Learn to Crochet: Tips for Beginners

Hi everybody, welcome to our live event. My name is Brenda KB Anderson, and I'm a crochet designer and also a crochet instructor, and today I'm very excited to teach you guys, especially those of you who don't know anything about crochet or just learning about crochet or just kind of interested in crochet. Um, I wanna kind of get you started on that path. I wanna share some, uh, tips, some encouragement. I will be showing you the very bare bones of crochet also, um, and I am going to be focusing a lot on the questions you guys are putting into the chat box.

So if you guys have questions, I am here for you. I want to answer those questions for you. Um, and help you guys out if you're having trouble or if you're stuck, but I do have a list of like the most common things that I'm asked, um, you know, I've been asked these questions lots of times, so I think that a lot of crocheters have these, uh, problems or have these questions, um, as they're learning how to crochet so I'm going to be going through those as well. All right, I could see that there are already some questions um in the chat from earlier. Um, one question is, um, I struggle with actually being able to see how people make the magic ring.

OK, so we'll talk a little bit about that. I'm going to demonstrate that in just a little bit. I'll be demonstrating, uh, basically how to work back and forth and turned rows and single crochet, the very, very like building blocks of crochet, um, that's usually where people start out. I'll be teaching that and I'll be teaching the magic ring and how to begin working in the circle because I know especially in the last like 5 to 10 years, uh, the world of Amagurumi has just. Loaded, um, if you don't know what Amagaumi is that those are like crocheted stuffed toys like this little guy here and oftentimes Amagaumi is um made in the round and you begin with the magic circle and, uh, the magic circle is something that's a little tricky to learn once you learn how to do it, it's very easy to do, but it, it can be very hard to see so I'll be showing everybody that so I'm gonna get back to your question in just a little bit.

I did have another question about um Laurie saying my daughter's 11 and would like to learn how to crochet. I hope this event will take her from the very start. She has no experience, so, so Laurie, um, I, I two things first of all, like I said, I'm gonna be showing the very basics of crochet, so that will just get her started. But this whole live event is kind of centered around the 14 day learn to crochet series, so that's taught by me. It's, that is like a a series that's free.

All you have to do is register. There should be a link in the description for that, um. But you just sign up and then I show you, you know, a different skill every day and it's just like little small steps to build upon um until you are able to explore other aspects of crochet and there's tons and tons of both free and also there's paid content. On the Creative Crochet corner website, so, um, that you know, feel free to look at that stuff, but there are lots and lots of free resources if you're just starting out, you're not sure if you wanna commit to paying anything or you're just interested in learning to crochet. We've got tons and tons of resources for you as well on that website.

All right, so, um, I think oh there was one more question that I heard uh somebody had a question they're a left-handed crocheter and they want to know like how can you learn how to crochet left handed so many of the videos are with a right handed person like myself and the the trick is if you're left handed. person, if you flip your screen if you're watching a video and you flip it horizontally, so you're watching a mirror image or if you um can't figure out how to do that on your computer, you can also just take a mirror and watch the the program or the video in the mirror of your screen so it will be mirrored, flipped, then it will look just like I'm left handed. So basically all the instructions are the same, but you just have to watch out for if I say something like. Um, count 3 stitches to your left. You would be counting 3 stitches to your right if that makes sense.

That doesn't come up that often. Normally it's, um, normally the instructions, even written patterns can just be reversed and worked in the opposite direction. Basically if you're a left hand crocheter and you follow the directions, but in reverse, you'll just end up. With exactly the same thing but a mirror image of it, so most of the things you make like, you know, a beanie or something else like that if you flipped it and looked at a mirror image of it, it would look pretty much the same so it really doesn't make a difference, um, so anyway, for those of you who are lefties, flip your screen and it'll look like I'm left handed. All right, so, um, let's just start before I show you the very like building blocks beginning crocheting, um, I just wanna talk a little about the materials because I know if you are brand new to something that you know you go to the store and you don't really know what to get, um, so.

And maybe some of you are lucky enough to have other friends who do yarny things and they could just kind of lend you some things you could try it out, but if you are going to the store and you're gonna purchase something, um, what do you buy? So it kind of depends on what it is you want to learn, but if you just don't have a place to start, most people begin by getting a #4 yarn, so I wanna show you here on this, on a lot of ball bands, at least in the United States. And and some other places as well. They've started using this little symbol that looks sort of like a skein of yarn and there's a number in the middle of it just like this. This has a number 4.

So the numbering system is basically it goes from the thinnest yarn would be a 0 and then the thickest yarn would be like a 7 or 8, and that would be very large. Just for a comparison here, this one is a number 7. It's very thick. You can compare it to this yarn. Here this is a number 4 and that's a number 7.

So if you're going to the store, you don't know what to get, um, I would recommend getting a number 4 or a number 5. Even a number 6 would be OK if you start, um, or if you want to, you could get a number 7. There's that's perfectly fine, but I would not get something smaller than a 4 when you're just starting because it's a lot easier to see your stitches if your yarn is bigger. So this is one of the most common yarn sizes in the United States, and number 4, people use this a lot for Afghans, but you can also use it for sweaters and things like that, beanies, scarves. It's just, it's a very versatile size, so that's why I usually recommend that people start with a 4 or a 5 would be just a little thicker.

So, um, and then I would get something that is when you first start, excuse me, when you're first starting out, it's easier. It's a crochet if your yarn has a little bit of give or a little stretch or a little squish or loftiness to it. So I would look for something that's either a wool or an acrylic acrylic wool blend. You, you can start with a cotton if you want to make make dishcloths, but just know that it might be a little bit harder on your hands and just a little trickier when you're first making those loops. Um, it can because cotton normally does not have hardly any stretch to it.

So just, uh, this is something to think about when you're picking out your yarn, and then you're going to have to choose a hook that kind of goes along with your yarn. So how do you know what hook size to use? Sometimes your ball band will say, let's see if this one actually says, yeah, so this one is suggesting an eye, which is a size 9, which for those of you who go by millimeters, that would be a 5.5 millimeter. This is what that looks like. This is an I 5.5 millimeters.

Um, the I, the letter sizing that goes from smallest to largest if you start at the beginning of the alphabet, um, and go further on down. So, um, but. One thing that I like to tell people who are brand new is you might forget all that stuff and you might be like, I don't remember what size letters should go with what yarn. We'll get more into that later, but if you find something that's just a little thicker, like if you look at this part of the hook right here that's a little bit thicker than this yarn, you should be fine. I have used, you know, depending on how thick or how um like the drape of the fabric you want to create.

Um, to be able to change that, you're going to change your hook size, and we'll get more into that a little bit later, but I've used everything from like an E hook, which is even a little smaller than this. See how that hook is a very similar size to the yarn. I've used everything from like an E hook all the way up to, you know, a much larger hook if I wanted something very airy. So it's something to think about the the size of your hook will affect the thick um. The drape of your fabric.

