30 Years of Crocheting the Wrong Way

That's what I learned from teaching single crochet to the kids in my needlecraft class this week - I have been making yarn overs and therefore all the crochet stitches a slightly wrong way without even noticing it. For as long as I remember.

The funny thing is, I don't remember when and how I learned to crochet and knit or who taught me. I do remember my mother knitting in the 80s and my Russian grandmother crocheting elaborate doilies, craft books for children, different projects and half a year of needlecraft in 4th form at school (where I worked on a sweater with a lace pattern - no beginner anymore). My mother didn't teach me, she just told me recently. So as long I can remember, I can knit and crochet.

Or thought so.
 
OK. I can make chain stitches the right way.

While trying to demonstrate single crochet to the kids, I found it very strange that I pick the yarn with the hook on top of the yarn for the yarn overs...

... while for all the rest of the yarn overs (pullling the yarn through the loops on the hook) I have the hook under the yarn.

Back home I consulted some books and the Internet. The hook comes from under the yarn all the time (though I found one lady online doing it my way, too). Does it matter anyway?

It very slightly does. Hardly visible, but if you look at the last 4 half double crochet stitches (my way) and compare them to the 4 stitches before that (the correct way), you see that the bottom of my stitches is twisted and only one "leg" is visible while the other stitches stand on two "legs". The same applies to single crochet, half double crochet, triple crochet etc. stitches.

Nothing you would notice from the back of a galloping horse, though.