Crochet 101: Make a chain!

Here are some great fun ways to evolve your knitting, if you have yet to try crochet, you should give it a try!  First, just like knitting, you are going to have to start from somewhere.  So here is your first step: make a chain!

Step 1:  Get your tools together.  Yarn, and your scissors and a crochet hook:  A good one to start with is a USK10.5/6.50MM size hook.  You can do anything bigger, but stay away from smaller at the start.  You are going to just make a chain. 

Step 2:  Make a slip knot.  Just like in knitting, take your yarn, and wrap it around two fingers, and then pull it through the wrap, and pull up until it looks like this:

Its a nice loose slip knot!

Step 3:  Put that slip knot on your hook, just like you do on a needle:

Step 4:  Happy Days!  You are Now going to Hook a Chain!  Take the yarn end that holds your ball of yarn, and place your yarn over the hook base, and then pull it through the slip knot, and keep it loose. Check out these two steps!

Check out how loose this is.  Keep it loose! If you tighten this at all you are going to curse at yourself later on.  You will use these loose loops to create your first row in crochet called the chain.  This first row is like super straight, and you should continue it until you have 20 loops.  Do not count the slip knot, just 20 overs and pull throughs until you get this beautiful thing:

Do not worry if it has a few twists and turns, you are just going to improve with time!  Yippee, You have just completed your first row, your chain, in crochet.  Put it down and dance around the room, as it is a thing of beauty!