Modern Crochet for Beginners

1. Modern Crochet for Beginners: Hi. It's me, Jessica, your crochet teacher. I'm the owner and maker behind But First, Crochet. Like but first coffee only for yarn I've been crocheting since my teen years. When I'm not crocheting, I'm working in healthcare and taking care of my family and six. I started crocheting for stress relief, and I fell in love with it so much that I want to teach you how to do it too. Crocheting is a skill. You don't have to be born with a fancy creative gene to do this craft. All you need is practice and patience. I'm here to make crochet simple so you can join the fabulous maker community that I love being a part of. You can find me on all the social channels and on Etsy, @ButFirstCrochet. In today's class, I'll be teaching you the foundation and absolute basics of crochet. No previous experience is necessary. By the end of the course, you'll know the proper tools to crochet, how to read a crochet pattern, and the fundamental techniques and stitches that will serve as a base for your very first project and any future projects you wish to create. Speaking of projects, the class project we will be creating in modern crochet for beginners, is this adorable boho coaster. It's perfect for your coffee or for your Lacroix, depending on your pleasure. It's the perfect beginner project because it is simple, it's short, and it's fun. I can't wait to see your finished projects. Let's jump straight into the first lesson. 2. Tools and Materials: First, you're going to need some yarn. This is the yarn that I'll be using for our coaster later today. You will need a crochet hook, you will need some scissors, and a yarn needle. First, let's talk a little bit about yarn. Yarn comes in different weights, different thicknesses, different materials. Let's investigate how to read a yarn label. I love this cotton. You can find this at Hobby Lobby. There's always going to be a lot number. This is important because if you're doing a project that requires more than one skein of yarn, you'll want to buy your yarn at the same time to make sure your color is uniform throughout your project. This is the color ivory. If you're crocheting, which that's what we're doing, the recommended hook size is a 5.5 millimeter or H hook, which is what I'll be using here today. There's 3.5 ounces of yarn here. If we were to weigh this on a scale, 3.5 ounces, 180 yards. Washing instructions, 379. Always get it every other week on Hobby Lobby's sale, 30 percent off. Hot tip for you. That is our yarn. This is a crochet hook. What I wish I knew when I first started crocheting is there are different types of crochet hooks. This is a Clover Amour hook. It's a steel hook. It is a hybrid hook, in my opinion. I could be slightly wrong on my verbage there, but I'll show you the difference here. This is a Susan Bates hook. This is what's called an inline hook. If you look at the side, you can see there's a sharp indent here. I had a preference for this. I didn't know these even existed until I was crocheting for a couple of years and was struggling to get my yarn to move through the hook. There is also another type of hook called a tapered hook. This is a boy boy tapered hook. If you look at the head of the crochet hook, you can see it's not as sharp. The head's a little more tapered, the indent here is smoother compared to the inline hook. Hot tip for beginners, try both, see which one feels more comfortable. Then I fell in love with these, which is a combination of the two. I just like this material, the yarn glides on the hook nicely and I feel like I can crochet a bit faster with this particular hook, and I like the comfort grips here. All of these hooks do different things. You can see by the size. Depending on the drape you want, with your material you're crocheting, whether you want tighter stitches, loose stitches, if you're using bulky yarn, thin yarn, thread, hook size does matter. You'll want to read your yarn label and you will want to read your pattern instructions to decide what hook size you want to use. You'll find throughout crochet, sometimes your work will measure a little bigger or a little smaller than what the designers does. In that case, you will either size up or size down in hook size and that will help you gauge your project better. Other important tools. Scissors, any old scissors will do. I just like these cute, small craft scissors. Again, Hobby Lobby. A yarn needle or a tapestry needle has a blunt end, not a sharp end. But over the years again, I've collected quite a few different types of needles, different sizes, different shapes. Depending on what you're crafting, you will find the appropriate needle. These are purposefully bent and these are great if you're crocheting, stuffed animals. You've got the little angle there to help sew on the limbs. I like to use this thinner, blunt needle to weave in my ends and we'll show you how to do all of that throughout the course today. Sub stitch markers. These are used to mark your stitch, especially when you're working in the round. Safety pins work great too, I actually prefer safety pin. But these are yarn stitch markers. A tape measure. This will come in handy. Just a little portable tape measure. Nothing too huge. I just use an old cosmetic bag to throw all my hooks in. This tape measure I use it all the time. Don't let the kids or your partner steal it to measure things around the house because you'll be very angry when you go to look for it and you can't find it in your bag. This is in my bag and no one's allowed to touch it. Let's leave out our H hook and our scissors. 