Left Hand Free Crochet Pattern Hooded Scarf Workshop Part 1 ~ Crochet Along Easy Pattern

Hey everyone, it's Deja from crocheteverafter.com and our newest free pattern workshop is going to be this hooded scarf. So all you're going to need is some worsted weight yarn, a 5mm USA H hook, Scissors and a yarn needle and we're going to get started. You can get the link for the actual pattern right below and it will give you the yardage that you're going to need for the pattern. This is an easily customizable pattern and we'll talk about that while we make it but let's get started. Alright, to begin our scarf, what we need to do is create our slip knot. And our pattern is telling us to chain 167 chains. I am using a Red Heart. Super Saver yarn. So if you like, it's the same as what's pictured in the pattern, but if you like this color, this is Cherry Red, color 0319. So I'm going to make a little Red Riding Hood scarf instead of a little Blue Riding Hood scarf this time. If you need to substitute, make sure you're looking for worsted, the number 4 on your yarn label, and buy enough yardage to match what the pattern calls for. So just find the yardage on your yarn label, make sure that you have enough to cover what the pattern calls for. You might have to buy a couple skeins of a different type yarn if it doesn't have enough. Alright, so I'm going to chain 167 foundation chains, and if you've seen me chain before, Remember you'll know that I always push my hook. So that my loops rest on my shaft, and that gives me even, consistent stitches. You'll see that they're all the same size as I go. I don't have very loopy, wobbly stitches. I don't pull out my loops and make really wide foundation chains. If you know how to foundation double crochet, this is a great project for it. I have a tutorial available on how to foundation double crochet. So instead of having to foundation chain 165, or sorry, 167 chains, you can simply do 165 foundation double crochets, and you'll be meeting us on row 2 instructions. So, check out that tutorial if you are not a fan of foundation crocheting, or foundation chain crocheting, and the technique is quite simple, and once you learn it, you'll usually use it for just every project you can, but I'm just going ahead and doing the foundation chain for those of you who do not know that technique. As you can see, I have quite an even chain going on, so if you like that, you can... Follow these tips. If you like a loopy chain or a very loose chain, you know some people like to pull out their loops, that's perfectly fine. Whatever works for you. What I'm going to do is I'm going to use a stitch marker because we have so many foundation chains to use or to make. I'm going to put in a stitch marker about every 40 chains so that way I'm going to pretend that I just did 40. I'm not actually counting right now, so I'm not really that good where I can count and talk at the same time. But I'm pretending that this is my 40th chain. So I'm going to enter this stitch marker, and what that does is as I work, if I start talking again, Or if I'm watching TV or whatever I'm doing and I'm not really paying attention to my count and I lose count or maybe my hook falls out or I accidentally pull a loop out. Instead of having to start all the way over counting my foundation chain, I just go to my last stitch marker. So if I put one in and I have 40, then I know that I can just count 40 and start counting from there. 41, 42, 43. So if I enter them every 40... And I have two stitch markers. I would be at 80, so 80, 81, 82, 83. You can see how they can come in handy when you have a very large foundation chain to make. And I especially like the locking stitch markers because they won't fall out until you're ready to take them out. So I'm going to continue on with my 167 foundation chains, and I will meet up with you at the end of these, where we will begin our first row of our project. Alright, I have finished my 167 chains of my project and I am now ready to begin the first row of the instructions. And as you can see, I have stitch markers every so often. Now, to begin my project, because I'm working in double crochet, I must skip a few chains at the very beginning of my foundation chain. And for double crochet, you're going to skip three chains. And that's just going to create the proper height, so when you actually make your double crochets, they're not going to be squished on the edges of your project. If I didn't put... These chain 3's at the beginning of each row, including my foundation chain, my project would be really squished on the ends because it would take a few stitches to get the double crochet to the proper height. So I'm going to skip these first 3 chains and I just count them as my V's. You can see my letter V's, my stacked letter V's are my chains. And we have 1, 2, and 3. So I'm going to work into my fourth chain. from my hook which is this chain right here. Now to begin my double crochet I always yarn over first and then I'm going to insert my hook into this chain. But instead I like to normally insert my hook into this back loop only. I usually catch just this one loop because it's really fast to work through and if I'm not concerned about how my edge looks this This is the way I usually go. But this project, because I wanted to make it as simple as possible and