How to Ask for Crochet Help
By Rachel Choi – 15 Comments| Since I’ve been blogging, designing and selling crochet patterns for a while, I’ve had the opportunity to help lots of people with crochet questions. I love helping people if they need it, but I have come across many people who do not know exactly how to ask for help. Here are some tips that I think will be helpful if you would like to ask me or any other crochet designer for crochet help: |  |
Ask the right person. Every crochet pattern is written by a designer or owned by a person or company. If your pattern is written by me (Rachel Choi) then obviously you should ask me for help. Whoever designed or owns the pattern is the person who you should ask for help, being that he/she would know the most about it.
Indicate exactly what you need help with. The key word here is exactly. Don’t just say you need help, or that you’re confused. Tell the person exactly what section of a row you do not understand. You can even place the instructions that you need help with in quotation marks so the person knows exactly where to help you.
Be quick and to the point. Do not ramble on about who knows what. Be concise. Your message with your question should be 4 sentences or less. If you cannot write it that short, then you’re probably rambling.
Remember to ask the question. Too many times someone would say they need help, but forgets to ask the question. A question, if you remember from grade school has a question mark at the end. It is not a statement telling me how confused you are. If you’re going to ask for help, remember to ask the question.
Crocheting is suppose to be fun, not a pull your hair out experience! If you need help, just ask. Simple as that.
Although your blog is focused around crocheting, I wanted to acknowledge your excellent points about the human nature. People struggle to admit weakness. When more people can feel comfortable and have the tools and resources to ask for help, our business and communities will be so much better off.
I have to totally agree with all the above. But I want to also add the following:
Be polite. I often get emails asking for help that are just rude! No one is going to help you if you’re not polite. A simple “thanks” at the end would do.
Do not whine, bitch, or complain. It makes you look immature and ignorant.
Well said! As a You Tube crochet instructor, I get lots of comments simply saying “it’s too hard.” or ” I’m confused!” instead of getting to the point. I’m willing to help, but I need the right information to be able to do so. Keep up the good work!
I may have to link to your post for the college Chemistry courses I teach. The same principles hold true for asking questions of a professor.
I have to agree with the be polite comment.
I’ve worked in customer service and some people just think that they can be rude and nasty and that everyone will just be nice to them back. So if you want help, ask for it nicely and you will be helped very nicely in return. If you ask rudely, then you’re probably going to get a rude comment back. This goes for every industry, including crochet.
Yes! Exactly what you all said!
I get asked questions via email a lot and one thing that bothers me is when someone asks a question, then an hr later sends another email with the same question, then another after that. There should be at least a 24hr waiting period for you to let someone answer. Everyone doesn’t sit at their computer the whole day, at least I know I don’t.
Just my two cents!
I am starting a project that calls for a steel size 1 crochet hook. I am getting conflicting mm sizes. Can you help me?
Hi Phyllis, sometimes the US hooks have different mm sizes on them even if they are the same letter size. It can be very confusing! If the pattern you’re using states the letter and the mm size, then I would just pay attention to the mm and not the letter. If it doesn’t tell you what the mm size is, I’m hoping that the pattern has a gauge in it. That way you can get the crochet hook that gives you the proper gauge.
This might be a silly question but if I’m crocheting a blanket and its about 1/4 of the way done and I’ve used a single stitch through out would it mess the blanket up if I were to the rest of the length using a double stitch?
It is doable. You can even use more than one stitch, other than double crochet. Maybe a different stitch each quarter. Each stitch will look different of course.
I’m making newborn beanies for charity and keep running into the same problem. When my rounds end and I make a slip stitch the hat looks like there are big gaps in those spaces. It also points down in a slight v. What am I doing wrong? Am I possibly making my last stitch before the slip in the wrong area ? I really want these to look nice and I only have a few more days. Thank you
Hi Holly! There a number of things you can double check…
Try double checking your stitch count to make sure you didn’t accidentally skip a stitch at the beginning or end.
At the beginning of the round, make sure you didn’t make your first stitch into the slip stitch since this can off set all of your stitches.
When you make your slip stitch to join at the end of the round, make sure it is in the very top of the beginning chain.
You can also try making your slip stitch into the first stitch instead of the chain. This gives a slightly different look that I sometimes prefer.
I’m making a cable pattern crocheted hat and I’m hoping someone might be able to explain this to me better then the original designer because im still confused. I get this part “ch 3. Fpdc around same stitch (counts as inc-1),”. This is where it confuses me,”fpdc in next 2, inc-2,”. Does this mean 1 individual fpdc around the next 2 posts and then 2 fpdc around the next post?
Then it says….” *inc-1, does that mean 1 dc and a fpdc around the post right underneath it?” ….then,fpdc in next 2, inc-2, repeat from * 4 more times, join with sl St to beg ch 3. 24 fpdc, 12dc.
I get confused with the inc-1 and inc-2. The designer sent this explanation below, and inc-1 and inc-2 look the same to me by her description.
ROUND 3: Ch 3. fpdc around same stitch (counts as inc-1), fpdc in next 2, Work a fpdc and a dc in the same stitch (called inc-2), * Work a dc and a fpdc in the same stitch (called inc-1), fpdc in next 2, Work a fpdc and a dc in the same stitch (inc-2), repeat from * 4 more times, join with sl st to beg ch-3. (24 fpdc, 12 dc). HELP! Thanks in advance.
Hi Jackie! From the designer’s explanation it looks like an inc-2 is a fpdc then a dc in the same stitch. An inc-1 would be a dc then a fpdc in the same stitch. So the order of the stitches is the only thing that is different.
THANK YOU!!