Crochet Supplies Guide

The crochet supplies you need to get started, as well as the best resources for learning to crochet, are all here. Links to fun, easy patterns are provided as well.

Besides making useful items for your family, learning to crochet also allows handmade gift giving opportunities. From baby hats to mens' "bearded" knit beanies we've found projects the whole family will enjoy.

Have fun thinking of all the handmade gifts you can make.

This resource is complete with the best sites for learning crochet, buying crochet supplies, and finding fun patterns.

Online Crochet Tutorials

Hopeful Honey

Highlight: Wonderful closeup video tutorials of stitches

Hopeful Honey is a crochet blog written by a sweet young lady from Australia. She provides many free stitch tutorials and patterns that she has written. Some of her patterns are available in her Etsy store and are well worth the few dollars she asks for them. All her patterns are easy to follow and her taste in yarn is affordable and lovely. 

Hopeful Honey helped us move well beyond the basics with her easy to follow tutorials.

Love Crochet

Highlight: Well organized but not more traditional with a big business feel compared to Hopeful Honey.

This crochet stitches guide provides basics as well as basic stitches. Their step by step tutorials are sure to help you master the following stitches:

• Slip stitch
• Single crochet
• Half double crochet
• Double crochet
• Hump stitch
• Dragonfly stitch
• Triple/treble crochet
• Front post double crochet
• Double triple/treble crochet
• Double crochet decrease
• Back post double
• Chain stitch

Buying Crochet Supplies Online

Joann.com

Pros: Easy to shop and dependable shipping

Cons: Overwhelming search results and limited natural fibers

JoAnn is our go to crochet supplies shop. 

Amazon.com

Pros: With Prime, you can get keep project rolling if you run out of crochet supplies. 

Cons: You need to know exactly what you want as the items come and go.

Because of free shipping with Prime, this is the first place we look for my favorite yarn brands and other supplies.

Etsy.com

Pros: A place for cottage industries to sell their raw or spun fiber. That is awesome!

Cons: Etsy can be a little nerve racking. It is a somewhat unorganized and  not all items are listed in dollars but in another currency. There doesn't seem to be a uniform way of selling fiber either so it's hard to tell if you are getting a good deal or not.

Craftsy.com

Pros: Craftsy is more specialized in selling crafting and crochet supplies. It is well organized and feels very secure. Besides selling supplies, Craftsy's classes are great! Craftsy.com is the perfect place to shop if you want to take your fiber art hobby to the next level.

Cons: Craftsy doesn't carry as big of a variety of unusual fibers as Ravelry.com, but everything on Craftsy.com is for sale and even better they have sales! Who doesn't love sales?

Ravelry.com

Pros: You can find any type of yarn imaginable on Ravelry. So much so that it is almost overwhelming...Then sometimes the yarn is on there but it isn't for sale. This online community is for the seriously obsessed. Here is a short list of the most exotic yarn categories:

• Angora
• Bison
• Camel
• Hemp
• Linen
• Llama
• Mohair
• Plant fiber
• Qiviut
• Soy
• Tencel
• Yak

Cons: Ravelry can be a pain because you must be a member (free) and log in. If you're like me and don't like usernames and passwords, this is annoying because this site doesn't remember you as well as Amazon or Craftsy or even Etsy. It is also set up like a forum and that makes it difficult to navigate. 

Bottomline: Ravelry.com is for serious crocheters and those who want to spend time browsing, sharing, and chatting about their favorite hobby. 

Fun Crochet Pattern Links

Crocheted Baskets

We found this color block crochet basket at www.1dogwoof.com.

We only made a few alterations. Instead of 4-5 balls of yarn we used 10 to make a fuller basket. We changed into fuller color sooner than the directions said to. We also added handles for easy carrying!

By the time all the alterations were made the pattern had been changed quite a bit.

Be sure when making this basket to work double yarn. We used thick wool yarn. Visit the link to 1dogwoof.com follow her pattern, then come back here and finish with our handles instructions.

To make the handles on your basket you need to follow these three easy steps.

1. Chain ten. 
   
2. Single crochet in seventh single crochet from hook. Continue crocheting in the way described in row 11.
   
3. In next round just single crochet over the chain. 
   

The basket is done when it reaches the desired height. Fasten off. Weave in ends.

Women's Patterns

We made several of these hats and they look great on everyone.

• Newsboy Hat
• 1920s Cloche Hat

Baby Patterns

Two free crochet hat patterns we've made and loved for babies are:

Vintage Pearl baby hat

Newborn bunny hat

The baby toys in DK Crochet

Although not free, Hopeful Honey's toddler sweater is adorable and was well worth the couple bucks it cost to buy from her Easy shop.