So, you are beginner in crocheting? I was a beginner a few years ago and decided to create a book for those just starting out. This book is filled with advice and tips for beginners. I am happy to share a sample of my crocheting for beginners book below:
Welcome to your new crocheting journey. Crocheting is
beautiful and can be a relaxing and feel-good experience / hobby. Crocheting
lets you use your hands to create and inspire. You will learn that you can
crochet anywhere at anytime. Just make sure you have a crochet hook and your
favourite yarn with you. I started this journey and found it very difficult to
even learn how to do a basic chain stitch but I assure you, the more you
practice and just practice, the more your hands will learn the ins and outs and
it just becomes easy. It’s not about how fast your journey is, it is all about
you starting and continuing. Crocheting can be very healing if you allow it
into your life. It can also be very rewarding as you create new and exciting
things. Your journey awaits you. Let us begin.
This book takes you on the journey of crocheting. There are
many crocheting books out there which are filled with patterns, but I felt like
something extra was needed for beginners. A little bit of guidance and support
to help you get through the beginning of crocheting, when your fingers
alignments feel foreign, and the hook is just not hooking.
If you enjoy reading this book, please leave a review on the
site you bought it from. Reviews are always appreciated.
Why crochet?
It’s actually part of women’s history where in the past, we
learnt to weave using different materials. So, it makes sense that we are
ingrained to learn how to crochet to provide things for our homes and family.
However, if you are a man reading this book, well done on
wanting to crochet! Enjoy the crocheting fun! And in terms of age, you can be
any age to crochet!! People laugh at me because I am middle aged and they are
like, isn’t that for old people? Absolutely not. Just keep crocheting if that’s
what you want to do. Don’t let the idea of age stop you from starting your
crocheting journey.
Hi, I am Mel. I love writing and I love writing eBooks. I
have some for sale in your favourite e-store, just search Melanie Toye in the
search bar to find my other eBooks for sale.
I also love to crochet and discovered it about 2 years ago.
I self-taught in crocheting and learned from YouTube learning stitches, to
understanding how to read patterns and now just experimenting with different
coloured yarns and even though sometimes things don’t work out, mostly they do
now! And its all because of practice of the stitches.
I hope you learn some cool tips and advice from this book,
and I hope you have fun crocheting, because once you start and get comfortable
with it, then you can relax and have some fun and make cool items for you, your
family and friends and your home! You might even go down the selling crochet
items path, which I mention within this eBook.
This part is for pure beginners. I started crocheting two years ago and I simply love it. I still have a lot to learn but I want to share with you what I have learnt to date to help you starting your own crocheting journey. It’s definitely fun and the more I make, the more I can see that I can crochet things for everyday use, such as blankets and scarves and cool amigurumi to decorate around the home. Then when you start to crochet for yourself and your home first, you can look around and realise your home is filled with love. Love that you poured out while crocheting, even when sometimes (for example crocheting blankets), it can feel like a long journey and maybe you might want to give up. But I can assure you, just put your project down for a while and try a different crocheting project to get you back into your excitement again. Then when you are ready go back to your bigger project. There is no wrong way on how you create crochet projects. You can have as many as you want going. It’s up to you when to finish them.
The yarn I only use for blankets, scarves and amigurumi is
acrylic 8 / 3 ply. It’s sort of thick and it’s definitely warm after I have
crocheted a few blankets. And it’s easy to wash! For smaller items I use a
laundry bag and throw it in the normal wash setting or for a blanket, it’s too
big for a laundry bag and has survived the normal setting without getting
undone! #winning
There are different types of coloured yarn and what I mean
by this is, there are colours like royal blue or purple but there are also
multi-colours, like pink-white yarn, which is one of my favourites. It took me
awhile to build up the courage to crochet with the multi-colours, but it is
definitely cool. For example, I did crochet a pink-white coloured yarn ice
cream with a beige coloured cone. It looked yummy! And I put it for sale with
my other crocheted ice creams, calling the flavour, strawberry and cream. I
also am currently crocheting my own blanket using the pink-white coloured yarn.
It definitely looks cool. Whereas, my other two blankets I made, were one
colour. Go even further and add more different coloured yarn to your crocheted
blankets. Basically, just have fun with the colours and whatever colour you
choose, love it, because if you are spending 3-5 months crocheting a blanket it
is more enjoyable, and you crochet more quicker when it’s a colour you actually
like. I did crochet a purple-coloured blanket, and I don’t really like purple.
It took double the time to make a purple blanket, just a bit bigger than the
royal blue blanket I made. The reason it took so long is simply because I
didn’t like the colour. Choose your colours wisely!
A lot of the crochet pattern kits I have bought include a 3-inch hook. It feels really small to me. I found it really hard to crochet anything. I was watching a YouTube crochet video and the YouTuber said she only uses a 5-inch crochet hook. And from that day, so did I. Here’s what happens though if you use a bigger hook. For amigurumi, your project is bigger and sometimes double the size as it should have been if you had used the patterns crochet hook size. That’s okay. What this does mean though, if you buy a crochet kit, do not use the yarn in the kit. Because you will run out of the yarn before you finish. And the coloured yarn they provide I have never seen the same colour in store, so you can’t just top it up if you run out. So, use your own yarn and own stuffing as well to make up for the larger hook.
In terms of where to find stuffing for your amigurumi you
can buy cushion inserts or buy really cheap pillows or cushions and cut it open
and use the stuffing. The reason I say buy cheap pillows or cushions because I
have seen and bought two pillows for $5 for two. And cushions I have seen for
as low as $3. The cushion inserts if you buy it yourself can cost $10. It’s all
the same cushion insert so just buy whatever is cheapest for you. I always try
to buy two, because it goes pretty quickly when crocheting amigurumi.
One important note about buying a pattern or a crochet kit, is this: Make sure you know how to read a pattern first. If you don’t know what ch, sc, inc means you won’t be able to crochet the pattern. It’s not really simply buying a crochet kit as your first project. Your first project needs to be learning how to crochet the stitches. For me, I would suggest the best stitches to learn is sc. Sc means single crochet and ch, ch means chain. These two stitches I use for crocheting scarves and blankets. I know this might be either scary sounding or relief but for me it was relief. I finally found crocheting fun and enjoyable by just using those two stitches.
Here is what the pattern means when referring to stitches:
Ch = chain
Sc = single crochet
Inc = increase
Dec = decrease
There are other stitches which personally I haven’t learned yet. I feel I know enough and can do an array of patterns using the above stitches. However, if you want to learn more stitches, just type in the pattern stitch reference into YouTube to learn how to do the stitch. And practice it a few times, write it down, and then if asked for in a pattern you will know how to do the stitch. Don’t limit yourself. But also, if you are feeling overwhelmed by all the stitches, remember you can crochet big projects with just two stitches, the chain and single crochet stitch. So, if you feel you aren’t ready to keep learning more stitches, you can still crochet blankets and scarves. Then once you start crocheting you realise how many blankets and scarves you can crochet and the sky is limitless. So don’t let the fear of learning stitches stop you from learning. Even if you just focus on learning one stitch a day and just practice that stitch over and over and over. So, your hands can get used to it.
I would definitely recommend using the chain stitch first
because you use this stitch in every pattern I have ever done, first. It is
always the first stitch to start with. Plus, when teaching others, I teach them
the chain stitch first. It just makes sense.
I hope you enjoyed reading my sample of The Journey of crocheting for beginners book by Melanie Toye. You can find links of where to purchase on my blog page here.
I also sell crocheting digital downloads at my Etsy store.
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