There’s an App for That

When beginning to learn to crochet, I didn’t even consider searching for an app that would help me. I didn’t think there would be any. I was wrong. There is an app for everything. Very few apps had any ratings so I didn’t really know what I was going to get. I looked at four apps for crocheting. Two were free and two I paid for. Here’s my review…

Crochet 101 – New Beginner’s Guide – Cost: $2.39

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This app is poorly organized and jumps all over the map. There is a menu section that includes titles such as Learning Basic Crochet Patterns (I didn’t find this section very helpful at all. I knew most of these stitches, but if I was just learning them it would be very inadequate) to How to Crochet a Cat Hat (not very high on my priority list). There were three sections to do with the Treble Stitch and none of them explained how to treble stitch into the foundation chain. There is also a video section, which is pretty sparse. To me, it isn’t in a logical order and goes from how to single and double crochet to making a beanie. That seems like a big jump to me in terms of the skill level. The videos are also all available on YouTube for free. The videos that were selected aren’t necessarily the best ones available either. For example, the angle and distance from the camera in the video on single and double crochet stitches would make it very difficult to learn from.

Again, this app is unorganized and poorly laid out. I would suggest you don’t waste your money and give it a thumbs down. You can get everything in this app for free on the internet  and the written tutorials I’ve see on the web are much better.

AllFreeCrochet.com – Cost: Free

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This app brings you to a very large list of articles, most of which offer free patterns, link to crocheter’s blogs (these usually have many free patterns as well), or share information on different types of yarn.

You can browse if you are looking for something specific like an afghan or hat, or if you’re looking to                                                   crochet something for a baby or child.

I think for a free app you can’t go wrong with this one! I’ll keep it on my phone.

iCrochet – Cost: Free

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This is actually an app to get the monthly magazine subscription on your device, but it does give 10 free magazines. I skimmed the first two issues and they weren’t half bad. They have articles on different types of stitches, crocheting different pieces such as a scarf, essential crochet tips, linguistics of crochet, crochet supplies, etc. It even includes links to videos                                                 the author thinks are very helpful.

Crochet for Beginners – Learn to Crochet – Cost: $1.39

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This app has 5 sections:
Home – this sections list all the How to’s for stitches and projects.
Book – a book suggestion for learning to crochet
Facebook link to a group I will be joining!
Blog – blog posts from crafty bloggers and links to their sites
                                              More – currently just has the Wikipedia definition of                                              crochet

The ‘Home’ section has many tutorials for learning all the basics you need to know to crochet like making a slip knot and stitches such as single and double crochet. It also includes tutorials on more complicated stitches like spike and butterfly and how to’s for making projects like a sweater or blanket. All tutorials link to approximately 10 or more videos. This is great because if you don’t like one or the way they are explaining things isn’t getting through to you, there’s another one to watch. As I’ve said before, I prefer to learn from videos so this app is helpful to me. I do think this section isn’t as organized as well it could be. It isn’t in alphabetical order, or separated into stitches and projects. All in all, I would recommend this app and will personally use it to continue on my crochet journey!