Saw a crochet show on PBS last night, am fascinated, where do I start?

[tridim]

My grandmother knitted and my grandfather did macramé, so it must be in my genes.

I'm guessing they sell starter kits at the craft stores, what should I look for?

I also want to get my Mom started, but I think she has some arthritis, will that be a problem? What about eye-sight? It looks like it is sometimes difficult to find the right holes.

Any help/links would be appreciated. Thanks!

[tridim]

1. I picked up a kit at Hobby Lobby this morning..

This kit will be for my Mom, but I broke it open and played with it for awhile. Can do chains pretty quickly. :) Youtube is invaluable.

[DUgosh]

2. I find that dark threads

like solid black are much harder to see, I no longer crochet with them. With ample light, and light colored thread there should be less of a problem

[Warpy]

4. I learned out of one of those Red Heart booklets

which is also how I learned to knit. The instructions and drawings are very clear even if their yarn is crap.

I'd suggest the first simple project be something like cotton potholders, two squares of single crochet that are joined together back to back by more single crochet with a chained loop at the end to hang them up with. After you do those, you'll have it forever and every other pattern is a variation only in pickup and how many loops you chain through each time. The cheapest place to get the cotton is Walmart.

Crochet really isn't my craft. I much prefer knitting, weaving, spinning and dyeing. It's incredibly useful to know, though, especially for things like kitchen linens and the occasional hat.

[Ilsa]

3. Here is a website I found a year ago:

Interweave.com

http://www.interweavecrochet.com/projects.asp

http://www.redheart.com/

http://www.patonsyarns.com/

They have knitting and crochet information. Start with simple items, like straight scarves. Look for "Easy" designations to try projects and see if crochet is for you. They have free patterns available at this website and on yarn websites such as Patons, Red Heart, etc.

Happy hooking!

[Cleita]

5. I took up crochet because I have arthritis.

It's hard at first but exercising the fingers helps. Knitting does too.