Thursday, March 5, 2015

Crochet Basics - the Flat Circle

I teach crochet - a lot.

I've been teaching classes full of new crocheters for about 5 years on a regular basis.  I find, that the students who UNDERSTAND crochet rather than just following directions about crochet have a far easier times making patterns and learning new skills.

One of the basic things that is helpful for crochet students to fully understand is making a flat circle.  SO many patterns begin with a flat circle, rugs, hats, baskets, mandalas, etc. etc...  Crochet pattern directions are written in all manner of ways - two people might explain the same thing very differently.  It's extremely confusing for students who are just learning to follow a pattern.  It's very helpful if a student can disregard badly written directions and understand - aha! this person is creating a flat circle... a lot of the poorly worded text can then be avoided and just the very necessary elements can be concentrated on - it's much less frustrating in the long run.

I've recently written a lot of hat patterns.  I want to share the patterns but find it so tiresome to write out all the directions step by repetitive step of starting the hat pattern in a flat circle - sometimes I want to just say - make a flat circle with 8hdcs in the first round until it measures whatever... SO MUCH EASIER! and most confident crocheters will know exactly what I'm telling them to do.

I really want to teach my students to understand the flat circle so I came up with this basic lesson.  Granted - this is NOT what I teach students the first week... we have a whole learning process - but by the time they are ready to tackle a hat, it's time to learn.

I hope this little write up and explanation might help anyone who has never had an "aha moment" about the flat circle.


5 comments:

  1. I had my first experience of trying to teach someone crochet yesterday and it was hard to do, so I admire you for teaching others! xx

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  2. I LOVE teaching crochet. I am teaching 3 classes! Two are at our local adult school (15 in one class and 12 in the other) and a crochet/drinking/gabbing group here at my house with 4-5 gals. It's a WONDERFUL time!

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  3. You are teaching two techniques with this. Both the Flat Circle - AND reading charts! Nice!
    I also admire you for teaching...
    I wish I could find a nice crochet group around here that I could join.
    Would be so nice to be able to chat and laugh while working on a project.

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  4. This is great! Thank you for sharing :) And I wish I could be in one of your classes!!!!

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  5. Hi folks, any of you looking for groups to do hand work and socialize, try these resources: Senior Centers, Community Centers, Maker Groups, library groups/events, fabric and craft shops have classes or listings on their bulletin boards. Also as you go to those country fairs check with the folks who have booths set up as to their resources or if they have groups established

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