Learn How to Crochet
Sooner or later, most knitters decide to learn how to crochet
Once you've mastered the art of knitting, your mind inevitably wonders how to crochet. I call it "hook envy:" we see those crocheters whipping through afghans in the time it takes us to knit a square and we start to wonder: how hard can it be?Well, fairly difficult, as it turns out. Of course, once you know how to knit, it's a lot easier to learn how to crochet. But even an experienced knitter might blink at reading a crochet pattern -- all those abbreviations and strange patterns. Remember what PSSO looked like when you first started knitting? Bet you didn't think it meant "Pass Slipped Stitch Over!"
So if, like me, you decide you want to learn how to crochet, it's best to start small. Get yourself a crochet hook and a ball of yarn, and start the way we always advise beginning knitters to get going: with a single square.
Getting started
Like knitting, crocheting starts with a slip knot. Place it on the crochet hook and hold the hook in your right hand. Wrap the tail of the yarn around the hook from back to front, then pull that loop back through the first loop, slipping it off the hook. You now have one stitch on the hook and one hanging down.
This is the easy part: keep on doing that until you have enough stitches (for a standard afghan square, 25 stitches is usually about right -- depending, of course, on the size of hook you're using). Once you have a chain of stitches, you've finished the equivalent of casting on, and it's time to learn how to crochet.
Crocheting
Once more, hold the hook in your right hand. Look at the tail you've created and find the stitches. Skip the first one and push the head of the hook through the second stitch. Wrap the yarn around from back to front and pull the new loop back through the stitch. You now have two stitches on your hook: the one left over from the end of part one, and the new one you just created.
Wrap the yarn around, again from back to front, and pull it back through both of the stitches. Now you're back to one stitch again. And basically, that's how to crochet. You keep on repeating this until you get to the very end of your rope... er, chain. Make sure you get the last stitch. Turn the work counterclockwise and begin again.
Of course, this is a simple beginning, but it's the first step in learning how to crochet!