For Beginning Beginners

A friend recently told me she was thinking about taking up crochet. My kids came in today and two of them mentioned a desire to learn. I freely and regretfully admit there was a time I would have become defensive at the idea. "No, you can't. This is my thing. I'm good at it. I don't want you to come in and be like me." I was quite relieved to note that my reaction was one of welcoming. "Sure! That's supercool," I told my friend. "I can try," I told my kids. I don't know if I could teach them, but I could give it a shot. I mean, just this week I came up with a pattern that uses chains, flowers, and headbands all with minimal counting.

I thought about it a bit and came up with some tips and such for true beginners:

•      The first thing I would recommend is starting with at least two different brands of hooks. Boye is probably most common since it's found at Walmart, but I'm rather fond of Bates. If your first hook just doesn't feel right in your hand, know that you have other options.
•      As much as I love Red Heart Super Saver, I would start with Red Heart Love. It's the same kind of bulkiness but markedly softer. I would not start with a thinner yarn simply because of the finger fatigue.
•      It's okay to feel frustrated. You're trying to get your brain wrapped around a new way of moving your fingers and holding your hands. I would go so far as to say you're literally learning a new language as well. Putting that all together will take a bit of practice and will annoy the hell out of you. Set it aside for a minute if you need to.
•      While the basics are the same, nearly everyone has a different style of working. How you hold your yarn, how you hold your hook, how you keep count, how you arrange your arms. All of that has a bit of flexibility to it. Find what's comfortable and workable for you.
•      If you just can't follow or grasp the idea from your source, look for a different source. Find another site or video or book or friend or tutorial to work from. It could easily be that your learning style and their teaching style just don't mesh.
•      Start with the idea of Making Something. If my mother had started me out with just chains, I would've wondered what the point was and quit. Personally, I would recommend starting with at least a headband. Do a swatch, but make it with intent. That way, when you're done, you have something tangible and practical to show for it.

     REALIZE NEARLY EVERYONE'S FIRST ATTEMPTS LOOKED HIDEOUS. No, seriously. Uneven lines. Completely wrong stitch counts. This is the time when you will create stitches no one has ever heard of and you'll never remember. Recognize and own that you will mess up. You will do at least one step incorrectly. It will look a mess. Was your handwriting perfect when you first started to write? Nope. It was all over the place. How'd you do the first time you drove? How about the first time you used a cell phone? Did you know what all those buttons were for? You learned. Your brain adapted. You can do this!

     One last thing. If you truly get stuck and feel lost, take a stroll through the blogs. There are literally thousands. Many (not all, I grant you that) will gladly take a minute to help you through whatever is most fiddly to you. Yes, there are countless tutorials and guides and videos and troubleshoots and helpful hint lists, but sometimes you just need to ask a specific question and get a real person to answer.

Follow me into my gallery of errors

 

This hat's bow is not even. The bow itself should probably have been sewn on a row higher.

This mess of a project with the obvious color changes, the sloppy ends, and the general sense of chaos that comes from having to completely alter a plan when the first one falls through.

That left side is truly a mess. Color changes are not supposed to be that crazy.

Again, I don't even think this hat is wearable. It's cute, but probably worthless.

Oh, and remember the oddly bloody necklace?

 

Then we have the flowers that overlap instead of laying (lying?) flush against the neck.

That's not me cutting off part of the blanket. The sides really are uneven. The top ended up being four rows shorter. I didn't run out of yarn - I just stupidly finished off and weaved in my ends.

It looks okay until you realize it's probably big enough to fit a guinea pig's head. It's plenty wide but nowhere near deep enough.

 

 

You might be looking at some of those and thinking they don't look all that bad. You might even think that you'd never have known there was anything wrong with them if I hadn't told you. That, my lovelies, is my point. Just because you think you RUINED THE WHOLE THING AND NOW IT'S JUST WORTHLESS doesn't mean you did. While a great many pattern came about because of true intent, a great many others came about from pure accident. Many came from "messing up" another actual pattern.

 

 - - - - In crochet, as in life, different doesn't necessarily mean wrong. - - - -

 

 

-Thank you for being here!