So, but if you're just brand new, just trying to figure out, um, I would go for a G, H, or an I, which would be anywhere from like a 4 millimeter hook to uh a 5.5 millimeter hook. Um, and that's usually written on the hook itself or it could be on the packaging as well. And there's lots of different types of hooks to, to choose from. Um, so that's another thing if you don't know what to get, there are very inexpensive hooks that are just, you know, like a couple of dollars. They're a, a metal hook that you can just pick up at any craft store, um, and those are just fine to start with.

That's what I learned on if you have a little bit of extra money and you don't mind spending, you know, buying something that's more like $8 for a hook or I, I I actually don't know the price of these individually because I was. Buy them in sets, but um this is my favorite hook. This is just my own personal opinion also. I just wanna say um there's there's no sponsorship here or anything from Clover, but the Clover Amor hooks are my absolute favorite. I feel like they make it easier to get the hook into the stitch and back out of the stitch for the way that I crochet, and I know that a lot of other designers, a lot of other crocheters really prefer these hooks as well, so I, I don't think it's just me, um, but I'm just putting that out there if you have.

Extra money that you could spend um that that would be it might make learning to crochet a little bit easier and another brand of hooks that's very similar to these at a lower price point are these dots hooks. These are called dots and they're sold by um crochet.com. That's the Wei crochet brand, and they are very similar, um, in my opinion, the Clover and Moore hooks are just a little bit smoother, so I still prefer them, but I crochet with these a lot too, so, um, you know, it's really. Uh, it's really up to you, but if also don't feel pressure to spend a bunch of money on it. If you just have already have a metal hook or you just wanna go out and buy something that's only a couple of dollars, um, that these are perfectly fine.

Also, they make plastic hooks. Here's a plastic hook. Those are perfectly fine too. And as you learn more about crocheting, you will start to get a feel for what type of hook you like. So as you as you learn the stitches, if something's not working for you, you could try a different hook later on, um, further on down the road.

All right. And so, so you need yarn, you need a hook, um, you need some scissors, any scissors are fine. You don't have to have fancy little tiny scissors. You can use whatever household scissors you have, and then you'll need some sort of a yarn needle. So, Um, but the most common yarn needles are plastic or metal.

I really like the metal ones because they're smoother. It helps me weave in my ends better. That's the main reason that you would get a yarn needle is for weaving in your ends, but also if you have to sew pieces together, um, there are lots and lots of crochet projects where you don't have to sew. So if, if sewing seems like just another skill you don't want to think about right now, you don't have to worry about that. Um, but I find these metal needles, um, I just like them a lot more.

So, um, I would recommend those, but if, if you already have a plastic needle, that will work just fine. All right, so let me just see if there's any questions yet. Oh, Bell's here. Oh, you like my sweater, thank you. It is not homemade, um, but I, I like to call it sweater research sometimes I will thrift sweaters when I'm looking for different like um sweater shapes or necklines or um you know just different construction.

And I try that way I can try them on if I'm thinking about designing something a certain way. Sometimes I will just go thrifting and look for sweaters that are kind of similar, and I'll wear them for a while and then I'll design something not based on that but like with an element or something of that with a little bit of um it just helps me kind of decide do I like this or do I just like this on other people or do I just like this on paper anyway, so that this was one of my research sweaters as I like to call it. OK, so, um, back to the, the 14 day learned to crochet series. I just wanna tell you guys a little bit more about that. So, um, that has lots of lessons.

It'll take you through all the basics of crochet because we don't really have time in a 1 hour block for this live event to for me to explain all the basics, um. So you know, if you're interested in learning, definitely sign up for that. In that series you will by the end of it learn how to make um this cowel that I have here in case you're wondering what this is all about. I've got this, this very chunky cowl. It's made with a number 6 yarn which is a pretty thick yarn, so it works out very quickly and this helps you to practice all of the basic stitches, so single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet, um, and it's a very simple construction method.

And then the other thing you will learn how to make is this beanie. So this is um made in the round. So this is using those skills that you might use for Amiga roomy. So you would start at the top of your hat and work around and around and around. You'll be learning how to make increases and increases just means you're making your piece larger with more stitches so that helps.

You to shape things um and it's just a very simple hat. It's all single crochet up here and then when you're finishing it, that single crochet just through the back loop and if you don't know what that means, that's OK um you will learn that in this class and I will show you a little bit about that as well but I just wanted to show you the two projects, um, in case you are interested or wondering what these projects are doing here. Um, but I made the, the beanie up in a bunch of different colors here just so you guys can imagine and think about, um, the one of the cool things that I really love about learning or knowing how to crochet is that you can tailor things to your tastes, you know, including color, sizing, you know, all kinds of things. All of a sudden when you know. To do this skill, you know, you can, you can really make something that's very you or someone else if you wanna gift it to someone else.

You have lots of um great design choices that you can make. You can of course just follow exactly what somebody else has written out if you just like their design and you like the yarn they use and the color and that's great too, but you do it does open up a door to have, you know, to be able to make decisions like maybe at the store you saw a hat that you liked, but. It was, you know, too expensive or it was made out of something that you wouldn't wear, but you would wear it in a different fiber, so you, you can, um, really tailor things to your needs. All right, so, um, let me just check in here, see if there's any questions. OK.

Um, oh, the basics on how to increase stitches and decrease stitches. OK, we will get to that. So first of all, um, I want to show those of you who have never tried crocheting before just the very basics on, um, single crochet worked and turned rows. I'll show you what that fabric looks like. Here is an example.

Uh, single crochet worked in turn rows. OK. So this was done with an acrylic yarn, a kind of a chunkier yarn. Um, I'm gonna be using this very large number 7, so you guys can see a little bit better. So to start out.

Um, so, and I'm using a 12 millimeter hook just in case you were wondering what this is. To start out, we're going to make something called a slipknot, and you may have made that in other crafts before, um, but I'll show you how to do it. So here's the tail of my yarn. So we're just going to draw like a little loop or like a cursive E, just kind of a little loop like that. Then we're going to take this loop and we're going to flip it over, so it's sitting right on top of this strand of yarn.

This is what's connected to the ball here. So I'm going to flip it over just like that. That's what it looks like. And now I'm going to take this strand right here in the middle and I'm gonna put that on my hook like that and I'm gonna place my finger. You don't have to do it exactly like this, but I'm gonna place my finger here where everything crosses so that I can kind of hold everything together and I'll tighten that up.

Now I did that in a kind of exaggerated way. Just so you could see what I was doing normally when I make a slipknot I just wind it around my finger like that and then I flip it over and put my hook underneath that center strand just like that and that's already pretty much tightened up so when you put that on your hook, you want to, you can, you know, because it's a slipknot, you can make this very long, you can make this very short. You want it to be long enough so that you can drag it back and forth like this on your hook, but not so long that it just falls off of your hook when you tip it like this. So it should be, you know, close but not snug, I would say, because you really, and when you're crocheting, you really want those loops to not be super tight, or otherwise it's going to be difficult to work into them on the next row. All right, so now, here's my yarn tail over on this side.

