I don’t think you should do a lot of prework before diving into crochet. Too much research can postpone your experience. The amount of information on the web can be overwhelming, and I can attest from personal experience that ultimately, it’s a huge time drain. You start out looking at a couple of random sites or looking for one finite piece of information and before you know it, it’s four hours later and you’ve accomplished nothing!
To this end, it really helps if you know what kind of learner you are. I don’t mean that you should embark on a big science project of determining your learning style. I really want you to just take a few minutes and think about the way you’ve learned best in the past.
On a personal level, I’ve never once had an easy time with written instructions. Think back to a time when you had to put a piece of prefab furniture together. How did that go for you? Well I can only say that I would probably never have been able to assemble anything of substance if it weren’t for my husband, and more recently, the miracle that is YouTube.
If you are a visual learner, there are a myriad of sites available, as well as some really comprehensive and well-written books. If you’re an experiential person, however, and you learn best by doing, it’s probably worth the investment of a little money (and more importantly – time!) to take a class. It’s amazing how a little one-on-one time with an instructor can cut through confusion.
As I stated in a previous post, I learned from a 1970-ish version of a book very much like the two below. It worked for me. It was painstaking, and thank God I had a couple of ladies available to help troubleshoot until I really grasped the concept, but overall, it got the job done.
These little books led to my first real book purchase, “Crocheting For Dummies.” I kid you not. The way I looked at it, if I was going to progress, I needed the most methodical, basic instruction I could lay hands on. Kind of like when I bought”HR for Dummies” shortly after assuming my first full-fledged HR role. Scoff if you’d like, but I’m 12 years into a career in HR Management now. The Dummies book worked then and it worked for crochet. Keep it simple, keep it basic.
Then I googled. I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner. I googled and I found resource upon resource upon resource! But the most valuable thing I found by far was the goldmine of “how to” videos available. They were brilliant!
One day I googled “How to Front Post Crochet, ” and I found my first online video. It showed me everything I needed to know! AGAIN, SIMPLY BRILLIANT!!
When all else fails, google people, google! Here are a few sites I really like.
Lionbrand’s education options were comparatively skimpy when I first began to crochet. They’ve done a fabulous job enriching their “Learning” offerings, however. In truth, you can probably begin and end a lot of your searching here.
http://www.nexstitch.com/Tutorials.html
This site helped me immensely. There may be newer and better, but I have sentimental attachment to this site. After all, they were my first…;)
http://crochet.about.com/od/learntocrochet/tp/Crochet_Videos.htm
Loaded with resources! Tons of information, including some very solid videos. My only criticism, and I know this will sound goofy, but I just don’t care for the bare bones aesthetic of the site. All the ads get on my nerves. Having said that, again, lots of really good information here.
If you’d like more information on learning styles, there’s a ton of information here:
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