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Hi everyone,

Can anyone recommened a good book to start to learn how to crochet? I am a total novice.

Thanks,
Helen

I found watching someone doing it was the best way of learning Helsbells, however 'Knitting' magazine seems to have a basic 'How to' for crochet and knitting, would you like a copy? I have one here 'bout a year old so it has seasonal stuff in it

I snapdragon,
That would be wonderful, I will PM you.

Helen

Hi - also try googling crochet patterns - one of the sites had intro instructions to download - @have a go' or something similar was the site name. However, Snapdragon is right - there is nothing to beat someone to show you!

I put this in another thread for Kathleen who seemed to think it was helpful so thought I'd paste it here for you.

Crocheting looks a little complicated but is really easy.

The basic rule you need to get your head round (at least initially) is that no matter how many loops you have on your hook, you never pull through more than 2 at a time. You're always reducing the number of loops by one, until you return to just one loop on your hook.

A chain is 1 loop on hook and draw yarn through it.
A double crochet has one loop on the hook, put hook through loop below in your piece of work and draw yarn through, then draw yarn through both loops that are left on hook.
A treble - 1 loop on hook, wind yarn round hook (making no.2 loop), hook through loop below in work, draw yarn through it (making no.3 loop - hence treble). Then draw yarn through the nearest two loops, leaving 2 on hook (the original loop + the one you've just made). Draw yarn through these to return to the blessed state of 1 loop.

Oh, and don't try to use American patterns because they have different (but similar) names for all the stitches so your work will never look like the picture and you'll think it's because you're not doing it right.

The easiest way is to just have a play with a bit of old yarn and a big hook - leave the delicate cotton mats until next week!

Hope it helps

There was another crochet thread (no pun intended) on here a while back with some useful linkies to crochet tutorials possibly on Youtube?.

Can't remember who posted it but it was a useful refresher for me as I'm crocheting again.