Here is my ball of yarn connected to this strand here. So, um, when you are working on Oh, OK, I should just say also when you're holding your crochet hook, there's lots of different ways to hold it. The two most common ways are like this. This is how I hold mine. I put my thumb here and then I can use my finger up here to help me with these loops, or a lot of people crochet in this direction.

This, this is the pencil grip people call it the pencil grip. So they're holding it basically like you would if you were writing with a pencil. So we got the pencil grip and this is called the knife grip like that. Um, there are also lots of other ways to hold your hook, and there's no wrong way to do it. So don't feel like you have to do it a certain way.

Although if you are having a lot of trouble making your stitches or Maintaining like an even tension on your, on your stitches, then, you know, it may help to just look at how other people hold their crochet hook and try to try to do it a different way just to see if that helps. All right. Anyway, I'm gonna hold my hook like this, and to start making a chain, which is the foundation of, of almost, you know, like most crochet projects start with a foundation chain. Um, especially if they are flat, if it's a flat thing like this, it's not a tube or, um, you know, something worked from the center out in a round circle. So we'll get to that later.

But if you're just making a very flat, like a, a flat piece, you're going to start out with a foundation chain. So to do that, I would recommend hanging on to your knot down here. You can do that that way or you can do it this way, just kind of hanging on to that so it's not spinning around when you first try this. And then you're going to grab the yarn connected to the ball and you're going to wrap it around the back of your hook and over the top like that. And then you're going to pull that loop through the loop on your hook, OK?

And when you do that, it makes things easier if you turn the nose of your hook, which is right here, if you turn it downward and you pull your hook just slightly up because what that does is it makes a little space down here in that first loop, so like this. And pull that through. So we're gonna do that again. So we're wrapping the yarn around the back of the hook like that. And I'm steadying this down here with, you know, one of my hands just kind of hanging onto it so it's not spinning around and then I'm going to take my hook and twist it slightly and bring it through that loop and I'm also pulling up just a little on my hook to make that loop big enough to get my crochet hook through, OK?

Like that. And you always have to bring that loop onto the part of your hook that's wider up here, not up on the handle, but if you just make a yarn over, that's called a yarn over, and then you pull it through and then you leave it down here and you don't bring it up, then your loop right here is not going to be big enough because you can see it right here, your your hook is very small right there. It's going to start making these really small loops and then you're going to have a very hard time getting your hook into it on the next row. So bring it up to where it's a little thicker. We'll make a yarn over and we're going to pull that through.

Yarn over, pull through. OK, so you're just gonna keep on doing this. Until, you know, you, you have a sizable amount. If you're just making a swatch, you're just kind of testing out how to crochet. I'll do one more and then.

Um, we're gonna do one additional chain. Like if this was the amount of stitches you wanted, you would make one more chain, which would be just like what we were doing. Those are called chains. We're gonna pull that through because that chain that we just made, that is gonna count as a turning chain, and what a turning chain is, is just basically like a little ladder to get you up to the next row when we start working across. Just think about this as being a little ladder.

And also I want to point out there's always gonna be a loop on your hook. We started out with the slipknot on our hook. This never counts as a stitch. So if you're counting up how many chains you have, don't count this one because that's always that that is just sort of a freebie. You just um think about this as just being part of your hook, not not actually a stitch.

Excuse me. OK. So, In single crochet, normally this last chain that you made, which we call the turning chain, normally that does not count as a stitch, and we're going to get more into what that means later, but for right now what that means is when we work into these chains all the way across, we're gonna skip that chain right there, OK? So this doesn't count, this is something we're gonna skip and we're gonna start working right here. So when you look at your chain, you can see it looks like a bunch of V's on one side.

That is normally considered the top of the chain. And then if you roll that over, so the V's are on the table, you can see all these little horizontal dashes, and that's normally what we call the bottom of the chain. Some people call that the back of the chain. There are different, um, there are different basically terms that people use, but. That is where I like to work into when I'm working my first row.

I almost always do that because, first of all, it's easier. To just get your hook under that one little horizontal um dash, but also because um it leaves a very nice edge that looks like this on the bottom of your work, and I'll talk a little bit more about that as we get a little further. OK, so we're skipping that horizontal dash and we're gonna work underneath this horizontal dash, and we're going to make, so that means we just put our hook from front to back underneath there, and then we're going to wrap the yarn in this direction so it's always going to come like from the back over the top and onto the hook, and we're gonna pull that through. And now we have two loops on our hook. Then we're going to wrap our yarn, this is called the yarn over one more time around our hook, and then we're going to pull that through both loops.

So again, turning the nose of my hook down just like that, and that completes our single crochet. So a single crochet has a little V on the front and it also has a little V on the top here. So let's do that a little bit more. So we're gonna insert our hook underneath the next dash, then we're going to yarn over. Bring that through.

Then we're going to yarn over. And bring it through those two loops. OK? So that creates this little V on the front and a little V on top, OK? And this is not part of the stitch, that's just the loop that's always on our hook.

All right, so we'll do that a few more times across our row. So insert, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through 2. Insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through to. OK, so you just continue that all the way across your chain or whatever the pattern says, and that would be your first row of single crochet. Just like that.

OK, that's what it looks like. And if you want to count your stitches, you can count the V's on the top of your work. So 12345678. OK? Just like that.

And there's that little turning chain on the side that does not count as a stitch. We're not gonna work into that. That's just kind of our little ladder to get up. If you are brand new to to crocheting, I highly recommend getting stitch markers or safety pins or some way of marking things so. If you make that first stitch right after you make it, you can put a stitch marker through the very top of the stitch, which is where that V is.

Then when you're working your way across, you'll know that that is the last stitch you work into. It just makes things a little easier. OK, so once you get to the end, you need to give yourself another turning chain just like we did before. So we're going to wrap the yarn around our hook, and we're going to pull that through. And then we're gonna turn this like we're turning a page in a book, OK?

So just like this, and now we can work across. So you'll look for those little V's on top. Those are the places where you're going to insert your hook. You're going to go underneath both loops unless the pattern specifies otherwise, and this is the loop on our hook that doesn't count. This is our turning chain right here, so that's just a little ladder.

We're not that is not counting as a stitch, and then we're going to work across our row, OK? So we're gonna insert under those two loops. Pull up a loop. And pull through 2 we're doing exactly the same thing we did on the previous row, OK? So this is, this is called a single crochet stitch.

This is the very like usually the very first stitch most people learn um when they're learning how to crochet, it's kind of known as like one of the very basic things that you can learn in crochet. And if you can do this, you can make all sorts of things, all sorts of things. And here is our very last stitch. We had marked that, so we can work into that last stitch. Just like that, making our single crochet, and then we would continue doing exactly the same thing.

