Crochet 101 – Slip Knot and Chain Stitch

I’ve been getting a tremendous amount of requests for crochet tutorials from friends, family, and even some fans. I have been asked time and time again by my friends to teach them how to crochet.  I’m not an expert at crocheting. I taught myself a few years ago and I still find that I’m learning new things every day. However, I’m confident enough in my skills to write up some basic tutorials for you all. I’m going to start off with the basic slip knot and chain stitch. The chain stitch is a very important stitch. Most patterns start off with a chain stitch so it’s the first thing I want to teach you.

Before we start, you are going to need some materials. A while back, I wrote up a post about how I taught myself how to crochet. If you want to see what materials you’re going to need and what I specifically use, you can see that post here. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s crochet!

Here’s how to form your slip knot and being your chain stitch:

1. Take your yarn and form a loop by crossing the tail end of the yarn over the yarn ball end.

2.Fold the loop down on top of the yarn end

3. Take your crochet hook and insert it through your loop and underneath the yarn end (not the tail end)

4.Pull the tail end to tighten the loop. Don’t pull it too taught or else the yarn will not be able to glide through easily.

5.Now, loosely wrap the yarn around your index finger (yarn end not tail end). I wrap mine around my pinky finger and bring it up and around index finger but you can do whatever feels comfortable for you. Keep in mind that you have to have a good grip on the yarn because you will need some tension.
Grab the tail end of your yarn, where your slip knot is, between your thumb and middle finger.

6.Take the yarn and wrap it around your hook from the back to the front. It may seem unnatural right now but with plenty of practice, this will become a smooth motion.

7. Using your hook, grab the yarn and it through the loop that was on your hook. 

Repeat steps 6 and 7 until have you a chain that is the desired length

And there you have your slip knot and chain stitch. It may take a little while to get the hang of the chain stitch, especially if you’ve never held a hook and yarn before. It took me a week or so just to master the slip knot. There are so many tutorials for slip knots out there and a lot of them are fancy and complicated. In my opinion, this one is the simplest. When you’re starting to learn how to crochet, the movements will feel foreign and you’ll probably think “My hands can’t naturally move like this” or “I can’t keep my fingers in this position forever!” But I assure you, it will all start to flow with practice.

I hope that you enjoy this little tutorial and practice your chain stitch. I tried my best to take clear pictures but it’s hard to crochet (which requires 2 hands) and take pictures at the same time. If you have any questions or are having a hard time with the tutorial, just leave me a comment and I will surely answer you as soon as I can. Make sure you stop by next week for the next post in the Crochet 101 series. I will be teaching the single crochet stitch! Happy Crocheting!  🙂