3. Foundation Stitches: Slip Knot|Yarn/Hook Holds: In this video lesson, we're going to learn some basic stitches. We're going to learn to do a slip knot, we're going to learn to chain, and we're going to learn how to single crochet. I'm going to use a bigger, bulkier yarn so you can see my stitches a little bit easier for the demonstration. Just to practice reading your yarn label again, this is a size 6 bulky yarn. The higher the number, the thicker the yarn. So this one, just for comparison, is a size 4 medium, 4 medium, 6 super bulky. Super bulky recommends an N hook. Let me get out my N hook, and the very first step is to hold your crochet hook. I'm right-handed, so I'm going to be showing you by right hand. I will do a flip of the video, and if you're a lefty, you can hopefully follow the right-handed mirrored version as a left-handed person. There's two main ways to hold your crochet hook. The first one is what they call the knife. Where you hold it like you would cut or spread peanut butter. Just hold it between your thumb and your index finger like this. The other common way is to hold it like a pencil. Again, play around with different hook types and hook holds so you can figure out what's most comfortable. If neither one of these methods work for you, try one that works. There is no right, there's no wrong, it just is what feels good for you. Well, let's make our slip knot first. To make a slip knot, you're going to take your yarn and loop it over your finger. Gently slide your fingers out of the hole. Bring this tail up through here, and you're just going to pull, then you got a little loop there. So you see, it's a slip knot. If you pull it, it comes out. Again, you're going to loop this through, bring that tail through the hole pull that so it's tight. You're going to stick your hook through and then tighten your slip knot. Not too tight. You want your yarn to move freely up and down the shaft of the hook here. Now holding the yarn, again, this is totally what feels comfortable for you. When I first started out, I just held the yarn between my index finger and my middle finger. This will cause your tension to be pretty loose, but again, if that's what feels comfortable. I like to loop the yarn around my pinky and flip my hand over, then I put the yarn through my index finger and my middle finger like this. This gives me a little bit of tension control with this finger, and then I just also have additional tension and control through here. Some people hold their yarn up high on their finger. You can thread through however you want, whatever feels comfortable. But at the end of the day, you want to make sure you have good control over your yarn. I'm going to wrap mine through here and here. Now we are ready to chain. 4. Foundation Stitches: Chaining (Ch): Now we are ready to chain. Chaining creates the foundation for your work. What you're going to do is take your yarn over your hook and turn your hook a little bit so your hook grabs the yarn and pull through. That's one. Again, you're going to thread your yarn over. Make sure your hook grabs the yarn and pull through, that's two. Yarn over, pull through, that's three. Yarn over, pull through, that's four, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. We have 11 chains. You want to chain loosely. You don't want to chain tight. If you chain too tight, you're going to have a heck of a time getting hook your needle. You hook back through the yarn. You want your yarn to be able to move up and down freely, you don't want it to be too tight. If it's too tight, you're going to have trouble stitching throughout your entire project. What's going to happen is as you move on with your project, this first row is going to be so tight, your work's going to flare out. It's not going to be even and straight. It's going to be a wonky mess. You want to make sure you're chaining pretty loosely, not too tight. Your yarn should move up and down here. Let's try it again. I put my hook through and see how it just gently moves. Light tension, yarn over, pull through. You can see this still comes up and down easily, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. We're going to do 11. Keep practicing your chaining. When you feel comfortable with your chaining, come on back for the next lesson where I'm going to teach you how to single crochet. 