Five Must-Know Crochet Tips to Improve Your Skills This Year | Podcast Episode #99

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Hey there, Brittany here, and thank you for joining me in episode 99 of the BHooked podcast. It’s a real joy to have you here today, especially as we creep up on that 100 episode landmark. I can’t even believe that we have gone through 99 episodes, and I just can’t wait for the next 99.

Well, I want to start off this episode by saying I am on a mission in 2019 to help you improve your skills. It’s one of the underlying themes that you’ll see here on the podcast, over on my YouTube channel, my website, and even with the patterns that you’ll find on the website.

For those of you who have joined my email list, you’ve seen my first email that asks you something really specific, and that is your number one problem as it relates to knitting or crochet. And I ask you to reply to that email to tell me what your number one problem is.

And I do that for one main reason. I want to know how I can help you and how I can serve you. Even though I can’t reply to them all, I do read every single one. And that is my promise to you. I promise that in the email, because you have taken the time to tell me what your number one problem is, it’s important to you. And so it’s important to me to understand that so I can cater your experience for your needs. I want to know how I can help you through those tutorials and through patterns.

Well, as I was going through a lot of those emails towards the end of 2018, I started to see a recurring theme for one particular struggle. And that is that you just want to be better. You just want to have better projects that you’re more proud of, that are maybe easier to finish. You just want to get better.

Well, being better means so many different things, so there will likely be a follow-up to this episode. But let’s start with the basics, the five basic things you need to know that will drastically improve your projects.

Are you ready? Let’s start with number one. You have to have the right setup for you. So let’s dig into that a little bit.

Uneven stitches can happen to anyone. Believe me, they happen to me. I know they happen to you. And a lot of times we relate that to beginners and not necessarily the environment or the setup. So beginners have an excuse to have uneven or wobbly stitches, and that’s because they’re learning. They’re learning how to hold the yarn, how to hold the hook or the needles, whatever it may be.

But sometimes once we’ve crocheted for a while, we don’t feel like we have that excuse anymore. And we just think that we’re just not good at it. And that is so far from the truth. If you are more of an experienced crocheter, you’ve been crocheting for a while and you still have uneven stitches, well, it’s likely that maybe you don’t have the right setup.

So let’s talk first about the access to the yarn. Now it seems pretty obvious that the yarn should be close to you, but I’ll go ahead and say it. The further you have to pull the yarn, the tighter the yarn will be, and therefore the tighter the stitches will be.

So sometimes you might have a rogue ball of yarn that just rolls off the couch and onto the floor. And rather than get up and go get it, you just sort of work from it and pull from where it is. Well, that could actually be hurting you because you’re having to pull harder, pull tighter on that yarn. And that is changing your stitch. It’s changing the way you create that stitch.

Similarly, we also need to look at how we’re pulling from that yarn. We have the center piece that’s always stuffed somewhere hidden inside the skein, and then we have the outer piece.

Now for me, I like to use both. If I can find the center end of the yarn, I will almost always use that because I can pull directly from that and I don’t have to worry about the skein of yarn just jumping off the couch and rolling onto the floor.

But let’s be honest, it can sometimes be extremely difficult or a nightmare to find that end. And if you’ve ever heard the term yarn barf, go look it up. It’s a real thing.

Not only that, when you’re working from the center, it can be a little bit of a struggle when you get to the end of that skein and the strands start to tangle a little bit more as you work with the yarn. So that may not be a great option for everybody. I’ll typically work through those things, but if I can, I really do like to use either a yarn bowl or a yarn dispenser.

These are great options for when you’re using the outside of the skein or that outer end. Let’s say you’ve bought a hank or a braid of yarn and you wound it up into a cake or a ball, or you just purchased a cake yarn. Yarn bowls are great for these options. They’ll just usually sit right in the yarn bowl and you can feed the end through the bowl and it can sort of spin and do its thing, but it doesn’t jump off the couch or anything like that.

Now, a lot of us, though, were using skeins of yarn. And who wants to take a skein and roll it into a ball or make a cake out of it? I know I don’t have that kind of time.

So a great option for that is a little tool that I found from Yarn Valet. You’ve heard Amy on the show here before. It’s a family-owned company and they have a product of very affordable and very practical tools as it relates to crochet.

They do have a yarn bowl option, but specifically I like their dispenser because you can use it to put your skein right on the dispenser and it spins. So as you’re pulling from that outer end, the dispenser is unwinding the yarn for you and it’s super easy.

You don’t have to worry about it rolling off the couch or adding extra tension as you’re trying to pull from that end and it may be stuck on the pillow or on the couch or wherever it may be next to you.

