Teaching Kids to Crochet: Make a Cat-Cube!

Hey everybody. Welcome to our live events. I'm Brenda Ky Anderson and I am super excited today to be talking about teaching kids to crochet. So, you know, this also, of course, keep in mind this also applies to teaching other adults um especially fun loving adults because this is kind of a fun project. But I did have kids in mind when I was coming up with this project to teach and um my ideas, my tips um are centered around teaching kids. So I do have two kids that are both in elementary school and they helped me with this project because I've been trying to teach them how to crochet and they're doing an awesome job. You guys, um I have to tell you that my kids both made one of the little projects for us today because I wanted to make sure that this was a doable thing and they were very excited to work on this project. Um So you guys can do it. All right. So bring your kids in, watch this video, you know, you can always watch it later um when the kids are around. But I thought that this would be a really good time to be kind of showcasing how I like to teach my kids and um just giving some tips on it. Um because school is out or out for most of us anyway. Um And the kids are running wild so it's time to get them to do something that's not involving screens maybe and just a little bit of creativity and some fun. And this is a really great skill um for kids to have as most of you probably already know it's, it's a skill that can help you um process things, it can help you calm down, it can help you um explore your artistic side. There are so many good things about crochet and um teaching kids to crochet is very fulfilling and it's so fun to have them have that little aha moment when things finally start to click and um and they're able to make something and be super proud of it. OK? All right. So um I am going to start by just demonstrating this project and then as we're working on certain parts of the project, I'll be bringing up some tips to share with you on um just things to keep in mind where you're teaching kids to crochet. Um But if you guys have any thoughts, any questions, um any other tips for other people? Definitely put those in the chat. Um I love it when you guys share if you have any wisdom. Um If you guys have taught other kids to crochet, you know, let us know your experience. Um, yeah, definitely. Um, you know, let me know or you can all say hi and tell me where you're crocheting from. I love that too. Ok. So here's a little thing to think about if you are left handed and you're teaching or you're teaching a left-handed kid to crochet. So this is, you know, it makes things a little bit trickier when you're right handed and the kid's left-handed or if you're left handed and the kid is right handed. Um So if you are able to set up a mirror so they can watch what you're doing, but watch it in reverse mirrored, then it will help them know where their hands are supposed to be and help them understand how the stitches are supposed to look how you're supposed to be able to make the stitches. If they, if you're able to mirror the screen for them, when you're watching this, if you're watching it together with your kid, um do that. So that, that way it will look like I'm left handed. All you need to do is flip it horizontally or you can watch, you know, look at a mirror to look at the screen. Also, you can use a mirror to see the screen. Um and that will flip it as well. So it'll look like, um you know, I'm a left handed person. I just want to take that element out of it for anyone who's left handed, it can be very frustrating to try and learn. Um, when a lot of the instructors are right handed. So, and I'm right handed. Ok, so in order to start working on a project with the kid, um, you have to make sure that they're gonna be excited about what they're working on. I mean, yes, maybe they are just excited to make a square or to make anything at all, make a chain. Um And that's amazing and that's great. But some times kids want to know what they're making and they want to be kind of, they need to be like, sort of excited about the project in order to even want to bother to crochet. So you could show them some pictures of things you've made other, you know, things, other people have made to kind of get them excited. Um But that's where this project comes in. I think there are a lot of kids out there who would be very excited to make this little cat cube. Um, because it's ridiculous and it's silly and it's just a very straightforward, easy, easy, um, first project to work on. Um And a lot of people really get into crochet these days because they want to make amateur roomie. So this is like the perfect springboard into that as well. All right. So in order to make this project, you are definitely going to need some yarn and the cool thing about this project is you don't have to follow a certain gauge. You don't have to use a certain yarn. Um, you know, you're just going to choose a yarn and a hook combination that gives you a fairly firm fabric. Um, but, you know, and, and think about what's easy to learn with, what type of yarn is easy to learn with. So, when I started, I began crocheting with the worst way acrylic yarn. It's inexpensive, it's manageable. It's not, you know, so thin that it's difficult. But since I learned how to crochet, there's been so many new yarns on the market. Um I mean, that was a very long time ago. So, and even recently, there have been all these great yarns. I did actually link in your download to a yarn that I really like using. You can pick it up on Amazon. Um You can also find some of this yarn at Joanne sometimes or other craft stores. But the thing I really love about this yarn, we are teaching someone how to crochet is that it is like it's a smooth knitted tube on the outside and there's a little bit of fluff on the inside that gives it its, you know, thickness, but you can't snag it, it's not going to um twist apart. It's not, you're not gonna have that frustration when you're trying to bring the hook in and out where you grab a little part of the yarn and it makes a mess. It's so smooth and so nice. And on top of that you can really, really see your stitches. You, you, it has great stitch definition. That's what this yarn is here that I used on the white kitty. Um You can just really see those stitches pop. It looks amazing. So I would, you know, if you're able to buy new yarn to teach your kid to crochet, that's great. If you want to just use something that you already have, that's absolutely fine. Most of us learn on, you know, worst a weight, acrylic yarn or whatever you have around is completely fine. Just try to stay away from anything that's really fuzzy. Anything that would be hard to see your stitches, um, you know, anything that has a lot of texture or even variegated color can be kind of tricky too. So try if it has color changes, make sure the color changes are long. So they're not breaking up the stitches. It's really hard to tell what your stitches where you're supposed to work. If there's all these little flecks of color, it's hard to really see the stitch. You're kind of getting lost in all the color fleck. All right. So, um, the other thing is, is yarn weight can make a difference too and for some kids, it really helps them to have a