As someone who has been struggling to get into new hobbies, crocheting felt like a productive, creative activity for me to get into. At the very end of spring break, I ordered my hooks and a cheap, tiny ball of yarn and got to work. If you are looking to crochet and wondering whether it is right for you or are seeking some advice about starting, I’ve got you covered!
Getting the materials
I recommend starting with cheap, yet good quality materials just in case you do not enjoy it. I got my set of hooks from Amazon and it came with 12 different size hooks, a tape measure, and a bunch of stitch markers to keep track of your work. I recommend going to Walmart, Michael’s, or JOANN for yarn and buying a cheap skein of your favorite color. The standard weight is number four, which is a medium thickness. As appealing as those fluffy and chenille yarns are, they are not where you want to start and they are pricey! Do not spend more than five dollars on your first skein of yarn just in case you absolutely hate crocheting!
1. Start with square projects
I started with making a very tiny drawstring pouch that did not turn out very well because the magic circle is a difficult technique for beginners. If you are like me though, you do not want to waste time by making a swatch and trying to learn the stitches and you want to jump right into a project. I wouldn’t recommend this, and if I could go back and start over, I would start with at least one video learning the basic stitches before I started. It took me a good hour of frustrating myself through the stitches and understanding the movements before I got a pretty good handle on what I was doing. This basket was the first project I started with, and the square design makes it easier to keep track of your stitches than a circle allows.
2. Be patient with yourself
Crocheting is an extremely rewarding and relaxing hobby if you stick with it, but it takes a lot of patience. Learning the stitches and movements does not come easy, but once you learn them you will be off on your own. There are tons of easy projects to make that are extremely useful too, which is one of my biggest considerations when picking a hobby. I want to ensure I am productive sometimes while I wind down, and with crocheting, I can literally make a crop top for myself instead of scrolling on TikTok for an hour every night before bed!
3. Reject a perfectionism
A lot of my stitches look very bad or uneven sometimes when I crochet. This could be for tons of reasons that are not just attributed to a mistake — sometimes this could be from how the yarn stretches, how far apart your stitches are, or the tension you are holding the yarn with. The main point of crocheting you will learn very early on is that you must resist perfectionism; otherwise, it will consume your brain and make a relaxing hobby extremely stressful. No one will notice if a stitch on your basket is a little too big or wider than you wanted it to be. You will learn how to correct your mistakes easily, such as something shorter than expected, so I added a border around the outside!
4. Make sure to Embrace the rewards
Crocheting is a beautiful hobby that you can do for yourself and others, and there is no better feeling than seeing your project develop. You are literally creating an object from a ball of yarn and that is to be celebrated, whether you start with a small square swatch or a beginner shirt. My next projects include making crop tops for my friends and a baby blanket for my cousin’s new baby.
Eventually, I hope to be able to make sweaters and dresses for myself, as well as coasters and a hanging planter for my future apartment. Happy crocheting!