If you have ever looked at a crochet blanket and thought I would have no idea where to start — this is where you start. Crochet is built from a handful of moves repeated over and over. Learn four of them and you can make a scarf, a dishcloth, a baby blanket, or a slightly wonky amigurumi cat. Everything else is a variation.
This guide takes you from an empty pair of hands to your first finished square. Read it start to finish, or jump to the stitch you are stuck on.
What you need to start
Ignore the wall of hooks at the craft store. To learn, you need four things:
- Worsted weight yarn (labelled medium or 4 on the band). Pick a smooth, light-coloured, non-fuzzy yarn — you need to see your stitches. Dark navy mohair will make you quit.
- A 5.5 mm hook (US size I-9). Anything from 5 mm to 6 mm is fine to learn on.
- Scissors.
- A tapestry needle — a big blunt needle with a wide eye, for tucking in loose ends at the end.
That is roughly the price of two coffees. Do not buy a 20-piece hook set until you know you like this.
First, a warning about US and UK terms
This trips up more beginners than any actual stitch. The same words mean different stitches in American and British patterns.
| US term | Same stitch in UK terms |
|---|---|
| Single crochet (sc) | Double crochet (dc) |
| Half double crochet (hdc) | Half treble (htr) |
| Double crochet (dc) | Treble (tr) |
So a UK “double crochet” is an American “single crochet” — a completely different height. If a pattern is not working out and the fabric looks wrong, check which terms it uses before you blame yourself. Everything on this page uses US terms, which is what most free patterns online use.
Holding the hook and yarn
There are two common hook grips: like a knife (over the top, whole hand) or like a pencil. Neither is more correct. Try both for a few minutes and keep whichever stops hurting first.
The yarn hand matters more than people admit. Your job is to keep a little steady tension on the working yarn so it feeds smoothly — not to grip it. A common way: drape the yarn over your index finger, run it under the middle two fingers and loop it once around your little finger. If your stitches come out rock-hard, you are squeezing. Loosen your whole hand.
Almost every beginner crochets too tightly. If you physically cannot get the hook into the next stitch, that is not a skill problem — that is tension. Relax your grip before you try a bigger hook.
Step 1: The slip knot
Everything begins here.
- Pull about 15 cm (6 inches) of yarn from the ball.
- Lay the yarn down and make a loop that crosses over itself, so the tail sits underneath.
- Reach through the loop and pull a bight of the working yarn (the strand attached to the ball) up through it.
- Slide that new loop onto your hook and gently pull the tail to snug it up.
The loop should slide on the hook with light resistance. If it is tight enough to stick, loosen it.
Step 2: The chain (ch)
The chain is your foundation row — the base everything else is built on.
- With the slip knot on your hook, wrap the working yarn over the hook from back to front. This is a yarn over, written yo.
- Catch the yarn in the hook and draw it back through the loop already on the hook.
- That is one chain. You still have one loop on the hook.
- Repeat until you have the number you need.
Aim for chains that all look the same size. To practise, make 21 chains — that is 20 stitches plus one turning chain, and it gives you a square-ish swatch.
Counting tip: the loop on the hook is never counted, and the slip knot is not a chain either. Count the little V shapes lying flat along the top.
Step 3: Single crochet (sc)
The shortest, densest, most useful stitch. Amigurumi is almost entirely single crochet.
- Look at your chain. Each chain has a V on top. Skip the first chain from the hook and insert your hook under both legs of the V of the second chain.
- Yarn over and pull up a loop. You now have two loops on the hook.
- Yarn over again and pull through both loops.
- One single crochet made. Work one into every chain to the end.
At the end of the row you should have 20 stitches. Count them. Getting into the habit of counting now saves you hours later.
Turning your work
At the end of a row you turn the piece over like a page and go back the other way. Before you turn, you make a turning chain to lift the yarn to the height of the next row:
- Single crochet: chain 1, turn. This chain does not count as a stitch.
- Half double crochet: chain 2, turn.
- Double crochet: chain 3, turn. This chain usually does count as the first stitch.
That difference is the single most common source of “why is my blanket a triangle?” If your rows are shrinking, you are probably missing the last stitch of each row. If they are growing, you are probably working an extra stitch into the turning chain.
Step 4: Half double crochet (hdc)
Taller than sc, quicker to work up, still dense. Lovely for hats and blankets.
- Yarn over before you insert the hook.
- Insert the hook into the next stitch.
- Yarn over and pull up a loop — three loops on the hook.
- Yarn over and pull through all three at once.
Step 5: Double crochet (dc)
The workhorse of blankets and shawls. Twice the height of single crochet, so it grows fast — which is why so many beginner blankets use it.
- Yarn over, then insert the hook into the next stitch.
- Yarn over and pull up a loop — three loops on the hook.
- Yarn over and pull through the first two loops — two loops left.
- Yarn over and pull through the last two.
Working double crochet into a starting chain? Skip the first three chains and work into the fourth from the hook — those skipped chains stand in for the first stitch.
Step 6: Slip stitch (sl st)
Barely a stitch at all — it is a joiner. Insert the hook, yarn over, and pull the loop straight through both the stitch and the loop on your hook in one movement. Use it to join a round into a circle or to move across stitches without adding height.
Finishing off
When you are done: cut the yarn leaving about 15 cm, yarn over, pull the tail all the way through the last loop, and tug. That knot will hold.
Then thread the tail onto your tapestry needle and weave it back and forth through the stitches on the wrong side, changing direction at least twice so it cannot work loose in the wash. Do not skip this and do not just tie a knot — woven ends are what separates a finished piece from a homemade-looking one.
Reading a pattern
Patterns look like code until someone tells you the key. Here is the key.
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ch | chain |
| sl st | slip stitch |
| sc | single crochet |
| hdc | half double crochet |
| dc | double crochet |
| tr | treble crochet |
| yo | yarn over |
| st / sts | stitch / stitches |
| rep | repeat |
| inc / dec | increase / decrease |
| RS / WS | right side / wrong side |
Two more conventions worth knowing. Asterisks mark a repeat: *sc in next st, ch 1; rep from * to end means do that pair over and over. Numbers in brackets at the end of a row are your stitch count: (20 sts) means you should have twenty. Count against it every row and you will catch a mistake within one row instead of twelve.
Five mistakes almost every beginner makes
- Crocheting too tightly. If the hook fights you, loosen your hands before you size up your hook.
- Losing the last stitch of the row. The final stitch hides right at the edge and is easy to miss. Count every row.
- Accidentally adding stitches. Usually from working into the turning chain when the pattern did not tell you to.
- Fuzzy or dark yarn. You cannot learn stitch structure you cannot see. Smooth and pale for now.
- Starting with a garment. Sweaters need gauge, shaping and patience. Start flat and rectangular.
Your first project
Make a dishcloth. Genuinely. Chain 26, single crochet in the second chain from the hook and every chain across, then chain 1, turn, and single crochet every row until it is square. It takes an evening, it uses one ball of cotton yarn, it teaches you tension and counting, and at the end you have a thing you will actually use — which matters more than it sounds when you are learning.
After that, a scarf in double crochet. Then you are ready for our beginner patterns, and honestly for most of the free patterns on this site.
A note on video
Written instructions are excellent for reference and hopeless for hand movements. Read this page to understand what each stitch is, then watch someone do it once to see how the hands move. Ten minutes of video plus this page will get you further than either alone.
Stuck on something specific? Tell me what is going wrong and I will point you at the fix — and if enough people ask about the same thing, it becomes the next tutorial.