Crocheted Coaster Basics

Series Summary

Crochet, similar to knitting, consists of pulling loops of yarn through other loops of yarn in order to create fabric. The difference between crocheting and knitting however, is that in crochet only one loop is active at a time, and a crochet hook is used instead of knitting needles. Crocheting became popular in Europe in the early 1800's and has gone through several periods of popularity in the recent past, with a revival of handcrafts and do it yourself projects. There are a variety of crochet stitches, and when combined with brightly colored or white yarn, a crochet fan can create a wide range of beautiful fabrics to decorate their home or give away as a unique gift. Simple projects are best to begin learning any craft. In this free instructional crocheting video series, you will learn how to crochet a coaster. An experience artisan will show you the ins and outs of crocheting in a circular pattern, including the correct stitches and how to expand the circle. She will demonstrate proper pattern making techniques as well as how to personalize your work. If you are just learning the art of crochet, coasters are a perfect beginners project.

Video Transcript

"What I'm getting ready to show you how to make now is a coaster. Coasters are great little learning kind of steps when you're practicing how to crochet. I made a bunch of coasters with different patterns and different sizes and different shapes just so I could learn my craft. Now what we're going to do is we're going to start with a chain. One. Two. Three. Four. Very similar to what the granny square starts with and then we're going to pierce it through and connect. Just like so. What we're getting ready to make is a circle and it starts the same because you see we've got the circle here and we're going to chain up two because we're going to use a double crochet. And we're going to go under and we're going to go under. Now what we're going to do with this first level is we're going to work all the way around. We're going to try to fit as many as we can in there so whatever sweat comes off of the can of soda, the glass of water, whatever sweat comes off of the beverage, it can catch it all. So we're going to make a lot of columns to try to complete this level. And then we'll show you how to connect this level to the next one."