How to Learn Crochet Online: Free Pattern Trainer + Video Lessons
Most people who try to learn crochet online hit the same wall. They watch a video, copy the hands on screen, finish something that looks roughly right, and then open a written pattern and find it completely unreadable. Rnd 3. [sc, inc] x 6 (18) may as well be a foreign language.
That happens because crochet is really two skills wearing one name. There is the physical skill of making stitches, and there is the literacy skill of reading what a pattern is asking for. Video alone teaches the first and quietly skips the second. This guide lays out a path that covers both, and the first half of it costs nothing.
Start free: the Pattern Trainer in the app
The Pattern Trainer is a free course in the Yon Crochet app that teaches you to read crochet notation. No kit and no card: you sign in with your email, and your progress and YonCoins follow you between devices.
It is built as small lessons with one character teaching each unit. You learn a concept, then immediately try it. Twenty two lessons are live across two units.
Unit 1: Read a Round, with Linda
Thirteen lessons covering the vocabulary of a round worked in a spiral, which is how nearly every amigurumi begins:
- How to read the diagrams and pictures
- The magic ring, where every plushie starts
- Your first round, and counting the V stitches
- The increase, and how circles grow
- Brackets and repeats, the recipe you repeat
- What a repeat actually builds
- Plain rounds, one in and one out
- Counting stitches to catch mistakes early
- Right side versus wrong side
- The decrease, and closing a shape
- Width and height as two separate dials
- How each round fits the round above it
- A mixed unit test
Unit 2: Read a Whole Pattern, with Pug
Nine lessons that take you from a single round to a complete multi piece pattern:
- The setup page, and the ten seconds that save an hour
- Using the legend so you never have to memorize abbreviations
- Shorthand rounds, where one line covers many rounds
- The foundation chain, and how flat pieces begin
- Rows that go back and forth, not around
- Fastening off so a piece cannot unravel
- Closing the body neatly
- Weaving in ends
- Many pieces, one plushie, and how sections get sewn
Seven further units are in production, including Hands on the Hook with Linda, Shape Theory with Rin, Amigurumi Mastery with Rocky, Read Any Notation with Spadina, Technique Families with Echo, Crochet Around the World with Tango, and The Designer's Path with Chuck.
If you do nothing else from this guide, do Unit 1. Pattern literacy is the thing that lets you use any designer's work, not just ours.
The 14 core skills
Once you can read a pattern, you need hands on the hook. Every one of our video lessons teaches the same fourteen core skills, so you are never guessing whether a lesson covers the fundamentals:
- Holding a hook and yarn
- Magic ring
- Single crochet
- Increase
- Decrease
- Invisible fasten off
- Hiding the yarn tail
- Counting the stitch
- Counting the round
- Right and wrong side
- Attaching the eyes
- Sewing
- Stuffing
- Closing the piece
What changes between lessons is what each character adds on top of that foundation. That is what turns nine separate lessons into one skill path.
The nine video lessons
Every lesson is a standalone purchase, and every one ships in both right handed and left handed versions at no extra cost.
Beginner, levels 1 to 5
| Level | Lesson | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linda the Bunny | The core 14 skills, nothing else. The best first lesson. |
| 2 | Pug the Dog | Slip stitch and chain |
| 3 | Chuck the Duck | Slip stitch, chain, and embroidery |
| 4 | Spadina the Red Panda | Colour changes and embroidery |
| 5 | Tango the Flamingo | Colour changes, slip stitch, chain, and embroidery |
Intermediate, levels 6 to 9
| Level | Lesson | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Rocky the Earth | Front loop only, back loop only, mouth embroidery |
| 7 | Echo the Bat | Split single crochet, front loops only, colour change, sewing, embroidery |
| 8 | Rin the Raindrop | Bubble stitch and double crochet |
| 9 | Button the Mushroom | Sewing parts together, neat and secure assembly |
Each lesson is $14.99 CAD on its own. You can see all nine side by side on the Lessons page.
Left handed learners do not have to flip anything
Most crochet tutorials leave left handed beginners to flip the video, reverse the instructions in their head, or give up. Every lesson here comes in a left handed version that does the flipping for you: the same lesson mirrored, so the hook sits in the left hand on screen and the yarn feeds the way it will in yours.
You choose your hand when you open the lesson, and it costs the same either way. That is true for all nine characters.
If you want all of it: Yon Plus
Buying lessons one at a time makes sense if you want a specific character. If you intend to work through the whole path, Yon Plus starts at $20 CAD a month and includes:
- All nine lessons, beginner and intermediate
- Every new lesson as it releases
- Both handed versions of every lesson
- The Yon World stories
- YonCoins and progress tracking
What about yarn and hooks?
The video lessons teach technique. They do not include materials. If you are starting from nothing, the beginner kits include everything for a single character, and each one arrives with the magic ring already started, which removes the single most common reason beginners quit in the first ten minutes.
If you already own a hook and worsted weight yarn, you do not need a kit at all. Start with the free trainer and add a lesson when you are ready.
Which path should you pick?
- Never crocheted, not sure you will like it. Start with Unit 1 of the Pattern Trainer, free in the Yon Crochet app. Zero cost, and within a few short lessons you will know whether the notation clicks.
- Ready to make something specific. Pick the character you like from levels 1 to 5 and buy that single lesson.
- You already crochet and want to level up. Go straight to Rocky, Echo, or Rin for texture, colour work, and taller stitches.
- You want the whole path. Yon Plus, and start at level 1 regardless of how confident you feel.
Common questions
Is the Pattern Trainer really free?
Yes. It is free in the Yon Crochet app with no purchase needed. You sign in with your email, so your progress and coins follow you between devices.
Do I need to do the lessons in order?
No, but the numbering is not decorative. Every lesson teaches the same fourteen core skills, so any of them works as a first lesson. The order reflects how much each character adds on top of that foundation.
Is this suitable for complete beginners?
Yes. Level 1 assumes you have never held a hook. It starts with how to hold the hook and yarn.
Are the lessons available in other languages?
Every launched lesson ships with captions and audio in English, French Canadian, and Vietnamese.
Where to start today
Open the Pattern Trainer in the Yon Crochet app and start with the first lesson. The lessons are short, they cost nothing, and within a few of them Rnd 3. [sc, inc] x 6 (18) will read like a sentence instead of a code.
