Lessons
Class Introduction
00:48 2What You Need To Get Started
12:59 3The Yarn Label and What is Gauge?
08:01 4How To Chain Stitch
04:32 5How to Single Crochet Stitch
07:55 6How to Half-Double Crochet Stitch
06:17 7How to Double Crochet Stitch
06:01 8How to Triple Crochet Stitch
06:17Lesson Info
Adding a New Ball or Color
Alright we've covered all of the basic stitches and now we wanna talk about working in stripes, or really even just joining a new ball of yarn if you run out of one, how do you do that? So here's this striped piece just so you can see what double crochet actually, I think is half double crocheted stripes look like. Really cool, I mean what is there to say about stripes, I dig stripes, I still think they're super punk rock. Maybe not in this color way, this color way is more nerdy which I also super enjoy, but stripes, yay stripes. Alright so how do we do that? So it's a little counter intuitive how you join yarn successfully in crochet. So depending on what stitch you're working in and we're working on half double crochet, you're going to join the yarn during the last step of whatever stitch that you were working on the row below. What that means is, and here I'm gonna pull this out a bit, so I'm just crocheting along, I'm doing my half double crochet, I'm going to the end of the row, ...
oh and this is another tip I wanted to give you just overall, this has nothing to do with joining yarn but since we're here let's talk about it. A really common question that I get is how do you know where the end of the row is when you're crocheting a piece? 'Cause it's not always super obvious, especially if you're working in the shorter stitches like half double crochet and really, really especially with single crochet. So and what can happen is you can miss the end of the stitch or the first stitch because it's those chains at the beginning of it, it doesn't look like a regular stitch, and so your piece starts to kind of like get smaller and smaller and smaller. And it gets a little frustrating, so at the very beginning while you're learning and really honestly, kind of forever if you're working with something like single crochet, I always recommend counting the stitches. But what I also like to do is at the end if you tug on the end and you see that there's like a little stair step created by that tug, that means that there's another stitch there. If there weren't, then you would be done. So I pulled on that, I say oh wait there's another stitch I need to make, so I'm going to and it's the chain so it's a little wonky, so instead of going through the two loops like we always do, when you're working on that chain the first, this would've been a chain two for half double crochet, you're just gonna kinda jab your hook where ever you can at the top. So I'm going through this loop and you have to muscle it in a little bit, and now I'm gonna work my stitches normal. So for this though, and actually I'm doing a half double crochet so I need to yarn over, I did that, I'm gonna wrap it through. So normally half double crochet, yarn over, pull it through and then I would be dunzo, but we want to join a color here. So I'm gonna drop that first color and I'm gonna pick up the second color, and I'm gonna lay that across the hook and maybe kinda hold it a bit so it's taut. And I'm gonna use that for my very last step, pulling it through all, okay let's do that again, that was a fail. So we're gonna yarn over, go through the stitch and then we're gonna lay this over and we're gonna pull the new color through all three of the loops. And so now that new color is the one that you're gonna see on the hook, and it's joined. And this is gonna feel kinda loose and unsightly or whatever, you can if you want lay your hook down and take the tail and the working yarn of the new color if you want, I'm sorry the tail of the new color and the working yarn of the old color, and tie just a loose knot. Don't tie it tight, you're going to be undoing it before you weave in ends. You don't wanna leave that there, but if it makes you feel better, if it seems to firm things up a bit then you should. So then you're gonna flip over the piece, at this point, let me see if I have scissors, you can just go ahead and cut that piece making sure to leave a long enough tail for weaving in ends, and we're gonna cover that in a bit. And then from here you're all set to go, you just continue on. This is the beginning of the row so I know that I need to chain two, and I'm gonna move on and work all the way down the next row. So I'm joining a new color but the exact same rules apply if you just need to, if you run out of yarn and need to join yarn. You wanna make sure when you're joining yarn though, especially a new ball, that you do it at the end, at that end of the row, beginning of the row. You don't wanna do it in the center if you can help it. It can create holes, it can cause things to become unraveled, unless you're doing some sort of more intermediate color work. So that is really all there is to it to changing a ball or joining in a new color. You'll notice that you have all of these like crazy tails and we'll weave those in, and I will show you how to do that in a bit. So let's go ahead and move on.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Corrine Radergraham
Excellent presentation by the instructor. Clear, concise and perfect for a beginning crocheter. Informative tips and tricks. Vickie is a sparkler! Check out her knitting course too, it's equally well done.
Shyma Shukri
I loved this course!! Everything is clearly explained. Thank you Vickie💕
Lindsey Little
I'm completely new to crocheting and this class was extremely helpful. It was concise and thorough at the same time. I feel confident that I can complete the sample projects included in the course and I can't wait to get started!