Your grandma was onto something when she crocheted you your first baby blanket or tried to teach you how to crochet as a child. Crochet is a dying art, but for what? Imagine being able to hand-make every piece of clothing in your closet and making every single piece the perfect style and fit for your body. Goodbye fast fashion! Crochet is one of the easiest hobbies to pick up, and it also carries tons of physical and mental health benefits to better your mind, body, and spirit. Scroll through to find out why crochet is the perfect new hobby to pick up this fall and how to get you started!
Why Crochet?
Crochet has been around since the 1800s, and it’s renowned for how easy it is to pick up some yarn and turn it into something magical. I picked up crochet about a month ago as a new hobby because I was spending WAY too much of my free time scrolling through TikTok, which was not benefiting me at all. Instead of spending hours of my evenings with my eyes glued to a screen, I spend my nights putting my ADHD brain to work by creating something new and useful, entirely of my own design. What do you do to wind down after a long day?
Crochet is Good For Your Health
The best part of my day is being able to come home after a long, stressful day and put my overworked brain and body at ease. Not only does crochet tune into your right-brained creative side, but it helps to ease stress levels, anxiety, and depression. It also serves to calm a hyperactive mind. Crocheting can help to increase dexterity in your hands as well. Crochet is almost entirely made up of a few repetitive stitches, which only gives you one task to focus on while your mind and body get some much-needed TLC. As with writing, music, sports, or art, there’s this “trance” that you get sucked into when doing something that you love. When you’re crocheting, all of your worries pent-up emotions melt away as you enter into this meditative state of continuous, repetitive motions and let your mind have the freedom to roam.
Fast Fashion, Who?
In a world where fast fashion is running rampant and fleeting fashion trends are filling up landfills faster than ever, it is becoming more and more important for us to do our part in cutting out the fast fashion industry. Instead of buying that patchwork Harry Styles cardigan from Shein that comes out looking nothing like the photo, why don’t you pick up your yarn and crochet hook and create your own personal design? While thrifting is just one great way to help the problem, so is crochet! Instead of paying $6 or $7 for a thrifted piece of clothing that probably needs some major tailoring work, buy a $3 skein (or ball) of yarn from Michael’s and hand-make an entire outfit in a weekend.
All You Need is 6 Basic Stitches
As I mentioned earlier, crochet is almost entirely made up of just a few repetitive stitches. There are six basic crochet stitches that you should know about when getting started; chain stitch, slip-knot, single crochet, half-double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. Learning just one of these foundational stitches will allow you to create hundreds of different pieces and patterns. Luckily, once you learn the single crochet, every following stitch is just an addition or a slight tweak to the single crochet that gives your piece an entirely different look.
Here is a helpful Youtube tutorial by CrochetCraft Kiduniya for all six of the basic crochet stitches to get you started:
Here’s What You’ll Need to Start
To begin your crochet journey, you’ll need just a couple of materials to get started. Crochet is one of the cheapest and most accessible hobbies to pick up. All it takes to get started is $20 and a trip to your local Walmart! Here are the four foundational pieces to pick up or order online this week to get started:
- Set of assorted crochet hooks: This set of crochet hooks from Walmart has a large assortment of sizes compared to other sets, which will allow you more freedom to create a variety of different projects. From chunky blankets to dainty bandanas, the crochet world is your oyster!
- Yarn: Skeins of yarn come in many different weights and sizes. I recommend starting with a medium-weight 4” yarn, which you will see most often when starting your journey. The brand, Red Heart, is one of my favorites because every purchase you make donates a portion of the funds to the American Red Cross Association.
- Tapestry Needles: In order to finish off your crochet piece, you have to weave in the leftover yarn so that your stitches don’t come loose. This assorted pack of tapestry needles from Walmart will do just the trick!
- Tape Measure: To make your own clothes, you’ll need to know your size. Using a tape measure allows you to crochet pieces made to fit your body perfectly based on your measurements.
Once you have your materials, you can jump right in by pulling up a Youtube tutorial and following along to create your first piece. Using the foundational stitches I mentioned above, you can create hats, tote bags, corsets, tops, bandanas, skirts, dresses, blankets, cardigans, literally anything you can think of for your first project! Once you dive in and get over the beginner frustration of picking up a new hobby, you will quickly find yourself just as addicted to the craft as I am. Happy crocheting!