A stitch a week 1: single crochet

Almost every piece of crochet starts with this: the single crochet. No need for a crochet needle either, you can do it with your fingers as well.
This is also the start of "A stitch a week"with a new crochet stitch every week (until I run out of possibilities, which with Pinterest nearby has become nearly impossible). The numeral is made in this stitch, I will try to keep that up, and otherwise indicate with these numbes which stitches are used in a particular piece of crochet.
But let's start. 

Using your fingers you start with a loop and pull a loop from the long end of your thread through. Pull it tight (not too tight) and keep the new loop open, now you continue with a new loop from the long end...
Using a crochet hook is even easier when to know how to do it (there are video's which show you how). You pull the loop with the little hook, and keep the loops tight by pulling the long end with your left hand (in righht-handed crochet) or right hand (with left-handed crochet). After a series of singele crochet you can either turn your work and start working from side to side (start at one of the stitches closest to the crochet hook) or work in rounds and start at the beginning of your series of single crochet.

Single crochet is the basis of almost every piece of crochet, just give it a try.

There are not many patterns using only this stitch, so please take a look at the other stitches as well. You might try to form numbers or the alphabet with single crochet, I started of with 1.