So you want to learn crochet?

“Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again.” –Dorothy Day

Many parishes and secular organizations have groups of women who either crochet or knit blankets for the homeless during the winter time or booties and baby afghans for expectant mothers.  That is why crochet and knitting  are hobbies that can be shared with many people and you can even start your own group that will help out those in need.  Especially, with the fall season coming our way, this will be a good time to organize something with your group of friends or parishioners.  I do really want to start something like that in our area, so if any of you are in Houston and are interested, please leave me a comment!

I have often written in my former blog, Evangelical Catholicism, about starting a new hobby as means to grow spiritually–to have a time to be in silence and to gather our thoughts and even to immerse in prayer during these times. Crochet and knitting have always been good hobbies to achieve this and it is said that even men start to knit in order to improve concentration and organize their thoughts. Here I attempt to give you some tips as to how to learn crochet on your own and which resources you can use. Luckily, crochet is not as difficult as knitting and is not an expensive hobby and the things you can create are definitely worth much more than the little money you will spend on yarns.

I have personally always wanted to learn crochet. Both of my grandmas were very good at it and made baby booties, hats, mittens, and dresses for all of the grandchildren. With a full-time job and all the other things that we all want to do I did not have enough time to attend a crochet class, so I happened to be in Barnes and Noble one day for a couple of hours killing time before a job interview and I came across a book that was on sale: Learn to Crochet by Sally Harding. I read it for about half an hour and it didn’t seem too hard to learn, so I bought the book, some yarn and hooks and started practicing the stitches a few days later. When I was little, my grandma taught me how to do the foundation chain, but that was about it–we didn’t go further than that and 15 years later I couldn’t even remember how to do that, so I was definitely starting from zero.

At first, the illustrations in this book were not too helpful, so I was not getting the stitches quite right. I had to recourse to the how-to’s from WorldKnit.com, which were very helpful in polishing my stitches. This book is not too good for learning the stitches, but it is good for getting easy projects for the novice crocheter. A good book that helped a lot in learning the stitches was one that I found for $5 in Half Price Books, Hip to Crochet by Judith L. Swartz. The illustrations in this book are much clearer and it has better instructions as well for all the main stitches and techniques. I strongly recommend this book although the projects it contains are more suitable for the intermediate crocheter. The best book so far (and cheap), in my opinion, I found in Half Price Books as well for $5 brand new: The Cool Girl’s Guide to Crochet by Nicki Trench. She has by far the easiest and clearest instructions for projects and many techniques: how to make pom-poms, buttons, flower decorations, and more. She goes over the abbreviations you need to know when reading patterns as well. I have not used the Crochet for Dummies book, but you may also want to give that a look.

Initially, you may feel a bit frustrated, because you don’t know how to hold the yarn or the hook effectively and it may feel a little awkward, but after a few stitches, all of this will come naturally. I would recommend to start with larger hooks and thicker yarns instead of making my mistake and starting with smaller hooks and thinner yarns. With larger hooks and yarns you will better visualize the loops and the chains, so the initial stitching will become easier. I would also recommend to start doing several straight single crochet for practice until you feel comfortable with it. Same with double crochet, half-double crochet, trebles and so on. You can even make easy scarfs or afghans with simple single or double crochets. For example, the afghan I’ve been working on (first picture on the post) is a simple half-double crochet and double crochet work with different colors and a good way to practice your consistency and cleanliness in stitching.

I am currently working on that afghan on the first picture and on another afghan (picture above) made up of floral squares. I am also working on a small handbag (picture on the right) with thin yarn and a small hook. I have been working on and off on my current projects due to school and work, so I haven’t been able to finish them, but as you can see from the pictures, those are works that I learned on my own with the books I have recommended. Keep in mind also that there are a lot of resources on the internet that can help you to learn crochet. There are even a great variety of free patterns on the web that can get you started. Once you have gotten the basics down, you can even teach your children how to crochet and make afghans for those who may need it during this season, by making individual squares and then putting them together. If you are active in ministry, perhaps you could try having your youth or adult group crocheting these same blankets for the poor, but also crocheting bible covers and sell them for fundraising events. This is definitely a hobby worth taking up and very rewarding!