thicker yarn. Um, and a bigger hook and this yarn, this is something that I ordered from Hobie. It is a very thick, very smooth. This is like a, a number seven which is like a jumbo yarn. Um But it is the same structure as the one that I linked to in the download. And so if I, if you're teaching, you know, a younger kid or someone who's having some issues holding the yarn or seeing their stitches or anything like that, then you could try to get a, a thicker yarn like this. Um, that's smooth, you know, the same kind of knitted tube construction on the outside. It's just, it makes everything so clear to see your stitches. It's just wonderful. It's a great thing to learn with. Ok. So after you've chosen your yarn, oh, and one more thing about that, if you, if you let your kid choose the yarn or choose the color of the yarn, then they might be a little bit more excited about the project. So I let my kids go into my scrap bin, a yarn and they each pulled out the color that they wanted to use. They picked these two colors and as you can see, you know, you could use your imagination here. You don't have to make AAA white cat or a gray cat. You can make a yellowy orange cat or a hot pink cat if you want. Um But it kind of gives the kid a, you know, giving them some choices, helping them make design decisions. It can make it a little bit more fun if you allow them to do that. Ok. So, let's see. So all you need is the yarn and then a crochet hook that's gonna go along with that. So if you're using a worsted weight yarn or something, maybe a chunky yarn start out with maybe like an H hook or a G hook for a worsted weight yarn or even smaller an F hook just depending on how thick your yarn is. Um But you can just kind of watch as your kid starts to crochet and if they're crocheting super tightly, like a lot of us do, you can give them a slightly larger hook to make it a little bit easier. Um So you'll need whatever hook to go with your yarn. And then I used safety eyes in my kitty, which is a very fun way to add the features. It really doesn't, you know, you don't have to be, it's not like embroidering eyes where you have to be like really careful and it just gives them that instant like you put the eyes in and it's like, oh it's alive now, it's so exciting. Um So I really love using safety eyes and now they're, you can buy them at big box stores even I always get my safety eyes from glass, glass eyes online.com. Even though these are not glass, they're plastic. That is my favorite place to get safety eyes because they're like really good quality and there's a million different kinds. So I recommend that. But you can just, you know, most big box stores have some, some form of safety eyes. If you don't want to use safety eyes, you could use buttons. Um, or if you have Sculpey at your house, you could make like little, little circles and hot glue them on, you know, there's lots of different options, um, on what you can do for eyes. You can also embroider them if you want to. Uh and you're going to it, it's great. If you have stitch markers, stitch markers, you don't really need them for this project, but you may find that it's helpful to mark the beginning and the end of, of the rose just so that when you're going back and forth, you're not losing or gaining stitches. Um So that that could be helpful too and you are of course, going to be needing some fiber fill to stuff your kitty cat with and a yarn needle as well. And so, and I did put like a little step by step pictures of how to embroider the face in your download. And um I'm just using the same type of yarn, but in a dark brown and I love using that for embroidery. Now, it's like my new favorite thing to embroider my Amaga roomy because it makes such a smooth, nice line and you only have to do one line. It's not like using embroidery floss. Um And it's just really, it makes a really nice contrast. So I really, really love using that. Um You can certainly use embroidery floss. You can use a contrast, you know, you can use black yarn. Um If you have like some worsted weight black yarn or cotton black yarn, that's great too. That all works just fine and it'll be super adorable. Ok. So, in order to start this project, basically, well, let me back up a little bit, let me show you what we're gonna be making. So we are going to be making this cat out of two rectangles. So here is my two rectangles and on also two little tiny squares. So these squares are gonna become the ears, the two rectangles are going to become the body. All right, let me see here. Looks like I'll just move that out of the way. And OK, so we're going to start by creating a chain first. So in order to do that, I'm just gonna grab, we're gonna start with a purple cat here. So in order to make a chain, we're just going to create a little loop like this. So this end of the yarn um will just be over here on my right or if you're left handed, of course, it's going to be switch swapped and here's the ball of yarn on this side. OK. So we're just gonna draw a loop just like that then we're gonna take this loop and we're gonna fold it over and we're gonna, it right on top of this strand of yarn. OK. So we're gonna flip it over like this and then we're gonna place our hook underneath that strand right there just under the middle strand. OK? So it's gonna go on top of the other two. And then at this point, we're gonna tighten up this loop and you can see over here where everything kind of crosses over. I like to put my set, my finger on top of that and hang on to it while I kind of pull on this other piece. And basically, you can pull on both strands actually to kind of tighten that up and see, I'm kind of holding it down here and you want it to be loose enough so it can slide back and forth but not so loose that it's just gonna fall off of your hook and you have no control over it whatsoever. OK? So that seems pretty good. You can still slide it back and forth and now we're going to start with the chains. So there's no wrong way to hold your crochet hook. There's lots of different ways to do it. And this is the hardest part of learning how to crochet is learning how to hold things, how to hold your hook and how to hold your yarn. So be super patient with yourself. Um Give yourself lots of chances it's just kind of a learning thing. You have to try it for a while and practice it for a while and then you'll figure out how you want to hang on to things. And once you've learned how to hang on to things, it's like smooth sailing after that, there's, that is definitely the hardest part of learning how to crochet is, is hanging on to stuff. Ok. So we're gonna just hang on to this tail here in our hand where we're holding the hook. So if you try holding things my way first, just so you can see how I do it and then you can make adjustments from there. Hold it however you need to in order to, um, you know, make things work out. Ok? So I'm hanging on to that and now I'm going to take this opposite hand and I'm going to bring my yarn around the back of my hook and over the top like that. And then I'm still holding on to this yarn here. I'm kind of just gonna hold it between my fingers and then use my fingers to pinch at the bottom there. So that way I can grab onto my hook with the other hand and pull that through to make a chain. And then I'm switching