my commonplace

Starting Out

Hey there! I have started crocheting a few months ago, and I want to document my progress and projects. This section of my website will be focused on my crochet projects. I will talk about my inspirations, the creating process, the challenges I faced, and what I learned.

This entry will be focused on how I started my crochet journey, a compilation of all the tutorials I followed to start out, and the next steps.

Why Crochet?

For a long time, I had wanted to start a hobby that kept me away from screens. I have a CS degree, so most if not all of my time spent in college was looking at a screen. Now that I have a job, I’m still looking at a computer screen for 8 hours a day. Even outside of work, all of my hobbies involved technology in some way. Furthermore, I was starting to resent social media, and the amount of time I spent on it (which eventually led me to deleting all my socials from my phone).

So, I started looking for hobbies that did not require technology, and I wanted it to be something creative, because I love creating. Crochet immediately caught my attention, but it seemed to have a high learning curve, and I was very busy at the time due to my internship, so I decided to try making jewelry.

I did for a while, and it was fun, but also kind of limited. Unless I had some other skills like crocheting or sculpting, there were limits to what jewelry pieces I could create. I started searching for crochet in my Pinterest and was amazed at all the cool things people made. I wanted to make cool things too. Eventually, life also calmed down a bit, so I decided. I was going to learn how to crochet!

The Start

I knew literally nothing about crochet, so I did what every person who doesn’t know anything about a craft does. I opened YouTube and typed out “crochet tutorial for beginners”. I found a 40 minute video by the channel Hopeful Turns, where the lady explained every basic crochet stitch very thoroughly. In the beginning of the video, the lady listed all the necessary materials to start out, so I knew I had to go out and buy some yarn and a hook. I bought blue medium weight yarn and a 5.0 mm hook. I only bought that specific hook because it was the size suggested by the lady in the tutorial. And I had no idea I was buying “medium weight” yarn. I honestly just prayed that I was buying the right size. Later on, I came to understand these terms.

Basic Stitches

I finally started following the tutorial. At first, it was all so confusing, because I had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it. And I didn’t even know if my stitches were well done or not. All I could tell was a difference in the stitches’ width. I have to say, the woman who runs the Hopeful Turns channel is delightful. Her name is Vinita and all of the tutorials I followed to start out were hers. She is the sweetest and she explains everything more than once and slowly. The way she positions the camera is also great because it’s really easy to see exactly what she’s doing.

You can check out the tutorial here.

After finishing her tutorial and having no idea if I did the stitches correctly or not, I started looking around her channel and found numerous playlists with tutorials for beginners. I ended up choosing one with less videos, because I wanted to finish all the tutorials in the playlist, but I also didn’t want to potentially bore myself from mindlessly following numerous tutorials.

The Flower

The first tutorial I followed taught how to make a simple flower.

At first, I was so confused because I had no idea what I was doing, and I remember starting the project all over again after finishing one petal, because I just couldn’t see how that could become a flower and my petal didn’t really look like her petal. After starting again, I understood what I was doing a bit more, but I was still very doubtful that whatever I was doing would actually look like a flower in the end. But it did! And it was quite nice. I made a mistake where I skipped one of the double crochets in one of the petals, but I finished it anyway. Just the fact that I noticed my mistake made me happy.

I felt so proud of my flower and happy I understood the pattern. After finishing my first flower, I made a second one, trying to make the pattern from memory (I might have cheated a few times shhh). And I didn’t make mistakes the second time :D

This little project taught me to trust the process when crocheting. The beginning of a project rarely looks like the finished product, and understanding the stitches you’re making really helps, but I just wasn’t at that level yet, which was okay! I still managed to make two pretty flowers.

The Star

This was my least favorite project I did out of the ones in this list, because it didn’t turn out as neatly as the others. However, it was one of the most helpful patterns to me, because it uses every basic stitch. Seeing all the different stitches right next to each other made it much easier to understand what they look like and why they’re used.

I think it's noticeable in the result that the corners aren't straight, so it looks more like a sea star, but it's fine XD

The Heart

The heart was the fastest project. It requires less stitches than the others and it was just very easy to make. I found it to be way easier than the star and the flower.

I don’t have much to say about this one. There you have the result :) Afterwards, I made another one with red yarn for my boyfriend.

The Flat Circle

This project was my favorite out of all of these, alongside the granny square. A lot of people said that it was hard to make a flat circle, so I wanted to see if I could do it. Following Vinita’s tutorial, it was really easy to make. I was really happy with my flat circle.

This project also taught me the magic circle and single crochet increase. It was also the first pattern I made that can just be continued for as long as you want. I really enjoy these kinds of patterns because of how versatile they are (hence liking the granny square as well).

The Granny Square

I was always a bit intimidated by the granny square. Not knowing anything about the pattern, it seemed hard to make. It ended up being one of the easiest for me. I really enjoyed making this granny square and it felt like it opened endless possibilities for projects, and I actually did have an immediate idea for a granny square project, which I will be writing about later.

I used blue yarn for my first granny square, just like the projects in the previous pictures, but I couldn't find a picture of it, so here's a picture of a brown and white granny square I made right afterwards:

Yes, this is a sneak peek into a future project I will be writing about here.

Conclusion

These were the tutorials that introduced me to crochet, and helped me understand the basics, as well as how the basics apply to patterns. After I finished these tutorials, I hopped onto my granny square project soon after, but I also worked on smaller projects at the same time along the way. I will be writing about those first.

Hope you enjoyed reading. See ya in my next project :)