If Your Child is Learning to Crochet, DON’T Use YouTube Tutorials

One of the first questions I ask new students in my online crochet classes and courses is whether they have previous crochet experience. If the answer is yes, my next question is what methods they have tried using when learning to crochet.

Having taught more than 250 kids to crochet in the last 2+ years, I sit there anticipating the answer I have already heard countless times at this point.

“I tried learning with YouTube crochet tutorials. I got all confused and almost gave up!” It breaks my heart for them every time, but I am not surprised.

Don’t get me wrong, Youtube can be a great source of pattern ideas and inspiration. But it is NOT going to get your child crocheting in a way that builds skills in a logical and structured way, while making it fun at the same time.

You might be wondering, “Christine, why is YouTube not good for kids wanting to learn to crochet?”

Let’s get into my top 6 reasons why I DON’T recommend beginner crocheters, especially kids, learn with YouTube tutorials! Stay until the end, as I saved my favourite reason for the end.

1. YouTube doesn’t have an “ask the teacher” button.

Has your child ever tried watching a YouTube tutorial, gotten partway through, and had a question (or several) about the stitches or pattern? I sure have. You wish there was a way to get tailored answers to your specific questions. YouTube has a comments section, but a lot of the time those are filled with compliments on the video or pattern, or questions that are left unanswered by the creator. There is no direct line of communication with the teacher or creator of the video, so your child’s question just never gets answered. This is why I created my online crochet course, Crochet Made Easy! Kids get ongoing, personalized support from me every step of their journey. Click the link at the end of the article to learn more.

2. Videos assume your child knows how to crochet.

One of the biggest challenges for crochet teachers posting their videos to YouTube is that your content can be found by crocheters at all different skill levels. This might seem like a good thing at first, but really it means that sometimes you need to make some shortcuts in your explanations to keep people interested and motivated. The result of this is that tutorial videos presuppose that viewers already know how to crochet. They are just using the stitches to create the pattern, rather than teaching the stitches themselves. I’ve been crocheting for over 32 years, and at least once a week while doing research on YouTube I find videos that completely confuse me, and I know the stitches already!

3. The videos use confusing language, vocabulary, and abbreviations.

As with many other hobbies, crochet has its own “language” of names for stitches, patterns, and other crochet terms. Add on top of that all of the abbreviations used. Written patterns can be completely cryptic if you don’t know the terms being used. It’s the same for crochet videos. If your child doesn’t already know the single crochet (sc), it can be extremely frustrating. And don’t even get me started on the concept of frogging. No, it has nothing to do with our reptilian frog friends 🐸. It’s the term crocheters and knitters use when saying they have to rip out or take apart either parts of or entire crochet projects.

4. The pattern creator doesn’t specify if they are using US or UK crochet terms.

Did you know that there are different systems of crochet terms? The US and UK systems refer to the names given to different crochet stitches and other crochet terms. For example, the US single crochet is the UK double crochet. The two classifications don’t play well together. It is extremely important to know if you are using US or UK crochet terms, as your crochet project will not turn out the way you are hoping if you mix them up. Unfortunately many crochet video tutorials fail to mention this point.

5. The tutorials are too fast.

When creating crochet tutorials for YouTube, there is a fine balance between wanting to show every stitch in the pattern, and wanting to make sure the video isn’t an hour long and your audience gets bored or frustrated and stops watching. As a result one, or both, of two things happen. Either the person doing the tutorial crochets way too fast for those crocheting along to keep up with. Or, they end up cutting out parts of the pattern or including pieces in a time-lapse. Both of these are detrimental to those beginners who are just starting to learn to crochet.

6. There are a LOT of poor quality tutorials and patterns on YouTube.

This is probably the issue with YouTube that bothers me the most. I spend several hours a week on YouTube watching crochet tutorials for ideas and inspiration. I have tested hundreds of patterns at this point, and countless ones have left me very disappointed. Either the patterns are poorly written or explained, or the project doesn’t turn out the way the designer intended. I have had both of these issues myself. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be for a beginner crocheter to go through the same experience. I create all my own patterns I include in my courses. They are thoroughly tested by both myself and my students. That way I know they work, as I get feedback and make adjustments to videos and written patterns as needed.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the materials I covered in this post in the comments down below. If your child would like to learn to start learning to crochet with me, click here to get your copy of my FREE Crochet Starter Guide.