Crochet for Beginners

As a beginner crocheter, you may wonder what is the difference between knitting and crochet. They both use needle like tools, what's the difference? The most simple differentiator is crochet uses one "hook", while knitting uses two "needles." More technical differences is that crochet can be used to create sweaters, blankets, amigurumi(crochet plushies), and more with only one hook and different stitch types. On the other hand, knitting is used more for blankets, scarves, and clothing. It also requires different tools like a circular needle for hats. A fun diffference between the two is that knitting uses less yarn than crochet!

How to Start

With this introduction, there's a couple of items you need:

• Yarn
• Crcohet hook
• Darning needle
• Stuffing (scrap yarn works!)
• Stitch marker

Yarn & Hook Sizes

Yarn sizes are oftened detailed on the paper surrounding the yarn. Yarn sizing can range immensely depending the project you are working on. For beginners, I would recommend 4mm-6mm yarn due to it being a comfortable size to see stitches and work with the yarn easily. I would also recommend sticking with acrylic t-shirt yarn, as this is the most beginner friendly and least finnicky yarn that doesn't fray. For hook sizes, there's lots of crochet kits in both stores and and online like Amazon. These kits often come with hooks from 2mm to 10mm giving you a helpful variety of hooks at your disposal. I would choose your yarn then buy hooks that are same size or +/- 1mm as the yarn.
For where to purchase materials: Resources and Locations

Basic Stitches & Recommended Beginner Tutorial

Crochet requires a couple of different stitches to get your project started. I recommend checking out my Beginner Patterns and Tutorials. This page covers stitches and best beginner tutorials.

To have a stitch cheat sheet, I recommend my Crochet Stitches Abbreviations page. It has a helpful table translation for US and International stitch abbreviations.

Here are the links again for quick access:

• To see more stitch translations: Crochet Stitches Abbreviations
• For more stitch tutorials: Beginner Patterns and Tutorials

Types of Crochet

There are various crochet projects to explore. Like mentioned above, there's clothing, plushie, and blanket making projects. However, there's much more to explore like crochet pencil cases, keychains, plants, headphone covers, sleeves, pixel, and more.

Crochet is a very dynamic craft and there's a lot of various ways to enjoy this craft. But! It's important to enjoy the process, take things simple and slow to prevent crochet burnout. It's okay to be slow with your projects. If it takes 6 hours to complete a beginner crochet amigurumi that's okay! Just keep perserving. Social media crocheters and crochet business owners are fast because they have built their craft for many years. Practice will help you eventually get there!

For beginner crocheters, I recommend amigurumi, especially simple patterns like learning how to make a ball or a duck. Amigurumi projects can often be finished within a couple hours to a day. In comparison, starting with granny squares to make a blanket or sweaters can be very daunting for new crocheters and can often be discouraging due to the long process that requires lots of commitment.

For more beginner friendly patterns: Beginner Patterns and Tutorials