not put an edging on it, I am going to work into the bottom bump. And the bottom bump are just these little dashes that you can see that are on the backside of your foundation chain. So the front of your chain has the letter V and the backside has these little dashes. That's your bottom bump. When you work into these bottom bumps, What you get is a nice edge along the bottom of your work. It's going to give you these V's along the edge. If you're working a foundation double crochet, this is what you'll also have, so if you know how to do that technique and you've done it, you'll have that same exact edge as if you worked into this bottom bump. Let's get into this bottom bump. Now you don't have to work into the bottom bump, you can go ahead and do it however you like, but this is what I'm recommending for this project if you're not going to add an edge at the end. And I'll show you also how to add that edge just in case you want to maybe do a contrasting color edge or something. So I'm going to insert my hook into the fourth chain from my hook in the bottom bump. So I have one, two, three, and here's number four. I turn my work and I go right through that bottom bump. So I'm going to insert my hook in there. And then I'm going to yarn over and pull up a loop. And as you can see, when I pull up the loop, I keep the loop on my shaft. I keep all of my loops the same size. I don't lift, because that's going to give me a taller stitch, but also more inconsistent stitches. I'm going to show you how, after this first row, all of my stitches are the same height without any blocking. So I pull up my loop and put it on my shaft, the same size as my shaft. I yarn over, and then to do my double crochet, I always work off in groups of two. So I pull off my first two loops, and I have two loops left, so I yarn over again, and I pull through the second two. So now I have two double crochets. Because we count our chain three as a double crochet, that's going to count as my very first one. So again, I'm going to yarn over, I'm going to find my bottom bump, it should be nice and easy to see now because your foundation chain has turned and now your bottom bump is on top, and I'm going to do a couple more double crochets so you can see how the bottom edging looks. So I yarn over and pull up that loop, push my hook so that all of my loops are on my shaft And you'll see when I work off, I work diagonal. See how my hook is at a 45 degree angle? And that's going to keep my loops the same size as my shaft. So I pull through the first two, push to my shaft, yarn over, and pull through again. Let's do it again. I yarn over and go through that bottom bump. It takes a little bit extra work to go through that bottom bump, but the results are really nice. Once you get through with this row, you can see already that I'm getting this nice bottom V chain and the top is also the same. So when I finish my project, I'm going to have the V's on the bottom and the V's on the top. So it's going to be a nice edge that I don't have to do anything to it. So I yarn over again, find the next bottom bump, insert my hook, pull up and go to the shaft, yarn over, pull off, yarn over and pull off again. And if you notice, if you've never seen any of my other tutorials, if you have a problem where you get stuck pulling your loops through, when you're trying to pull through you're getting stuck on everything, all you need to do is turn your hook so that it faces straight down, straight at your work, and it's going to slide very easily through any loops on your hook. So always remember, if you're getting stuck, just stop and turn your hook. So that it's facing straight down, and pull through, and push, and you notice that it's kind of like a rowing motion, I kind of pull down and then I push back up and my hook pops back up again, and that's so that I can grab my next loop. So it's kind of a twisting motion that will become muscle memory after you've crocheted for a while. But if you're new and you find yourself Constantly getting stuck on your loops, that little trick, just pointing it straight down is going to help you get through. So this is a very easy row of double crochet, that's all you're going to do all the way across for 165 double crochets all together, because we skipped those three chains in the beginning But technically one of those, it's counting as double crochets, so we really only skipped two technically, which gives us 165 double crochets. And you can see how even all my stitches are. By working on the shaft, I get all even sized stitches. So if you have stitches that go up and down all the time, and you're not liking the look of them, try working... Try keeping all of your loops the same size as your shaft. And you're going to do that by holding good tension with your left hand, or right hand if you're a left-handed crocheter, and keeping those loops the same size. So if you pull up on your hook, if you have good enough tension, it should pull right back down so that it's the same size. And you'll see at the end of this row how even everything is. You won't have to block at all if you work with this method. Blocking still makes it look better, but you won't need to if you don't want to. So I'm going to continue on this row, and I'll meet you at the end of the row so we can turn and begin row 2 instructions.