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the way we learned to crochet


How did you learn to crochet?  

467 members have voted

  1. 1. How did you learn to crochet?

    • Worsted-weight acrylic and an H-hook, baby!
      295
    • I learned with yarn that was thinner than worsted.
      22
    • I used something chunky and a giant hook. Instant gratification!
      12
    • I learned with nice yarn at the recommended hook size.
      30
    • I used a nice yarn and tried/ was told to try different hook sizes.
      4
    • I live on the wild side - I learned in thread!
      46
    • Um. I made a fun fur potholder?
      1
    • HA! Missed me completely. (Do tell - please explain.)
      57


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Actually I learned to crochet in H.S. Home Ec. class. My first project was a pink variegated v-st. doily. It was size 10 thread, I can't remember the size of the hook though, maybe a 6 or 7??:think I had kept it for all these years, I would look at it and chuckle at the v-sts. that were not put in the previous row of v-sts. (It got misplaced somehow, somehwere in my moves)!!:(

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I read the book Crochet for Dummies and made the Q hook afghan using 3 strands of WW. This is NOT the easiest way to learn, using 3 strands and a Q hook is a LOT to deal with. The afghan was so huge that it ended up being more like a rug. I gave it to my friend who loaned me the book. Poor Girl! :rofl

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I learned to crochet with thread and a size 7 steel hook. When I asked her to teach me to crochet my mom gave me an old how-to book and a rather large box of thread that had been given to her years earlier by a neighbor lady who couldn't crochet with thread anymore because of her eyesight. She also gave me some of my grandmother's old steel hooks. I didn't ever make a project from that book but it taught me the basics. I think my first completed project was a v-stitch shawl for a Barbie doll.

When my daughter expressed an interest in learning to crochet I gave her a skein of Red Heart and an I hook to start with.

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I think I was around 12 - 14. I'd dabbled in trying to knit and crochet before with little success. My aunt taught me how to simply hold the yarn properly to crochet and also how to chain. Once I got that down, I taught myself from books. My first projects were bed dolls. I stopped crocheting around 19 for some time, and then picked my hook back up when I was 26 to make a fillet crochet afghan for my mother in law.

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I voted WW and H hook...I can't be totally sure though. I was taught by an aunt when I was 10, and what I used was whatever she gave me. I seem to recall it being ww though (not that I knew what it was called then...but looking back, it seems that way) :)

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I can remember clearly-

 

When I was in the first or second grade a school bus driver (I can not remember her name to save my life) began a crochet club where she taught us kids how to crochet. She would come to the school during lunch times and park in front of the school and we'd go to the bus and sit and crochet with her. There were probably 10 to 15 girls who participated and she was a great teacher. I can vaguely remember the local news paper coming and doing a story about it. Some of the more advanced stichers had their pictures taken and posted in the news paper (a HUGE deal when your 8 and your world revolves around Clifford books and addition!)

 

Between that and my Great-Grandmother I learned the basics. As I got older I used books and magazines for the rest.

 

:hook

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It was back in the '70s, 1978 I think. I was 11 years old. A pink verigated WW Wintuk if I remember correctly. And a Boye H hook. Made my first project with it, a scarf. That nobody wanted to wear. :) I'd watched my aunt do ripple afghans and wanted so bad to do it. Bought the yarn and a hook and taught my self through trial and error how to make chains. Then a friend of my sisters came over for Christmas baring home made stockings that were crocheted. I asked her to "show me". She taught me DC and how to turn the row. The rest I taught myself, and as they say, its history. :) Egad! I just realized, that's almost 30 years ago. :eek

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Shortly after I married in the early 70s my good friend's mother learned to crochet a little. She showed both of us a granny square but I learned the rest of the basics on my own later from a magazine with directions. The mag taught me the basic stitches, joinings, etc. I didn't venture into thread for a while but a few years later made a bunch of thread Christmas ornaments since we were young and still broke. Oh, I forgot — a lady at church back then showed me a particular stitch pattern which I made into shawls. I think this was after I had learned from the magazine.

 

It was too long ago to remember much...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was a junior in high school and took an elective home ec course. Mrs. Travis taught the class. She was older with purple hair and always wore a dress.

I used worsted weight and probably an F hook. I crocheted with an F hook for many many yrs. The ripple stitch for every project!! LOL

Then I learned some new stitches and used bigger and bigger hooks.

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How I finally learned came in a round about way--first, back in the mid-70's, one of my aunt's taught me how to knit--just the basics, though--so, I spent the next 5 or so years, knitting one blanket/afghan after another--when we were stationed overseas in Holland for 2 years, with almost no tv, I spent all my free time knitting on this one, dumb afghan, never quite finding the time to actually finish it--finally, after we were transfered to Germany for that last year overseas, I'd become so sick of that silly afghan that still wasn't quite finished, that I picked it up, and threw it in the trash can!

