Crochet shopping list! What to buy as a beginner crocheter!

So you want to start crocheting but you have no idea where to start. You don't know what to buy, you don't know what yarn to use, you don't know what hooks to get. This is exactly what I would tell myself to buy if I was starting my crochet journey today. We are currently at Joann Fabrics and the yarn supply here is intimidating to say the least. There are so many different kinds, so many different colors, different textures, different sizes. What do you use? What should you not use? What's the easiest thing for beginners? What's the hardest thing for beginners? We're going to start by taking you through everything I would buy as a beginner and then we're going to go into everything I would stay away from as a beginner. When people ask me what yarn should I buy, what hooks should I buy, I always tell them start with a yarn first. Once you choose your yarn then we're going to know what size hook you need to get and we'll talk about the hook types to get in a minute. The yarn that I recommend most for beginners is medium, something that is about this size and if you check the back you'll actually see where it says medium. A yarn like this isn't going to be too big that it's hard to work with and it's not going to be too thin that it's hard to work with. This is just a very very solid yarn, very very good for beginners. I just realized that without even meaning to I was showing you guys a Red Heart Super Saver roll of yarn and this is actually what I used to make my temperature blanket for last year. The yarn is cheap, it's durable, it's easy to work with. I do really really like Red Heart Super Saver but that's definitely not the only type of yarn for beginners and maybe not even the best type of yarn for beginners. Keep in mind that the best yarn for you is going to be yarn that you enjoy working with, you like the feeling of and most importantly that you are excited to make something with. All of these yarns right here are more just medium weight yarns. They're probably all going to use hooks between like four millimeter hooks to six millimeter hooks and these are all just really good yarns for beginners. I also highly recommend yarn cakes for beginners, things like this that change color on their own because changing colors as a beginner can be kind of intimidating. I do have a few videos about it, I will link them below, but changing colors as a beginner can definitely be intimidating and whenever you buy a yarn cake like these the color is going to change for you and then you don't have to worry about changing the color as you go. This might be a controversial crocheting opinion but I also think that this bulky yarn can be super awesome for beginner crocheters to work with. For yarn like this it's going to be a bigger hook, you'll be using like an eight millimeter, but I personally love love love working with these thicker yarns and one of the main reasons I like working with thicker yarns is because the project gets done faster. When you're working with bigger yarn each row is bigger and it's a lot faster to complete your projects. I think something that becomes so intimidating to people with crocheting and with knitting is just how long a project can take, so if you do just want a quick project grab yourself some bulky yarn or super bulky yarn, nothing probably bigger than this because bigger than this you get into other issues, but nothing bigger than this, but something around this size. Pick a simple project that you are excited about, something like a hat, something like a little bag and you should be able to knock the project out in no time and just completing your first project I feel like is so important in any crocheter's journey because so many people have so many works in progress, just so many pieces of crochet that are just sitting there waiting to be completed and it gets daunting, it gets it gets kind of sad, it gets almost like man am I ever going to finish something? If you buy yourself some bulky yarn and if you pick a small project I promise you are going to complete your first crochet project. So we've covered medium yarn and we've covered bulky slash super bulky yarn and why I would recommend crocheting with these, but here's the question now. If you choose your yarn which hook do you choose? Let's say that you chose this beautiful Bernat Baby Blanket Sparkle yarn. I do love this yarn, I have made multiple actual baby blankets out of this yarn, it's incredible to work with, it feels super good on your hands and since this is bulkier yarn the projects get done faster like we talked about before. Like I think the last blanket that I completed with this yarn took me about four hours. So once you choose your yarn how do you know what size hook to use? You're going to look at the back of the yarn right there. Am I showing you the right place? Yes I am. All right where it says eight millimeter and has the picture of the crochet hook that's how you know that's it. You just check the back and you say okay if I'm going to buy this yarn I know that I need an eight millimeter crochet hook. So you know that you're going to buy your super bulky yarn and your eight millimeter crochet hook but let's say you also want to get a medium yarn. Let's go back and grab our original medium yarn. I think it was this one. What size crochet hook do we need for this? Let's check the back where it has a little crochet hook right there and it looks like we need a 5.5 millimeter crochet hook. So let's go get our hooks. There are a bunch of different types of crochet hooks but the good thing is we already know the two size of crochet hooks that