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Crochet guide

How to crochet

To crochet, you put a loop on a hook, make a chain, and then work rows of stitches back and forth into it, beginning with single crochet (double crochet in United Kingdom patterns). This page gives the first steps in order, with a picture for each, from holding the hook to fastening off a small practice piece. Each step links to the page that shows it move by move.

On this page 12 parts
  1. Before you start
  2. 1. Hold the hook and the yarn
  3. 2. Make a slip knot
  4. 3. Make a chain
  5. 4. Work a row of single crochet
  6. 5. Turn
  7. 6. Work the second row
  8. 7. Count
  9. 8. Fasten off
  10. A first project
  11. If it goes wrong
  12. What to learn next

Before you start

You need a crochet hook, a ball of yarn and scissors, and a yarn needle to finish: a blunt needle with an eye large enough for the yarn. A smooth, light-colored yarn of medium weight shows each stitch.

Start with a hook of medium size, 4 mm (G-6) to 5 mm (H-8). If the yarn's label names a hook size, use that one. The standard range for yarn marked medium (weight 4) is larger: 5.5 mm (I-9) to 6.5 mm (K-10 1/2). What you need to start crocheting has the whole list.

This guide uses United States terms and describes a right-handed maker. If you are left-handed, hold the hook in your left hand and reverse each direction.

1. Hold the hook and the yarn

Hold the hook in the hand you write with, either like a pencil or with your hand over it like a knife. The other hand holds the work and feeds the yarn, which runs through your fingers and over the index finger. There is no one right way: how to hold a crochet hook and yarn describes the usual ones.

2. Make a slip knot

About 6 in (15 cm) from the end of the yarn, make a loop, draw a second loop up through it with the hook, and pull both ends until the knot closes under the hook. That puts the first loop on the hook. Patterns rarely mention this step. See slip knot.

The slip knot pulled snug under the hook, with one loop on the hook.

3. Make a chain

Take the yarn over the hook from back to front and pull it through the loop on the hook: that is one chain. Make 16, loosely, and count them without the slip knot or the loop on the hook. See chain stitch.

The head of the hook has caught the yarn and is about to draw it through the loop on the hook.
Five chain stitches, each with its number, counted from the slip knot. The slip knot and the loop on the hook have no number.

Foundation: Ch 16.

A pattern writes each step as a short line like this one. In these lines ch is chain, sc is single crochet, st is stitch, and RS marks the right side: the face of the piece that shows when it is finished.

4. Work a row of single crochet

Single crochet (double crochet in United Kingdom patterns) is the stitch to learn first. Skip the chain next to the hook and push the hook into the second chain. Yarn over and pull up a loop, so that two loops are on the hook; yarn over again and pull through both. Work one single crochet into each chain to the end. See single crochet.

Six chains hanging from the hook, numbered from the hook: 1 is the chain next to the loop on the hook, and 6 is next to the slip knot. The loop on the hook has no number. Chain 2, the second chain from the hook, is marked.

Row 1 (RS): Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across (15 sc).

Sixteen chains give 15 stitches, because the chain next to the hook was skipped.

5. Turn

Make 1 chain, then turn the work around, keeping the hook in its loop. The chain lifts the yarn to the height of the new row. In single crochet it is not a stitch: do not work into it and do not count it. See turning chain.

The end of the first row. One chain stitch stands on the last stitch of the row, and one loop is on the hook above it.

6. Work the second row

Work the first single crochet into the last stitch you made in the row before, with the hook under both strands at the top of that stitch. Then work one in each stitch to the end. Repeat the turn and the row until you have 15 rows. See starting the second row.

The work has been turned: the chain now stands at the right edge, with the hook in the loop above it. The top of the stitch the chain stands on is marked: the first stitch of the new row goes there.

Rows 2 to 15: Ch 1, turn; sc in each st across (15 sc).

7. Count

At the end of every row, count the stitches: the Vs along the top edge, not the loop on the hook. If the number has changed, a stitch was added or missed, most often at one end of the row. See counting stitches and rows.

A row of six single crochet. Each stitch has a number over its top, from 1 at the right, where the row began, to 6 at the left. The loop on the hook has no number.

8. Fasten off

After the last stitch, cut the yarn about 6 in (15 cm) from the hook, pull the tail through the loop on the hook and tighten it. Thread each tail onto a yarn needle and weave it through the back of several stitches, changing direction, before you trim it. See fastening off and weaving in ends.

The cut tail has been drawn all the way through the last loop, which still stands open on the end of the row, and ends free. The hook is out of the work.

Fasten off and weave in the ends.

A first project

The piece you have just made is a practice piece. Made again in cotton, a piece like it is a dishcloth, which is a common first project: it is small and worked in the stitches you now know. The dishcloth patterns give the stitch counts and the yarn for each one.

If it goes wrong

  • The hook will not go into the chain. The chain is too tight, which is common when you are learning. Make it more loosely, or with a larger hook.
  • The first row is a struggle. Working into the chain is awkward for every beginner. It gets easier with practice.
  • The piece gets wider or narrower. Count every row, and check where the first and last stitches go.

Common crochet problems has more.

What to learn next

Stitches

Guides

Patterns