The late Elizabeth Zimmermann wrote marvelous books on how to knit, encouraging the reader to experiment, don't be afraid, there are no wrong stitches except, maybe, splitting the yarn, but that's the yarn's fault, isn't it? (Unfortunately, she was a knitter who didn't like crochet which may be her only fault, but it's a big one.) We need an EZ for crochet.

Meanwhile, there are a number of how-to books. "The Happy Hooker" devotes its first third to teaching all about crochet, including increases, decreases, and how to read patterns. The second 2/3's is all projects, mostly easy. Your library should have/should be able to order a copy for you so you can see if you like it before buying.

Better, maybe there are classes near you.

Is that your chihuahua in your avatar? They are such wonderful dogs.

I'll confess that I'm not the biggest fan of patterns, and that has largely to do with not being raised with them. For years, the only pattern I had ever read for a completed item was for a ski hat (which I followed twice, and then disagreed with it completely and started doing my own thing).

Now, for pattern reading, I only survive it by sketching, if a stitch diagram isn't available. If you aren't comfortable with that, the best thing to do is dive into a simple pattern to learn the ropes. They are things you just have to learn to be comfortable with. And always bookmark the part of the pattern, magazine, or book with the translation of the abbreviations. When I first saw "dc5tog" I thought someone was being cruel.

And here's the thing about increasing, it isn't scary and shouldn't be intimidating. You are just doing more than one stitch in the same chain/stitch. Decreasing is a tad more intimidating, but not so much. There are videos all over the internet to help, and I include the link to Nexstitch only because it's the only one that comes to mind when my mind is thinking about work.

http://www.nexstitch.com/v_crochet_videos.html

Trust me, once you learn how to decrease with confidence, you feel liberated. You'll scoff at people who buy crocheted hats from a department store. And one day, you will belong to the club of people who look at things in a store and say with pride, and some mild contempt, "I could make that."

Many years ago my husband had an auto accident in Yugoslavia and I had to fly out to the hospital to arrange his return to England.The waiting rooms and public offices at the hospital had beautiful crochet work cloths and mats and groups of patients' wives were sitting crocheting [in Yugoslavia at that time the wives did most of the 'nursing' i.e. feeding, washing etc., ]I always have a crochet hook and cotton in my bag [I also take knitting and spinning with me on every away trip!]so as language was a barrier I joined the group and started to crochet. Pretty soon with smiles and nods we were communicating and I learned that not one of them read a pattern. 'Patterns' were just one repeat of whatever anyone was doing, tied off and handed around and exchanged for another 'pattern'and they figured it out from looking.This is the way I learned and learned to read a pattern much much later.There is only one stitch in crochet really - i.e. pulling thread through a loop. It varies by wrapping the thread round the hook x amount of times and pulling through successive loops. The only other dimension is where you put your hook to pull the thread through. Remembering this should take the fear out of crochet and patterns. It is a beautiful craft, but not a difficult one REALLY. Hope you go on to create beautiful things.

Moseley, that is a wonderful story. Thanks.
I hope things worked out as well for your husband.
Pauline