and pinching with these two fingers, wrapping with this hand, pinching with those fingers and bringing it through for the next chain. Now, of course, like I said before, this is not the only way to do this. You do this however you need to. But basically, if you can hang on to your hook and your yarn and be able to make your yarn go up and over the back of your hook like that. And then you're gonna pull that through the loop on your hook. That's what you're supposed to be doing when you're making those chains, wrap it around, pull it through. Ok. So you can have your kid just practice chaining and chaining and chaining and chaining and you can make all kinds of cool things with just chaining. Um, you know, bracelets, necklaces, you can string a whole bunch of them together and make a cowl. Um, you know, you, you can have a chain race and my sister and I used to do that and we would chain all the way we would see how long, guess how long it would take us to get a chain all the way across the other side of the room. Um You know, there's, there's lots you can do to just kind of practice that skill of chaining. Um For one of my kids, they really wanted to practice and practice and practice and they were OK with like getting the technique down before moving on. And then the other one of my kids, she just really wanted to make something. She was so excited about the end product that it was hard for her to just keep on chaining and she needed to move on at a faster pace, even if she hadn't, like, you know, absolutely perfected that skill. That's ok. It's ok to move on if you're just excited to move on. So you kind kind of feel out, you know what your kid needs. If they, if they really do need to practice a little more, they can practice a little more. But if they just wanna move on, it's ok to help them with the initial chain and with the first couple of rows until they have something to hold on to. I know I've read that some other people say, you know, you shouldn't do anything for, for them, you know, kind of the Montessori theory that you shouldn't do for them, what they, they can actually do for themselves, which I understand. But sometimes you, they're just gonna lose interest, they're gonna, they're gonna, um, not wanna keep going if it's just only frustrating. So you have to get them, skip ahead a little fast forward a little to the fun part where it's a little easier to get your hook into the stitches and that's ok. And you can, on the second project you work on, you can start at the beginning again and have them work on their training a little bit more. Um, you know, you just kind of need to feel that out for, you know, whoever you're teaching, everybody's got a different way of learning. OK. So you're going to chain as many stitches as you want to, to be about the width of your cat, I think in the download, I suggest 10 stitches and then you just take a look at it and say to yourself, OK, that's about the width of my cat. Does that seem? OK? And if you want it wider, you can go wider. But I would say try to keep it fairly small because you're going to have to do lots of rows and, um, often times, you know, people will get a little frustrated, they want to move a little quicker. You know, crochet is a slow, a slow hobby. So, um, usually when people are starting out, they're like, I can't believe how long this takes. Um, so start with a fairly short chain here and then we're gonna start working in single crochet. So if you take a look at your chain, there's all these little vs going like this. And if you roll your chain over to the other side, you'll see all these little dashes, all these little dashes on the back. That's where I like to tell people to work under because it makes it a little easier. So, for this pattern, we're gonna skip the first dash which is right there and we're gonna put our hook under the next dash which is here. So we're gonna slide it under and I'm kind of pinching right at the base of that and holding that ST you know, still with my thumb and my finger so I can get my hook through and then I'm going to yarn over, bring that yarn over. And for me, I like to hold my yarn like this over, under, over, under like that so that I can control the tension. If I squeeze my fingers together, it makes a lot of tension. If I widen my fingers, it slips through real easily. So we are going to just grab that yarn, pull it through your chain yarn over and pull through two loops. We'll do that again. We're gonna go underneath that next horizontal stitch. You aren't over, pull through, you aren't over and pull through two. This is called a single crochet stitch. This is the basic building block here. So we insert our hook there, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through two, insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two. OK? So if this is feeling very awkward, you can, I would go, try to go back and forth a couple of times and then switch to a different hand position. You can hold your hook like this, you know, you can hold it like this, you can hold it lots of different ways. Um There's no wrong way to do it as long as it feels comfortable and you're able to make the stitches. OK? So you'll make those single crochets all the way across like that. And then at the end of your row, you're just going to wrap your yarn over your hook and pull that through your loop and then you're gonna take this piece and flip it in that direction. Like you're turning a page in a book and now we're gonna work across what we already made. So this will get a little bit easier when you're first working into that first chain. If it's really tricky, don't give up it. That is one of the hardest parts is doing that very first row. OK. So on the next row, we're gonna skip that chain. That's right next to the hook. So there's, there's a loop on the hook and that doesn't count as anything. Then there's those little, that little V right next to my thumb. We're not gonna work into that, but we're gonna work into this stitch right here. So we're gonna do the same thing. We're gonna grab that yarn and pull it up, yarn over, pull through two insert, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two. So this is called the single crochet stitch. And this is the stitch that most amaga roomy is made with um sometimes exclusively just this single crochet stitch. It's a very simple stitch it's used for, you know, it's like the basic, the basic stitch that everyone kind of learns. Well, not everyone learns first, but mo most people learn how to do the single crochet first. OK. So we've reached the end of our row and then we're just gonna continue making a chain one and turning our work. And if you turn the, if you turn your work, like you're turning a page every time you turn it the same way, then the edge of your piece will look a little bit neater because you're always turning it in exactly the same way. So again, we're not gonna work into that little V next to the hook, we're gonna work right here. If you look at the top of your stitches here, there's that little V, the V is kind of facing in this direction and my hook is underneath it right now, just slide our hook under there, grab that yarn, yarn over and pull through two. OK? So you're just gonna continue doing this back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and