Beginning crochet - what do I need?

[Lilliana]

I have decided to try crochet as I need a new project but I have no idea where to start or what I need.

Seen lots of metal hooks on ebay (12 for £3) are they any good? Do I need lots of sizes or is it better to spend more on a few better hooks? (which hooks are better?) -sorry for overuse of the word better!

Wool - do I need a special sort? Where is best to buy?

How do I start? Is there a simple project? I have a DD so maybe something for her or home.

Sorry for all the stupid questions but would rather get it right from the beginning than give up frustrated or buy new as what I got was rubbish!

Thanks for any help

I bought a metal set and found I didn't really use them.

If I were you I'd get a 4mm hook and some double knit wool. I prefer wood hooks but it's a very personal thing.

YouTube is great for beginners and some recommend the Happy Hooker book. Just be aware english and American crochet uses different terminology for the same stitch. It's easy enough, so long as you know if the guide you are following is Aenglish or American iyswim.

Look on Ravelry or attic24 for some simple granny square patterns. Working in the round is easier to begin with.

Thanks so much for the advice. Will check out youtube and those websites before I start buying books and see if I can get to grips with some basics. The more I look at it the more complicated it seems!

I started off with a 6mm hook and chunky wool to practice the foundation chains. I then crocheted a little table topper thing for my vedside table just to get the practice.

IVe just mastered basic granny squares now. You tube is brilliant. Ive learnt so much from watching online videos.

It's not complicated really, it can be a bit confusing when you start but you can pick it up fairly quickly.

I started with a crochet for kids book but it's American terminology and not that easy to follow. I definitely found YouTube easier, I would pause and rewind as necessary and basically follow the video in real time.

I only learnt the end of last year and I've made blankets, cushions, loads of scarves, angry birds toys, Wristwarmers. I love it, it's a great hobby.

Miaow's tip of a bigger hook for the foundation chain is a good one, I do tend to do that myself. The first row is always the trickiest. That's if you are crocheting in rows though, I really think crocheting in rounds is easier to begin with.

I bought one of the metal sets, and I have found that I have used enough of them to make them worthwhile, especially as I have got better at crocheting. In fact, I needed to go down from a 5mm hook to a 3.5mm one for the blanket I am hooking (lots of different squares), because my granny squares were too baggy and messy - I was kindly informed on here that I was a loose hooker!! Dh was quite shocked.

The youtube tutorials are very useful - I found that I could go from what I learned on them and work backwards to use that knowledge to understand the patterns - for example, I followed a tutorial to learn the basic granny square, then looked at the pattern in the book, and could see how what I was actually doing correlated with the instructions on the page, iyswim.

Once you have got the basics down, I would strongly recommend that you visit Ravelry - there are thousands of patterns on there - knitting and crochet - and many of them are free (in fact, you can narrow down your search to just free patterns if you don't want to pay for one). Plus you might be able to find a knitting/crochet/yarncraft group in your area, that would be a good source of help, advice and general crafty gossip.

Happy hooking!

I started with a 4mm hook and some cheap DK acrylic yarn. TBH the set of 12 hooks for £3 is perhaps double that of a single hook. I have used others from the similar set I bought so they weren't wasted. Took a while to arrive as they were coming from CHina though so it depends how keen you are.

I used a book called Crochet Unravelled and worked through the stitches. Once I got to the section where you made a granny square, I stopped and just carried on making my granny square bigger and bigger - DD got a little blanket and I got to practise. I found that it was a good project for getting into a rhythm and sorting out how I liked to hold the yarn etc.

I'm new to crochet and it took me ages to learn and feel confident. I blogged about it here knitstitchsew.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/cracking-crochet/ with my top tips too. Good luck!

Thank you everyone. I have a feeling I will be around A and C boards a lot more when I start this!

Right I have bought the hooks and they should be here Monday so looking forward to having a go.

Knit I love the ripple blanket link on your blog but guessing I will have to work up to that one! Have pinned it though for future reference, maybe one day I will get there.

Soup I like the granny squares. Can you just carry on to make them bigger or do I do a few and sew them together?

STD 'loose hooker' There was talk at the local sure start of starting a beginners crochet group so hope they get on with it soon as I think I will probably do better with someone telling me where I am going wrong than trying to work it out myself.

DYTTS You can crochet in rows and rounds?! I have a lot to learn. If I want to do a granny square is that rows or rounds?

I just made mine bigger and bigger - "giant granny square" is the technical term, lots of people do it :)

I liked it as I didn't need to read a pattern and could concentrate on the stitches and yarn.

I have 2 kits I don't want if you would like them - got them free with a magazine.

They have hooks yarn and pattern

Sounds ideal Soup especially if I don't have to keep looking at a pattern.

Cheese thanks so much, I have sent you a pm

Any crocheting is in rows or rounds. A traditional granny square is done working in the round. You start in the middle and do the number of rounds you want. It's not like a spiral, more like a number of circles each bigger than the last. If you are crocheting in rows you start with long foundation chain the width you want.

If you are working in rounds it is very difficult for your work to not be square. Working in rows from a pattern you'll have to look at your tension in order to make the width the same as the length.

I started learning this week too. Like everyone else I've done a lot of you tube. I made a few squares each for each of the basic stitches just so I could drum it in my brain. Three days in im only realy confused with joining rounds up and keeping count of my count im making a monster hat I found on pinterest and very proud that its beanie shaped so far.

Three days in im only realy confused with joining rounds up and keeping count of my count

Three years in and I still struggle with the counting :o

And the giant granny square I mentioned earlier...? At some point I messed up the join and ended up crocheting in a spiral :)

The ability to walk across the room and retrieve your crochet after you throw it in a rage every 20 minutes.

I found that books and even YouTube didn't help at first, I needed someone to come round and show me. Once I'd had an evening's tuition and a glass of wine it all fell into place and now I'm happily making granny squares and stuff.

Hooks arrived this morning. Am feeling excited atm but have a feeling frustration will be setting in soon. Off to find some old wool to have a play with while DH watches superman with a hangover.

Pantone - I could do with more exercise, maybe I can chase my thrown crochet instead of the 30 day shred

I started crochet at Easter with a few random granny squares.

I love the attic 24blog and have made her bag and am now 2/3 of the way through the ripple blanket. It's surprisingly simple once you've got the hang of it.

Wool warehouse is a great online shop and I've been working with the drops merino extra fine yarn which has been really good value.