A Chain Is Only As Strong As It's Weakest Link

How to start crocheting

And how to do a single stitch

To start, you're going to need a hook and a skein of yarn.

skein

skān/

noun

1. a length of thread or yarn, loosely coiled and knotted.

   • a tangled or complicated arrangement, state, or situation.

     "the skeins of her long hair"
   • a flock of wild geese or swans in flight, typically in a V-shaped formation.

   
   

The other thing you're going to need is a hook. Hooks come in many different sizes and often a pattern will recommend which size to use. My personal favorite size of hook to use for any project is a 5.00mm hook. I find it's comfortable for me and keeps me from pulling my stitches too tightly. If you're not sure what size you think you might like, Walmart has a set of hook with varied sizes that isn't a whole lot of money. Walmart also has a fairly good selection of yarn. The Red Heart brand has a lot of different colors and that tends to be the brand I shop.

A slip knot...

Most will tell you to start with a "slip knot" to start off, but to be honest I don't ever do it and I'm 99.99% sure it doesn't really make a lick of difference, as long as you get the yarn attached to the hook. When tying your knot you want to make sure you leave about six (6) inches of yarn at the end. But here's a damn slip knot for those who want to see it. It was confusing for me and it didn't really do much for me. But here is a picture of one anyway, because I know you guys wanted to see it.

Now it's time to start our chain! Using your hook, pull the yarn through the loop on your hook. Once you have the new loop on your crocheting hook, pull a new loop through and continue. Rinse and repeat until you get your desired width/length. You're just making a bunch of loops out of the same length of string.

And that's how you make the beginning of literally ANY crocheting project. But you don't want to just make a long chain, right? You're here because you want to make pot holders and drink coasters for your coffee table. Well, keep calm, you're going to be able to make all of these things in due time, you just have to learn how to turn the project around.

There are a TON of different types of stitches, which I will cover later, and all of them are started off the basic chain differently. For now, because we're starting out, we're going to start with what's called a single stitch.

1. Thread your hook through the 2nd chain stitch
2. Hook the yarn and pull it through
• You should now be carrying two loops on your hook.
3. Hook the yarn and carry it through the two loops you carry.
4. With one loop on your hook, insert your hook into the next chain
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you get to the last chain stitch.
6. When you've completed you're last single stitch on the last chain stitch, do one chain stitch and turn your work.

You should now see within the previous stitches an indent. This is where you'll insert your hook to continue with
your work. Repeat all of the previous steps. You keep doing all of this until you have a project of the desired size.





And that's how you create a chain and do a single stitch! Hopefully you can see these pictures... I wanted to show them all without it taking up a ton of space. If you'd like to see larger versions let me know and I'll post them.