 

Once back in the states, my husband's grandmom was the one who decided that I should learn to crochet--and, to this day, I am so grateful to her for insisting I learn!:hook The first thing I made was this lovely potholder basket, and matching pot holders--I made so many of those, though, to give as gifts to others, that I knew I just HAD to move on to something else, or go bonkers--they were lovely baskets, but really--10 is more than enough!!

 

Next, grandmom taught me how to make little, drawstring purses, that, when folded up properly, look just like little doll baby basinets--I went crazy making lots of those, and I still use them even after all these years, just to carry with me, when I don't want to take a regular purse. And, the hook I started out using--and, that is still my favorite hook even now, for some reason--is the G hook--but, just don't ask me why!:think

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Good ol' Red Heart and an H hook.

 

My stepmom taught me the basics- chain, sc, and dc. She dug out a pattern for a baby blanket with those stitches and thats what I stuck with for years. Always had a hard time learning stitches from a book so I never grew beyond that until recently. Found a great website that has stitch videoes- hallelujah!:clap

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My Mom had been trying to get me to let her teach me a long time. I finally decided I would try it just so she would quit and became addicted. lol I was 27 so that was five years ago. I really like her method of showing me the stitches themselves instead of teaching me one particular pattern. My first pattern was a mouse bookmark. My second was a really fancy beddoll with a ruffly skirt. lol

 

My first thread foray was making a stuffed toy pattern that called for WW. I LOVED how tiny it became!

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I actually learned to crochet when we got a job cleaning out a house bought at a sherrif sale. the lady had so much stuff. I loaded the van as 3 dump truck loads were going to the dump. got a bunch of thread, steel hooks and patterns. and a book from the 70's that taught knitting and crochet. (I can't remember the title, but it was a little paperback!) I couldn't hold the thread "right" in my left hand due to pain so I crochet like you would knit. hook and thread in my right and yarn over while holding stitching and hook in left. I looks correct when I'm done! needless to say I can't teach anyone to crochet! but almost twenty years later the only stitch I've had problems with is that loopy stitch!

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I learned with thread and didn't know there was any other way. A crochet hook was steel... that's all she wrote. :wlol

 

Same here. My mom taught me when I was 7. In those days, we didn't know anybody who crocheted with yarn, and we had never seen an aluminum hook. I didn't crochet with yarn until I went to college. (It was the '70s, and everyone else was knitting.)

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I learned to crochet this summer, at 43 years old. My step mother-in-law came to stay with us for a couple of weeks, and taught me to crochet. She demonstrated with steel hooks and thread while I worked with an aluminum hook on worsted weight yarn. Best thing she did was give me permission to hold the yarn differently than I'd been taught before. And she told me to practice each step before moving on. Now I'm teaching my teenagers!

Thanks, Mother Mary!

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I dont remember the yarn it was thinner than WW but I still have the very same crochet hook size G that my grandma taught me on. I havnt bought another G yet. She gave me a J too and I just started using it. I thought it would be harder but it wasnt. I like H the best though :)

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When I was a little girl my Grandmother taught me how to make a chain with thread and a small hook. Then she showed me how to crochet an edge on a pillowcase and to make a doily. My friend started me on making afghans with an H hook and red heart yarn just a few years ago!:hook

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My mom's Red heart scrap and the biggest hook she had at the time, probably a J or K since all she ever uses is Boye Aluminum. I used to bug her whenever she tried to crochet, so she taught me the chain, which I did forever. She tried to show me the granny square, but i was stubborn and thought I could "alter" it --lol I still do this with patterns-- I didn't turn the corners right and always ended up with half of a ball, lol. My mom, being supportive, showed me that I could sew them together, stuff them, and make balls. So, I did that for a bit, and then I lost interest, as kids usually do. About a year ago, I decided to quit smoking and took up crochet to keep my hands busy. I looked up the granny square and basic stitches online. A year later and I'm a non-smoker, and a crochet addict. My mom even picked it up again after quite a few years of doing other things instead. Right now, all I can really do is the granny square and a rectangle granny, but I do them REALLY well, lol. Tunisian in my next project. I did a little purse in it, but it didn't turn out right.

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I forgot to mention...the reason I wanted to learn how to crochet was that I was a rebellious teenager...my mother thought crocheting was tacky and something that "low-class" people did--so, of course, I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame <g>.

 

I can totally understand your way of thinking! A rebellious teenager growing up, I was also! Just tell me not to do it, and BAM off I was doing it!

 

I learned in 7th grade in a home economics class that was co-ed. I used ww and a G hook. I took to crocheting like a duck to water so much that I was called on to teach those who just couldn't get the hang of it. I was even able to teach a boy that was left handed even though he was one of the "tough" guys at our school. Now knitting I didn't like at all! I felt so restricted and confined and to this day still look at knitted items with awe at some of the things they do.

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