{Crochet Embroidery Hoop TUTORIAL}

Hi friends! We're kicking off a week full of crochet happiness with a fun tutorial!

I recently took place in an embroidery hoop exchange to help raise funds for my sweet friend Emmy's adoption. I had so much fun making my hoop! I'll show you the finished hoop (and another one I just finished) at the end of this post :)

In an effort to be creative and different, I decided I wanted to crochet around the rim of the hoop! Having no clue how to do this, off to the interwebs I went. I found nothing. Sad day. So I had to wing it...my specialty! I posted a sneak peek of what I was up to on Instagram and the people went nuts so I new a tutorial was soon to follow. Well folks...here it is!

 You'll need:

A hoop. Any size. This is a 5".

Cotton yarn. I used "I Love This Cotton" from Hobby Lobby. Best. Yarn. Ever.

A size H 5mm crochet hook

scrissors

yarn needle

 Start by separating your hoop. You are only crocheting around the outer hoop. I like to keep the screw in the hoop while I'm working. It just feels more stable to me that way. I don't want things flopping about. You will kind of have to shimmy your hook around the screw to start, but it's not that bad I promise. Now you will attach your yarn to your hook with a slip knot.

 Attach your yarn to your hoop with a slip stitch.

 Now comes the fun part! Row one is just single crochets all around the hoop. In a perfect world this would be a video tutorial, but I'm just not that techy yet. So here is the step by step...pretend you are working a magic circle, but instead of the circle being yarn, it's an embroidery hoop.

1. Instert the hook into the hoop.
2. Pull up a loop of yarn.
3. Yarn over.
4. Pull through loops on hook.

See? Single Crochet. Easy right? Keep doing that all the way around.

 Yay we're almost done with row one!

 ...annnnnnd done. I did take the screw out as I got closer just to make sure my stitches covered the hoop completely.

 Ok, row two! Chain one. Turn.

 Now you are going to be working a simple scallop all around the hoop. The pattern is as follows...*skip stitch, 5 double crochet in next stitch, skip stitch, single crochet in next stitch. Follow pattern from * all the way around. Now is a good time to reinsert the screw to stabilize the hoop.

 Lookin' good! Keep scalloping.

Great job! Now take the screw out again so you can finish your last scallop. I've gotten lucky every single time I've done this and had exactly enough single crochets in row one to finish out the scallops in row two perfectly, but if you're coming to the end and it's not working out, just skip and extra stitch or shimmy in an extra scallop and smooth it out on the hoop. No big deal.

Now just fasten off, weave in the ends and you are ready to fill your hoop! Here are the finished ones I've made!

Aren't they adorable?!? I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Go hoop it up my crafty friends!

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