How to Cast on Crochet
Beginning a crochet project requires making a base chain. Unlike casting on a knitting project, in which you fill a needle with a row of live stitches, a crochet cast on is a chain with a series of links. Only the most recent stitch you made remains on your hook. You work the first row of crochet into the stitches on the chain, one stitch at a time. New crocheters may find working into a base chain challenging, but learning how to look at the stitches can help.
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Instructions
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1
Make a slipknot to start your chain. Hold your yarn approximately 5 inches from the end and fold it over at the spot you are holding. The short end is the tail and the yarn coming from the ball is your working yarn. Pinch the working yarn and the tail together 2 inches below the fold with your nondominant hand, creating a loop.
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2
Insert the thumb and forefinger of your dominant hand through the loop. Rotate your dominant hand to twist the loop 180 degrees, then grasp the working yarn and pull it through the loop. Hang the slipknot on your crochet hook and pull the tail to tighten it slightly. The loop should be loose enough that you can still easily pull your hook through it.
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3
Wrap the working yarn over your hook from right to left. Twist the hook so that the curved end points downward and grabs the yarn.
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4
Pull the hook back through the first loop to create the second link in your chain. The slipknot loop is the first.
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5
Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until you have as many links on your chain as your pattern requires. The loop currently on your hook doesn't count; it's what will be known as your "turning chain."
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6
Hold the chain so that the slipknot is at the bottom. The chain should look like a vertical row of Vs. The V is the top of a crochet stitch. The bottom of a chain stitch looks like a single link, like one piece of yarn instead of two (the two pieces of yarn being the two legs of a V.)
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7
Insert the curve of your hook under both sides of the first V after the loop currently on your hook. The two legs of the V will be on top of your hook and the single link will be behind it.
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8
Wrap your yarn around your hook from front to back as you did when making the chain stitches. Pull this wrap under both legs of the V and back toward you. You will have two loops on your hook.
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9
Wrap the hook again and pull the wrap through the two loops on the hook. This is your first single crochet stitch.
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10
Repeat Steps 8 and 9 until you have made one single crochet stitch in every link of the chain.
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Tips & Warnings
Your pattern may call for you to double or triple crochet into the base chain, but the single crochet stitch is the most common for beginner patterns.
References
Resources
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