Crochet Instructions for Kids
An experienced crocheter can make crocheting look easy and effortless; however, the skill of crocheting takes some concentration to learn and lots of practice to master. Children the age of 8 or 10 can learn to crochet, and the skills they learn will help them develop fine motor skills. The process of teaching a child to crochet is also an opportunity to bond with a child.
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Instructions
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Wind the yarn into balls to make it easy for the child to unwind the yarn as she learns to crochet.
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Sit beside your child under adequate light. Each of you should have your own yarn ball and crochet hook so you can demonstrate the stitches and your child can practice them.
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Demonstrate how to make a slipknot. Shape the end of the yarn into a 3-inch loop and place the yarn extending from the yarn ball behind the circle. Insert the crochet hook through the loop, pull the yarn through the circle and gently tighten to make a loose slipknot on the crochet hook.
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Teach the chain stitch. Have the child hold the crochet hook in her dominant hand. Insert the hook through the loop made with the slipknot and pull the yarn through the loop to make the first chain stitch. Repeat pulling the yarn through each subsequent loop, making a chain of loops. She should practice making a chain until her stitches are all the same size and tension.
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Demonstrate how to count the number of stitches in the chain because all projects begin with instructions to make a specific number of stitches. Show the child that a chain is made of loops and each loop is one chain stitch. The beginning slipknot does not count as a chain stitch.
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Teach the child how to make a single crochet stitch. Instruct the child to insert the crochet hook through the second loop from the hook, from the front toward the back, so that there are two loops on the crochet hook. Show her how to wrap the yarn over the crochet hook one time (called a "yarn over"--three loops are on the crochet hook now) and how to pull the yarn through both loops on the hook, so that the yarn over creates the single loop now on the hook. This completes one single crochet stitch. Ask her to single crochet in each loop across the row.
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Demonstrate her how to turn the crocheted work to begin a new row. Do this by rotating the crocheted piece halfway around to the right or the left, so the final stitch from the last row is the first stitch to crochet in the new row. Do not remove the crochet hook from the loop while turning.
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Guide your child while she makes a potholder, a simple first project, using the crochet stitches just learned. Ask her to crochet a chain of 15 stitches, single crochet in each loop across the chain and then make 15 rows of single crochet stitches to finish the potholder.
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Tips & Warnings
Help your child develop her own style of holding the crocheted piece with her non-dominant hand while she works.
References
- Photo Credit crochet image by Lytse from Fotolia.com