5. Single Crochet (Sc): Friends, you've got your chaining nailed and you're ready to start learning how to single crochet. Single crochet is honestly the stitch I use most frequently. I do a lot of amigurumi or stuffed animal work which most of the time that is just single crochet. I have my chain of 11 and we are going to do 10 stitches. We chained 11 because we always start with a single crochet with the second chain from the hook. Here is our hook. There's a loop on the hook. Here is 1, 2. Our first step is going to be to single crochet in the second chain from the hook. Here's our hook. Here's 1, 2. We're going to put our hook into the chain like that. Next we're going to yarn over. Just put your yarn right there underneath your hook and you're going to pull through a loop. You have two loops on your hook. You are going to yarn over, and you are going to pull through both loops. You just made your first single crochet, awesome. Let's do it again. Hook through, yarn over, pull through a loop, yarn over, pull through the two loops. There's two. Yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two. We've done three stitches; 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Here comes number 4. It all starts to become a more fluid motion, the more you practice. You honestly just build up muscle memory. This is a skill. It is not talent, it is not creative, it is a skill. The more you do it, the better you're going to get at it, the more you won't have to think about it. It becomes one motion like just stick that in there, pull up your loop, yarn over, pull through two. Pull, insert into your chain, yarn over, pull up your loop, yarn over, pull through two. Keep going till you get to the end of your row. Should be at the end of your row, if you're not, pause and meet me at the end of the row. Let me show you how to count your stitches. If you look on the top, this is the anatomy of a stitch. We have the front loop and the back loop, front loop, back loop, front loop, back loop. This is the post of the stitch. When I first started single crocheting, nobody told me that you crochet through both loops. I would always make my stitches in the front loop, helpful first timer trick. Make sure you're sticking your hook through both loops when you're single crocheting unless your pattern specifies otherwise. It will say front loop only or back loop only if that is what you are supposed to do. Now that we're at the end of our foundation row, we need to turn our work. When you're turning your work in single crochet, you need to chain up one stitch. You're going to yarn over, you're going to chain one. Like turning the page in a book, just flip your work over. Now we're going to work on the backside. You're going to start your first stitch right here. This is your chain 1. This is the loop on your hook, your chain 1, your first stitch. Your first stitch is going to come right in here under these two loops. We're going to come right in there. Yarn over, pull through your loop. Yarn over, and pull through both loops. There's one single crochet stitch. Repeat that across. I'm going to go under both the front and the back loop, yarn over, pull through the loop, yarn over, pull through two. You need to get a little more, yarn out here, pitch your hook underneath the front and back loop of your stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through. Keep doing that till you get to the end of the row. Thus far we've done 1, 2, 3 stitches, we should have 10 by the end of the rope. This will be number 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Now, the last stitch can be tricky because it's on the turn there. This will be our 10th stitch. Make sure you go under your front and your back loop here. We're going to go right in there, yarn over, pull through the stitch, yarn over, pull through two. The best way to keep your work symmetrical is to keep count, keep track of your stitches. If you've lost one, if you picked one up, we should still have 10 stitches. Let's check. I think it's easy to count starting from the stitch that your hook is attached to. We've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Ten stitches. We want to just practice one more row together. We're going to yarn over, chain up, one, flip your page, and 10 stitches across starting in the first stitch. There is your loop on the hook. This one is your chain 1, this is your first stitch. You always want to make sure you're inserting your hook into the first stitch, not into the chain, not over here. Remember loop, chain 1, first stitch. Right in that first stitch, yarn over, pull through your stitch, yarn over, pull through both loops. Insert your hook, yarn over, pull up your loop, yarn over, pull through two. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. We have three rows there, if you want to practice a few more rows, please do until you feel comfortable enough to get ready to start your project here, the beau ho coaster. Keep practicing. You want your work to be pretty symmetrical. If it gets bigger or smaller, if it has a wavy look to it, you want to make sure your attention is consistent throughout your time crocheting. You want to make sure you still have the 10 stitches. Let's check here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 stitches. It just takes practice. Practice to get even stitches, practice to get your attention right, to get the comfortable fit and feel of the hook to holding your yarn. There's no right or wrong way just do what feels good. To finish off your work, all you have to do is chain 1, but we're not going to turn, we're going to leave a tail. We're just going to snip that off, pull your hook through, and you can just tighten that. That will secure your work so it doesn't come unraveled. That is how you single crochet my friends. 