Today I want to share my tricks for a first-time crocheter. In this beginner’s guide for crochet: 10 tips you need to know first, I share my tips about the world of crochet. Keep reading to find out more!

When you start your first crochet project, your mind goes completely wild. You see a crochet item in everything you come across with. I was also in that place and ended up with a closet full of yarn. To not be like me, read these tips, darling. Please!

Tip 1: Stop buying yarn you don’t need

Coming from a yarn hoarder; please don’t buy all the yarn in the world. When I first started with crochet, I bought all the yarn I found beautiful, nice, soft, funny, and more. Stripes, spatters, plane, gradient…. In cotton, acrylic, bamboo, sock yarn, and so on. And guess what? Most of it is still lying in that closet unused, untouched, and collecting dust. Why? I can’t find a project for it. So also note to myself; stop buying yarn you don’t need. Check your project and buy just that amount.

Tip 2: Expensive hooks don’t crochet better

When it’s your first time crocheting, don’t buy expensive hooks. Trust me they don’t crochet better than the ones you can buy at Action or Target. I use cheap hooks bought at Action with a grip in multiple colors. AndI first started with the plane metal hooks. Still have them and always use them as backup when going on holiday. The others I have in multiple colors and sizes. The hooks you will use the most when working on Amigurumi are a size 2.0 mm, 2.5mm, 3 mm and a 3.5mm. For bags with thicker yarn, a hook 4mm, 5mm and 6mm will do fine. When working with Zpagettii from Hoooked a size 8mm or 10mm.

Tip 3: Buy one pattern at a time

I got my Dropbox full with patterns. Some I bought from Etsy, Ravelry and other platforms. I bought whole e-books and complete pdf’s will all kinds of amigurumi’s, plants, cars and more. And I have over 10GB on patterns that are for free. That is over a 2000 patterns. You get my points; never gonna make them all. I found something I like, save it for later and never look at it again. Got a list full of ‘want to make this fall’ items. Never made them. If you see cute patterns on Etsy for sample; just save them for later! Buy one pattern at a time and create that item first. When you are done, buy the next pattern. This way you don’t spend money on patterns you’ll never gonna use.

Tip 4: Use cheap yarn for the first try outs

If you are totally new to crochet, buy cheap yarn first. Watch a couple of video’s and get the hang of it. Never try something new with expensive yarn. And also never try it out with yarn that comes with a value package including a pattern. This yarn is measured out and if you cut too much off, you’ll come short.

When I started to crochet, I bought the most hiddious but cheapest yarn I could find at Action. It was an awful acrylic piece of *&%^ but for the first time it was ok. It took me so many tries to get the Magic Ring right. Cut off so much yarn in the beginning. When I finally got the hang of it, the skein was gone for 3/4. Glad I used that one and not the yarn for the project itself.

Tip 5: Watching is better than reading

You can read books about crochet. How to make the stitches and all. But the fastest way is to look it up on Youtube. If you just type in Crochet Magic Ring, a lot of video’s pop up. Just watch how the crocheter places the yarn, the hook and the way the hands move. You’ll learn much faster by looking than reading. And if the person goes too fast, slow down the video. It really helps!

Tip 6: Keep them seperated

The yarn, yes the yarn what else! Nothing is more frustrating that one ball of tangled yarn. Throw everything in a bag, shake is 20 times and you got a whole yarn barf to sort out. Fun for the first hour, after that it goes down hill. Trust me on this. Been there, done that and never again! Keep them separated! Buy a special ‘crochet handbag’ where you can sort your yarn into. Roll them up firmly or put them separated in ziplock bags.

Tip 7: Need more then one ball, check the color bath

If you are going to work on a large project that needs multiple balls from the same colors, check the color bath! Yarn is made in a factory where they dye more then one color. When the batch of a lot of balls is done, they clean the machine for the next batch of yarn. After a while the batch with color A runs out, and the factory needs to make more. That batch will get a different color bath number than the first batch. Why?

They mix the color again with it can be a gram or 2 off. They color of this batch might slightly be different than the other batch. So if you need more than 1 skein, check the color bath number that they are the same.

Tip 8: Website screen and real light are different

Shopping online for yarn is fun. You can pick out so many sweet colors and mix and match them together on your screen. After that you place your order and wait a couple of days for the order to come in. You open the bag and…. that isn’t the color I ordered… is it? Depending on your screen, colors online can vary from the through. Once I bought a skein called ‘Mauve’ from Drops. On the photo it looked brown but when it came in; purple as &$%&$%. My project was a fox with little brown feet… yeah the purple won’t cut it.

If you have a shop nearby; go there! Or if you are not sure, most brands order a color chart. Most times it is around 10 euro / 15 dollar. But it is worth your money if that is your favorite brand. This is the only way you can have all colors in swaps before ordering a complete skein. My Mauve-purple skein is still laying in the closet.

Tip 9: Order your work-in-progress (WIP) projects

I will tell you right away: guilty! Yes I am guilty to WIP-projects. Even till the point that I had so many projects laying around… that for some I used the yarn for a second project and came short. Now I can only have a maximum of 8 projects. How I manage that? I bought little plastic crats where I put my projects in. I have a total of 8 small crats. And full is full and I need to finish one project to start a new one. When the crats are full, bummer for me. That is how I work with WIP projects. I place the total amount of yarn that is used in the box, a note with hooksize, which pattern and so one with it and place it on my desk. I first need to finish the project to use that yarn again. Smart right!

Tip 10: Don’t buy patternbooks from the cover

You don’t want to know how many books I bought – hardcover and e-books – without researching it. The cover looked fun so I bought it. Made one thing out of it, never looked at the book again. I even have a book, never made one single items from it. They looked so much fun when I was in the little baby fase with my son. Wanted to crochet all the animals from the book, never made one. Maybe for on my list for a fancy fair, otherwise… waste of money. Research the books you want to buy. Go to the library and look if they have crochet books over there. But don’t judge the crochet book on his lovely cover.

That is it for now. Hopefull this Beginner’s guide for crochet with the 10 tips helps you along the way. If I come up with more tips, I will make a new post or update this one. If you have a tip, share them in the comments.

Loves,

Adinda