Absolute beginner's guide to crochet: hook, yarn and your first chain

Crochet has one big advantage over most crafts: you only ever have one live stitch. Drop your work, pick it up tomorrow, and nothing has unravelled. Here's how to get from a ball of yarn to your first fabric.

Pick a forgiving hook and yarn

Start with a 5mm or 5.5mm hook and a smooth, light-coloured acrylic or cotton-blend yarn in DK or aran weight. Dark, fluffy or textured yarn hides your stitches, which is exactly what you don't want while learning. Ergonomic hooks with a rubbery handle are kinder on hands if you plan to do a lot.

Hold it however works

There are two classic grips: pencil (hook held like a pen) and knife (hook held like a dinner knife). Neither is correct. Try both for a few minutes and keep the one that feels less awkward. Tension your yarn by weaving it through the fingers of your other hand; loose and comfortable beats tight and precise.

The slip knot and chain

1. Make a loop in the yarn, pull the working end through it and pop it on your hook. Snug it up but not tight.
2. Wrap the yarn over the hook from back to front (this is a yarn over, or yo).
3. Pull that loop through the loop already on your hook. That's one chain stitch (ch).
4. Repeat until you have about 20 chains. Aim for chains that look like a row of little hearts and are all roughly the same size.

Your first row: double crochet

In UK terms, the basic stitch is double crochet (dc). Americans call the same stitch single crochet (sc); watch out for this whenever you read a pattern.

1. Skip the chain nearest the hook and insert your hook into the second chain, under the top loop.
2. Yarn over, pull a loop through. You now have two loops on the hook.
3. Yarn over again, pull through both loops. One dc done.
4. Repeat into every chain to the end. Count them: you should have 19.

Turning and building fabric

Make one chain (the turning chain), turn your work like a page, and dc into each stitch of the row below, starting in the very first stitch. Count at the end of every row while you're learning. A wobbly edge is almost always a missed or extra stitch at the ends.

Common early wobbles

• Work getting narrower: you're missing the last stitch of each row. Look for it under the turning chain.
• Work getting wider: you're working into the turning chain by mistake.
• Stitches too tight to get into: relax your yarn hand and go up a hook size.
• Can't see the stitches: switch to a smoother, lighter yarn.

Keep going until your swatch is square, then celebrate: that's a coaster. Next stop, the [treble stitch and a granny square](/craft/crochet).

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