Crochet Tutorial Series, Part 2: Slip Knots, Chains and Single Crochet

When I first started crocheting, some of the first things I learned was how to do a slip knot, how to chain and how to make a single crochet.  Some of the basics that can turn into some beautiful crochet pieces, all the way from beanies, blankets and baby booties.  I will break down the three different techniques for the picture part of this tutorial, but for the video part, they will all be in one video. So, let's get started with the slip knot.

Slip Knot
This is the first, most of the time (minus the Magic Circle), thing you will do to start a project.

1.  Grab your yarn and place it over your index finger, twice
2.  Take the piece of yarn that is closest to your hand (on your finger) and place over the front piece of yarn
3.  Pull up the now back piece of yarn forward and in one fluid motion, pull your finger up, pulling the front piece of  yarn
4.  Pull on the tail of yarn to tighten the now created loop on your finger
5.  Take the yarn off your finger and place your crochet hook inside the loop
6.  Tighten the loop again on your finger

You now have created a slip knot, now onto make some chains.

Chain (Chaining)

1.  Take your now created slip knot with your crochet hook and wrap your yarn around the hook (yarn over or YO)
2.  Pull the yarn through the loop

And, there you have it your first chain.  Keep repeating the process for whatever your project calls for.  If you are making a blanket, LittleMonkeysCrochet has a great blanket size chart for baby blankets, it can be found here.

Ready for the last technique for the day?



Single Crochet

1.  Take your strand of chains and skip the
first chain from the hook (never count the loop on your hook as a chain)
2-4 In the 2nd chain (you can either grab one loop or grab the loop on the back, detailed more in the video), pick up the loop your choose to use on your hook.
5-6 Yarn over your hook and pull through the loop, you now have two loops on your hook
7-8 Yarn over your hook and pull through both loops

You now have made a single crochet!

With these few simple techniques you will be able to make many different crochet projects!  What other tips or tricks do you want to see?

Look for a video on these three techniques to be up soon!