A ball of burnt orange yarn, a wooden crochet hook, a 4" white ruler and pair of filigreed embroidery scissors lay on a white background with an opaque white box on top of it containing blue text that reads "Crochet 101 Photo and Video Tutorial Series" and the website "www.hooksbookswanderlust.com" appears in blue text at the bottom of the image.
Crochet,  Crochet 101,  Crochet Tutorials

Crochet 101: Getting Started with Crochet

Hello!

I’m here today with some pretty exciting news! In light of the coming new year, and the fact that many like to learn new skills as a resolution, I thought, why not do a beginner’s crochet series of tutorials? I mean, who doesn’t love a good how-to, right?

So here’s how things are going to work. Every Tuesday (Tutorial Tuesday, anyone?) for the next few weeks, I’m going to post a new beginner-friendly video tutorial, because I don’t know about you, but I learned best from videos!

Here’s a list of the tutorials I’ll be introducing! And don’t worry, I’ll be sure to come back and update each post with links as soon as those tutorials go live.

In each of these videos, I take a deep dive into common crochet terms, how to work a particular stitch or technique, and the structure, or anatomy as I like to call it, of those stitches.

Getting Started with Crochet

Today’s tutorial is going to center on getting started. In this video, I cover how I hold everything, my non-traditional way to make a slip knot (in case the traditional method ever confused you like it still does me haha), common terms like working loop, back bump, tension, etc., and how to chain stitch.

Crochet Speak

Aside from all the stitch names, it is essential to familiarize yourself with the basic terms associated with crocheting. You will see these terms in the photos that follow as well as defined for you below. They are also covered in the videos. I’ll be adding to this list of terms each week as we cover additional material.

Yarn Tail or Yarn End: the literal end of your yarn
Working Yarn: the part of the yarn that feeds directly from the skein (pronounced skane), ball, or cake
Working Loop(s): generally refers to the single loop on a crochet hook between stitches, but can also mean the loops on your hook as you are in the middle of working a stitch
Yarn Over (abbreviated as ‘yo’): the act of wrapping the working yarn over your hook from the back to the front
Top ‘V’: references the top view of a stitch, which looks like a ‘V’
Back Bump: the bottom loop of yarn in a chain stitch, opposite the Top ‘V’
Tension: how tightly or how loosely you work your stitches.
Chain Stitch (abbreviated as ‘ch’): yarn over, pull through working loop

Video Tutorial

The full video tutorial can be watched from start to finish here. In the following paragraphs, I’m going to break it down a bit and give you the minute marks that coordinate with these particular points.

Photo Tutorial

While much of what I talk about is really best shown to you in a video, I thought it might be beneficial to supplement the video with some photos as well.

Slip Knot – A Non-Traditional Method

The video tutorial begins to cover the slip knot at the 0:53 minute mark. To see how I hold my yarn, skip to the 5:30 mark.

Chain Stitch

The video tutorial begins to cover this at the 6:02 mark.

Working into a Chain Stitch – Traditional Method

Skip to 13:30 in the video.

Working into a Chain Stitch – Alternative Method

Skip to 15:11 in the video.

How’d You Do?

Whew! That was a lot of info for one post! I hope you found it helpful and are well on your way to crocheting! Keep practicing those techniques and your chain stitches, and really focus on holding everything and getting a consistent tension.

Next week, I’ll be back with the next video in this series, where I’ll show you how to single crochet! So practice, practice, and I’ll see you again next week!

Until next time!

Pin Image for Getting Started with Crochet Photo and Video Tutorial

Want to stay up to date on all the latest tutorials, patterns, travels, and book reviews? How about exclusive offers and content delivered right to your inbox? Be sure to sign up for my email list and I’ll send you monthly recaps about what has been happening on the blog, as well as information I think you might find interesting! I try not to be spammy and you can unsubscribe at any time. Oh, and did I mention the exclusive content? I want to send you my handy Blanket Sizes sheet as a thank you for signing up! Find more info here, or click the button below to sign up now!


Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: