Learning to crochet, the single crochet.

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The next level up from the slip stitch in crocheting is the single crochet. The abbreviation for the single crochet when reading a pattern is sc, but we won't be messing with that this time. Once you start doing patterns you will need to know the abbreviation to be able to understand the pattern. A good thing to keep handy when doing a pattern is a key/index of all the common stitches, because even if you learn all the stitches knowing which abbreviation goes with which stitch can be hard sometimes.
When using the single crochet to make something you will usually get a thicker and stiffer piece of fabric. It is a really good stitch for making a washcloth or table-runner out of, but it isn't usually so great for making a scarf or blanket, since you would usually want something softer for those projects. It is also the stitch you would use for if you wanted to crochet a basket or stiff bag.
The things you will need to do this stitch are one crochet hook, yarn, time, and a pair of hands.

• To start the single crochet you are going to need a base of either chains or a row of some other crochet stitch. If you don't have any of that yet go a head and try chaining ten chains to get us started.
• Now that you have ten chains chain one more time. So now you have eleven chains.
• Poke your hook through the second chain from the hook and grab the yarn.
• Pull the yarn through the chain. Now you should have two loops on your chain. One of them coming from the chain, and the other from being pulled through the chain.
• Now that your hook has these two loops on it grab the yarn one more time with the hook, and pull it through both loops on the hook leaving only the new loop that you just grabbed on the hook.
• Congratulations you just did a single crochet stitch. Repeat what you did all the way down the chain and you will have finished your first single crochet row. To do the next row chain 1, turn the work and start doing the same thing all over again, only this time on the top of the single crochet not the chains.

As a small pointer for your future adventures in crocheting when doing crochet you can sometimes start to get confused about how many times you should be chaining when you reach the end of a row. This holds especially true for when you are working without a pattern. When using a pattern you are usually told how many chains to chain at each end of a row unless the pattern is faulty.
To say it very simply slip stitches you don't chain any from row to row. For single crochet you chain one, half double crochet chain 2, double crochet chain 3, triple crochet chain 4, double triple crochet chain 5 and so on.
Another way for you to think of it is that you chain one chain for every-time that you pull yarn through two other loops, and then add one more. This pointer may not always prove right but then again there is no real rule of thumb when doing crochet.

If you would like to see my article about this on examiner.com click here. Sometimes I put a video on examiner.com that helps with my instructions so if this doesn't make sense jump over to examiner to see the video and hopefully that will help you.