Crochet

This workbook turns the crochet course into hands-on practice and project records you can reuse on every make. Each section matches a course module, moving from hook, yarn, and the foundational stitches, to reading written and chart patterns and checking gauge, to granny squares and working in the round, and finally to amigurumi and finishing a garment. Work through the exercises with a 4 mm hook and light worsted-weight yarn in front of you, and keep the worksheets and templates as a project log so your second project comes out better than your first.

Pick a beginner hook and yarn, hold them for even tension, and build a slip knot, chain, and the four core stitches worked flat.

Before buying anything, decide your starter hook and yarn and the hook hold you will use. Choose a smooth, light-coloured worsted-weight yarn and a 4 mm hook, and record the hold and tension path that felt steadiest.

Make a slip knot, then chain 30, deliberately keeping each chain loose and even. Cut, and chain 30 again. Lay both chains side by side and compare. Then count the V shapes on one chain, excluding the hook loop and slip knot.

Chain about 16. Work four rows of single crochet, then four of half-double, four of double, and four of treble, using the right turning chain for each (sc 1, hdc 2, dc 3, tr 4). Count stitches at the end of every row.

Decode written abbreviations and symbol charts, confirm US versus UK terms, and swatch to match the pattern's gauge.

Take any beginner pattern and fill this in before working a stitch. Confirm US or UK terms first, list the abbreviations used, and note the gauge. Remember US single crochet equals UK double crochet.

Take one written row, for example 'Row 4: ch 1, sc in each st across, turn', and say in plain words what it tells you to do. Then sketch the international symbols for a short row of stitches and label each symbol.

Pick a pattern's gauge, for example 16 sc and 18 rows = 10 cm. Crochet a swatch at least 15 cm square in that stitch with the stated hook, block it if the pattern says to, lay it flat unstretched, and count stitches and rows in a 10 cm window in the middle.

Start in the round with a magic ring, build a flat granny square with square corners, join squares, and change colour cleanly.

Make a magic ring and work 6 single crochet into it, then pull the tail to close the centre. Continue increasing 6 stitches evenly each round (12, 18, 24) to make a flat circle, marking the first stitch of each round.

Work a classic granny square from a magic ring: round 1 of four 3-dc clusters with ch-2 corners, then corners of (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc) and 3-dc clusters into each chain-space on later rounds. Join and chain up each round. Stop after four rounds.

On a granny square or a swatch, change colour by working the last stitch of the old colour until two loops remain, then completing it with the new colour. Make at least two colour changes and inspect the front for any two-tone stitch.

Plan a small granny-square project before joining anything. Decide the grid, the colour arrangement, and the join method, and note that you should photograph the layout before joining.

Crochet a dense amigurumi with invisible decreases, work a garment to a measured fit with the right ease, then weave in ends and block.

With a 3.5 to 4 mm hook and worsted yarn, crochet a small ball: magic ring of 6 sc, increase 6 per round to 24, work even rounds, then decrease with the invisible decrease (front loops only) back down, stuffing firmly with fibrefill before the opening closes.

Plan a garment's size from your body measurements and the pattern's recommended ease. Pick the size by finished chest plus ease, not by the label, and circle that size's numbers throughout the pattern.

Plan the finish before you fasten off the last stitch. Record how you wove in ends, how you blocked, and the care instructions from the yarn band.