by Amy Simpson
One rainy day during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, I decided after 4 months of looking longingly at a crochet hook kit that my boyfriend bought me for Christmas, that I was finally going to pluck up the courage to dive in and teach myself. I grabbed a cuppa, my crochet hooks, yarn and laptop and got searching. I found a course and thought, perfect, lets go!
The course was how to make a hat, I tried and tried and could not get the hang of it!! I gave up after a couple of hours, did a few rows of knitting to chill myself out and then got back to it!! This time I ventured to YouTube and found a few great tutorials on the very basics of crochet. I picked a video on how to do a magic circle. I got in a right tangle and still could not grasp it. So I decided I was starting with things way beyond my skill set, so found a video teaching me to chain stitch, I practiced this and found that I could do it – woohoo. After a few practice chain stitches, I then learnt the UK Double Crochet Stitch and got the hang of this. I did a few simple rows, back and forwards using this stitch! It took me a good few hours to get to this point, so I was absolutely ecstatic!
My first DC attempt .. 
… which I turned into this! 
Magic circle attempt – oh dear!
I then tried again at the magic circle, I make something that sort of resembled a circle…. but not quite. But still it was progress.
While searching for YouTube videos – I came across Jonah – a 12 year old crochet genius and he really inspired me to keep going with it, Jonah’s Hands (jonahhands.com) Seriously, you should visit his website and read his story, he is incredible!
Reading about Jonah and his crocheting really inspired me, so I searched through a few magazines I had and found a simple house beginners crochet pattern and decided to go for it. I loved crocheting the little house and found I could do it. I ever used smaller hooks and attempted a successful magic circle for the windows. I was so chuffed. Even looking back now while I am writing this blog, this little house is still one of my favourite projects. You can see the progress photos below – I love looking back to see how much progress I have made.
Now… I decided to challenge myself for my next crochet venture. My friend posted a photo of her crochet rainbow on Facebook and I knew I wanted to make one, so I asked her for the pattern and found the colours for my rainbow from my stash. I practiced making a magic circle until I cracked it and then I got stuck in making my rainbow. I made a little one at first because I accidentally did single crochet instead of double crochet but I carried on anyway. It took a lot of concentration for each round – changing colours was a huge challenge, but I didn’t let this stop me. It took me a whole afternoon of around 4 hours to finish my little rainbow which I don’t think was too bad for a beginner. I then tried another one, this time using double crochet and succeeded in making a big rainbow.
My little rainbow – I made two more of these. 
Big rainbow.
From that point onwards, I was hooked (ha, see what I did there!!!) and am getting better with each project. I like to do a mix of crochet and knitting projects (as well as sewing!).
I’ll end this blog with 5 things I wish I knew before I started learning to crochet..
- Start simple – don’t start with the magic circle, start by simply chaining and work your way from there.
- Practice techniques before jumping into start a project – chain lots of rows/practice lots of magic circles.
- Use a stitch marker to mark where your round starts – this tip would have saved me so much time when learning to do a magic circle.
- YouTube is your best friend – but there are some good books out there too.
- Have fun and remember it will take time to learn how to crochet – I thought it would be easy. I was wrong, but I really enjoyed learning to crochet and now the possibilities are endless.
I hope this may inspire some of you to pick up this crochet hook and get crocheting.
Happy Crocheting 🙂
You can find the Rainbow Pattern here; Rainbow Crochet Pattern UK – Free pattern – Kerry Jayne Designs Ltd
You can find the House Pattern here; Ravelry: Street Life pattern by Sarah-Jane Hicks