Crochet was one of my mother's favorite hobbies while I preferred knitting again,knitting was easier for me when I was a child but today crocheting is also a very relaxing hobby. I don't think it's very popular under the young people today like knitting but it's still something different that you can try.
Crochet is very similar to knitting as you still make use of yarn and a needle but there are some differences. In crochet you only make use of a crochet needle, it has a hooked end and is longer than your normal needle. Knitting you make use of 2 knitting needles that is normally longer than your crochet needle. Both these methods you make loops and pull yarn through these loops but with crochet you use one thread of yarn in one loop at a time.
Crochet is a chain of stitches. Now the questions is what type of stitches can you use.
There are actually a big variety of stitches that you can use but I'm only going the mention a few basic ones that you can try and then work your way to more difficult stitches.
Basic crochet stitch:
This is the first stitch you'll learn when starting to crochet. You will use this stitch and built other stitches onto this basic stitch.
Cluster stitch:
A cluster stitch is basically a lot of unfinished stitches that you join together as one.You join all the stitches at the top.
Shell stitch:
The shell stitch is joining more than one stitch together. For example join a half double crochet and a double crochet stitch into one stitch. It almost looks like a bivalve seashell.
V stitch:
The basic V stitch is a double crochet stitch with a few chain stitches to form the V shape. You do get different variations of V stitches, all depends what stitches you are using to create you V shape.
As you can see you get a big variety of stitches that you can combine to form new shapes and stitches and to create your own design. These stitches I'm mentioning here are only a few of the basic ones that you can use. As you start off with these you will quickly learn all the tricks to crochet.
With crochet you can create garments like tops, bikini's or other items like tablecloths, beanies, gloves etc.