So you chain one, turn your work. Skip the turning chain. Work into the stitch under both loops of that V. Pull up a loop yarn over and pull through too, OK? And then you can mark that stitch because you just made it, it'll help you on the next row.

And once you get to, I, I should have probably pulled that out when I stitched into it, um. As soon as you get to that stitch and you can recognize it, you can pull it out because you're gonna replace it in the next first stitch of your row, um, and just work, yeah, back and forth and turn rows, um, and. And really, uh, everything else kind of builds off of this. Um, we are going to talk about uh crocheting in the round in just a second here. I'm gonna just check in.

Oh, OK, so quickly before we move on from this, um, we have a question about increasing and decreasing so there's all different kinds of increases and decreases, but the very basics of increasing increasing means you're adding more stitches. So the very basics is if you were, you know, you're stitching along, say we're working in single crochet here. We just did a stitch in here, but if we're making an increase there, we just put another stitch in the same exact spot. OK? So that means now we have 2 here.

And if we were going to and so that we have more stitches and eventually that's going to widen out and it's going to change the shape of our piece. And if you are doing a decrease, here, we'll move over here. I'll do a couple more stitches. Let's say you're doing a single crochet decrease. The basic single crochet decrease is you go into the next stitch, yarn over, and you pull up a loop.

Before you finish that though, you go into the next stitch, yarn over, and pull up a loop. And then now you can yarn over and pull through all of those loops. And what that did was it took two stitches and made it into one stitch. That is kind of um how most decreases are made. But you know it depends on the stitch that you're doing so there could be all sorts of different ways to decrease um oftentimes and actually maybe I'll save this for when we start working in the round, um, no, I'll just do it right now if, if you are doing an invisible decrease, this is something that's very common in Amiga roomy, but I also use it in all kinds of other patterns.

If you're doing an invisible decrease. Usually you will be instructed to put your hook underneath just the front loop of the next stitch and just the front loop of the following stitch, and you'll grab that yarn, pull through both of those, so you've already decreased them into one stitch and then yarn over and pull through two and you can see what this is doing to my fabric. It's bringing it in because that's what's shaping it. We now have fewer stitches across than we did before, OK? So that's just basically the very basics of increasing and decreasing, but there's more information about that um in the 14 day Learn to crochet series.

All right. So the next thing here I'll just pull this out. Next thing I wanna show you is how to make the magic loop. We had a question about that. Um, this is something that is done many, many, many different ways.

I will show you my favorite way to teach beginners because I feel like it's a little bit easier to understand it this way, but if, oh, I also forgot to mention for those of you who are not beginners who are just kind of along for the ride and having some fun or maybe getting. Some little tips, things you didn't know if there are things that you think would really help beginners please put those in the comments because we want them to have, you know, all everybody's good advice, OK that would be really great. I always learned so much from you guys, um, and I've been doing this for a very long time. There's always new things that I didn't think of because you know, crowdsourcing is an amazing thing. OK, so.

Here, again, we're going to start this out in a very similar way to the slipknot. So here is the end of our yarn. This end is connected to the ball. So we're going to draw that loop just like before. And we're gonna flip it over onto this strand, just like before when we were making our slipknot, just like that.

Then we're gonna put our hook underneath that center strand. And we're not gonna pull it tight. We're just gonna leave it like this. Now We can make a yarn over. And pull through, that's just basically making, you know, chaining one.

Just like that, we're just pulling through that strand on the hook, and then we can start working here, but if we do one additional step, it will be much stronger, and that is to take you guys see this circle right here. If you take that circle and twist it a half a turn, OK, so that's how it looks now. You just twist it like this, then you can work over this double strand right here. And uh let's just say um we were going to be working single crochets so we can just insert yarn over, pull up a loop yarn over and pull through too. So we're working into that center hole there basically.

I'm going to tighten this just a little bit because if it's too big, it can be floppy and hard to work into, but I keep my fingers in here to kind of hold it and I'm having a little tension between my fingers and my hook when I do this. So there's 2. 4 5 And 6. Normally, when you are starting out making a flat circle, you, if you're working in single crochet, normally you start with 6 stitches. There are some exceptions to that, but We won't get into that in this lesson because we have too much other stuff to learn.

So now if you look at this, there's like a little space between here. um, you could do something that's called a slip stitch join or oftentimes in patterns it just says join and what that means is you work into that very first stitch and you pull through like that and that joins it together and now you can continue working in the round. Um, so normally when I do that. You have to, you can decide whether you want this to count as a stitch when you're working your way around, or if you don't want your slip stitch to count as a stitch, then your next stitch would be worked into that very same stitch where you did your slip stitch. Now if this is getting confusing, we do have um videos on the Creative Crochet corner website about this.

Um, there is, I did a whole video on help. Why is my stitch count changing, um, and I talk and we're actually going to get into a little bit of that here, um. One of the things that can happen when you're working in the round is you might be confused about where to put your next stitch. So we don't want to accidentally add more stitches, and when we did that slip stitch right just now into this stitch, if that counts as a stitch, we had 1234566 stitches, but with that slip stitch, usually when you make a join your slip stitch does not count as an extra stitch. You shouldn't be adding a stitch when you make when it says to join.

So what that means is, Either you can make your first stitch into this stitch right here, so I will chain one. Just to start as a turning chain and then work into this very first stitch, but what that means is this turning chain is not gonna count as a stitch, and this is also not going to count as a stitch. So when you work your way around, your last stitch would be here. And this is kind of a large gap from here to join there. If you're doing this in a a thinner yarn, it will be a lot less um bulky looking, but still it's kind of a big space.

So instead, if you wanted to, what you could do is you could skip that stitch and work into this stitch instead. And as you work your way around, this would be your last stitch. This is where we did that slip stitch joint. So these are just things to think about and if this just seems overwhelming, don't worry about this for now just kind of learn how to work in the round. My um my suggestion is to use a pattern or to just practice without doing joints.

As soon as you start joining things, it starts to get confusing for people and you need a little more knowledge in order to understand if. Adding stitches or not adding stitches, so this is my workaround when I'm teaching beginners how to work in the round. I almost always recommend, you know, don't, don't actually join your rounds and what that looks like, so I just backed this up here, let me back it up a couple more times, just one more stitch. OK, so we're working our stitches around here's our 6th. Single crochet.

Oh, and you guys, I kind of tighten this up a little bit without telling you. So this beginning yarn tail, the whole purpose of that is so that you can pull on that and get rid of that hole in the middle. Right there. So that's what makes it magic. All right.

So we've got our 6 single crochet stitches worked into that magic ring or magic loop or adjustable loop. It's called a bunch of different things. Um, and this was the very first stitch that we made, so we're not going to join, we're just going to make a single crochet there and we're gonna start working our next round. Usually on round 2, if you're making a flat circle, you will put 2 single crochets into each stitch around. That's an increase.

Here I'm going to mark my very first stitch so you guys can see where that is. Mark that, and we're gonna do 2 more. 1. 2 And 2 more in this stitch. We're just doing 2 in each stitch in order to make this uh circle lay pretty flat.

