Where to Start with Sarah-Jayne Fragola
Sarah-Jayne Fragola is the creator of Bella Coco Crochet, one of the most popular crochet channels on YouTube with over a million subscribers. She started the channel in 2011 after teaching herself to crochet and discovering a talent for explaining techniques in a calm, clear way that puts beginners at ease. Her teaching style emphasizes patience and repetition, showing each step from multiple angles until it clicks. She has collaborated with major yarn brands and her influence has been credited with helping drive the recent crochet revival, particularly among younger crafters who discovered the hobby through her videos.
Start here
You Can Crochet with Bella Coco
Sarah-Jayne Fragola · 144 pages · 2022 · Easy
Themes: crochet basics, beginner projects, stitch techniques, hook selection, yarn types
The best crochet book for someone who has never picked up a hook. Sarah-Jayne Fragola, known online as Bella Coco, built a YouTube channel with over a million subscribers by teaching crochet with extraordinary patience and clarity. This book captures that same energy in print.
Why Start Here
Most crochet books assume you already know what a slip knot is. Bella Coco assumes nothing. The book opens with choosing your first hook and yarn, then walks you through every foundational stitch with large, clear photographs that show exactly what your hands should be doing at each step. Each technique uses UK crochet terms with US equivalents clearly noted, so you will never get lost regardless of which system the patterns you find online use.
What makes this book stand out from other beginner guides is the pacing. Fragola structures the book as a course rather than a reference, with each chapter building on the previous one. By the time you reach the 12 included projects, from coasters and scarves to a hexagonal pillow and a hat-and-mitten set, you have genuinely learned the skills needed to complete them.
What to Expect
At 144 pages, this is a compact book that respects your time. You could work through the technique sections in a long weekend and have your first finished project within a week. The book pairs naturally with Bella Coco’s YouTube tutorials, so if a particular stitch gives you trouble in print, you can find a video walkthrough from the same instructor.