Are You Crafty?

Crocheting is a great pastime for the young and old. If you already know how to knit, then crocheting will be easy to learn. It is similar to knitting in that you pull yarn through loops using a crochet hook. Even if you have no knowledge of knitting it will still be easy to crochet. With some time and practice, you can learn to crochet anything. These are some basics to crocheting.

Crochet Materials

You will need to purchase a crochet hook. Just like knitting needles, they come in many different sizes and materials. Smaller crochet hooks yield finer crochet work. For beginners, it’s best to get a bigger crochet hook (15 to 19 mm) so that you can easily see what you are doing and fix mistakes as they come.
You also will need yarn. Yarn for knitting can be used for crocheting as well. The yarn label on the yarn will mention what size of crochet needle they recommend.

Differences To Knitting

• Crochet uses one hook while knitting uses two needles.
• When crocheting, you have only one active stitch on the hook while knitter has numerous stitches that are active at the same time.
• Crocheting a circular pattern is quite easy using a crochet hook. Knitting, however, requires circular knitting needles or a series of double-ended needles.
• Crocheting is used for joining fabrics together, much more frequently than knitting. in fact, crocheting is often used to finish a knitted sweater.

So go out today, get the basic materials and off you go. Start with something small to crochet like a pot holder and once you get the basics you can expand to something more elaborate.