More Crochet Basics: Circles, Increasing, Decreasing, Shaping
Once you have the basic single crochet stitch down, you are ready to expand your skills. Here are few more skills to learn that will open up the possibilities of what you can make with the crochet process.
The first video above shows how to crocheting in the round.
The second video shows you more stitches to learn. (I’d highly recommend you learn double crochet stitch as many of the crochet tutorials online use this stitch to show new techniques.)
Increasing & Decreasing, Shaping Basics:
Increasing and Decreasing are the steps that allow you to add or skip stitches to form your crochet to expand or shrink. Here is a link to a website that explains how increasing and decreasing works in words and graphics.
There are a multiplicity of ways to create form with crochet. One basic way to make individual pieces that are sewn or crocheted together to create a larger form. (Yarn bombers do this to make their work wrap around objects likes trees.) Here is a link to a website that shows a few methods of making seams with crochet.
There are lots of other great internet resources for beginning to get comfortable with the crochet process. If these links aren’t working for you, get online and find ones that work better! If you find a great tutorial, link to it on your blog so you have it for future reference.
Please spend this week (and weekend) continuing to build your crochet skills.
Try to think about these different methods as building blocks to create form and structure.
How can you turn this crocheted parts into a sculpture? What other materials could you try using for crochet? Have you explored what happens when you vary the size of hook in relationship to the gauge of yarn? Have you tried incorporating crochet with, over, around or through an object?
