How to Crochet for Beginners: Your First Week, Step by Step

Crochet looks complicated until you see how few moves it is built from. Everything starts with a loop on a hook, a chain and a handful of stitches. This guide takes you through your first week: what to buy, how to hold the hook and the yarn, the three first techniques, and a day-by-day plan that ends with a finished toy. You do not need a class, only a hook, some yarn and about twenty minutes a day.

What to buy first

Avoid black, dark or fluffy yarn for your first projects, because you cannot see where the hook goes. Keep your first ball of yarn plain. Later, when you start making toys, you will use a smaller hook than the yarn label suggests. The text on our amigurumi patterns page explains why.

How to hold the hook and the yarn

There are two common ways to hold the hook, and both are correct.

• Pencil grip: hold the hook like a pencil, with your thumb and index finger on the flat part. Many beginners find this natural.
• Knife grip: hold the hook from above, like a knife, with your palm over the handle. It feels steadier for some people.

Your other hand holds the work and controls the yarn. Pass the yarn between your fingers or around your little finger so it slides smoothly and has a little tension. If the yarn runs too freely, wrap it once more around a finger. If it is hard to pull, loosen the wrap. This small detail decides whether your stitches come out loose or tight, and it improves quickly with practice.

Technique 1: the slip knot

1. Make a loop in the yarn, leaving a tail about 15 cm (6 in) long.
2. Pull a second loop of yarn through the first loop, using your hook or your fingers.
3. Put the second loop on your hook, and pull on the tail to tighten the knot until it is snug but not tight.

Technique 2: the chain stitch

Wrap the yarn over the hook from back to front (this is called a yarn over), and pull it through the loop already on the hook. You have made one chain. Repeat to make a longer chain. Keep the loop on your hook loose enough to slide the hook out easily, and count the chains as you go, without counting the loop on the hook. A chain is the base of most flat projects, and it is also used for turning at the end of a row.

Technique 3: the slip stitch

Put the hook into a stitch or a chain, yarn over, and pull the yarn through both the stitch and the loop on the hook in one motion. This flat, tiny stitch is used to join rounds, to finish edges and to move across the top of the work without adding height. Practice it along a chain: work one slip stitch into each chain, and count them.

Your next stitch: single crochet

Once you can chain and slip stitch, the single crochet is next. It is the stitch that most amigurumi toys use. Our guide on how to single crochet covers it step by step, with a practice swatch and a table of common mistakes. After that, learn the magic ring, which is how toys start.

A seven-day plan

How tension works, and how to fix it

Tension is how tightly you pull the yarn. If your stitches are very tight, the hook will be hard to push in, and your hands will tire. If they are loose and floppy, the fabric will have holes. Beginners usually start tight. Relax your grip, let the yarn slide through your fingers, and try a hook one size larger while you learn. When your stitches become even, go back to the size the pattern asks for. Changing hook size also changes the size of the finished piece, which is why patterns for fitted clothes ask you to check your gauge.

Mistakes everyone makes

• Counting the loop on the hook as a stitch. Do not count it.
• Twisting the foundation chain so the stitches are hard to find. Keep the chain straight, with the V shapes facing you.
• Losing the first or last stitch of a row, so the edges get uneven. Count the stitches after each row.
• Pulling the yarn so tight that the hook sticks. Relax your hand.
• Giving up on a swatch that looks messy. Everyone's first swatches are messy. Unravel it and start again, which costs nothing.

Reading your first pattern

Patterns use short abbreviations, like "ch" for chain, "sl st" for slip stitch and "sc" for single crochet. The number in brackets at the end of a line tells you how many stitches you should have. Our guide on how to read a crochet pattern explains the symbols, and the US and UK crochet terms chart is useful, because the same name can mean a different stitch in each system.

Good first projects

• A coaster or a dishcloth: flat, fast and forgiving.
• A simple ball or a small round toy: teaches the magic ring and increases.
• A scarf in a single stitch: teaches even edges and tension.
• A beginner amigurumi animal with few parts and one or two colors.

When you are ready for a toy, browse our crochet patterns for beginners, where the free patterns are listed first, or open the free crochet patterns page. Each pattern shows its skill level and a list of materials before you download it.