How to Crochet a Bowl (The Wrong Way)

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I’m making a little joke at my own expense in the title of this blog post because everyone says I crochet wrong…. and I do.  But first, here’s the thing: there is no wrong way to crochet (or knit!) as long as you enjoy the process and you enjoy the look of your finished piece.  I’ve been crocheting “wrong” for a decade and I’ve made some downright adorable things, but the problem with my method is that it is very slow and a little harder on my wrist than it could be, so I’ve decided to try to change my ways.

Before I get too far into describing that journey, may I present my awesome crocheted bowl, which is (probably?) the last thing I will ever crochet the wrong way!

I’m in Darn Good Yarn’s Yarn of the Month Club and this gorgeous silk roving yarn was in my first box.  It’s made from recycled silk and it feels really sturdy compared to other untwisted roving-style yarns I’ve encountered.  I fiddled around with it on my knitting needles to get a good feel for it and I was inspired to work it in a really tight gauge and make a bowl.  I decided to crochet instead of knit so I could get a really sturdy shape.  There are a zillion crocheted bowl patterns out there, but I just made this one up as I went along.

How to Crochet a Little Bowl

Using a G hook, I started with a magic ring and worked out in single crochet increasing in the standard pattern to make a 4” diameter circle (9 rounds for me) then I started working even (no increasing) for another 4” to make a tall cylinder.  I flipped it so the right side of the fabric was on the inside of the cylinder, then folded the edges down and tacked it around the base with a whip stitch.  I did it this way for two reasons (1) the folded sides gave more structure to the bowl, and (2) this way both the inside and outside of my bowl were revealing the right side of my crochet stitches.

I made the 4” bowl because I wanted a small vessel on my desk to hold my lipstick (to apply before zoom calls) and a few other random little items.  I used about 44 yards of the 75 yard skein, so there was definitely enough yarn to make a bigger bowl.

How to Crochet Wrong

In knitting, there are two popular methods called Continental or English, both are 100% correct ways to knit.  Continental knitters hold the yarn in their left hand and use the working needle in their right hand to “pick” at the yarn to form their stitches.  English knitters hold the yarn in the right hand and wrap it around the working needle (also in their right hand).  This is called throwing.  I’m an English-style knitter.

By contrast, the “correct” way to crochet is to hold the yarn in your left hand and the hook in your right.  Can you see where I’m going here?  I hold both the yarn and the hook in my right hand and “throw” as I crochet, just as I do when I knit.  As I said above, my final work looks exactly the same as anyone else’s, this method is just slower and involves a lot of unnecessary movement of the wrist, which is typically something you want to avoid.

How I Am Learning to Crochet Correctly

At this point, I have a lot of muscle memory in place urging me to keep crocheting the way I do, so I have to retrain my hands/brain to do it the other way.  I discovered a great crochet class on Creativebug in their Daily Practice class series and I’m hoping that by doing this every day for a month, I will be able to overwrite that muscle memory.  I’m on Day 6 and I’m already feeling much more comfortable holding the yarn in my left hand.  (Incidentally, Day 6 covers how to do the magic ring, crochet in the round, and it describes the “standard pattern” of circle increases that I vaguely referred to above.  So, if none of that made sense to you, this class will help).

p.s. If you happen to be reading this post around the time of publication, Creativebug is having a birthday sale where you can get a year’s subscription for $25.  I don’t know how long the sale lasts though? They don’t say when it will be over on the site, but I signed up for it in late-April and it’s mid-May now, so it might be wrapping up soon?