the way we learned to crochet

[yarntotingmama]

I don't remember what my mother originally taught me with but I think acrylic is a safe bet and that being the case, the H hook is probably also a safe bet. I do remember that is exactly what I used re-teach myself 4 years ago from a booklet. A friend had given me the booklet, ugly variegated yarn and a Bates H hook, all of which she had bought when her 3rd oldest son had decided he wanted to learn to crochet after seeing a friend's mother doing it but he dropped it again when he went off to college. Oh, and I also taught a friend the basics of crochet with that H hook and variegated acrylic.

[Lubba_my_kiddos]

I used a nasty old skein of ecru acrylic and a 5mm hook that my friend scrounged from her craft bin 6 years ago and I haven't looked back!

[akasha22]

I was taught with Red Heart Super Saver and an H hook by an elderly lady that had no daughters to teach. I had always wanted to learn, but my mom didn't know how to crochet. First project was a ripple afghan done in purples....and I never finished it. Maybe I should dig it out and see if I could repair it at all.....hmmmm......

 

Rhonda

[sahm2g1b]

My great-grandmother taught me with the correct size hook and some nice yarn, and she first taught me how to make granny squares. I was 8 when she taught me, but I still remember it! How I miss her sometimes! But, whenever I make something, I always think of her!

[Michiganirish]

I was only 8 and our school brought people in to teach crochet - the instructer told me because I am left handed I would never learn. My friend at the time said I'll teach you -and she did - it was a poncho - and the rest is history...

[Jain]

I was also 8 years old. My grandmother taught me on some Red Heart yarn and an "I" hook which I still have to this day.

[sahm2g1b]

I was only 8 and our school brought people in to teach crochet - the instructer told me because I am left handed I would never learn. My friend at the time said I'll teach you -and she did - it was a poncho - and the rest is history...

 

I'm left handed too, and so is my daughter! We've never had any trouble, but we both actually crochet like a right-handed person, go figure. I guess it was the way that my granny taught me, but my daugher picked the needle up the same way I did, so .

[jheatherley]

You need another option for me. I'm so old and have been at it for so long that I have no recollection of how I learned.

[manu02148]

My very first exposure to crochet was when I was very young (pre-teen years). Both my mother and my grandmother (:grandma was mainly a knitter) were crocheting, but they were just crocheting doilies and the way they thought me to crochet (or to make chains and sc stiches, I should say) was with thread and the bigger among the small hooks they had.

After many, many, many years, here I am trying to learn how to crochet for real. I'm now using acryclic yarn and a G or higher hook (I used a P too, whoa! That is a big hook!). But nothing takes away from the fact the my very first crochet chains where made with a tiny hook and thin thread

[Braxxi]

Let's see...I asked my mother to teach me how to crochet back in high school, but dad said I was just "squeeking yarn" so I gave up. Back in May of this year, I decided to try again on my own with a book I bought at our local (45 minutes away) Borders. After a couple hours of making practice swatches, I decided to make a scarf from the book and then made a sampler scarf made of sc, hdc, dc, and tc stitches. I was using worsted weight yarn and the recommended hook, which was a #7 (between the G and H). I still have the scarves, although my daught took one into her room and I haven't seen it since...

[annie19603]

i first learned with yarn and my fingers making a chain stitch when i was 11 years old. after my mom died my dad got a girlfrind and she tried to teach me with hook and yarn when i was 18 after i got married my husband bought my a set of boyed crochet hooks my mother inlaw work for a lady that crochet and she gave me books. then i was on my way i love to crochet i make lots of afghans and baby outfits and blankets thanks for listing. i'm 48 i still love it

[manu02148]

funny: I thought the same about yarn up until ... few months ago :lol

my mom taught me with thread when i was 7 years old! i thought yarns were strictly for knitting!! till date i've done one and only one yarn project... the shawl.. everything else is still thread..

[KNOTTYCHRISTINE]

Originally I was taught by my grandmother with thread, but as soon as I became a teenager, I had other things on my mind....As I now am trying to pick it up again I started with the acrylic...

 

I was so ambitious I bought like 4 skenes and I hate it...especially after touching some alpaca wool...nice I can't wait to make myself something

[meganb]

I decided I wanted to learn, so I grabbed the pretty color yarn on the shelf, a very pretty blue RHSS.....and grabbed the hook it told me to, and started making granny squares.

[counted94]

I may be one of the late learners here. I learned when I was 11 or 12. Mom crocheted, I figured if my cross-eyed mother could do it so could I. I fell in love with a red heart variegated and claret. Mom and I sat across from each other, she showed me left handed I did it right handed. I held my hook like a pencil with my ring finger crossed over holding yarn (for years). My first project was a big granny square. Should I mention its a UFO and I can tell you where in my closet it is?

For years I could only crochet a little at a time because of how I held the hook. In college I figured out the knife holding method (so much better), but at the time I was into cross-stitch heavily. I did rotate with crochet at times. Fast forward to July 2002 the one newest members of my family (10 week old Lucy Kitten) decided to show me she liked to eat thread (complete with double ended needle hanging out of her mouth with the thread still attached) cross-stitch went up and books came out.

My ADHD finally got the best of me a few months latter and I needed to have something to relive stress and occupy my mind and hands in front of the TV. Just one thing crocheting was boring at times. So the internet came to the rescue! I found Susan B's ripple pattern. I fell in love with it. So far I have done 5 of them. Granny squares are fun, Cables are blast, the diagnol stitch is my new granny, snow dragons, potatoe the squrel and of course even more afghans have found homes in my rotation since then.

