Crochet is a craft and an art. Once you have the basic stitches you are well on the way to making things you will be proud to share, and anyone can learn if they put their mind to it.
Decide what to make before you buy anything
This is the step people skip, and it is why so many beginners end up with a bag of unsuitable yarn.
The item determines the hook size and the yarn weight, and those are printed on any pattern you choose. Pick the project, read what it needs, and buy that. It is far more efficient than buying attractive yarn and then looking for something to do with it.
A good first project
Something flat, small, and where the fit does not matter.
A dishcloth in cotton is the standard recommendation and deserves it: it finishes in an evening, the yarn costs very little, and the result is genuinely useful.
Baby items – bibs, small blankets, booties – are also popular first projects, and they work well for a specific reason: they are small enough to finish, and the recipient does not care about slight irregularities. A bib is a rectangle with a neck opening, which is about as approachable as a shaped item gets.
Do not start with a garment for an adult. Gauge matters there, and a first attempt that fits nobody is discouraging.
What to buy
A 5.00mm (H-8) hook and a ball of smooth, light-coloured worsted weight yarn.
Smooth and light so you can see your stitches. This is not about appearance – dark and fuzzy yarns genuinely obscure the stitch structure, and being unable to see what you have done is the most common reason beginners give up.
A blunt tapestry needle for weaving in ends. That is the whole list.
For baby items specifically
Soft and machine washable, without exception. Baby things are washed constantly, and a hand-wash-only bib will not be used twice.
Test the yarn against the inside of your wrist rather than your fingers. Baby skin is far more sensitive than adult hands.
Cotton is a good choice for bibs, since it absorbs and washes at high temperatures.
The stitches to learn first
The chain, the single crochet, and the double crochet. With those three you can make a very large number of things.
Everything else in crochet is a variation on where you put the hook and how many times you wrap the yarn.
And be patient
Your first rows will be uneven. Everyone’s are. It settles within a couple of projects and no amount of unpicking speeds it up – finish the thing and start the next one.