we're going to be grabbing right? An eight millimeter crochet hook and a 5.5 millimeter crochet hook. So now the question is what type of crochet hook do we want to get? Not just the size but what type? A lot of this comes down to personal preference. I'm going to be telling you what I enjoy using and the ones that I feel like are easiest to use. I personally prefer ergonomic hooks. Ones that have these little grippy things on. I think that it makes it more comfortable for your hands and easier to use and you don't drop them as much. So if you wanted to grab this set you would have a 5.5 millimeter hook just like you need and you'd also have a six and a 6.5 millimeter crochet hook. Dang. It looks like Joann's is currently out of eight millimeter crochet hooks that have the ergonomic grips and they sell them individually as well so if you don't want to grab a pack of three you can just buy the individual hooks but it does look like they are currently out of the eight millimeter crochet hook that is also ergonomic having this little grippy grip. So now that you know what I would buy as a completely beginner crocheter, medium yarn, chunky yarn, find the hook that matches your yarn, and get a hook with an ergonomic grip, let's talk about what I would not recommend you to buy as a beginner crocheter and then let's wrap up the video with some extra goodies that you might want to grab if you are just now starting your crochet journey. The number one thing I would not recommend you to buy as a beginner crocheter is this extremely fine yarn. Little bitty yarn with little bitty hooks. It's just harder to use. It's easier to mess up. It's harder to get the tension correct and I would just I would just not recommend it until you've been crocheting for a while. I have the same exact opinion about the super jumbo yarn. If you were just now starting to crochet I wouldn't recommend something this big. I mean this thing takes a 25 millimeter crochet hook. Let me show you how big that is. I wonder if they're even gonna have a 25 millimeter crochet hook in stock. Okay they don't have a 25 millimeter but this is what a 30 millimeter crochet hook looks like. This thing is massive and working with yarn this big and hook this massive is it's just difficult. So I would definitely recommend starting with something in the medium to bulky yarn not this super gigantic super chunky bulky yarn. It's gonna be really difficult to work with. The other type of yarn that I would recommend to stay away from whenever you are just beginning is any kind of super textured yarn like this. This stuff is super super cute and it feels super super cool. It feels kind of like a loofah but this yarn let's see if I can get it to focus on the yarn. This yarn has multiple different little holes in it and all of those holes are an opportunity for your hook to go through these holes within the yarn instead of going into the right place on the yarn. I just think as a beginner crocheter I would not want to be using this yarn. Now this might be a little bit controversial but I kind of feel the same way about yarns like this as I do that last yarn. Now in theory this yarn should be a good size to work with but do you see how the yarn is kind of like kind of loose? Anytime you're working with a yarn that has kind of like a loose texture like this it's very easy for your hook to accidentally go through the yarn rather than going through the hole it's supposed to go through. And lastly let's talk about all the extra things that you might want to grab if you're starting your crochet journey. The first thing is stitch markers. This is great for doing any kind of a project where you're counting your stitches and you don't want to have to remember exactly what stitch is what. Well you know every time you go around and you need to like remember okay this is the stitch I'm going to increase on well just put a stitch marker there instead and then you don't have to remember which stitch it was. You don't want to count if it's going to be like 200 stitches or something like that. You just want to follow the stitch marker trust me. The next thing I would grab are these plastic yarn needles. These are great for weaving in tails at the end of your project or sewing your project together. If you're making a patchwork jacket, if you're making a hat you need to sew together, if you're making slippers, whatever it is grab yourself some of these little needles. Trust me it's way easier to use these than trying to do it by hand. And lastly I would recommend getting a stitch counter. Now I don't have one of these as like a physical one. I used an app on my phone but having something that can kind of keep track of your stitches is really important because I can't even tell you the amount of times I've been like oh I'll remember that this row was 17 and then three rows later I need to increase to 19 and then five rows later I'll need to decrease. No I forget. I forget. So whenever I have it on a stitch counter like I said usually on my phone but you can also grab one of these little physical ones it's a lifesaver. I am so excited for you that you are starting your crochet journey. My grandma taught me how to crochet whenever I was seven years old and it brings me so much joy. It's calming to my anxiety. Crocheting just feels like home and I don't know a less cheesy way to say that. So I cannot wait to see what you make. Let me know in the comments how your crochet journey is going. Let me know what you're going to make with your first project. Let me know what kind of yarn you choose. What kind of needles you choose and let me know if you have any other questions. Happy crocheting!