How to Choose Crochet Patterns

Step 1: Review instructions Review pattern instructions to ensure you understand them.
Step 2: Think simple Think simple when you start. Patterns are typically identified according to skill level: beginner, intermediate, or advanced.
Step 3: Find an unstructured pattern Find a pattern for a baby blanket or shawl. This will make hook selection easier. Because they are unstructured designs, little blankets, scarves, and shawls render the needle gauge less important.
Step 4: Search for hook requirements Search for patterns that use a large crochet hook. Large hooks are easy to maneuver and to pull through yarn. In America, a B/1 is small and an N/15 is large.
Step 5: Avoid specialty yarns Avoid patterns that call for specialty yarns, including eyelash, wispy, and chunky types, whose stitches might not be as easily counted and can lead to frustrating mistakes.
TIP: Go online to select patterns on one of the many sites tailored to your skill level. Lots of free patterns exist all over the internet.
Step 6: Look for Granny Squares Look for patterns called “Granny Squares” — easily finished smaller squares — which allow you to go back and make corrections before stitching them all into a full, final piece.
FACT: The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef — an “environmental version of the AIDS quilt” — is meant to draw attention to how rising temperatures and pollution are destroying the Great Barrier Reef.

Lessons in this Guide