6. Class Project: BOHO Coaster: Who is ready to make their boho coaster? Me. Let's look at our materials we're going to need for our class project today. You're going to need some number 4 worsted weight yarn. I'm using cotton yarn. You can use acrylic yarn or whatever you have on hand. Just keep in mind if you plan to use your coaster and you are going to use it with cool drinks, the cotton yarn will absorb the moisture better. But if you're going to use it for coffee or tea, acrylic yarn would work fine. But for today, I'm going to be using a cotton yarn, and it is going to be our number 4 worsted weight yarn. Going to be using my clover, a more H 5.0 millimeter crochet hook, a tapestry needle, and some scissors. Make sure you bring up your PDF that is in the assignment section of the class. Here you can pull this up on your computer or print it out and keep it handy. This will help as we go through and read the pattern and learn how to create the coaster. Under the materials list, you see cotton worsted weight yarn, and we just need very little. 0.5 ounces is what I weighed the finished project to be. We need our crochet hook, our scissors, our yarn needle. I have these cute little tags that I had made from an Etsy shop that I can put cute little finishing touch on my designs. The abbreviations we're going to use today, another helpful handout is the PDF that's also attached with all of the basic crochet abbreviations. So Ch is going to stand for chain, St parentheses s stands for stitch or stitches. Sc is going to be single crochet. F/0 stands for finish off or fasten off. 7. BOHO Coaster: Rows 1-2: Create our slip knot, go over your finger, make your loop, pull that tail through the loop to create your slip knot. Place your H hook in the center of your loop and tighten your slip knot, not too tight, make sure that your chain can glide smoothly up and down your crochet hook. We are going to start out by chaining 17, so hold your yarn the way it's comfortable for you. I wrap mine around my pinky, then it comes up between my index and middle finger on my left hand. Yarn over, pull through your slip knot, see look there, my slip knot's not too tight, yarn over. Sometimes if you hold onto the knot, that'll keep it from tightening up on you. I'm just pinching the knot with my finger to hold it in place as I pull through. There's my first chain, that's one, we need to get to 17, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, we got our 17 chains, which means we're going to end with 16 stitches. We had to chain that extra 17th stitch, that will be for our turning chain. Like in our practice round, we're going to single crochet in the second chain from the hook and in each chain across. By the time we get to the end of our chain row, we should have 16 stitches. Here is the chain on our hook, here is the first chain. We're going in this guy here, second chain, so chain on the hook, first chain, second chain, single crochet in the second chain from the hook. Not this guy, but this guy. Insert your hook through the chain, yarn over, pull through a loop, two loops left, yarn over, pull through, there's your first single crochet. Same thing, there's 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, need a little more yarn, 13, 14, 15. Guys, I just chachinged. In case you know anything about Etsy, if you sell on Etsy, when you get a chaching, that means you've just made a sale, so I'm going to do my little happy dance. We did 16 single crochets. We're at the end of our foundation row, just like we did in our practice rounds, we're going to chain up one and we're going to turn the page of our book, and we're going to start on round two. The second step of our instructions for row 2 says chain one and turn, so we did that, we chained one, we turned, we're going to single crochet in each stitch across. So our first stitch will go in the first stitch. This is the loop that's on your hook, this is your chain one, this is your first stitch. You want to make sure you're inserting your hook through both the front and back loop of the first stitch, yarn over, pull through your stitch, yarn over, and pull through both loops. You just finished the first single crochet of this row, so that's one. You're going to repeat the same process till you get to the end of the row. You should have a total of 16 stitches at the end of row 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, I'm going to stop counting because I know that can mess people up. I'm on 15 and 16, last stitch is right here on the end, it can easily be missed, especially if you look at your work from this way. There is the last stitch. Go through both loops. Great job. 8. BOHO Coaster: Rows 3- 15: One, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. If you lost a stitch, if you picked up a stitch, you might have to rip out the row. In crochet world, we call this frogging, when you have to tear your workout because ribbit, ribbit, ribbit. You can easily correct your mistakes if you made one. Don't worry, that's why we started with this easy project that's not