How to Crochet Pictures

Using a simple single crochet stitch allows you to focus on your color work.

Once you’ve mastered the single crochet stitch, you can work cross-stitch-style pictures into your projects. You can even crochet a full picture into an afghan, place mat or wall hanging, as long as you take the time to convert the picture into a color chart first. This sort of picture work is usually crafted with just one stitch throughout -- often single crochet -- although if you’re an advanced crocheter, you can work various textures into the pattern by altering your stitch patterns.

Things You'll Need

• Copier
• Graph paper
• Colored pens or fine-point markers
• Crochet hook
• Yarn

Instructions

1. Copy the picture you want to crochet, blowing it up to 8 1/2-by-11 inches, or as close as you can get without going over that size. Then copy the picture onto a sheet of 8 1/2-by-11 graph paper.

2. Position the picture-graph combination side by side with a blank sheet of graph paper. Using the copied picture as a guide, decide which color is predominant in each square of the graph; then color in the squares of the blank graph with the appropriate color. Any blank squares will be worked in the background color of your choice. Make sure you include at least two rows of “background” color, or a colored border, all the way around the pattern.

3. Count the number of squares across that your design measures. Chain that many stitches, plus one, using yarn in your chosen background or border color. Turn your work and single crochet all the way across, starting in the second chain from your hook. This corresponds to the very bottom row of your pattern, reading from right to left.

4. Chain one, then turn your work and single crochet all the way across again. This corresponds to the second-from-the-bottom row of your pattern, reading from left to right. You’ll read the chart from bottom to top, zigzagging your way up from the lower-right corner.

5. Continue working back and forth across the pattern. If you need to use more than one color in a given row, hold strands of the colors you’ll need later across the top of the previous row’s stitches. Continue crocheting as usual, working under and over the extra yarn. This binds the extra colors into your work and hides them at the same time. When the graph you made dictates a change in color, work the stitch just before the color change until the last yarn-over and pull-through. Then drop the old color and work in the new color, carrying the old color along with your stitches until you need it again.