How to Make a Slip Knot & Starting Chain Crochet Tutorial

To get started we're going to make a slip knot. Grab the loose end in your right hand and with your left hand take your pointer and middle finger and scoop the yarn. Cross over and secure the loose end with your thumb. Grab the working yarn, pull up in between your pointer and middle finger, and then you're going to grab that loop on the back and pull over those two fingers and the loop should stay secured around your middle finger. Pull on the loose end to tighten and it is as easy as that to make a slip knot. So let's show that one more time. Scoop the yarn with your left hand, secure with your thumb, pull the yarn over, grab the loop from the back, and pull on the loose end to tighten. To be honest, when I make a slip knot nowadays it looks just a little different. I kind of skip a few steps, but I thought I'd break it down a little more just as an easy visual reference for beginners. So now that we've got our slip knot, go ahead and grab your crochet hook, put it inside that slip knot loop, and pull on the working yarn to tighten it around your hook. You don't want it too tight, but get it pretty close to your hook. Scoop the working yarn with your hook and pull through that loop. This is your very first chain. Grab the yarn with your hook, pull through the loop. Now you've got two chains. And just continue repeating this process until you have as many chains as you need. This is what it should look like once you've finished your chain row. So right here we've got 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 chains. These are all the chain stitches, but this loop on the hook does not count as a chain. Just these stitches right here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.