subsequent rows. You need just enough tension to allow you to move the yarn forward through your hand to create new stitches, while at the same time feeling some resistance when you pull on that yarn, to make grabbing it with the hook a smooth process.
The drawings that follow show two common ways to tension your yarn.
In the end there is no right or wrong combination of the steps and tools in this chapter. Each crocheter is an individual, and your choices and processes should reflect this.
Becoming a Crocheter
I hear lots of people tell me that they don't have the patience or the talent for crochet. I don't either! What I do have is an interest in this craft and years of practice under my belt. Spend some time with your yarn and hooks, spend time with other yarns and your hooks. Spend time with someone else's hooks! There's no prerequisite, no underlying gift that makes you a good crocheter. It's an urge to know more, an accumulation of learned skills, and knowledge and time spent in practice.
CHAPTER 2
Getting Started: Forget the Chain!
If anyone has tried to teach you to crochet before, they've probably started with chains. Great, those are important — you need them to start almost every crochet project you will make. I feel, however, that making chains is the absolute worst way to begin learning how to crochet, so in this chapter, we're going to skip right to the good stuff.
To obtain a base into which you can crochet, go to the craft or fabric store and buy yourself a / yard or remnant piece of tulle. I know this sounds weird, but trust me, this gives you something to anchor your first row of stitches instead of the usual chain, which is harder to manage. Instead of learning how to make a chain and how to work into it, you can start actual crochet immediately by learning to make single crochet stitches.
Easing into Single Crochet
Look for a tulle with a very large and open mesh. Bring your crochet hook with you when you shop (H hook for your practice) and see if it will pass through the fabric easily. A perfect fit isn't necessary, and if you tear the tulle a bit as you work, don't worry. This is just for practice!
The yarn for this practice piece should be worsted or dk weight. These middle-of-the-road yarns are the most common weights and will easily pass through a large-mesh tulle.
I describe the way to make a single crochet stitch step-by-step here, but here's an overview of the process: Working from right to left along the upper, long edge of the tulle and starting at the edge in the upper right-hand corner, stick your hook through the fabric. Now take your yarn and fold it in half about 6 to 8 inches from the end, making a loop. Grab that loop with your hook and pull it through the fabric just a bit, not all the way through. You now have one loop on your hook.
Tilt the work forward a bit so that you can look at the back of it. You'll notice two strands of yarn hanging down. The short one is the tail, and the long one (the one connected to your ball or skein) is the working yarn. For the next step, don't use the tail; leave it dangling! Instead, grab the working yarn and bring it up over the hook toward yourself (this is a yarn over) (A), and slowly and carefully catch that yarn in the throat of the hook and pull it to the right, through the loop that was already on your hook (B). You're now all set and ready to start your first row of single crochet stitches.
Because crochet is worked from right to left, stick your hook back through the edge of the fabric, about / inch to the left of the last spot you went through. Grab your working yarn with the hook, and pull it through the fabric. You now have two loops on your hook (C). Bring the yarn up and over the hook toward yourself as before (another yarn over), catch the yarn in the throat of the hook, and carefully pull it through both loops that are already on your hook. You just made your first single crochet stitch. Congratulations!
Now do it again — and again. You'll have to do each stitch hundreds or thousands of times to build anything useful, but each time you do, you'll get better at it.
Single Crochet Step-by-Step
Instructions
1. Insert your hook through the fabric ¼" to the left of the last spot.
2. Yarn over and pull it through the fabric (2 loops on your hook).
3. Yarn over again.
4. Pull it through both loops on your hook. Stitch done!
There are quite a few different stitches in crochet, but the four most commonly used, and those we discuss in this book, are the single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. We'll get into the finer points of all these basic stitches in later chapters, but for now just keep repeating these four steps across until you reach the upper left-hand corner of the fabric, completing your first row of single crochet.
Why a Turning Chain?
Once you've worked your first row of stitches, you'll need to add a turning chain before you can begin the next row. (This is true whether you're working into fabric or into a foundation chain, which we'll discuss in a later chapter.) The need for a turning chain is due to a basic characteristic of crochet: Each stitch is built from the bottom up, but your hook has to be waiting at the top before you can begin the next stitch. Otherwise your first stitch will be short and slanted and really hard to find when you come back to it in the next row.
Single crochet stitches are almost square, approximately equal in height and width. A single crochet stitch is one stitch wide and one stitch tall. In order to get the hook to the right place to begin the next row of single crochet stitches, your hook needs to be one stitch above where it is now. To accomplish this, you make a turning chain.
Making a Turning Chain
Instructions
1. At the end of the row, yarn over and pull it through the loop that is already on your hook. This is the turning chain.
2. Turn your piece over to start the next row. Since crochet is always worked from right to left, you need to flip the whole piece over like you're turning a page in a book. Your hook should now be at the height of one single chain above the top right-hand corner.
Crocheting into Existing Stitches
At the beginning of the next row, instead of working into that easy mesh tulle fabric, you have actual stitches to work into. Let's take a look at what you have in order to determine which stitch to work in first. You'll see what looks like a chain running along the top of that row you just finished: two strands across the top of each stitch that originate and terminate through the two strands from the stitches on either side. There is a front loop — the strand closest to you — and a back loop — the strand farther away. There are also two legs to the stitch. Notice that what you see is actually the back of the stitches that you made in the last row.
Single Crochet into Existing Stitches
Instructions
1. Insert your hook under both strands at the top of the first stitch. Make a single crochet stitch following the same steps as when you were working through the tulle fabric: yarn over and bring up a loop, yarn over again, and pull through both loops on your hook. The first single crochet of the second row is made.
2. Continue to make a single crochet in each of the "chains" (the tops of the stitches) marching their way to the left. Take care to work under both strands at the top of the stitch just as you did in step 1.
3. When you reach the other end, make another turning chain as you did at the end of Row 1, turn the work over, and work your way back. Continue to repeat this row over and over.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "How To Crochet"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Sara Delaney.
Excerpted by permission of Storey Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Getting Started in CrochetChapter 1: Getting to Know Your Materials
The One Essential: A Hook - The Yarns We Love to Use - Becoming a Crocheter
Chapter 2: Getting Started: Forget the Chain!
Easing into Single Crochet - Why a Turning Chain? - Crocheting into Existing Stitches - Practice Makes Perfect
Chapter 3: Chains: Your Foundation
Evaluating Your Chain - Counting Chain Stitches
Chapter 4: Basic Crochet Stitches
Beginning to Work from a Foundation Chain - Half Double Crochet - Double Crochet - Treble Crochet
Chapter 5: Gauge
Swatching for Gauge: Getting Started - Why Does Gauge Matter? - Making Good Use of Your Swatch - Check and Double-Check
Chapter 6: Working in the Round
Get the Stitch Height and Count Right - Joined Rounds - Spiral Rounds
Chapter 7: Perfecting Techniques
Changing Yarns - Hiding Your Tails by Working Over Them - Adding an Edge - Finishing
Chapter 8: Pattern Reading
Patterns for Rows - Patterns for Rounds
Resources
Acknowledgments
Index