These days when you ask someone how they learned to crochet, a very common answer is YouTube! It is also a common answer to the question, ‘how do I learn to crochet?’ Many of today’s experienced crocheters will point you to YouTube first and foremost. I am no exception!
I first learned to crochet from a friend in college. But once I was not around that friend anymore, I did not have anyone to help me and I tried to continue to learn from books. I found myself in tears!! I could not understand what the books were describing and I became so frustrated.
Without giving away my age, I’ll just say that YouTube was not around at that time of my life, so I gave up on crochet and put it down… for years! Then about 4 years ago, when YouTube had become an established part of society, it dawned on me that it might be a lot easier to learn through videos than printed instructions, so I decided to give it a try! And THAT’s how I became a truly experienced crocheter and began a journey that I am still on today! I am so grateful for YouTube! I still go straight to YouTube whenever I run into something new I want to learn.
The Best YouTube Channels for Learning Basic Crochet
There are a lot of crochet videos out there on YouTube. It is a treasure trove of learning opportunity! For free! However, it can be overwhelming to have so many choices. It can be hard to decide where to start and which videos to click on when you do a general search. Surprisingly, even though there are a lot of videos on how to do specific projects, there are not a lot of channels that have a dedicated list of tutorials set aside just for beginners who are starting from nothing!
I did a little unofficial survey in some Facebook Groups to find out who were people’s favorite YouTube crochet teachers. Then I went through each of them to see who had dedicated playlists just for absolute beginners. Here are the ones that were the top of the favorites list AND had a good video series with the absolute basics!
1. The Crochet Crowd (812,000 subscribers)
This is by far one of the accounts I hear recommended the most for learning to crochet.
If you’re looking for a quick lesson in one shot, here is a 30 minute video with a lot of the beginning info you will need. Mikey walks you through how to hold your yarn and hook, to how to complete the basic stitches. He is very thorough, but simple and to the point!
There is also an entire beginner playlist on this channel with many more videos if you want to take a little more time. It is called theHow To Crochet For Beginners With Stitch Tutorials Playlist. This list includes a lot of beginner style patterns (which I would skip until you learn the basics) and many different stitch tutorials, but there are also very beginner how-to videos such as “How To Read Crochet Patterns” and “Crochet Hook Sizes, Gauge and Chaining.”
The one downside of this playlist is that it has so much in it that it may be hard to sort through for a beginner. If you don’t want to sort through it yourself, here are the ones I would suggest starting with, in this order:
Crochet Hook Sizes, Gauge and Chaining
How To Read Crochet Patterns
How to Gauge With Crochet Workshop
Crochet or Knit Slip Knot
Crochet Foundation Chain
Single Crochet
Half Double Crochet
Double Crochet Stitch
Crochet A Circle
Once you get through this list, then you can move on to practicing your skills on one of the many beginner friendly patterns on this channel!
2. Bella Coco(553,000 subscribers)
The other channel I hear mentioned a lot is Bella Coco. Sarah-Jayne is the host of Bella Coco and she is very clear and to the point in her tutorials. She also has a wonderful accent that is easy to listen to! Bella Coco has several playlists for beginners. I would recommend starting with Absolute Beginner’s Playlist, and then Absolute Beginners. The first one covers starting skills and beginner stitches. The second one has some of the same, but also a few additional tips and tricks.
Once you get through the basics, this channel has a fantastic collection of patterns and stitch tutorials you can delve into!
3. Happy Berry Crochet (582,000 subscribers)
Happy Berry Crochet has a designated YouTube Playlist dedicated to just the basics. It is called “How To Crochet – The Basics for Absolute Beginners“. There are 11 videos that walk you through the basic slip knot, chain and then the most basic stitches.
4.Jayda InStitches (272,000 subscribers)
Jayda InStitches has a designated YouTube playlist dedicated to just the basics. In fact, it is called “Learn to Crochet – the BASICS.” It is only ten videos, so very easy to navigate!
5. Moogly Blog (137,000 subscribers)
Tamara Kelly of Moogly Blog has a great list for beginners called Learn To Crochet. Tamara’s videos were some of the first I personally used when learning some of the more advanced techniques. She is very thorough and clear in her instruction.
6. Marly Bird (147,000 subscribers)
Marly Bird has a great list for beginners called Beginner Basics Crochet. The first five or six videos in the series are really the true basics. If you scroll past that you start to get into a lot of what I would call “next step” techniques like how to change colors with yarn and how to do more complicated stitch combos. So this list would be great to go through the first 5 or 6 and then if you feel ready to move on to the next step, keep scrolling down and try out a few of the others in this list. It is quite a lengthy list at about 79 videos!
So there you have it! The best list I could come up with for learning the absolute basics of crochet! I hope you find this helpful and that these wonderful teachers can get you moving forward smoothly in your goal of becoming a crochet expert!