that's what's gonna create your rectangle. And also this is exactly the same thing you're gonna do to create those squares that we make for the ears. OK? So you're just gonna go back and forth and back and forth and pretty soon you will have a piece that looks like this and don't be stressed out or alarmed if your piece is kind of zig zagging the edges doesn't look, the edge doesn't look perfect. That is OK. It's all part of learning. OK? And besides, I mean, these weren't absolutely impeccably perfect. They did a very good job on them. Um And they look amazing, but look how super adorable and cute they are when they're finished. That's the thing that I really, really love about teaching with this project is that when you're done, it is so cute. Like, even if, you know, you had kind of a struggle getting your stitches and things aren't exactly perfectly uneven. It just gives it a little more character and it still is such a successful project. Ok. Looks like I need to add maybe one more row or so to my piece. Well, they are just not exactly the right size. I'm gonna add one more row to this one. I think I stopped just a little short and then we will continue and I will show you how to put these pieces together. Yeah. So another thing to think about, um ju just some things to think about, you know, when you're teaching a kid to crochet is that this is, first of all, before you think about anything else, it's supposed to be fun, you know. So try to make it like a fun, memorable experience. I know that sometimes these things can be a little bit frustrating, you know, for the person who's learning and also sometimes for the person who's doing the teaching, um, especially if you've been crocheting for a long time and things are simple and easy for you. Sometimes it, it's tricky when you're teaching someone else, you have to think about it from their perspective. Um So, you know, maybe put on some music that they like and have some snacks because nobody can, you know, if you're already hungry and you're working on something, it's just gonna be a matter of time before you get very cranky so that, you know, have some snacks, have some nice music in the background if that helps or maybe total silence if that helps as well too. Um, you know, it's just one of those things, you kind of want to set the scene a little bit when you're, when you're teaching someone how to crochet, think about all those extra things that might be driving them crazy that you don't even notice, like maybe they don't like the extra sound from the music or, you know, being, you know, maybe if you can go someplace that's a little bit more quiet or, um, you know, that, that might be helpful as well. Ok, let's see. Oh, we have a question here. Oh, so Judy saying you could just sit opposite from the person and they can mirror image each other. Yes, you can do that for left handed as well too. I have heard that, um, I've heard of people doing that that way and yes, and especially if you are able to, um, if they're used to doing that, you know, as a lefty, it might be a little bit easier for them Ok. Let's see. What is the name of the yarn? Is it machine washable and dry? I'm guessing you're asking about this. I think it's called bungee. Oh, or maybe you're asking about this. This is, it is machine. It says it's machine washable and dry, but I would just machine wash it and then hang dry. That's what I do for most of my handmade things. Um, unless I'm absolutely sure. And I've tested it out. You could do a swatch and check it out, but that it does say it's machine washable and dry this one. Um And I'm not sure of the care instructions. This is machine washable, but I can't remember if this one says it's dry or not. I'm not sure which one you were asking about. Ok. Um And Sea Wolf pack is saying when learning new techniques from Brenda, you can slow the video, replay down to half speed or slower and watch more closely. That is a great tip. Thank you so much for bringing that up. I always forget to mention that. I'm so glad you did. Yes, you can definitely watch it very, very slow. Um And that should help as well. Ok. And of course you can make me do it a million times and that helps too. And I never get tired of it. Ok. So when you've got your two rectangles and you're going to start assembling your cat, you're gonna make a T shape like this and you can use stitch markers to put your pieces together. You can also use quilters pins if you have pins. Um, if you don't have either of those things and you just have yarn, you can use your yarn to kind of sew one end and then start on the other end. Um, to kind of hold things in place. I am gonna use my stitch markers to pin this together. And what you're looking for is you're trying to find actually here, let me back this up for a minute. Um What you're gonna do is you're gonna find three equal sections or fairly equal sections. So I'm gonna fold this into thirds just like that. And then I'm gonna place a stitch marker in to each fold and open it up and just kind of look at it and make sure those all seem fairly even, I'm just folding them into the other stitch markers that looks pretty good. It doesn't have to be perfect. Then we're going to place the stitch marker opposite it. OK? Because basically what we're doing is we're trying to divide this up into equal thirds and here's this piece as well. Um So the, the great thing about this project is, you know, you can start with as many or as little stitches as you want to, you can completely adjust the size of this, you know, depending on, you know, first of all, how, how large you want the project to be. But also the attention span of whoever you're teaching, you know, it can be a much smaller cat if you want to, you don't need to care about getting gauge. Which is another thing that I always look for in a first project because that's just another thing that will be confusing and stress someone out before they've even really learned the stitches. I like to stay away from projects where um where gauge is actually important. This is, it is not important in this project. Um OK. So I've divided each section in two thirds and then I'm going to place these together to make that sort of capital T shape. All right. And so I'm gonna start with my yarn needle. I threaded it with a yarn tail because I just ended, when I ended my rectangle, I just fastened off with a very long yarn tail so I can use that for sewing. So I'm just gonna start by making this a whip stitch. So you just grab a little bit of this fabric here and then you grab a little bit of this fabric here. And I would recommend if you are using this beginner yarn that you have a blunt and needle, so you can kind of wiggle it and go between your stitches instead of a sharp needle because a sharp needle, you might end up snagging through part of your yarn and it might not want the rest of your yarn might not wanna um go through. So definitely look for a blunt needle for this. Plus if you're teaching a kid how to do this, maybe it's just better if you have a blunt needle. So we're just doing a whip stitch. So we just grab a little bit of this and then we can go through, go underneath that. V doesn't have to be perfect. If you miss a stitch here or there, that's fine. You can always go over it again. Um You know, it, it does not need to