Need some advice

[nucki]

Okay, my 9 year old has recently decided she REALLY wants to learn to crochet (she wants to learn to knit, too, but she decided - and I agree - that it would probably be easier to learn crochet first).

 

I tried teaching her the chain on Monday night, but we were having some problems.

 

First, she's holding everything WAY too tight. I showed her how loosely I hold my hook, but she just didn't "get" it.

 

Then, I tried reaching around her (she's too big to fit on my lap anymore, lol) and doing the hand-over-hand thing, but she was fighting me the whole way. Her hands wanted to do what they wanted to do, period.

 

Do any of you have any suggestions? I want to make this as easy for her as possible, but as I've never taught anybody before, I don't even know if *I'M* teaching correctly!

 

Thanks!!!

[misssmaggie]

Hi Suzi!

What size hook is she using? They say to start with an "H".

If that is what you are using...try the hooks that are "fat" on the handles. They fill the hand better...maybe she will "feel" the grip with them and loosen up. I find...the smaller the item...the greater the grip I put on it.

I was taught to crochet with a small hook...my work was soooo tight...I was not happy with my work...I was so young...I didn't know there was any size hook but the one my girlfriends grandmother gave me.

So...I gave up! It took me several years before I tried again. But...by that time...I was old enough to go to the store and buy my own supplies. That's when I discovered a whole new world...so many choices!!!

I still shy away from the small hooks...but I am happy with my work!!!

I hope this helps!

Maggie

[nucki]

I should have said.

 

I started her with a K hook (I do remember that's what *I* learned with) and the only yarn I have available - DK weight. I realize it would probably be a little easier for her if I could get my hands on some WW yarn, but finding that here in the UK is like finding a needle in a haystack.

[purplepiquet]

I have just begun teaching my 6 year old son. We started of with a size 4 mm hook (not sure what that is in letters:blush ) and he progressed okay but got frustrated. Then I found large plastic coloured hooks in the kids section of local yarn shop and they worked for him much better. Would say the hook he is using is around 6 mm. Plus using light yarn colours.

 

He found it all hard at start then just sort of clicked and has started to find his own way of holding hook and yarn. I had to keep telling him to stop pulling the thread with his left hand though He also found single crochets harder to do then double crochets.He is trying to make a scarf at the moment. However the crochet hooks in our house now all have heads, bellies, sides, chins and backs

[karin4christ]

I can understand your difficulties. My now almost 8 year old wanted to learn to crochet when she was 6. We had to stop because the sessions would end in her crying out of frustration. Part of it was that she would see how fast I crochet and she would think that she could do it that fast. One of the biggest difficulties she had was with having the yarn in her left hand. She wasn't able to get it to smoothly run through her fingers. So everything would get really tightly crocheted which then made it so hard to find the loops to crochet into. I know that the Crochet Council (or whatever that group is called thats nationwide. Maybe its the Crochet Guild of America - I think thats it) Has an area specifically about helping teach a child to crochet. I remember seeing in a knitting magazine once about a tension ring. Its an actual ring you wear on your finger that you run the yarn through, instead of weaving it through your fingers. I thought that might be good for my daughter except that maybe the ring would be too big for her finger. I will probably try to teach my daughter again this summer. I'm hoping that this time it will be easier because she really does want to crochet.

[WendyLee]

My Granddaughter is now 13. She has asked several times through the years to be taught and each time things got better. Maybe because of her age. She was a little more patient each time. She still gets frustrated that she can't go as fast as I do and really doesn't want me to tell her to practice again but I keep saying it.

[crochetqueen]

Have you tried showing her some of the videos at www.stitchguide.com ? This might help out a little. I can tell you from experience, that is so normal. Most people hold on with what I refer to as a "death grip" to both the yarn and the hook, like at any moment it is going to run like crazy from you. I think as she gets more comfortable with it she will eventually losen up a little. I remember one of my early learning days project, it would of made a wonderful bullet proof vest and it took me about a year or more to complete because it was so tight that I had a hard time getting the hook into it, hehehehehehe.

[Susanne]

my 9 year old daughter learns crochet, knitting and cross-stich and sewing in school (as all austrian children - both boys and girls) but I learned that ALL things I tried to show her are done wrong until anybody else shows her. She would even accept hints from her father (no crocheter) more likely than from me... this was the first what came on my mind as I read your post.

 

Second, the austrian children learn crochet with a size 3.5 mm hook and not so thick yarn.

 

Let her get the technique of chain stitches as tight as she wants them. Later, as her style improves, she will sure be relaxed and then it gets looser.

 

I remember, when we learned crochet at school, we did long, long chords of chainstitches. we glued them outside a roll (the middle of the kitchen papertowel, no glue how you call this in english) and made so our own hook-case. When we were able to make neat chainstitches we moved on to single crochet stitch, later double.

[Redhead Deb]

Very interesting that crocheting is taught in school. I would love that subject!

[Susanne]

For us it is quite normal - and as kids we didn't appriciate it very much. it depends on the teacher if you make fancy stuff or ... not so cool projects

 

I remember to have sewn a skirt in thick, grey, wooly cloth. I have never worn it, because it was so ugly (and this was not my fault, I did it exact like the pattern. The pattern and the cloth were ugly)

 

My daughter crochets a snake at school at the moment (actually it will end kind of short worm, because she is not very passionate with it)

 

But it really helps to learn these things in school - later, when you come back to do some needlework, it is easier to re-learn.