[Nfb-krafters-korner] help with beginning Krochet

[Annette Carr]

Hi Angela,

Here are some instructions for making the crocheted chain stitch that I
wrote up when I taught my daughters Girl Scout Troop to crochet.  I hope you
find them helpful.  You might want to get some one to read them to you as
you try it so that you do not have to keep removing your hands from your
needle and yarn to advance through the instructions.

Take a look at how you are holding the needle.  Many people like to hold it
like they are holding a pencil.  I do not do it this way, so maybe others
can provide more info on this method if that is what you are doing.  

Let's start by getting orientated to the crochet needle/hook.  There is a
flat portion of the needle that I call just that.  There is the hook portion
of the needle.  When you are holding the needle paralleled to the floor
(horizontal) and the open part of the hook is towards you, I refer to this
as having the hook facing you.  When the needle is again being held
horizontal and the open part of the hook is towards the ceiling, I say that
the hook is facing up.  Continuing to hold the needle horizontally, when the
open part of the hook is facing away from you, I say the hook is away from
you.  And finally, when the open part of the hook is facing down toward the
floor, this is when I say the hook is facing down.

I hold the needle in my right hand, using my middle, ring and pinky fingers
and the pinky side of my palm.  The needle is horizontal with the hook of
the needle pointing to the left.  My fingers are coming over the top of the
needle so that my thumb and pointer finger are closest to the hook.  My
middle finger is positioned on the flat part of the needle.  The hook is
facing you.  Sometimes my thumb will provide support to the needle, but for
the most part my thumb and pointer finger are free to move around and do
other things besides holding the needle.

I weave the working yarn through the fingers of my left hand.  So the yarn
coming out of the stitch on the needle is closest to my left pointer finger,
and the end coming out of the ball of yarn is closest to my pinky.  I call
this the tail.  Now to get it woven over your fingers, place the yarn over
the back of your pointer finger, under your middle finger, and over the back
of your ring finger, leaving the yarn hanging down between the ring and
pinky fingers.  As the yarn goes over my pointer finger, it is closer to the
nail, and as the yarn goes over my ring finger, it is closer to my hand.

I use my left thumb and middle finger to hold on to my work right below the
hook below the stitch on the needle.  Pull on the yarn tail to remove any
slack in the yarn woven through your fingers.

Make sure that the stitch on the needle is not tight.  Yes loose enough that
it could slip off of the hook if you let it, but you are not going to let it
do this.  Now you are ready to make a stitch.

Most of the movement is going to come from your right wrist.  Reminder, your
needle is horizontal with the hook facing you.  Your left thumb and middle
finger is holding the work just below the stitch on the needle.  Straighten
your left index finger so that the tip of your finger is in front of the
hook and higher then it.  This will put tension on the yarn coming from your
needle.  Not too much because you do not want to tighten the loop on the
needle.  This will position your yarn at an angle coming from the needle at
the lower right, and to your pointer finger at the upper left.

Now you will do a circular motion with the hook to make a yarn over.  This
circular motion will cause the hook to move down, away from you, up, towards
you and then down.  The hook of your needle is going to move under the yarn
that is stretched between the needle and your pointer finger.  To do this
move the hook down, then under the yarn by moving the hook away from you and
then up on the side of the yarn that is away from you.  

Now many things are going to happen all at once.  You are going to relax
your left pointer finger, bring the hook towards you and back in to a
horizontal position, and rotate the hook a quarter turn so that it is facing
down.  You have just yarned over. 

Now to make the new stitch, with the hook still facing down, pull the hook
of the needle towards the right so that the yarn over is pulled through the
stitch on the needle, and that original stitch falls off of the needle.
Just as the hook clears the original stitch, rotate the needle a quarter
turn so that the hook is once again facing you. 

You are now ready to start over and make another stitch.

Annette

 

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