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  • LimitedMind
    +4

    Crocheting.... And you can make yourself a nifty afghan or hat

    • Sonderling
      +4

      Do you have any tips/resources you could share? I've been trying to take up crocheting but it feels like no matter how much I practice I haven't gotten any better. I very much want to learn, though.

      • Teakay
        +6

        My advice is basically to examine every explanation of the process you can find. Read written descriptions, look at diagrams, watch videos, etc. Eventually one of them will make all the pieces you've been collecting fall into place. Crocheting really isn't hard at all, and even if you don't do it quite right it will often still look good as long as you have the basic idea. Getting that basic idea is the hardest part, though. It isn't hard, but it looks hard until you understand what crocheting actually is.

        Once you have the basic idea down, just crochet and crochet and crochet until you feel like you can attempt harder stuff. At the beginning I wouldn't even worry about patterns, you can just make simple stuff up as you go.

        I say all of this because it took me ages to learn. I first tried learning with a book my grandma got me when I was seven. It made absolutely no sense to me and I couldn't do anything except make a chain, so I gave up. A few years later I tried again and still couldn't do it. Repeat once or twice more. Finally last winter I decided I was finally going to learn to crochet... and I did, in about an hour after looking up any explanation of the thing I could find in order to finally wrap my head around the process.

        Good luck!

        • Sonderling
          +2

          Thanks! I think I'm in the same position as you were. All I'm able to really do well is make chains, but whenever I try to branch out and try something more it gets messed up and I just get frustrated. It's good to hear that you were able to learn it, even after so long. Thanks for the words of encouragement. :)

      • thornwind
        +3

        Youtube is great for this! I like Crochet Guru

      • Qukatt
        +2

        I'm on my phone so I cant link but there is a fabby website that is full of excellent clear gifs of the move for each stitch. Gifs so you don't have to keep rewinding youtube videos :)

        Also I'm available on skype to help with any crochet issues if you want, just pm me I will hook you up with my skype details.

        • eightbitsamurai
          +2

          If you can, please send me the link whenever you're able! My sister's learning how to this weekend and I'm sure she could use the resources.

          • Qukatt (edited 8 years ago)
            +2

            found the link for you - http://crochet-gifs.tumblr.com/

            it's an excellent site, i have been crocheting for years and use it occasionally. I recommend it to everyone xD

            Edit: there's a technique I recommend that is not on that site and that's the "Russian join" for joining the start of one ball of wool to the end of the one you were working with. it's a completely invisible join and has no ends to sew into your work which can be awkward depending on your pattern (if you have areas of lacey style crochet chains or Solomon's knots then it's really frustrating to hide ends.) I can't recommend learning the Russian join highly enough :)

            Also being able to read crochet charts which will give you access to the wealth of Russian, Japanese and Spanish patterns out there that are all charted (also for piecing together bits of patterns into what you want to make!)