be perfect. And I like to pull that nice and tight so that those stitches kind of disappear. And we've reached just about the end of our scene here, see how you can see those stitches. If you pull it a little tighter, they kind of go away, makes it look a little nicer. And in your download, I did actually make, I took a picture of this and I showed you which and which edges get stitched together to create this shape. But as my daughter pointed out when she was making this, once you start on it. So here's my little diagram here. Once you start on it, you can just keep on going and you match up the next section. So we're just gonna, so we just went across here. So we're going to fold it like this and I'm gonna use the stitch marker to kind of grab that end. And when, when my kids were working on this. I would just kind of stitch, marker it together and then let them sew it themselves. Um, you know, this, of course, will, you know, it depends on the kid and their comfort, comfort level with using the needle. But this is, you know, it's not a difficult, um, seaming technique. It's just a whip stitch here. So it's good if they are willing to se, to do the sewing here, that's, that's the best because then they can, um, make, you know, once they're finished with the crochet, they do the sewing and then they feel a little bit more accomplished if they did, you know, most of the steps of this project. So I am, I like to hold this with my fingers behind. So I give it something to rest on here. Like my, my middle finger is right behind there. But if this is too, too tricky, you can place it flat on the table like that. That's fine too. Ok. So we've reached the end of that section and so we fold this along to the next section like that and then just keep sewing just like that. So one thing I found to be helpful, um, you know, depending on the comfort level and the age of the kids and all that rolled into one, you know, just keep all that in mind is if, if you are able to have your kid sit right next to you, like right next to you and, or if you know they're a younger kid and they don't mind sitting in your lap and everybody is comfortable with that. If they sit in your lap, you can reach your arms around them and show them the stitches and it's just so much easier to see and to like, make your brain understand what you're supposed to be doing if they can see it from the exact right angle that they will be seeing it from when the yarn is in their own hands. Um So that's, that's something to think about as well. Um Just, you know, making sure that they can really see what you're doing from the vantage point of, of actually doing it themselves. All right. So we've reached the end to that stitch marker there and we're just going to move to the next stitch marker. You can see the cube is starting to take shape here. You guys, it's exciting. So, you know, this is one of those projects that obviously it doesn't have to be a cat. It could be a dog or a mouse or a bunny, just depending on the kind of accessories you wanna make for it. It's, you know, it's very versatile thing or, you know, you could make a dice if you're into dice games. Uh There's lots of different things you could do with this cube. But the cool thing, you know, when I was learning how to make this I uh how to crochet rather, sorry. Um Or even how to sew. I remember having this feeling of being like, just so amazed that I could make something that was three dimensions. It's just a different way to think about, you know, constructing something and it's so cool that you can just take two rectangles and sew them all up and then you have this really awesome cube and that's all it takes. You don't have to do any math. You don't have to do any, you know, anything complicated at all. You're just making two rectangles of the same size and sewing them together. We have a, hello from Argentina. Hello and hi from Illinois in the US. Hello and welcome you guys. Thanks for staying. Hi. Oops, I missed a little bit there. See, there's a little bit of a hole so we're gonna go back. Um, another thing, speaking of, speaking of missing things and having things not be perfect. Another thing that I, I made a little note of in the download is just, you know, to try really, really hard not to point out the flaws in what somebody else is making when they're first learning, especially kids. Um, you know, if you can find a different way to say something like, oh, you know, when I, when I have trouble with my stitches getting too tight, you know, this is something that I try to do instead of saying, oh, this looks kind of tight here because that might make them, that might just be enough to make them feel like they're bad at it or they, they, you know, aren't doing it right. Instead of some tips on how to maybe improve it a little bit. But if you're able to just, you know, just really think hard is this something I actually need to point out because if they're actually able to make a fabric, even if the stitches are kind of wonky and weird and the edges are, you know, rippling, you know, from side to side. Once you sew it up, it's still going to be cute and just to be able to have that feeling of satisfaction. I mean, you just want them to get to the point of where they're going to finish this project because that is when they will feel so much accomplishment and like, oh my gosh, I made that. So I'm starting to run out of my yarn tail. But luckily there's another little yarn tail here just waiting for me. Um And I'm gonna show you just in case you are brand new to crochet and you know, watching this so you can teach your kid to crochet or maybe you're just watching it to learn how to crochet when you weave in your ends. All you're doing is you're just kind of pushing your needle with the yarn through those stitches. So you're just kind of, it doesn't need to go into a certain spot. You're just kind of looking with the end of your needle for places you can slide that yarn through and keep in mind when you are sewing this up, that the side you are currently looking at that is going to be the inside of your piece when you're done because it'll just look a little bit better. I mean, really the side that looks the best will be the right side. But normally when people are doing this, it looks a little bit better on the opposite side. On the, what's happening on the inside will look a little bit better than what's happening on the outside. Um So I normally recommend that you would flip the cube once you're almost done sewing in just a minute, we're gonna flip the cube so that its right side out. Forgot to put those two together there. Yeah. All right. Here we are. We're almost to the flipping part and this is kind of the exciting part. There we go. OK. I'm still going to hang on to that and now I'm just going to take that stitch marker out and I'm going to turn my cube. So it's a right side out and my and my seams look pretty good there. OK? And so they may not be perfect there. Might at this point you might see some gaps or when you start to stuff it, you might see some gaps that's OK. You can sew those gaps shut like later on if you want to. Um, but just don't, don't worry about it too much making something very cute and it's ok if it's not absolutely perfect. Ok, so once you've done that, you're going to figure out