a very long chain row, only 16 stitches. So if you have to pull some out and start again, it's no big deal. Let me catch backup to you real quick here. We just finished row 2. Row 3 through 15, repeat row 2. For row number 3, we're going to chain one, turn your work, and work one single crochet across each stitch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Good. If you are keeping your tension even, you should have decently straight lines going on the sides here. If not, practice. Just practice, practice, practice. Chain 1, turn your work. Who is ready for their last row? You are doing awesome if you've made it this far which you have because you are a rock star, and you don't give up, and you've got a positive attitude. You were not getting frustrated. You took breaks when you needed them. Let's finish our last row together friends. We're going to chain up one, turn our work. Single crochet in the first stitch. There's number 1, number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Meet me at the end of the row. The very last stitch, 16. We are going to fasten off like we did before. This says F/O, which stands for fasten off on your pattern. So we're going to chain 1 and leave a long enough tail so that we can weave that tail into the coaster. We're going to snip that. Pull your hook out, make sure that's secure. We want to weave in our ends. I'd like to weave in the ends now. I don't like to do it at the very end because when I'm done, I am done. I don't want to weave in the ends. Some people love to weave in the ends, I hate to weave in the ends. Take your needle, thread it. We want to hide this tail in our work. I'm just going to flip this over and I'm going to hide my tail throughout this first row here. You're just going to thread your tapestry needle through a couple of stitches. I'm just going to pull this through. Then you're going to go back the same way, but make sure you get caught up in some different fiber so you don't pull the first stitch you just made. We're going to come back out the other side. That's two. We're going to do this three times, so here is three. Again, go back in the same general area but thread through some different pieces so it stays secure. Good. Take your needle off. You're just going to snip the rest of that tail and then just pull this so it hides in there. See, easy-peasy. Same thing with your other tail. All right. You have the base of your coaster. Now we are going to move on to the fringe. 9. The Fringe and Finishing Up: Let's make the fringe for our boho coaster. Get your tape measure. This doesn't have to be exact. I'm going to trim this up anyways, but I felt six inches was a pretty good length. I measure about six inches. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect. Snip that. I'm going to use this as my measuring tool to make groups of threes for my fringe. I'm using this as my guide, and snip through your loops on both sides here. Keep one out to measure your next group, so there's a group of three little fringes. Let's make another one. You're going to make 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 groups of three, so there's two. Once you have your 12 groups of three, cut up here, we're going to attach the fringe. You want to attach the fringe. If you look at your work, we're going to attach it to the side with these finished stitches and our foundation chain. We're not going to attach it here on the sides. Although you could do that, I still think it would look cute, but if you want your coaster to look like mine, then you are going to be attaching here and down here. You want your finished stitches at the bottom, and you're going to go in the first hook here, into the first stitch. Take a group of three. You're going to fold it in half. You're going to fit these strands underneath your hook. You're going to pull them through. There's a little loop there. You're going to take these tails and just thread them through this loop and pull. You're going to attach about every two stitches, so we're going to skip one, two stitches, go into this next one. Grab your next group of three, fold it in half. Slip those underneath your hook and pull those through giving yourself enough of a loop to pull the tails through. We in the last stitch, so there's only two stitches left. If there's not two, just skip, no big deal. Just go in that last stitch, grab your group of three, fold it in half. Underneath your hook, pull that through. Pull your tails through your loop. One side done. Turn this around and we are going to repeat for the other side. To make it even as possible, just line it up. Now we're working on our foundation row. Just pop your hook through a loop down at the bottom in the corner, fold it over your fringe, pull through. Good. Then just line it up with the one across from it. That is two, last one in the very corner there. You just shape it up how you want to. I took about a half of this off. You can do it however you want. You can keep these fringes long, short, there is no right or wrong. I just pinched about a thumb tip it's worth, and give it a snip because I like my fringe to look full and thick instead of long and stringy. But you can see I'm not even measuring, it