I was taught to crochet by my late aunt. Over the years, I lost touch and revived it when I came upon a bag of yarn while cleaning. When I talked about it with my friends, many of them did not know how to do it and some were not aware of it at all.
So, I thought why not just introduce some of the basics related to crochet?
This is for beginners. So, advance knitters, please excuse. I too am just a novice and so, there can be mistakes on my part. I was also happy to vote a crochet post yesterday on Hive on behalf of India united and it has got a lot of appreciation from many people which makes me happy because crocheting is a skill and those who spend time and effort doing it must be applauded.
So, yeah. Onto my basics for those who do not know what Crochet is.
crochet
/ˈkrəʊʃeɪ,ˈkrəʊʃi/
noun
a handicraft in which yarn is made up into a textured fabric by means of a hooked needle.
"a crochet hook"
verb
make (a garment or piece of fabric) using crochet.
"she had crocheted the shawl herself"
Yarn
it can be made of woolen thread or cotton thread
Needles
Crochet needles have a hook at the end unlike knitting needles. It is a single hook.
If you are interested to learn how to crochet, there are many tutorials online. Start with the basic chain and slowly practice single crochet, double crochet, and so on. Please do not attempt to create hard projects like a flower at first because it might be too hard. Practice makes a person perfect. So, perfect the chain and then the various stitches, and then start to try and create a scarf. Using the Mesh stitch is the best for making a scarf.
(A half double crochet mesh stitch) - only one stitch is used for the entire scarf.)
Simple project for a beginner
Start with a chain of 5 or 8 and link with a slip stitch. Then work with treble stitch to form a flower. Continue with mesh stitch. The outer circle is finished with another color. It can be used as a coaster. The one shown is just a beginner sample. It does not look perfect. Cotton yarn is more suitable and will be flatter for a coaster.
As for learning the basic stitch, I will give a link of a good tutorial and if you happen to have a crochet needle and some yarn, start right now and have fun.
source
This tutorial is really very good and I am sure you can learn how to crochet very easily.
Where to buy yarn and needles?
If you are in India, please buy yarn and needles from the ItsyBitsy stores in metro cities or from their store on Amazon. You can also buy yarn and needles from local stores in town but make sure to check for quality and date. Some online sellers do try to cheat by selling used or old yarn and such threads are very fragile and could break easily. Please also avoid buying too much yarn if you are a beginner because it might be wasted if you do not continue the project.
Learning to crochet is a skill that can never get old. Machines may have replaced the hand but it is still a joy to produce with one's own skill.
All images belong to sayee