where you want to put the eyes. So it really doesn't matter what surface you want to just kind of take a look at it like, oh, do I want to put the eyes like this? Maybe I want to put the eyes like that, you know, whether you want to seam across here or a seam that way it doesn't really matter, you know, you can just put them in wherever you think that it looks good or maybe there's one side of it that looks better than the others that's perfectly fine. So I'm gonna make this the front of my face and I'm gonna just push my eyes through and you can put them wherever you want. They don't have to be um you know, they can be close together, far apart, different sizes. It really is completely up to you. So I'm just gonna put my little eyes there and in order to fix your safety eyes to your piece. So there's the little posts and when you're happy with where the posts go, just kind of hang on to it with, I'm pushing on the top of the, the safety eyes with my finger so they can't pop back out and then you're gonna take this backing and it's kind of like a little hat. So there's a flat part on the bottom and then a kind of a rounded part with the hole in it on top. And we're gonna put the flat part, the wider flat part is gonna go next to the fabric like this and then you just push it in until you hear it click and then it'll stay. And so I, I always like to say this in my live event safety eyes, even though they're called safety eyes, they are not safe for kids younger than three years old. So because they are a choking hazard. All right. So those are clipped into place and then you can go ahead and stuff your piece. So you're just gonna use some fiber fill and just stuff it on in there and see Wolfpack says they're not flaws, they're artistic features. Yes, exactly. It's what makes them unique, right? Um And she says a spongebob, but that would involve a color change for the pants. So maybe that'd be a later project once the plain cube was mastered. Yeah. Moving up to a spo. That's true. You could totally make a spongebob. All right. So you can stuff it as firmly as you want. Um The more you stuff it, the rounder it's going to be and maybe you want it to be round which is fine. Um But if you really like the cube shape, you can kind of use your fingers to poke those little corners out and then you're just gonna finish off this little seam here doing a whip stitch. And so it, you know, sometimes that stuffing can kind of get in the way. So I like to press it down with my finger and kind of have my finger just kind of be inside like that while I am stitching this closed up above it. That just helps it stay out of the way for now. And we're still just doing a whip stitch here. No problem. So another thing that I suggested in the download and in one of my tips is if you are teaching someone how to crochet and they're not quite ready to be able to hold a hook and the yarn at the same time, you can teach them how to finger crochet. So that's something to think about too because, you know, you're still gonna be teaching them where like how to make the stitch. It's just gonna be made in a slightly different way. And I do really like this big chunky yarn that I was showing you this, this yarn for making finger crochet um for people who are just starting out and they, you know, if they're just having a, a lot of trouble hanging on to everything because that really is, I just feel like that's like 90% of learning how to crochet is figuring out how to hang on to stuff, you know, how to hold, how to hold your yarn, how to have the right tension, how to hold the yarn and the crochet hook at the same time. And, you know, it's, it, people make it look so easy, especially when they've been doing it for a while. Um, but it can be a very, very frustrating thing to do, um, when you're first learning, especially with you, you know, younger hands. Um and you may find that you, you might try and, and teach, teach them how to crochet and they're not quite ready and maybe they could finger crochet for right now or maybe they are able to do some chains but, but the uh you know, learning how to single crochet that maybe that's too many steps for right now and they can just chain and chain and chain and for a while until, you know, some other later date when you want to teach them. The next thing like, don't, don't try to get too far ahead and, you know, just make sure that you're kind of listening in on, on how they're, how they're doing and what they're, they feel like they're capable of that day. All right. So here we have our little cube and then I'm gonna show you how to make the ears. So the ears are made in exactly the same way as this rectangle. And in order to know how many stitches you start with, you just take however many stitches you use when you're making the rectangle and you're going to divide that in half. So for example, this one, I use nine stitches. So divided it in half, that's between four and five. So you can just decide between the two, I would just say round up. So um you'd be working across five stitches. So in order to work across your five stitches, you're going to chain six stitches because you're gonna skip that one stitch at the end. So what I mean by that? So this is just exactly how we started our rectangle. Um and I should have said this before, but when you're making your rectangle, write down how many stitches you're working across so that you can keep track of that. And then you can also write down how many rows you did. And for counting rows, I should have showed you this when it was flat, but in between my fingers, that's two rows. So you can kind of see these little grooves here and here and here. That would be 246. And if you're able to write that down, that's kind of helpful. So that when you're making up your rectangle, you can just crochet that amount, but really, it's more just like getting it started making sure it's the same width as your other rectangle and then just crocheting until it matches you. It doesn't have to be the same amount of rose. It just has to be about the same length or even just kind of close to the same length in order to work. If they're not exactly perfect, it's still gonna work out. OK? So when you're starting your ear, so for example, I had nine stitches across. So just divide that in half and I'm gonna choose five instead of four. So I'm gonna chain 51234 and five. So I'm gonna be working across those five stitches. But because we make that extra turning chain and we skip over that at the beginning, we're gonna exchange one more. So that's six. So now, like I said, we're skipping that first horizontal dash and we're gonna work under the second one. This is just like when we started on those rectangles and then we're gonna make a single crochet there and in each of the rest of the stitches across. So we'll have a total of five stitches that we're working across. And then once you get that established and you've got the correct, correct number of stitches or thereabouts, then you're gonna continue working exactly how you made your rectangle. You're just gonna work back and forth in those turned rows until it becomes a square. So you just have to make sure it's as tall as it is wide and then that's when you fasten off and I'll show you that in just a minute here. I got a couple rows to do. So when I