Newbie in need of some serious guidance!

[britnimo]

Hello! Please help a "Millennial" learn the timeless art

So I have recently discovered amigurumi, can you say instant obsessed! My Mom has always crocheted, but I never gained an interest, until recetly! I am very artisticly inclined, and SUPER EXCITED. But then I realized, I have no idea what the fudge I am doing and sort of lost the wind in my sails.... lol So... My question is... Which yarn to practice with? I read that 4 wool yarn in a light color... That is about as far as I have gotten... LOL Please tell me yarn brands, explain the hole hook/needle thing, guage...?, etc ANY tips would be MUCH appreciated! And, yes, I know I can just go on YouTube, but I want real human interaction haha! Thank you in advance for any assistance!

Britni

(Sorry if this has been posted before, or is in the wrong place. I never use forums and am learning! )

[nancybanta]

If what you're going to do right now is just practice - I'd say buy a skein of the cheapest yarn you can find - Red Heart Super Saver is cheap and it's not going to fray when you rip out your mistakes - and any light color is going to be best as it's easier on the eyes and you'll be able to see the stitches better.

 

For practice - guage doesn't matter either - use a J or K hook - whatever you make is just going to be larger than it's intended to be.

 

Now practice, practice, practice.

 

Once you're comfortable - then get the yarn and hook size suggested so that your amigurumi is going to be the size it's supposed to be.

[Becky Morgan]

Yep, cheap yarn like Red Heart Super Saver--it'll put up with anything. Pick a light color you like so that when you do get your stitches right, you can make something you like as your first project.

 

Your stitches are going to look weird and ragged at first. They'll be way too tight, way too loose, or both. Don't let that worry you. Within a few days, you're going to gain speed and see a smoothing out of your work. At that point, you may want to buy another hook in the other style--in-line if you've got one that isn't, or vice versa--to see if you like one better than the other. Play with it. Try different stitches. Most of your amigurumi will be done in single crochet (American terms) so you'll want to master that first, but eventually you'll figure out that everything we make is just one loop of yarn through another and none of it is difficult--you just have to pay attention to what you're doing sometimes.

 

There are good learning materials on this site, including lists of abbreviations. Be aware that US and UK patterns use slightly different terminology and can really throw you if you expect one and get the other. Do yourself a favor and learn to read charts right away. Some people find them much easier than word patterns.

 

Mainly, have fun. Remember it's just yarn, you can rip it out and reuse it, and there are no crochet police who can yell "You're doing it wrong!"