The moral of the story here is that we need to have the best access to our yarn so that the tension is consistent throughout. The more you have to pull on the yarn or fight with the yarn, that’s going to translate into your stitches and how you create that stitch. And as a result, you may experience some stitches that are uneven.

The next really important part about your setup is your position. Now I am notorious for wanting to just slouch on the couch and take it easy, be really comfortable, right? I’m doing this because I love it and it’s sort of downtime for me, but that doesn’t always promote neat crochet.

When you think about your position, when your hands, your wrists, or your shoulders are in some kind of a weird position, then the way you create those stitches will be a little different than if you were sitting upright and your arms or hands or wrists don’t have any sort of limitation on their movement.

So what I like to do is try to find a similar position each time I sit down to crochet where I’m sitting upright. Now, you can still prop your feet up on an ottoman or be in a recliner. That’s totally fine. The main thing is that we want to have our hands, our wrists, and our arms in a comfortable position so that they’re not restricted in any way. The movement isn’t restricted.

Now, once you have the right environment or setup, you have to have the right tools. Now, I know you’re probably thinking, these are such trivial little things, not very interesting, not very glamorous, but I promise these are the root of most problems—how you’re pulling from your yarn, your environment, and your tools.

So let’s first talk about your hook. And that’s primarily what we’ll focus on here because that’s what dictates how your stitches turn out. I’m often asked, Brittany, what is the best hook to use? And I would love to have one answer for that question. But unfortunately, the answer is that it depends on the person who’s using it.

Now, I personally love to use the Tulip Etimo hooks, and I have used them for over three years now. By the way, if you want to see a review on the Tulip Etimo hooks, just visit behooked.com/tulip for a review. I actually have two video reviews. The first one was sort of a first impression video where I showed you the set and my initial thoughts. And then the second video was a follow-up after having used them for a while.

So once again, you can find that review at behooked.com/tulip. I also really enjoy working with Clover Amour hooks. These have a similar look and feel to the Tulip Etimo with one tiny little difference, and that is in the material that the hooks are made of. They’re both a metal material, but the Tulip hooks have a, we’ll say a more slippery finish and the Clover Amour have a slightly more matte finish.

For me, I really do enjoy working with both of them. I tend to use my Tulips more often. So if you’re intrigued by Clover Amour, if you’ve never heard of those or never tried them before, I also have a review on that one. And you can find it at bhooked.com/amour. That’s A-M-O-U-R for review.

Once I realized that I loved the Clover Amour, I loved my Tulip hooks, I started thinking about what the two had in common. Now they both have a handle grip that’s really easy for me to work with, but that doesn’t really have as much of an effect on the stitch as the yarn moving across that hook.

Both of these hooks are made up of a metal material, which for me personally is much easier to work with. The yarn doesn’t have that drag that you might experience with other materials. Some of those other materials to consider are of course wood and plastic.

You’ll see a lot of those out on the market. I know so many crocheters who love wooden hooks, wouldn’t pick up a metal hook if you paid them. And same thing for plastic. It really is all just personal preference.

Now, one thing to note about plastic hooks is that most of those larger hook sizes—like after you get past that six and a half millimeter mark—they’re going to be available in plastic. There are a few exceptions, but most of them are plastic. And that’s because those bigger hooks need to be lighter weight. So although my preference isn’t to work with plastic hooks, I have learned to work with them because I like to make chunky projects.

I like to use bigger yarn and bigger hooks, and this really is one of the only options available. When you’re thinking about a wooden hook or a plastic hook, just think about the feel of the yarn on that hook. And the thing that most people relate to these two materials is that they have more drag. And that might slow you down as an advanced crocheter. It might help you as a pure beginner. Maybe you just love that. That’s how you started out. That’s what you’re comfortable with. That’s the hook that you should use.

For me, it doesn’t necessarily work with my style. And that probably has to do with the fact that my first crochet hook was a metal hook. And so I got used to the feel of that. And so I am an advocate for metal hooks. The big takeaway here is to figure out what material works best for you. And when I say works best for you, I mean, what makes it an enjoyable experience?

You don’t ever wanna get to the point where you’re working through your stitches and you’re just getting frustrated. You’re getting more angry because maybe the yarn keeps falling off your hook, or maybe you are working slower than you would like to. It doesn’t matter what the problem is. If you feel yourself getting more frustrated, then that’ll play back into tip number one—our tension changes when we’re frustrated.

So a lot of times if you’re working through a project and you’re a little angry, you might notice that your stitches will be tighter. So we need to use a tool. We need to use a hook that feels effortless for us. No matter what the material is, we just need to find what’s right for us.

