on July 20, 2015How I learnt to crochet and why it worked out really well…
I recently decided to learn to crochet, so I set out to teach myself. I did a little bit of research and found myself a book: Modern Crochet by Molla Mills, which I thought looked like a good quality book with nice, simple looking, projects. I also bought myself some recycled t-shirt yarn (made from offcuts of jersey fabric) from Peace and wool and some crochet hooks (for the t-shirt yarn, I used a 10mm hook).
I was soon crocheting away, and was super pleased with all my purchases, and my progress…
Firstly, the yarn arrived in the post wrapped in pink, SPARKLY tissue paper, along with with a free sweetie. Which is absolute genius on their part because it made me immediately pleased to have ordered from them, but I soon discovered the chunky yarn was a good idea in more ways than one.
The first project I tried after trying out a few basics was a basket. My first try was a bit wobbly, and I struggled a little, but it didn’t take too long. After a second go (I am a little bit – ok a lot – of a perfectionist, so I actually pulled the whole thing apart and redid it!) I had the knack of it, and was pretty pleased with myself for producing something so quickly, and so soon after learning how to crochet.
After this great success, I decided to invite some friends over to have a few drinks and do some crochet together. Some had crocheted before, but we were all still relative beginners, and many were surprised at how easy it was to work with the t-shirt yarn compared with the more standard wool they had tried with before. After much discussion and attempts at different projects, we all decided that the t-shirt yarn was definitely a much better way to learn. Here’s why:
Why you should learn to crochet with t-shirt yarn
- As the yarn is so thick, you can see exactly what you and the yarn are doing, and the stitches are easier to count. This makes the whole process easier to understand and therefore easier to learn.
- Because the yarn, and therefore the crochet hook too, is bigger, they are easier to hold and to handle and everything is much less fiddly and difficult.
- Unlike ‘standard’ wool, which is made up of several different strands, the t-shirt yarn is only one big, continuous thread, it is impossible to accidentally put your hook through the yarn.
- Thanks to the chunkiness of the yarn, it works up really fast, which means you can finish simple projects in no time at all and feel really proud of yourself for being so excellent at crochet!
- You can make it yourself really easily out of t-shirts or other old clothes.
Here are my baskets in action. The large one was using the zero yarn from Peace and Wool, and the smaller is made using home-made t-shirt yarn that I made from two old pairs of pyjama bottoms. The yarn I have made myself is not quite as easy to work with as the zero yarn, as it is more uneven, there are more joins, and has more straggly edges, but still works great. I particularly liked the light blue pyjama fabric. It was more cottony, so stretched less, didn’t curl and frayed a lot, but gave a nice rough rag-rug effect.
The white basket is made from fabric scraps that a friend gave me, left over from making dance costumes, so it is a synthetic lycra type material, but worked pretty well too. The yellow band around the top is also the zero yarn.
So although I didn’t know it, I took the fast route to learning how to crochet. I really love my book too, for its simplicity and variety of practical but beautiful projects : cushion covers, phone cases, rugs, jewellery and more. I really want to try the crocheted chain next, which looks great fun!
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