To start, I want to thank Ashleigh for helping me out with this crochet project because her blog post on The Whoot website was what helped me learn three easy steps that will help me learn how to be well on my way to crocheting multiple projects.

These three easy steps to learn how to crochet are:

  1. Get Prepared
  2. Learn the Basic Crochet Stitches
  3. Learn to Speak the Crochet Language

Therefore, over this past week I have been focusing on learning the basics of labels, abbreviations, and symbols on balls of yarn. There were a lot of things that I did not know how to read before starting this task because I have never taken the time to stop and learn how to read the labels, but now that I have started, I can’t stop! Haha! Overall, I could not believe how many abbreviations there were for crocheting and how many things I need to pay attention to or learn before I actually even start my crochet projects.  To be honest, I felt a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of resources and symbols/terminology that I found. So, I have narrowed it down to a few resources that helped me learn what I was hoping to.

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To start off my learning, I started to “Get Prepared” this week, by learning that crocheting is just a series of knots and that there are many types of knots (stitches) that we can make as we use a crochet hook (which come in different sizes). I also learned that traditionally people will crochet with yarn, but some people, will crochet with rope, string, or twine! By using these knots you can create patterns, which then create different crochet projects.

Next, I went shopping for some yarn at a local store in Tisdale called Pearson’s and picked out six small balls of yarn for practicing and six bigger balls of yearn for the baby blanket that I plan to make my sister. I already had some crochet hooks from past projects, so I felt pretty prepared with all of my supplies when I got home.

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Once I started more of my research, I found out that there are different weights of yarn that go nicely with making certain projects. For example, 6 on the label means Super Bulky yarn, which would be great for making a baby blanket. See picture to the right for chart I found from The Whoot. Below, is a picture of one of the labels from a ball of yarn that I may use for a blanket. You can see that it is a level 6 for weight, it is made from polyester, and I need to use a 8mm crochet hook to compliment the yarn size for my project.

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My next step, was to start to prepare myself mentally by learning the crochet symbols, abbreviations, and terms. Below are some resources that I found that benefited me.

Here are the sources for the pictures above.

  1. Crochet Symbols & Directions Chart
  2. Frequently Used Abbreviations
  3. Crochet Cheat Sheet

After all of this research, I think I am ready to take the next step that Ashleigh suggests and learn more about the “Basic Crochet Stitches”. Stay tuned for more crocheting!