5
Years with a hook in hand
Hi, I'm Ayesha 🧶
I picked up a hook five years ago and never quite put it down.
It started with a cheap aluminium hook, a ball of acrylic in a colour I no longer like, and a video I paused roughly four hundred times. My first attempt was meant to be a scarf. It came out as a sort of wonky triangle, because I was losing a stitch at the end of every row and had no idea that was even a thing that could happen.
What kept me going wasn't talent — I promise you there was none. It was the moment a technique finally made sense and I could feel my hands doing it without my brain shouting instructions. That happened with the chain, then with tension, then with the magic ring, and it's still happening five years later with things I thought were beyond me.
Somewhere along the way I started keeping notes: not just how to do a stitch, but why it goes wrong and what it looks like when it does. Those notes turned into this site. If you're at the wonky-triangle stage, you're in exactly the right place — that stage is not a sign you can't do this. It's just the part before it clicks.
tutorials written
skill areas covered
years crocheting
How I got here
Five years, one stitch at a time
Not a list of achievements — just the moments where crochet finally made sense.
2021
A slip knot and a lot of guessing
I learned to chain and to make a single crochet, and that was the whole of my ability for months. I made squares. Some of them were nearly square. I kept every one.
✦ Where it started
2022
The year tension stopped being a mystery
I finally understood that tension isn't about pulling tight or loose — it's about pulling the same every time. Once I stopped chasing it and started paying attention to how the yarn ran over my finger, my fabric evened out on its own.
✦ The turning point
2023
Working in the round opened a door
The magic ring took me an embarrassing number of attempts. When it clicked, suddenly hats and baskets and little stuffed things were all possible, and crochet went from flat rectangles to actual shapes.
✦ In the round
2024
I stopped skipping the gauge swatch
I made a cardigan that would have fitted a much larger person, and learned my lesson in the most expensive way possible. Ten minutes of swatching would have saved six weeks of work.
✦ Learning the hard way
2025
Finishing became the interesting part
Blocking, invisible joins, neat edges, weaving in properly. The last five percent of a project turned out to be the difference between something homemade and something handmade, and it's the part almost nobody teaches.
✦ Finishing
2026
Writing my own patterns — and writing this down
Now I design from swatches, write my instructions out properly, and share what I've learned here. Five years ago I couldn't hold the hook without my wrist aching. That's the whole point: none of this was natural. All of it was practice.
✦ Where I am now
Why I keep coming back
What crochet actually gives you
Beyond the finished thing at the end, these are the reasons the hook keeps coming back out.
It's completely portable
✦ Practical
No frame, no table, no setup. A project lives in a bag and comes out whenever you have ten quiet minutes.
Mistakes cost you nothing
✦ Forgiving
This is crochet's kindest quality. Undo a row, wind the yarn back up, and the material is as good as new. Nothing is ruined, ever.
You can see yourself improving
✦ Satisfying
Progress isn't abstract. It's a piece of fabric getting longer in your lap, and stitches getting more even as you go.
Your hands get busy and your head gets quiet
✦ Steadying
Once a stitch is in your muscle memory, the counting takes just enough attention to crowd everything else out. That's not a small thing.
It ends in something real
✦ Worth it
At the end there is an object that did not exist before, made entirely by your hands out of string. That never stops being slightly astonishing.
Worth your time
The things that actually taught me
A rotating handful of what genuinely helped, in the order I found them useful. No sponsorships, no affiliate links — just what I'd point a beginner towards.
A 4 mm hook and worsted yarn
✦ Tools
Skip the 20-piece set. One mid-size hook and a light, smooth yarn you can actually see your stitches in will take you through your first six projects.
The humble washcloth
✦ Practice
Small, square, finishes in an evening, and teaches chains, turning, edges and counting all at once. Make three. They get better fast.
A stitch marker and a row counter
✦ Notions
Almost every beginner problem I get asked about is a counting problem. These two things solve most of it before it happens.
Reading a pattern slowly, out loud
✦ Technique
Patterns look like code until someone shows you the grammar. Learn the abbreviations and the bracket rules once and the whole library opens up.
A swatch you keep and label
✦ Habit
Every time you try a new stitch, make a small square and write the hook and yarn on a tag. Within a year you have a personal encyclopaedia worth more than any book.
Say hello
Stuck on a stitch? Those are my favourite messages.
If something in your work has gone sideways and you can't tell why, send me a photo. Nine times out of ten I've made the same mistake myself and can tell you exactly which row it started on. Questions about yarn, hooks, patterns or where to begin are all welcome too — there's no such thing as too basic here.