doesn't have to be perfect, just give it a little pinch and a snip. You can measure if you want to and make them all perfectly even. Hey, guess what? You did it, finished, your boho coaster and she is gorgeous. First crochet project, try to keep it easy, not too difficult. Simple pattern to correct your mistakes. If you have questions, please let me know, I'm happy to answer your questions, and I want to see your finished ones. I want to see what colors you used, what yarn you used, your beverage of choice, mine is coffee, I need to go get some more. I hope you enjoyed this class. I loved it. It was my first class, so go easy on me, but let me know what do you want more of, what do you want to make, let me know. But I hope you enjoyed this. I will see you in the yarn aisle. 10. Left Handed: Slip Knot:Chaining: Step is to hold your crochet hook. I'm right handed, so I'm going to be showing you by right hand. I will do a flip of the video. If you're a lefty, you can hopefully follow the right handed mirrored version as a left-handed person. There's two main ways to hold your crochet hook. The first one is what they call the knife, where you hold it like you would cut or spread peanut butter. Just hold it between your thumb and your index finger like this. The other common way is to hold it like a pencil. Again, play around with different hook types and hook holds so you can figure out what's most comfortable. If neither one of these methods work for you, try one that works. There is no right, there's no wrong. It's what feels good for you. Same thing with holding your yarn. I hold my yarn. Let's make our slipknot first. To make a slipknot, you're going to take your yarn, you're going to loop it over your finger. Gently slide your finger out of the hole. Bring this tail up through here, and you're just going to pull. Then you've got a little loop there. You see it's a slipknot, if you pull it, it comes out. Again, you're going to loop this through, bring that tail through the hole, pull that so it's tight. You're going to stick your hook through and then tighten your slip knot. Not too tight. You want your yarn to move freely up and down the shaft of the hook here. Now holding the yarn, again, this is totally what feels comfortable for you. When I first started out, I just held the yarn between my index finger and my middle finger. This will cause your tension to be pretty loose. But again, if that's what feels comfortable, I like to loop the yarn around my pinky and flip my handover. Then I put the yarn through my index finger and my middle finger like this. This gives me a little bit of tension control with this finger. Then I just also have additional tension and control through here. Some people hold their yarn up high on their finger, some people I don't even know. You can thread through however you want, whatever feels comfortable. But at the end of the day, you want to make sure you have good control over your yarn. I'm going to wrap mine through here and here. Now we are ready to chain. Chaining creates the foundation for your work. What you're going to do is take your yarn over your hook and turn your hook a little bit so your hook grabs the yarn and pull through. That's one. Again, you're going to thread your yarn over. Make sure your hook grabs the yarn and pull through, that's two. Yarn over, pull through, that's three. Yarn over, pull through, that's 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. We have 11 chains. You want to chain loosely, you don't want to chain tight. If you chain too tight, you're going to have a heck of a time getting your hook back through the yarn. You want your yarn to be able to move up and down freely, you don't want it to be too tight. If its too tight, you're going to have trouble stitching throughout your entire project. What's going to happen is as you move on with your project, this first row is going to be so tight, your work is going to flare out. It's not going to be even in straight, it's going to be a wonky mess. You want to make sure you're chaining pretty loosely, not too tight. Yarn should move up and down here. Let's try it again. I put my hook through and see how it just gently moves, light tension, yarn over, pull through. You can see this still comes up and down easily, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, we're going to do 11. Keep practicing your chaining. When you feel comfortable with your chaining, come on back for the next lesson where I'm going to teach you how to single crochet. 