Toni Lipe: I am Toni Lipe with Toni's Design Studio. Today, we are talking about how to crochet? We have just talked about how to hold the yarn and the needle or the crochet hook and now, we are going to get started.

First, as in knitting, you need to start with a slip knot. To do a slip knot, you simply cross the yarn over itself and then pull a loop through and it slips right into place. You put your crochet hook in and snug the yarn up gently against the crochet hook, not tight; otherwise you would not be able to manipulate it; but just like that. So you have one stitch on your crochet hook. Now, most crochet items began with a basic chain stitch; but, before we talk about the change stitch, we have to talk about the yarn over. Now, when you are crocheting, your ring finger and your thumb are actually holding on to what you are crocheting and your yarn -- I hold mine between my middle and index finger. You can do yours anyway you want. Some people may thread it around their pinky, but for me, this is comfortable. You can choose what is most comfortable for you. Before we can do our first chain stitch, we have to yarn over and yarn over is simply taking the yarn and wrapping it from back to front around the crochet hook. Now, you can do that physically with your hand or you can just take your hook and scoop the yarn around. Some people find that much easier and that is generally what I do. So that is a yarn over; then you catch that yarn over in the hook of the crochet hook and you are holding on to the knot of your slip knot and you pull the yarn through your first loop and you have made your crochet stitch. Now, you continue making these chains, yarn over, catch it with the crochet hook, pull it through for as long as necessary on the pattern. It will tell you how many times you need to chain stitch and this is why this is called -- see, if you snug it up too tight, you can not pull your stitches through. So you wrap it around and pull it through, wrap it around and pull it through and each time my index and my thumb and my ring finger are moving along with the crochet project, holding it snugly, so that it does not become loose. My fingers are keeping an even tension, so my chains all look the same. This is what your chain looks like once you have finished. It is a nice chain stitch. On the back side, it is a series of bumps and on the front side, a nice simple chain stitch. Now we have the base of our crochet started; next, we will talk about actual stitches.