And here is our very last stitch of the round. We did not do a slip stitch joint, so every stitch counts as a stitch. You don't have to worry. It's just, it makes it very easy to keep going around and around without the joining. Honestly, For me, I almost never join when I'm working in the round unless there's a specific reason for it because I don't like it kind of creates this little line that you can see and I just, I feel like it just adds unnecessary amounts of confusion to things.

All right, so that's the first stitch, so you would just continue, you just keep working. You know, whatever your stitch pattern is, whatever you're, you're being instructed to do, and if you're interested in making a flat circle, I actually have a blog post on the Creative Crochet Corner website on making flat circles, um, and it teaches you the formula and kind of how to do it. Anyway, so you just keep working around and around and around. So that is the very basics of um learning how to work in the round from the center out. um, so this is very, very helpful for making the making a hat like this one or making amagurui.

So, um, that this is very similar to how very many patterns in Amagaumi start out, so that little bit there. All right, let me check in here cause I've been ignoring the comments, you guys. I'm sorry. Uh, let's see. There's anything new.

We've got some hellos. We got a hello from the thrifty crocheter. Hi. Um, and Bell's watching from Massachusetts. All right, OK, and.

Let's see. OK. All right. I think I'm all caught up here. OK.

So, um, so those are the very, very basics. So I do, like I mentioned before, I want to talk a little bit about um The the whole thing about why is my stitch count changing, um, so I do have a video about this that goes more in depth um but this is one of the most commonly asked questions, um, the most common frustration of learning how to crochet, and I feel like this happens the most when people are working in taller stitches like double crochet or something like that. Um, I know we haven't talked about double crochet yet, but for those of you who already know how to do it, um, this will probably. Uh, be something relatable to you. Let me just show you my little swatch here.

So these are double crochet stitches. Actually, I'm gonna pull in, um, I'm gonna pull in some swatches so that you guys can see. The difference between different stitches here. OK. So when you're working in crochet, there's all sorts of different stitches you can do.

So that a different stitch like a stitch is made up of a certain sequence of making yarn overs, putting your hook in a specific spot, um, doing some chains in the middle, maybe you're doing multiple yarn overs so there's all these different variables that make the stitches different from each other, um. So So we've got the single crochet, which I showed you when we talked about and we've got double crochet or half double crochet, which is um a little bit taller. I know this doesn't look bigger, but there's there are fewer rows here. And then there is double crochet, and you can see there's a difference between these fabrics, right? Like not just the texture, but you can also start to see this one's a little drapier.

There's some holes between the stitches. These are taller stitches here. Um, and then here we've got a treble crochet, even taller. Let me, if I kind of spread this apart, you guys can see there's all those holes between the stitches. It just makes a different type of fabric.

So there are many, many, many, I mean just thousands of different stitches you can learn, but these are the most basic, and I do go through all of these stitches in the 14 day series if you're interested in learning more about all these different stitches, um. But as you're working up taller stitches like double crochet stitches or treble crochet stitches, oftentimes, um, we come into problems with having the edges of your work doing weird things, especially if you're newer to crocheting, they might start to look like these are maybe exaggerated examples, but it may start to look like this. Or like this. Or it could even look like this, OK, and what you're trying to make is this, right? Just a rectangle, but you're getting all these weird things happening.

So this, this is something that I've heard, you know, from a lot of people that they have issues like why, why is my stitch count changing? I'm losing stitches, I'm gaining stitches. I don't understand what's happening. Um, the main thing that happens here is, has to do with the turning chain. So we talked a little bit about the turning chain when we talked about, um, single crochet.

But, um, here, let me just start. Doing my, so this is, um, I'll do a few stitches so you can see how double crochets are made. So normally when I do a turning chain to my little ladder to get up to the next row, I will do two chains like this. And then turn my work, so you have to do an extra chain when you're doing um a double crochet or some people use 3, some people even use 4. It's kind of personal preference and you'll see what works for you.

um, and I actually do have a blog post about this about how to get the edges of your double crochet or or your taller stitches looking straighter um on the Creative crochet corner website. There's a blog post about that. Um, but in case you're interested in that, but, um, right now I'm just talking about like losing stitches or gaining stitches and having the shape change into some sort of a, you know, surprise trapezoid. So when you're doing double crochet, you'll do a taller turning chain. And then you'll start working double crochet stitches across.

So, to do a double crochet, you'll yarn over, insert, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through 2, yarn over, pull through 2. But there's this thing that happens um when you are using teller stitches, sometimes we are told this, you know, your turning chain will count as a stitch. So what that is telling you is that. Not only when you count up your stitches at the end of the row do you count that turning chain, but it's also telling you two things. If this turning chain is going to count as a stitch.

That means we don't work into this stitch right here. So remember we did two chains and then we turned, so this never counts as anything. We've got those two turning chains and then we turned. What that means is if this counts as a stitch, our first double crochet is not going to be here, not in this stitch, it's going to be here because you have to think about this turning chain as coming out of this stitch right here. So if it counts as a stitch, then you go hop over to that second stitch and you make your double crochet there.

OK. So then when you're counting it up, this counts as a double crochet, and this counts as a double crochet. All right, so let me just get over to the other side here. Actually I'm not going to go all the way across. We'll just pretend I already made it to the other side and we're going to yarn or we're going to make our turning chain to turn our work and we're going to go in the opposite direction.

OK, so if this counts as a stitch here, what that means is when you are working across is that you have to work into your turning chain, OK? And oftentimes we forget that. So we might think, oh, OK, I can count that up that counted as my stitch. All right, I did the right amount of stitches, and then when you're on your way back. And you're doing your double crochets.

Or trebles or whatever stitches you're doing. As we're working across we don't know where to stop, OK, so sometimes we would just. Work into that stitch and we would forget to work into our turning chain. This is our turning chain. Remember, we've got those two chains there to make it correct.

If that counts as a stitch, then we have to work into that turning chain. So right here. OK, so our piece would look like this. So this is counting as a stitch. When we work our way across, we have to work into all of these stitches, including that, the very top of that turning chain right there.

So where this gets confusing is, well, there's multiple things that could happen if you didn't realize you know that you needed to work into the top of your turning chain and you just started working back and forth and you always stopped with that last stitch, then what would happen is. You would get a piece that looks like this. So Oh wait, this one, this is the correct one. So you would get a piece that looks, you know, it's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as you work back and forth. So when you have worked all the way across.

You forget to work into that turning chain, you're missing a stitch. So every single row you have one fewer stitch and it gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. Um, the other thing that can happen is if, let's just say you're working back and forth. And you're thinking, OK, the turning chain counts as a stitch. OK, got it.

I'll count that as my stitch and then you forget that what that means is this, this turning chain is coming out of the stitch. So that chain, you have to think about this chain as being the same thing as working, I have already worked into that stitch, OK? That's basically what that means. So a lot of people see this gap and think, OK, that counts as that's my first stitch. Here's my second stitch, and they put it right in the first spot.

