10 Rules to Follow When Choosing Your First Crochet Pattern
By Helen Reimer

Learning how to crochet takes a lot of patience and practice and can be frustrating at first. Many people give up simply because they didn't know where to start. Either they start off with the wrong kind of pattern, yarn, or hook size, not realizing the importance of choosing the right supplies.

It's very important that everyone starts off with the right crochet patterns and supplies; otherwise they'll just give up. But with the right help and tools anyone can master crocheting. This includes boys and girls, and men and women. Yes men can crochet too!

Many people, when hearing the word crochet, instantly conjure the image of an elderly woman sitting in a chair, crochet hook held firmly in arthritic fingers as she concocts another table doily. Many older women do seem to have an innate ability to crochet, simply because it was a tradition handed down from generation to generation. And while most families do not pass along the art of crochet much anymore, there is still merit in this peaceful, beautiful activity.

The current crochet craze in the blogging world is amigurumi. What is amigurumi? Amigurumi is the Japanese technique of crocheting dolls. By crocheting a chain, a few single crochet stitches, and creating some increases and decreases, different shapes are created. These different shapes are put together to make an animal or doll.

In order to start a cute little amigurumi one needs basic crochet skills. Besides knowing how to crochet a chain and single crochet stitch, one also needs to know how to make a crochet chain circle.

There is more than one way to accomplish this technique. However, I will start with what I believe is the easiest.

Chain two stitches. Then crochet six single chains in the second chain from the hook. This will give you the base of your circle.