Comments on: 8 Great Tips for Teaching Crochet

By: Terri Greenberg

Terri Greenberg — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:25:01 +0000

I have actually gone the route of stitching up a few rows of single crochet (we do this in session 2 after learning the chain stitch in session 1). That way, I can go right to teaching the rhythm of the single crochet stitch and THEN have the students work the stitch into a foundation chain. They still hate that part, but at least they don’t get so frustrated with learning the stitch AND keeping the darned FC under control. I generally keep a few of those swatches around for the entire class series, in case someone is having a “bad stitch day.” With the already made-up rows, there’s something to grab onto to make a row of new stitches.

By: Kerstin

Kerstin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:29:30 +0000

I have experienced that crocheting the first row of whatever stitch into a row of chain stitches is most frustrating for beginners, because they need some time to “realize” how a stitch looks like (i.e. how a chain stitch looks from behind and where to place the hook best).

So if you teach an absolute beginner:
let her/him crochet the basic chain,
then take over the hook and crochet the first row in single stitches,
then give her/him back the hook and let her/him crochet whatever you wanted to show (probably single stitches).

If she/he has had some experience with the shown stitches, you can show them how to crochet them into a chain row; so they learn how to do the first row (and therefore will not come to your door everytime they start a new project ) but will have learned the stitches for this first row before (and therefore will not have the double effort to do stitches for the first time plus do a first row for the first time).

Good luck and a lot of fun with your teachings,

Kerstin

By: Bookworm

Bookworm — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:49:38 +0000

I was trying to teach a couple of friends to crochet this weekend, so I have another tip to add. don’t try to teach more than one person at the same time. You need to be able to give the person you’re teaching one on one attention, trying to switch between 3 people just leaves them room to do something wrong. And one of them was a lefty, she just could not get it and we (me and another girl) were having trouble trying to figure out how to reverse it for her. I think if she’s going to learn, we’ll need to find her a left-handed crocheter because us righties obviously aren’t cutting it

By: Metta Nicewarner

Metta Nicewarner — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:56:23 +0000

With all the people I’ve taught to crochet, I have encountered the same problem….they crochet too tightly…thus making it extra hard on themselves. I think one of the most important things to teach them is to lighten up and relax! I always tell them that crocheting should be fun, not a chore! I’ve found that if I can teach them to push the barrel of the hook through each stitch as they are making it, rather than just the hook part, that helps them loosen up….until they get the hang of making the stitches larger, anyway. I taught a lefty once, and she had better luck sitting across from me as I worked than sitting beside me.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:50:29 +0000

Hi Hannah, try using some of my tutorials, they have both left and right handed pics in them.

By: Hannah Truelson

Hannah Truelson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:45:24 +0000

Thanks Rachel! I really want to teach my little sister and she really wants to learn but I think she’s left handed. I’m right handed in crochet, so I don’t know how to teach her. Do you have any suggestions?

By: Nanabear

Nanabear — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:34:12 +0000

I have been teaching crochet for a few years and once the students learned the stitches they wanted to create their own projects. So the next obvious step was: getting patterns and reading them. Most of them got lost with trying to read the pattern. So, I told them to get a large piece of paper and take time to do the following: for each row of instructions write down everything that is before a “,” (comma) then start a new line with whatever is written to the next “,” comma. This way they will have a longer description of the pattern and as they progress with each stitch, they also understand what they are doing. I also supply documents that explain and show the different stitches before they start. Once they figure out how to read patterns – some of them take flight – and you can’t stop them. Once that happens, I know I have done my job well. Hope this idea will help those who teach crochet, or those who are intimidated with 10 lines of instruction for a pattern. Good Luck,
Gisele/Nanabear

By: Brenda GA

Brenda GA — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:45:45 +0000

This is wonderful advice for teaching any skill. I look forward to your newsletters and always get inspiration from your designs and insight. Thank you for all you do.

By: Terri G

Terri G — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:54:29 +0000

I’ve been doing classes for a few years now… one of the BIG problems that my beginners have was the “where do I stick the hook?” problem. Just this session (oh, why didn’t I think of this sooner?!), I started making my sample swatches out of yarns of four different colors. That way, they can easily see the difference in height between the stitches and where each row’s stitches go. I still haven’t figured out a trick for the “where do I start” and “where do I stop” challenges (whether to crochet into the top of the turning chain and how many stitches in to begin). If there are any cool ideas that anyone has for that, I’d be delighted to learn them!

By: Gaz

Gaz — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:44:27 +0000

This is great. I’ve been meaning to continue lessons w/my fiancee. We only did one. He did a chain and I think 3 single crochets before we had to stop. Basically, all I want is for him to help me make amigurumi to stock up my Etsy shop and for the anime conventions, especially when we have a couple back-to-back. So all he really needs to learn is single and double crochets, how to work in the round and increasing and decreasing.
I have a friend who knits who wanted to learn to crochet just for a few amigurumi patterns but she’s too used to working w/2 needles to comfortably hold a hook.
I often tell people interested in crocheting that it’s really not much more than just pulling yarn through loops – it’s just how many loops and how you group them that create different patterns and textures. It’s insanely simple at its core, you just got to practice til you get the dexterity to do it smooth and seamlessly.