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"Queen of spades" cropped cardigan in Tunisian Crochet

THE MAKING OF A LOVELY CARDIGAN IN TUNISIAN CROCHET In the last little while, as you may have noticed, I have been working on an ambitious project: the creation of a Tunisian crochet garment, using a leaf motif (or "spades", as I preferred to call it) already seen in some wonderful knitting projects. First, I thought about replicating the spade pattern in Tunisian crochet, which was not difficult, as I have created similar patterns before - you can find them, for example, in these projects of mine: Leaf it On Shawl , Leaf it On Scarf , Leaf it On Cowl .  Leaf it On Scarf Next, I thought it best to make a garment that had a simple workmanship, i.e. worked flat, and not in the round, to avoid, at least initially, over-complicating the design. A cardigan, therefore, was the best choice. Next, I chose a yarn that I liked and opted for a fine multicoloured yarn. This was the result: "QUEEN OF SPADES" - THE CAL! I liked the finished garment very much, and so did you, whic...

CROCHET COURSE FOR BEGINNERS

DO YOU WANT TO LEARN TO CROCHET?


Did you always want to learn to crochet but could never find either the time, the money or simply the energy to attend to a “real” course? I can well relate! I have been wanting to learn to crochet for most of my life, before I finally did. I always seemed to find good excuses not to start, in spite of my attraction towards this craft: I remember I couldn’t find my mother’s old hooks and yarn at home, for example, and when I looked for them in a shop I found these too expensive (??); also, studying at the university at the time cost me enough efforts already; In the end I think I was even afraid of looking “old” or weird if people saw me crocheting (funny young me!). Until finally, about 8 years ago, my desire to learn crocheting broke all my resistance at last, and I actually did it. How? I bought my first hook (a 4 mm) and a ball of yarn (both for less than € 5, I believe) and turned on my PC.

crochet course video tutorial
crochet course


LEARNING TO CROCHET ON THE INTERNET


Yes, times have changed considerably from my teenage years. Now ANYTHING can be found on the internet, all you need can be easily obtained with a mouse-click. So this is what I did, too, at the beginning. With a lot of patience and determination, I looked on Google and YouTube and searched for tutorials that could teach me to crochet. Now, internet really is great in providing you with a huge offer of what you are looking for, so much so that it can be difficult at times to find the one thing that is really helpful. Yes, because if you need to learn something, and you are a total beginner in that field, you also need to find the right guides and the right teachers! We are all different, and we all learn differently, so we need to find someone who is able to teach us in a way that we can understand. Even now, whenever I want to learn a new crochet stitch or technique, I have to browse through tens of videos before I find the one that works for me, and it is not necessarily the best video tutorial on that stitch or technique, but it is the right one… for me. Do you know what I mean?

crochet course video tutorial
crochet course


"QUICK AND EASY CROCHET" CHANNEL


There really are tons of crochet videos on YouTube. Some of them are top quality, and I can only admire the authors for their skills and talent. But A LOT of videos are also useless: bad quality image, out of focus or dark environments, unintelligible foreign languages, lots of boring talking before the video actually starts… But what mostly annoys me when I look for a tutorial are lengthy videos. I always discard the videos that are over 10 minutes long (unless I am obliged to watch them, having found nothing better), because I’m impatient to learn: I want to get to it right away, straight to the point, no chit chat, no endless introductions. Short videos also limit frustration: you understand immediately if they will work for you or not. This is why through the past 2 years I came up with the idea of creating my own crochet channel on YouTube: my intent is to teach people to crochet in a super quick and easy way, i.e. in the way that I like to learn things. If you go to my YouTube channel “Hookloopsarah Quick & Easy Crochet” you will already find some videos, all under 10 minutes, showing particular crochet stitches and techniques. All videos are “mute” (international: no language problem), with only some relaxing music in the background and some writing in English, explaining the most complicated steps.

QUICK AND EASY CROCHET COURSE FOR BEGINNERS


All video tutorials I have uploaded so far are for skilled crocheters who want to learn new stitches and techniques. But - surprise! I have now started a real crochet course for absolute beginners. My goal is to teach to crochet very quickly to people who have never tried before. This is why I intentionally keep the videos as simple as possible, so as not to create frustration in learners. I don't want to give too much information at this stage, either, because at the beginning you just want to be able to learn the basic stitches and create your first crocheted swatch, you certainly don't care about yarn tension and further advanced knowledge. 

HOW TO HOLD HOOK AND YARN IN CROCHET


The first video lesson is already up: “How to hold hook and Yarn” when crocheting. As I mentioned above, it is a very simple and short video, aimed at people who have never held a crochet hook in their hands before. My objective here is to allow these people to start crocheting without further ado: at first, they will hold the crochet hook as it comes natural to them, and, by looking at this video, they will learn how a crochet hook is usually held (see Methods #1 and #2). I don't give much relevance to tension and how to hold yarn at this stage, because I think it would be too much to learn right now, and it is not important for learning.




If you like my style and teaching method stay tuned for the forthcoming lessons (the Slipknot and beginning chain). By subscribing to my channel and my Newsletter (see embedded form below), you will not only receive regular updates on my latest pattern releases and more crochet related news, but you will also be notified when the next video tutorial is published and you will not run the risk of missing a single lesson!


Why, would that not be a super quick and easy way to learn to crochet?

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