I do have a really helpful post that breaks down the different hook materials in a pro and con sort of format. So if you’re really not sure or you’re just experimenting, then I would check out behooked.com/hooks. And that will give you an unbiased opinion of hook materials—what they have to offer, what’s great about them, what’s not so great about them. And then you can make the decision for yourself.

The last thing I’ll say about the hook is the hook style. There are two different styles of hook, and you may have heard these terms before. You have it inline or you have tapered. I like to think about these two styles as it relates to how you crochet.

For me, I have what they call a knife grip, and that means I hold my crochet hook kind of like I would hold my knife when I’m eating dinner. With that style of grip, the tapered hook works best for me. Another style of grip you may have heard is called a pencil grip, and that’s where you hold the hook in pretty much the same way that you hold your pen or pencil when you’re writing.

Because the positioning of the hook is so different from one style to the next, you have to have a hook type that helps you and doesn’t hold you back. So for these pencil grips, they are usually drawn to the inline hook. And that has sort of a deeper hook that allows for that more vertical positioning of the hook, helps the yarn and the loops stay on and not fall off.

My best advice for you here is to just experiment with the different styles of hooks and the different hook materials to find the right one that’s right for you. I wouldn’t go out and buy a big expensive hook set or an expensive hook until you know what material and what style suits you best.

And you have a couple of different options here. What I started doing was using my craft store coupon and just buying one hook of each type that I saw. And then I discovered Amazon Prime and I’ll be honest, I started ordering hooks on Amazon, but still just one at a time until I found the hook that was right for me. That’s how I landed on my Tulip Etimo.

To my knowledge, I have not seen that hook available in any store, which breaks my heart because it’s not easy for people to find, but it is a game changer for the style of crocheter that I am. Well, I purchased a six and a half millimeter, which was not included in the set. So I figured if I loved the hook, I wouldn’t have a duplicate when I ordered the set.

So if you’re willing to try Tulip Etimo—and they’re a little more expensive than most—you can buy a single one for between $7 and $10. I would go with the 6.5 mm first because it’s not included in that set. So once I fell in love with the Tulip Etimo, it wasn’t but a few days later, I ordered the set.

For you, it could be a completely different hook. So just experiment and see what works for you. Trust me, you’ll know it when you find it.

So we have the setup. We have the right tools for you. These will take care of most, if not all, tension-related issues where the stitches don’t look even. Now let’s talk about blocking.

Have you ever seen a granny square that looked more like a granny circle? Maybe you’ve made one, you finished it, and you thought to yourself, well, this looks more like a circle. What went wrong?

Well, nothing went wrong. I know the first time I made a granny square, it looked more like a granny circle. And I thought to myself, but the photos that I saw looked very square with four distinct points. Where did I go wrong?

Well, the truth is I didn’t go wrong. I just needed to block.

Once we finish a project, the yarn needs a little encouragement to go into the shape we want it to, and we achieve this by blocking—I would say nine times out of ten. There are three different types of blocking.

We have finger blocking, which is kind of like it sounds. You take your project and just sort of tug on it and force it into the shape that you want using your fingers. But that doesn’t hold very well.

If we want a shape that’s going to last, we really need to apply some type of moisture to it. We have one option, which is steam blocking, and that is where you use a steamer or the steam setting on your iron in order to wet the stitches, wet the yarn, and then heat set it into that position so that when it dries, it sort of has a kink to it.

Have you ever unraveled one of your projects and it looked like ramen noodles at the end of it? Well, that’s because the yarn sort of set itself into that position. Blocking is sort of the same idea. We’re setting the stitches into the position that we want them to.

Now, in addition to finger blocking and steam blocking, we also have wet blocking. This is what I use most often, typically because I’m a little weary about adding steam to certain fibers—especially acrylics. You run the risk of melting. If you’re using wools, you run the risk of felting. So wet blocking is perfect for me.

You’ll need to have some type of foam board. I started out using athletic floor tiles. I found them super cheap at my hardware store. And then I invested in a set of blocking boards. And the reason for that was because they had a grid on them, so I could get really clean, nice, even shapes using this grid.

Wet blocking is where you take your project, you pin it down exactly the way you want it to be, and then you just saturate it with some lukewarm water. Just tap water is fine. And then you let it air dry.

Once you let it dry, you unpin it. It’s in that new shape—you’ve set your stitches. And that’s how you get a really square looking granny square.

So if you want more details about blocking, I do have an in-depth post about that, talking about finger, steam, and wet blocking, and there’s also a video demonstration. You can find all of that at behooked.com/blockyourproject.

Okay, moving on to tip number four—counting. Again, this isn’t a slick tip, but this can be a real game changer if you struggle with uneven edges. As soon as you notice that your edges are uneven, beyond being just a little wobbly—right, those turning chains always make our edges look a little wobbly—but when things are really uneven, then an added or a dropped stitch is almost always the culprit.

