My grandmother taught me to crochet, but we never followed a written pattern (it was ALL in Nagy Mama's head) and, although I know the difference between a single crochet and a double crochet, I am a very visual thinker: my brain is like Google images and Pinterest speaks to me.
Crochet patterns, not so much.
Long story, short (you're welcome!): yesterday my borked-up back decided to remind me just how borked-up it could get, but being laid up with a borked-up back frustrates me more than not being able to read a crocheting pattern.
I tried to follow the instructions outlined in a pattern Tara emailed me…twice…and came up with something that did NOT look like a hat…twice…but would make a wonderful corkscrew cozy…both times.
"Why don't you just Google a tutorial?"
My husband, Garth (not his real name) is a critical thinker and critical thinkers can be annoyingly rational, sometimes. Anyhow, I'm speaking to all my fellow visual thinkers out there: I found perhaps the easiest and fastest crochet tutorial for slouchy beanies from Simply Hooked Crochet.