And work their way across and so the problem with that is that when you come back on the, you know, first of all you've just added an extra stitch that shouldn't be there because if this counts as a stitch you you have one more stitch counting coming out of that very first stitch you worked into, right? So there's two stitches suddenly so you've increased then if you're working your way across. Here, I'll get a couple more stitches in so I can show you what it looks like when I turn. If you turn your work here. Then here is, you know, that's the first stitch.

You already have a turning chain coming out of it. You shouldn't work into there, but if you don't realize that and you put your first stitch here. And then you keep working across. And you think, oh yeah, I remember my turning chain counts as a stitch. So what that means is I work into my turning chain, right?

Simple, right? I got that. OK, so here's my turning chain. I'm just going to work into my turning chain, which is what you should be doing if your turning chain counts. You should be treating it as though it were a stitch, so you got to work into it, right?

Just like that, but then the problem is is you've already added this stitch right here so you again you have increased on the next row every row you make an increase and so your piece will end up looking like this, you know, and sometimes, oftentimes. It's not gonna look so perfectly smooth because sometimes you remember to not put your stitch in that very first stitch if you're turning chain counts and sometimes you might not put it there. So it might kind of be this sort of like stair stepy meandering slightly outward, um, kind of thing. All right, so it may not look just symmetrical like, like these, uh, examples do. Another thing that could be happening.

If you with those taller stitches, if your edges are not looking straight and you're not keeping um the same stitch count as you might be thinking to yourself, OK, well I am going to not count this turning chain as my stitch. So if you're, if this does not count as a stitch, and you know your pattern might say, you know, chain to turn, turning change does not count as a stitch or it might say that in the notes or it might say, you know, turning chain counts as a stitch or not counts as a stitch, so, so the note should tell you, but. Also, You know, you can, as long as you're consistent about it, oftentimes you can decide that for yourself if you want your turning change to count or not um at the beginning while you're crocheting, just follow the directions because it'll make it simpler, especially if you set it aside and pick it up, you know, weeks later you might forget that you changed to that. um, so just follow the directions, but just know in the future that is something that you could decide as well. OK, so if your turning chain is not going to count as a stitch, so here is my turning chain.

So those two chains are counting as my turning chain. If it doesn't count, that means I'm going to work into that very first stitch because we're just counting this as a ladder. This is not a stitch. So there's our first stitch right there as we make the stitch and pull through, you can see that V right on the top. That is the top of your stitch.

That is going to be the last stitch that you work into on the following row, so you can put a stitch marker there. You're not going to work into the top of your turning chain here, OK? So to maintain your stitch count. To, um, to do this correctly, if your turning chain does not count as a stitch. What that means is you place a stitch in the very first stitch that you have.

You'll work across, you know, I'm just gonna do my turning chain here just for the sake of time gonna turn my work again. There's my turning chain 12, those are both my turning chains. Uh, it counts as a turning chain, but that doesn't count as a stitch. So my first stitch would be here, OK, right at the base of that turning chain. So that's my first stitch, and then as you work your way across.

You can get to your very last stitch. And look, it's marked. So we're gonna work into that very last stitch. I'll pull that stitch marker out. And you would not work into your turning chain, which is right here.

OK, so sometimes we get confused because it looks like a V. If it doesn't count as a stitch, don't work into your turning chain. If it does count as a stitch, then you need to work into your turning chain. I hope this is making sense, but there is a video on the Creative Crochet Corner website explaining this a lot more in depth, um, but this is one of the main issues that happens, um, when people are learning how to crochet, especially when they get into those taller stitches, because it gets a little more confusing about where your first stitch is, um. When you have those long stitches, it, it can get a and also some patterns will say this counts as a stitch, um, but if you don't know really what that means besides counting up all your stitches across the row, if if you don't know that that means you don't, then you don't work into that first stitch, then everything is gonna get off by a stitch on every single row.

OK. Bookkeeper 73 says that's some huge yarn and hook. Yeah, I, I, I brought this on in, you know, specifically today just so that it would make things a little bit more clear, um, so you can really see the stitches. Um, let's see. Oh, and Bookkeeper 73 says this is how I made an apron instead of a blanket one time.

I wasn't watching what I was doing. Oh, that's pretty funny. Yeah, we've all done, I mean, I haven't made an apron when I was trying to make a blanket, but I've made plenty of crochet mistakes. OK. All right, so, um, let me, let me just look at my notes for a second here.

Oh, I, I wanted to mention too that um when you are making your stitches, it really, really helps, especially when you're first learning to watch, to just crochet really slowly and watch what you're doing. So I know that seems ridiculous. You're gonna be like, yes, I know, I'm of course I'm gonna be watching what I'm doing, but. Um, for example, when you're making your turning chain, you can actually watch that chain form. This never counts as a stitch, and you can watch those theses form and you can recognize those as your turning chain as your look, you know, if you're actually slowing it down enough, you can see, OK, there's one turning chain, there's the next turning chain, there's the loop on my hook.

And when you're making those stitches, when you work into that stitch, you can see what's happening when you yarn over, pull through on your loop. And then when you start getting the loops off your hook, you can see, oh, that happens on when I do a double crochet, it kind of gets that slant and that little stitch that points down and look at where that's anchored and you'll be able to start seeing that is where I put my stitches. OK, this, if you look at the V, you can look where you're putting the hook. You can look at it from the front, from the back, like just, you know, I know this seems very silly. But the more you understand how all those loops are made and what they actually look like, the more you can start identifying and picking out separate stitches, which is very helpful.

So here's the second half of my double crochet. When you do that, if you're looking at it, you can see the V that you just made on top, that is the top of your stitch, and then you can see these kind of two little legs here. Then there's a sort of slanted. Um, sort of diagonal, almost horizontal part of the stitch right there, and then these two little legs down here. So this is all part of your double crochet.

And when you look at something in crochet, the front always looks different than the back. I mean, almost always. There's a couple of little tiny exceptions, but for the most part, the front and the back are gonna look different. So if you turn this over and look at that stitch, the back looks completely different and it's hard, maybe a little harder to recognize because, or at least maybe for me it is because I'm always watching from the front side when I'm making those stitches to see where the loops are. And I know there those kind of there's the first yarn over and then we do the second one or pull through and then pull through it's creating these.

Little horizontal lines here that will make it a recognizable stitch to you. You'll be able to pick them out and you can see them later. You know, when you're, so this is the back of the stitch, so it's a little confusing, but if we go down one more row, you can see that stitch here and the top of the stitch is being covered up by this next stitch here. So, Basically to sum up this whole situation, what I want you to do when you're first starting out, especially if you're having trouble counting your stitches or having trouble counting your rows, um, just really slow it down and look at how all those little things are built. Up as you're doing the motions of making that stitch, then you can really recognize, oh there's my double crochet right there it's going into the stitch.