Now, I’m always asked, how do I get around this? How do I fix it? Well, you have to count.

Now, I know counting is not fun. It’s tedious. But let me tell you, it is worth it. It will save you the time from frogging or ripping out your work and reworking it to fix the mistake.

Which brings me to another point—there isn’t really a great way to fix an added or a dropped stitch without frogging. And that is on the edge. So as you’re working through, let’s say, maybe a scarf or an afghan, and you notice that it’s getting bigger or maybe it’s getting smaller, I’ve been asked, how can I fix this? I can’t afford to rip all this out. I don’t have enough time.

Unfortunately, there really isn’t a good way to fix it without frogging. There is the potential of adding a border and that might help, but it’ll still be noticeable. And you could also block and correct little mistakes, but it’ll still be noticeable.

So the big takeaway here is to just count your stitches. When you’re a beginner, you should count every single stitch whenever you can. As you advance, you may only need to count every so many rows, but you should still count.

Now you might be thinking, okay, I need to count, but what if I’m working on a blanket and it has hundreds of stitches in each row? There’s no way I’m counting all of that. And you know what? I am right there with you. I don’t want to do that.

So what I do is I use a stitch marker and I mark the first and last stitch of every single row because that’s usually where the problem happens. You’ll either drop or you’ll add a stitch at the end of the row or possibly at the beginning of the row. And that’s because you just don’t know where to work. And that’s okay.

You can mark the stitch where you need to work, and then you’ll know exactly where to work that stitch when you come back to that point.

Now I just want to end this little segment here with saying that even somebody who’s been crocheting as long as me can add or drop a stitch as a result of not paying attention. So another big tip is to try to focus as much on your work as possible. And don’t always trust that your autopilot is running as it should.

Alright, tip number five. Let’s just push ourselves. Don’t be afraid to fail. Whenever I come to a situation where I’m afraid to try something new, I like to try this exercise where I ask myself, what’s the worst that can happen?

Because usually the answer is not a big deal at all. So what’s the worst thing that can happen if you mess up on a project that sort of pushed you out of your comfort zone? Honestly, nothing.

You’re not wasting the yarn because you can frog it and rip it out and use it for something else. And you learned through that experience. So the time was worth something. That’s the way I like to look at it.

So as soon as you find yourself fluent with a stitch or a technique, then start exploring other options. If you haven’t heard these two episodes already, episode 32 and most recently 97 outline 10 different types of crochet to try. These are perfect opportunities for learning new skills to push yourself out of the comfort zone and overall improve your crochet in 2019.

And if it still scares you to step out of your comfort zone, don’t worry. I get it. It’s so difficult to try something new—to find that motivation or the confidence behind it. Find a buddy. Find somebody who loves to crochet as much as you do.

Sometimes when we’re sharing an experience with somebody else, it’s a lot less scary and we don’t have to worry so much about failure because we’re just having fun with a friend. So explore with someone and learn from each other.

So let’s recap. The first five must-know tips to improve your crochet in 2019 are to have the right setup, to have the right tools—now both of those relate to tension issues—blocking and counting, both of those relating to the shaping, and to push yourself. You’ll never get better at something if you don’t practice.

Now, tell me what you struggle with most over on the show notes page. And by the way, you can find all of the resources that I mentioned here, a couple of those posts that are helpful in terms of digging into these concepts a little bit more. I will have those linked on the show notes page.

But I would love for you to scroll to the comment section just below all of that and tell me what you struggle with the most in terms of crochet or what you want to improve on the most in 2019. Just like I used those emails to guide me in planning for 2019, I will also use this guide—your suggestions, your struggles—to guide me through the next episode where we elaborate on this topic a little more.

Because I know it’s so important to you to improve your skills in 2019, and therefore it’s really important to me that I can help you make that happen.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do that today. It will really help me and I know it will help you.

And now I would love to ask a quick little favor of you. If you love the show, can you please take a moment to leave an honest rating and/or review in iTunes? It will only take a couple of minutes for you to leave that review.

That feedback fuels me, lets me know how to improve or if I’m on the right track. So to leave a review in iTunes, head over to behooked.com/itunes. And thank you. I really appreciate that more than you know. It also lets iTunes know that this show is worth listening to, and then they’ll tell others about it.

I know I have given you so much to think about today and lots of options to explore, so that’s all for today. But I don’t want you to end things here. Pick one of the five things that we talked about today and see how you can use that to improve the current project that you’re working on right now.

I will see you next week with another episode, but until then, have fun, improve your skills, and have a wonderful weekend. Bye for now.