was working on this project with my kids. Um They got to pick out their yarn and they were very excited about that. And then they started talking about the faces because they wanted, they have, you know, their own ideas about what they wanted these little cat cubes to be like. And I'm just going to bring these in here while I'm working on this. So you can see them and I had, you can see the different personalities we have going on here. So with just a couple of little stitches, you can create, you know, a lot of emotion with these little cat critters here. So the pink one, it just has that little V for the mouth and that's it and it looks like it's smiling because it's got a smiley shaped mouth and this orange cat looks very grumpy. It has an upside down V and then she also wanted to add these little angry eyebrows because she's learned about when she's drawing, you know, that you can make somebody look angry by having their eyebrows go down in the middle like that. So she was very excited to do that to, to do that and give him that kind of expression. All right, I'm going to do one more row. I feel like I need one more row because it's almost a square but not quite all right. And then I'm gonna fasten off here and to fasten off, you just cut your yarn and then you wrap it around your hook and just bring that through and pull on it and that tightens it up into kind of like a knot there at the end. So, um, yeah, that'll look pretty good. So to make the ears, you're just going to take your yarn tail, the longer yarn tail and put it on a, on a needle and then you go fold this in half, doesn't matter if you fold it that way or that way, it doesn't make a difference. And that is going to be the very top of your key cat ear triangle, right? So you're going to, you're gonna whip stitch this edge. Once again, we're just whip stitching. So we're gonna go through here, we're just stitching through both layers there and we didn't even need to pin this. Actually. Um my kids just held it with their fingers. You could put a stitch marker in it if that, that's helpful. Um But with their, even with their little fingers, they were able to kind of hang on to it enough to um be able to get that stitched together. So I'm going to because we have to get rid of this yarn tail. Anyway, I am going to put this on my needle and I'm going to whip stitch this side of that triangle with that yarn tail. So, you know, if, if um you could, you could definitely crochet a triangle shape. But the cool thing about this, this particular pattern is that it is, there's no shaping, there's no increasing or decreasing, adding extra stitches, nothing like that at all. It is just working back and forth in those turned rows to make a rectangle or to make a square. Um So that's one thing that I, I really liked about this, this pattern is that it's just, you know, you have four small pieces to make and they're all made the same way and it's just very, very straightforward. You don't have to learn anything besides working, you know, back and forth in those turned rows in single crochet. OK. So here we have this little triangular ear and um we are going to place it on the head and so you can see it's a little bit wide, but that's because I put it on like this to create that kitty cat shape. OK. So, like from the top view, instead of just straight down, like straight across like this where it's kind of a floppy ear, we're kind of creating that like ac shape with the bottom surface here, maybe I'll put it on here so you can see a little better. So you're, you're just kind of bringing those, those um bottom corners toward each other a little bit. So here's another place where it, it might help to put some pins in. Um But you could also just get the ears started and then have your kid finish it. That's actually what I ended up doing because, um, we tried putting some pins in and they, one of them, uh, one of them, it worked out fine, but the other one, it was, you know, the pins were kind of in the way and they were having a hard time holding it without the pins poking into them because they were kind of grabbing it really tight. And so just to get rid of the whole elements of having a sharp pin there, if you just hold your ear kind of in this, you know, so the bottom where it makes contact with the head, it makes that c shape. You can just put your needle in through here and put your needle back out, couple stitches later and then run that through the tip of the ear. OK. So we just went in where this corner of the ear was gonna be and out where the other corner was and then through the corner of the ear like that. And then when we pull that through, it's kind of like pinning it in place. OK? Cause then we got, we have the two, the two ends are secured and we just need to sew across the back of it. So to do that, you're just going to, again, just be catching a little bit of the fabric with your needle and then a little bit of the ear fabric with your needle like that and a little bit of this fabric and a little bit of this fabric and we're just gonna do that across to the other side. There we go one more little stitch over here and you know, if, if your kid is having a hard time getting this, the ears on, maybe you can make a little deal and say, ok, I'll get the ears both started and then you could sew the back of them or, you know, there's nothing wrong. You don't have to feel bad about helping get the ears on. That's completely fine too. If you know, maybe they just want to see it done and they're getting frustrated with just the sewing part. You can help them out with that a little bit too. Ok. So then you do the 2nd, 2nd ear in exactly the same way. So you'd place that right there right next to it and then I wanna show you how I did the super simple embroidery. We're just gonna use this brown here and I'm just using it with one strand. Ok. So it's just through my needle. I'm not gonna tie a knot in it or anything. Um, to start off my piece, I'm gonna go in through somewhere else that isn't right on the face. Like maybe over here on the side and I'm gonna pop out where I'm imagining the top of the smile to be. So you can, you can draw this on there if you want to or you could take a picture and then draw on your picture um on your photo, you know, with your phone or whatever or, or even you could print it out if the kid wants to draw on it and to, to kind of like map out where they want to put the, the facial features and you can try out some different ones. Um But if you want it to look like this one here, she just had her needle came out right here in the crack that goes, you know, from eye to eye. It's like even with that, I'm gonna leave this hanging out here, just leave it hanging. Um But see how this is coming out right next to that eye and then it can go in right next to this eye and you can leave a little space. This one there was a little more space, but my eyes are pretty close together here so we can go right back in see this is all still in line with the center of the eyes. I'm gonna place my needle in here and then it's gonna come out down below like that. So and then it's gonna cross over and be on top of this strand right here. So that is gonna catch, we got a little bit of filling coming out here. Sometimes that happens. Some filling is more slippery than others and