11. Left Handed: Single Crochet: Okay, friends. You've got your chaining nailed and you're ready to start learning how to single crochet. Single crochet is honestly the stitch I use most frequently. I do a lot of amigurumi or stuffed animal work, which most of the time that is just single crochet. I have my chain of 11 and we are going to do 10 stitches. We chained 11 because we always start with a single crochet with the second chain from the hook. Here is our hook. There's a loop on the hook. Here is one, two. Our first step is going to be single crochet in the second chain from the hook. Again, one, here's our hook, here's one, two. We're going to put our hook into the chain like that. Next, we're going to yarn over. Just put your yarn right there underneath your hook and you're going to pull through a loop. You have two loops on your hook, you are going to yarn over and you're going to pull through both loops. You just made your first single crochet. Awesome. Let's do it again. Hook through, yarn over, pull through a loop, yarn over, pull through the two loops. There's two. Yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two. We've done three stitches, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Here comes number four. It will start to become a more fluid motion the more you practice. You honestly just build up muscle memory. This is a skill. It is not talent, it is not creative. It is a skill. The more you do it, the better you're going to get at it, the more you won't have to think about it. It becomes one motion like just stick that in there. Pull up your loop, yarn over, pull through two. Pull, insert into your chain, yarn over, pull up your loop, yarn over, pull through two. Keep going till you get to the end of your row. You should be at the end of your row. If you're not, pause and meet me at the end of the row, and let me show you how to count your stitches. If you look on the top, this is the anatomy of a stitch. We have the front loop, and the back loop, front loop, back loop, front loop, back loop. This is the post of the stitch. When I first started single crocheting, nobody told me that you crochet through both loops. I would always make my stitches in the front loop, so helpful first-timer trick, make sure you're sticking your hook through both loops when you're single crocheting unless your pattern specifies otherwise, it will say front loop only or back loop only if that is what you're supposed to do. Now that we're at the end of our foundation row, we need to turn our work. When you're turning your work in single crochet, you need to chain up one stitch. You're going to yarn over, you're going to chain one. Like turning the page in a book, just flip your work over. Now we're going to work on the backside. You're going to start your first stitch right here. This is your chain one, this is the loop on your hook, your chain one, your first stitch. Your first stitch is going to come right in here under these two loops. We're going to come right in there. Yarn over, pull through your loop, yarn over, and pull through both loops. There's one stitch, one single crochet stitch. Repeat that across. We're going to go under both the front and the back loop, yarn over, pull through that loop, yarn over, pull through two. You need to get a little more yarn out here. Put your hook underneath the back loop of your stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through. You keep doing that until you get to the end of the row. Thus far we've done 1, 2, 3 stitches. We should have 10 by the end of the row. This will be number 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Now the last stitch can be tricky because it's on the turn there. This will be our 10th stitch. Make sure you go under your front and your back loop here. We're going to go right in there, yarn over, pull through the stitch, yarn over, pull through two. The best way to keep your work symmetrical is to keep count, keep track of your stitches. If you've lost one, if you picked one up, we should still have 10 stitches. Let's check. I think it's easy is to count starting from the stitch that your hook is attached to. We've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 stitches. Let's just practice one more row together. We're going to yarn over, chain up, one. Flip your page and 10 stitches across, starting in the first stitch. There's your loop on the hook. This one's your chain one. This is your first stitch. You always want to make sure you're inserting your hook into the first stitch, not into the chain, not over here. Remember a loop, chain one, first stitch. Right in that first stitch, yarn over, pull through your stitch, yarn over, pull through both loops. Insert your hook, yarn over, pull up your loop. Yarn over, pull through two, One, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. We have three rows there. If you want to practice a few more rows, please do until you feel comfortable enough to get ready to start your project here, the Boho coaster. Keep practicing. You want your work to be pretty symmetrical. If it gets bigger or smaller, if it has a wavy look to it, you want to make sure your tension is consistent throughout your time crocheting. You want to make sure you still have the 10 stitches, so let's check here. One, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 stitches. it just takes practice, practice to get even stitches practice to get your tension right, to get the comfortable fit and feel of the hook, to holding your yarn. There's no right or wrong way just do what feels good. I'm going to finish off, and to finish off your work, all you have to do is chain one. But we're not going to turn, we're going to leave a tail. We're just going to snip that off. Pull your hook through. You can just tighten that. That will secure your work so it doesn't come unraveled. That is how you single crochet, my friends.