I need to put another stitch right here into the next one. You can see where the last stitch you worked into was because that is another thing people um when you when you aren't paying attention and you work your stitch, you might be like, you know, especially if it's over here, you might think, oh, I'll just put my next stitch right there and then you've accidentally increased because you've already worked into that. So it's very, um, it's very helpful to just kind of understand the anatomy of all the different stitches and what they look like as you're, as you're making them. Um, and when you're counting your stitches, you know, oftentimes if you're following a pattern, it'll have some written instructions how many stitches and you can keep track of if you have the right amount of stitches. Also, if you're making something like a blanket or a scarf, we're just working back and forth, if you know how many stitches you started off with, um, then later on you can check and see if you're accidentally dropping stitches that can help you figure out if something is going wrong.

Um, so in order to count your stitches, you would look at those V's at the top of your work. Here, let me, um, let me just do a couple more so you can see a little bit better. Um, OK, so there's a stitch. there's a stitch, there's a stitch, there's a stitch, and this little thing right here, because I was not counting my turning chain as a stitch. That was not counting.

This does not count as a stitch. However, if your turning chain does count as a stitch, you can kind of move it, it wants to twist, but you can see that there are still two loops here. That would be a place to work into if you were working into your turning chain and that in that case it would count as a stitch. I hope this is making sense, um, but to count your stitches, almost, almost every crochet stitch you could ever do has that V on the top and that tells you what you know how many stitches you have. So if you're looking at it and you're like, oh I can't tell how many stitches that is, this is a lump of a bunch of lines together it's confusing, then look at the top and look for those little V's.

OK, um, let's see. I'm missing anything. OK, looks like I'm caught up. Um. OK, so I wanna talk a little bit about.

Um, gauge swatches. So this is something if you just groaned inside because you hate making gauge swatches, I understand. If you've watched any of my live tutorials, you know how much I like to kind of get my way around making gauge swatches, but secretly, I am checking the gauge anyway. So what I mean by that, and let me just explain to you, those of you who are newer to this, if you don't know what a gauge swatch is, um, oftentimes, well, every pattern should have some sort of gauge listed, and what that means is how tightly your stitches are being made. So if you're following someone else's pattern.

Pull these two in here. Um. These two squares have the same number of rows, and they have the same number of stitches, OK, for these 2 squares. You can see one is obviously much bigger than the other. So, what that means is this is a looser gauge, a larger gauge than this, and you can see, like when I pick these up, this is very floppy and this is a little tighter.

So, gauge tells you a number of things, OK? So, First of all, if, if you're making somebody else's pattern, especially if you're making something where the size matters, OK, so even if you're making a hat, especially if you're making a sweater or some kind of garment that you're going to be wearing, you want it to be a certain size, you have to check your gauge in order to know if your hook and yarn combination and the way that you stitch, if all that put together is going to make something that's the same size as what the pattern says it will be. So the only way to know that is to make a gauge swatch or if you're me to be working on your project like say you were working on a top down hat, a lot of times my gauge will be like just start on the pattern and after you get this far, measure it, OK? You're still, you're not making a separate gauge swatch for a lot of. My patterns, um, but you are checking your gauge.

You have to check it, otherwise you will not know because the thing is about crochet, it's everybody has their own way of doing it, everybody has their own style, even if they're, you know, wrapping the yarn exactly the same, they might be using the exact same brand of yarn, the same hook everything could be just exactly the same, but just the way your body does it is a little different than how somebody else does it, so that results in slightly different sized stitches. So you just have no way of knowing like if this is going to turn out to be the size that you want it to be, OK? So, It's just something you have to check and when I first started, um, when I first learned how to crochet, I was making doll's clothes and I would just make stuff up and you know, as a little kid, but when I was in my twenties, I learned how to knit and I started knitting stuff and I was just like gauge, I'm pretty sure it'll be similar to how I knit. And I had no way of knowing that. I mean, and so I made some things that were definitely not the right size or I would start working on it and get like, you know, 6 inches into a sweater and then have to rip out a lot in order to start over with different size needles.

So it's the same thing for crochet you just. It just saves you time in the long run and um you know thank goodness for like the Harry Styles sweater trend with all the different patchwork because you can take your gauge swatches that you made and you can sew them together and make something really awesome from that so see our gauge swatches are just like the road to making something else cool. So um in order to check your gauge, usually in a pattern, let me pull this in here, I've got an example here. Usually in a pattern, it will say something like. You know, here's the gauge section 12.5 stitches by 11.5 rounds, normally they're whole numbers, but I was making a sweater here and I just wanted to be very specific equals 4 inches.

So that what that means is when you work it up you'll put a little ruler on here and you'll measure you know 12.5 stitches wide and see if that's 4 inches and then you will measure 11.5 rounds or rows or whatever and you'll see if that's the same as what the designer wrote in here. If it is not the same, if you, if you ended up with more stitches per 4 inches than the designer said, so that would mean you have lots more stitches packed in there. That means they're tighter and smaller. So what that means is you need to go up a hook size or 2 sizes or 3 sizes. There's no wrong answer for your hook if it gets you the fabric that matches up with what the designer was, um, you know, listing as the gauge, right?

Um, if you have fewer stitches, like, you know, say you were supposed to have 12.5 stitches and you only had 10, what that means is, you know, during those 4 inches you've got 10 stitches and they're a little bit bigger, filling up a little more space across those 4 inches, so there's only room for 10 of them. So what that means is you need to to try with a hook that's smaller. Um, or a couple sizes smaller, so in that way you'll know um that your piece is gonna turn out the way that it should. The other really helpful thing about gauge swatches um is that once you get a little fabric worked up you can feel it because oftentimes we are um swapping one fiber for another or we're swapping a different yarn brand. They might be slightly different thicknesses even if you have.

Um, a number 4 yarn and your pattern calls for a number 4 yarn doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna get the same gauge even if, you know, even if you were the one who made both gauge swatches, you might do a gauge swatch with one number 4 yarn and you might do a gaugewatch with a number another number 4 yarn, and they might not be exactly the same so. If you have that little piece, that little swatch that you can hang onto, you can feel what the fabric's gonna feel like, you can imagine like, oh, is this something that would feel good as a hat? Um, I don't know, it might be too stiff, you know, so it gives you more information about how your project is going to turn out instead of just making the whole thing and then just, you know, being frustrated because it doesn't drape the way you want it to or there's holes in between your stitches and it's letting the wind through and you don't like that in a hat, um, so there's lots of different reasons why you would want to check your gauge whether it's a separate swatch, um. Or whether it's, you know, working on a small part of your project and then comparing and checking your gauge that way, you do have to check your gauge in order to know if it's going to fit. All right, so I did wanna say, um, oh, and on, sorry, I just wanna add one more thing onto that.

