My gram taught me how to crochet the basic stitches -- chain, single and double crochet. She was able to look at something and figure out how it was made. She then could proceed to make her own. She never learned how to read a pattern. I, on the other hand, did not inherit the "look at it and make it" gene. I bought a couple of books to learn how to read a pattern and do more complicated stitches.