How to Start Crochet From Scratch: A Beginner’s First Day
You don’t need talent to start. You need a hook, some cotton, and one quiet hour. Here is exactly how I’d sit down with you if you were learning at my table.
Almost everyone who watches me at a market says the same thing: “I could never do that.” You can. I promise. The first granny square I made was lopsided and too tight and I loved it anyway. Here is how to begin.
What you actually need
Don’t buy a kit. You need three things: a 4mm or 5mm crochet hook, one ball of cotton yarn in a colour you like, and a pair of scissors. That’s it. Cotton is easier to learn on than wool because it doesn’t split as much, and a lighter colour lets you see your stitches.
Holding the hook
There are two ways to hold a hook — like a pencil, or like a knife. Try both over ten minutes and keep whichever stops your hand from aching. There is no correct answer. I hold mine like a knife; my grandmother held hers like a pencil. Both of us make bags.
The slip knot and the chain
Everything in crochet starts with a chain. Make a slip knot, put it on the hook, then pull a new loop through. Again. Again. That’s a chain. Do twenty of them. They’ll be uneven — some tight, some loose. That unevenness is the whole lesson: your tension becomes consistent only with repetition, not with trying harder.
Your first real stitch
Once the chain feels natural, you’ll learn the double crochet (the stitch most granny squares are built from). Hook into a chain, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through both. It will feel clumsy for about an hour. Then something clicks and your hands start doing it without you watching.
The mistake everyone makes
Beginners pull too tight. When the stitches are so tight you can barely get the hook back in, your hands are gripping out of nervousness. Loosen your shoulders, not just your fingers. Crochet is a calm activity or it is nothing.
How long until you make something real?
If you practise an hour a day, you’ll have a wonky-but-real granny square within a week and a small bag within a month. The wonky one matters most — keep it. In a year you’ll look at it and see how far your hands have come.
When you’re ready for the granny square itself, I wrote a step-by-step guide for that next. And if you’d rather carry one than make one for now, the collection is on Etsy.
Merve Yamak
Founder, My Happy Made · Istanbul