When you change up the fiber content of your yarn, like say you substituted with a different fiber content, different fibers have different feels to them, so, you know. Uh, a cotton might be a little bit more rigid, a wool might be a little fluffier, um, have a little more give, flexibility, elasticity. um, this is an example of raffia, so this is like the extreme. This is basically paper, um, that it's made out of, but these, you know, this is the same pattern, the same. Amount of stitches and you can see that there's just a difference in how these fabrics look you know this is very, very stiff, this is floppy and soft.

It's got some stretch this really hardly has any. It's a very, um, you know, it's just a sturdy thing. So you know this is an extreme example obviously you're not going to pick up Raffia and decide you're going to make a sweater out of it, but you know if you were following a bucket hat pattern, uh, you know, and you wanted to substitute with something else. It's not to say that you can't because you absolutely can. It's just helpful to have that little swatch and feel the fabric and be like, OK, I can imagine this as making a good hat, even though it might have, you know, slightly floppier brim or a softer feel to it or it might be a little stretchy.

I think that's still gonna work for my hat, you know, it's just another way to help you kind of make an informed decision about a yarn substitution. OK, so I just wanted to leave you guys with a couple of little, let me just make sure I'm all caught up. Oh, we do have another question here. Belle has a question. Do we gauge swatch by doing single crochet for 4 by 4 in all patterns?

No, that's a very good question. I'm glad you asked that. So most patterns should tell you what stitch pattern to do your gauge swatch in. If it doesn't, assume that it is whatever stitch pattern you're using in that pattern. So if you're making something in double crochet, you're going to do a gauge swatch and double crochet.

Um, also, if you're making something in the round, you should be swatching in the round, um, because your stitches aren't when you work stitches in the round, they're different size and shape than if you work them back and forth and turn rows, and I know that that sounds hard to believe, and I did not believe that at first either, but then I did a test and I checked and. The reason is because crochet stitches are not um they don't have bilateral sym symmetry like knitting stitches do, so, um, they fit together in these kind of weird ways. So when you're working back and forth in turn rows, they fit together and they look different than if you're working around and around. So, uh, just for an example, let's see, I've got. Let me see if I have my circle here.

OK, so here, here is a circle in single crochet. Worked from the center out and here a single crochet worked and turned rows. So you can see, even if we fold this and we're only just looking at, you know, what, um, you know, not both sides of it. You can see that these ridges look different than these ridges here and that that's only because this is worked around and around and around with the right side always facing you and this is worked back and forth and turned rows. So my advice for making gauge swatches is to make a swatch in the way that you would crochet whatever that thing is.

So with the stitch pattern in the style of how you're crocheting it, whether it's back and forth in turn rows or in the round, um. And, and then you'll get the most accurate results. If you're just doing a single crochet swatch, um, unless the designer only gives gauge in single crochet, then, then you'll have to do it that way. I have actually seen some patterns like that. But I just, it, it frustrates me when I see that because somebody might be able to match your single crochet gauge easily with the same hook you use but then if you switch to a different stitch that's making different motions and who is to say that they, you know, whatever.

For that stitch half double crochet or some kind of shell or cluster or whatever some other kind of stitch is necessarily going to match yours. It might not match so I always recommend just making your gauge swatch and whatever um whatever stitch pattern that you're going to be using for that particular, uh, for that particular pattern or design. OK, all right, I just wanted to leave you with just a couple of little bits of advice. This is my best advice, you guys. um, I don't want, if you have never crocheted before and you're just nervous to try, just know that you can always undo your stitches.

Unlike sewing, when you cut out a piece of something, you've cut into the fabric, oh no, you can't, you know, you could patch it. There are other things you can do. You can cut something smaller out of that. That that piece that you already cut out. But unlike that, crochet is so forgiving because if you make a mistake, you just pull on your yarn like this and you undo it.

And yes, there are some yarns that are a little trickier to undo. So say you're working with something that's fuzzy, uh, by the way, I would avoid a fuzzy yarn if you're first learning. Pick a yarn that's nice and smooth where you can see your stitches and it isn't, you know, just be aware that you're probably going to have to rip out some stuff as you're working, um, when you're first learning because that's what happens when you learn. You you do something, you make some mistakes, you learn from those, right? So if you are trying to rip something out and you're having a really hard time, what I find to be easiest is if I pull up on this top loop sometimes and pull it off, if it gets stuck or I put my finger in between and go nice and slowly.

If you just yank on it like that, sometimes you'll just break your yarn or you make it even more um stuck, and it'll be a problem. So if you're like uh uh trying to pull on it, you can try and put your finger in here and lift that loop, or if you can't get your finger in there because you're not using really giant yarn, you can put a little crochet hook in there and and peel it up. But even on something that's smaller like this, I can still kind of get my fingers in there and lift up on that loop. OK, so you can always undo it and start over. You haven't lost anything.

You've just learned something that's very valuable. When you make those mistakes, uh, that is the best way to learn, honestly, because you'll remember it later. So Yeah, that's just, that's the last thing I wanna leave you with that there is don't be afraid to try. You can always undo your stitches. If you make mistakes, they're super valuable lessons, OK?

And just try, you know, if you get frustrated. I think oftentimes because you know we always make these videos and we don't want to put in every single mistake that we make. I'm making mistakes all the time. These live events, you will see me making mistakes and going, oh, I messed that up. I'm sorry we're gonna have to rip out these stitches.

It happens because I mean even if you've been crocheting for a very long time, that happens, especially when you're first learning, it's gonna happen. You're gonna make lots of mistakes, but those are the most, that's just the best way to learn. I mean, I know it feels so frustrating, but you will remember those lessons. You know, the ones that you make the biggest mistakes on like the, you know, making you're trying to make a blanket and you make an apron see you will remember that and that taught you something very, very valuable. So just, I just wanted you to go off and have some fun working up crochet projects and also to the, the person who wanted to teach their 11 year old um how to crochet or to anyone else who's interested in making Amagarui.

There are lots of different ways to make amagaumi. But I wanted to just point out this one little project here. I didn't talk about this cat cube. um, this is made from working single crochet back and forth and turn rows which I already showed you guys how to do. You already, if you can do that, you can absolutely make this.

um I do have a full live tutorial on this with some other tips and tricks on teaching kids how to crochet. Which I mean if you're an adult that's OK you can still learn from that and I mean who doesn't want one of these cute little guys when you're done so this is a really great way to learn and especially um I had kids in mind when I designed this project because you know you gotta give them something where they're going to um be excited about the thing they make when they're done right that really helps to motivate us so so I just wanted to put in a little plug for that the um. Uh, teaching kids to crochet live event and it comes with a download the free download to make this little cat cube if you are interested in that. All right, well thank you guys so much for joining me. I really appreciate you guys being here.

I wish you all the best in your crochet adventures, and I hope to see you again. I do these live tutorials where I walk people through a project, nor you know, it's unlike today, usually I take a project from the beginning. Beginning and walk you through the whole thing and they range from being beginner friendly to a more intermediate or sometimes slightly advanced projects um but definitely check back if you were interested in learning how to make some new things all right thanks you guys bye everybody.