Fortutely the kittens (now 6 years old) don't eat yarn, they just bat at it and love the end results. My colegues think it's funny, I work virtually all day with little to show for my efforts (I have been an email administrator for 8 years) and here I am doing something girly.

 

Laura

[crochetluvknot]

I've been thinking a lot lately about the way we are taught (and therefore, teach others) to crochet. Personally, I was taught with some Red Heart Super Saver and an H hook (the size recommended on the band), and that's what I used for a long, long time. How about you? How were you taught to crochet?

Same for RH and an H hook

[centerpt1]

I learned in High School- in a class called something like Needle Arts...I took it as the other half of driver training so it must have been a quarter long class. We learned embroidery, knitting, crochet, macrame.....I'm not sure of the rest. I even learned how to knit cables! (I can't begin to do that now) Crochet is what stuck with me...probably because it was the 70's and crochet was "in". My first project was a scarf in school colors...then a shawl, then one of those really disgusting granny square hot pant with a bib front outfits!!! I'm pretty sure it was your basic acrylic yarn and H hook.

 

It really was one of the most useful classes I ever took in High School.

 

After that, I went through the thread phase (doilies and filet window treatments everywhere), the rug phase, the baby item phase, kids sweater, scarf, and hat phase......now I'm into afghans.

[Sugarcoatedlies]

I may be one of the late learners here. I learned when I was 11 or 12. Mom crocheted, I figured if my cross-eyed mother could do it so could I. I fell in love with a red heart variegated and claret. Mom and I sat across from each other, she showed me left handed I did it right handed. I held my hook like a pencil with my ring finger crossed over holding yarn (for years). My first project was a big granny square. Should I mention its a UFO and I can tell you where in my closet it is?

For years I could only crochet a little at a time because of how I held the hook. In college I figured out the knife holding method (so much better), but at the time I was into cross-stitch heavily. I did rotate with crochet at times. Fast forward to July 2002 the one newest members of my family (10 week old Lucy Kitten) decided to show me she liked to eat thread (complete with double ended needle hanging out of her mouth with the thread still attached) cross-stitch went up and books came out.

My ADHD finally got the best of me a few months latter and I needed to have something to relive stress and occupy my mind and hands in front of the TV. Just one thing crocheting was boring at times. So the internet came to the rescue! I found Susan B's ripple pattern. I fell in love with it. So far I have done 5 of them. Granny squares are fun, Cables are blast, the diagnol stitch is my new granny, snow dragons, potatoe the squrel and of course even more afghans have found homes in my rotation since then.

Fortutely the kittens (now 6 years old) don't eat yarn, they just bat at it and love the end results. My colegues think it's funny, I work virtually all day with little to show for my efforts (I have been an email administrator for 8 years) and here I am doing something girly.

 

Laura

 

11/12 isn't late lol.

 

interesting story!

[kathome]

My dear sweet Aunt taught me when i was about 12. My Mom passed when I was 11 and Dad was a drinker and not a nice person at all. Bad man. This Aunt was just the best person ever. She patiently taught me to crochet and to knit. To this day (45 years later) I think of her with every project that I make and silently thank her for her time.

 

Little story:

 

My wonderful Aunt Cornelia, the one who taught me to knit and crochet, lived to be in her 90's. During the last year of her life she was "confused" and really didn't understand the day-to-day happenings in life. She could remember with clarity the events from when she was a girl but not too much more. One night I showed her an afghan that I had just finished crocheting and she remarked how beautiful it was. I smiled and said to her, "Aunt Cornelia, YOU taught me how to crochet!" She looked me in the eye and said, "I did? Well, wasn't that nice."

 

Sorry to digress here but I just love relaying that story of my dear Aunt.

[auntieshe]

My Grandmother taught me with a size 00 hook and thick twine that she had saved. When I got the chain stitch down she let me move up to a thinner yarn with the same hook. I still have the hook, its one of my most prized possessions.

[MamaHooker]

Um where does I don't remember fall? Probably worsted weight since that is what my mom used for the endless hats and mittens she crocheted. Whatever hook she wasn't using at the time.

[fthrem]

Thought I'd join in. I am a worsted weight and H hook girl. I bought a 20 volume set of "Stitch by Stitch" at a library book sale a couple of years ago to get the sewing patterns in them, only to discover it had crochet instructions too. I saw the cute patterns and had to try, so my Momma gave me a skein of red heart she had laying around, I bought an H hook and the addiction began! I'm still partial to worsted weight and an h hook!

[glitterhooker]

I was also one of those who learned to crochet wit hRed heart and an H hook lol (well they made me ue an I because I crochet too tight I guess...) My first go at learning was from a lady at the local blind center (I'm partially sighted.) and I got the stitches right, I just didn't always hit that one last stitch so I had a lot of triangles.

After that I stopped for awhile and picked it up again after learning through online tutorials and a friend's grandmother. Once I started making things that looked right it was all over.

[Hildy48]

My sister taught me to crochet with thread when I was 13. My first project was a lovely doily which I still have. My first yarn project was an afghan. After using thread and steel hooks I felt like I was crocheting with fishing poles!

[Nota44model]

I chose #1... I am not sure what WW yarn or if H was the hook size but that is about as close as any of the choices are lol... my G'ma taught me when I was 6 and I took a break for a while during my school years then picked it up again in my mid 20's.... started back with thread oddly enough lol... been going back and forth between any yarn type and thread for about 12-13 years now...

 

Michelle