some of it likes to just kind of grip onto your yarn and come out but when you pull on that, that little bit is going to keep it from going anywhere just hanging on to that. And then we're gonna go back in, not above but below and we'll see if we wanna do. So that could be, that could be a little mouth or this could be the nose. You know, if you do like a little stitch here on mine, I made that into the nose and then I had a little stitch below and then I came out over here like that and then I made some little whiskers on the sides, just a couple little lines to give it just a little bit of detail. But, you know, it's totally up to you up to your kid, how they want to decorate the face and maybe they just wanna do eyes and that's it and that's fine. You know, it's still gonna be, it still was cute as soon as we put the eyes in, it was totally cute. So there's two little whiskers on that side and then we can do two little whiskers on this side. But to me embroidering the face is very fun, but I know that it can be something that's frustrating when your face does not look how you imagined it would in your, you know, when you were envisioning this like how your cat was gonna look. So, um that's why I put the photos of step by step by steps and you can also watch this video here too. Um just to help you kind of get things in the right places but, and like I, you know, right places it doesn't mean you have to do it like this. Of course, I absolutely love that my kids were like, no, I'm gonna do the face myself. I want to do it the way that I want to do it. And here's, here's my example, that one and here's another example that I did here too where I did like a little bottom mouth. Um And there's no, there's no wrong way to do it. You can do it any way you like, you know, really? Anyway. So, um another thing you can look at too or how, how, you know, cartoons or anime is drawn, you can see how they get expression with just some little tiny lines or features. Um It's just a great place to, to start out when you're trying to, if, if you're trying to get an emotion and none of the ex, none of these examples are what you are looking for. OK. So these two pieces of yarn are close to each other. Now, I'm gonna tie them in a knot. Um I don't always do this. I oftentimes will just weave it back and forth, but it can be a little bit more time consuming to weave it back and forth. So if you just want to tie it in a knot and then you can poke that knot through by sliding your needle underneath here so you can get it to the backside and then you can just kind of pull that knot through and even, you know, use it to kind of pull those extra yarn tails inside your work. This one's really long. I'm just gonna cut that off. That's a little excessive and we could just poke it in there. And how cute is that We have a one eared cat. Um I'll finish up that little ear later, but I just wanted to check over my notes here and, and see if there was anything else I wanted to mention to you. Um That's so Monica is saying you make it look so easy. I can't wait to learn. Well, I'm excited that you're here and I hope that you give it a chance. It, this is a very easy project. Um You know, it does, like I said, it does take a while until you get the hang of hanging onto the hook. Um But yeah, that's like 90% of it and, and once you're able to hold on to things, you can make anything in the future. Um ok, so I wanted to just mention just a couple little things, one thing. Um and I already kind of did mention this, but when you're starting out teaching someone how to crochet if they're kind of project oriented and they don't wanna make, you know, the usual things definitely choose something that is smaller and they can accomplish, you know, within a short amount of time because that's gonna make them feel good and they're gonna be able to move on. You know, a lot of people suggest making a scarf as your first project. And I think the reason people do that is because it doesn't have to be a specific gauge. You just keep crocheting until it's the right length. You know, you don't have to follow up a written pattern or anything like that. But the problem with making a scarf is that it takes a very long time to actually finish it. So maybe if you're starting to do something like that, you could turn it into a cowl by sewing the two ends together or, you know, you could just even do a little bracelet or a little cuff. It would be cute if you just had a little crochet strip and sewed a button on to it, you know, to close it up. Um, this, these little bracelets here that I'm wearing. This is from leftovers from when I went to my kids' school and I taught crochet for one of their kind of fun outing nights. Um, and all it is is just a chain and then I picked a contrasting color of yarn and I did a slip stitch across the chain and then I just tied the two ends together. So these are, you know, it's a great way to just add color. It's just, you know, fun. It doesn't take hardly any time. But this is a really great project if, you know, if you're not sure if your kid is going to like crocheting, if you're trying to sort of convince them that they like crocheting, you know, if you want to do something really, really quick and then they can wear it and show people and just be super proud of what they did. And that kind of circles around, back around to um just, you know, giving them lots of praise even if you're looking at what they're making and you're like, oh, that, that, that looks real crazy. If you're saying that to yourself in your mind, try to try really hard not to show that in your face and just try to be excited that they even want to learn and they're even just taking the time to try and figure it out, you know, and try, just give them lots of, you know, lots of praise and oh, you know, you can say, you know, if you can't bring yourself to say that looks really good, you could say, wow, I'm so glad that you are excited to learn this, you know. And so, and so is gonna be so proud of you for learning how to do this. You know, you don't have to, you know, it's just, it's just one of those things where you just gotta, you gotta give them lots and lots of encouragement. And um you can say, you know, I mentioned this in the download too if you say, wow. You know, auntie. So and so doesn't even know how to do this. She's gonna be amazed that you are learning, you know, because kids absolutely love to be better at things than adults are. So if you can work that into the conversation, you know, they, they might really respond to that things like that, that, you know, will keep them going and get them excited to learn how to do it. Um Yeah, and I, I just, I, I wish you all the best and if you are learning yourself, I hope that you enjoy making this cat cube, it's really, really fun. Um And you can definitely customize it to other things. Um And if you're teaching somebody else how to crochet, just enjoy your time together, it's just gonna be such a wonderful thing that they'll, they'll remember that you are the one who taught them how to do that, which is super awesome. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for joining me. I really appreciate you guys being here and being active in the chat and making comments. Um And yeah, I will see you sometime in my next life. Bye.