I'm used to crocheting with worsted weight yarn, mostly making amigurumi and stuffed animals. So, when I picked up a ball of fuzzy yarn to make a zebra mane a while ago, I really struggled to find my stitches in the mess of threads. I couldn't see them and I while I could feel them, I had a hard time getting the right loops to use.
Is there a way to better see what I'm doing, instead of crocheting half-blindly and taking forever to follow a simple pattern?
An easy solution is to use stitch markers. There are several commercial options available and DIY ones are conceptually easy as well. Most that you see though won't be particularity useful for amigurumi. In that case I would suggest small safety pins, rings or feed in some floss as you move your rows. Anything you can do to mark where a particular stitch is so that you don't have to remember its location relative to where you are working. I would post a picture but there are too many styles.
You obviously need to be keeping count of what you are doing so it might be a good idea to at least mark the end of the row with stitch counters or something similar. Your other projects sound small so this might be good enough as long as you don't take breaks in between rows (Every time I do it i forget my numbers and have to pull back and start over).
If the rows are longer then you could use a stitch counter every 10 stitches for example.
Some people are really adverse to using markers and think they are more of a hassle so your mileage may vary.
If you can't tell if you're using the correct loops then nobody else will be able to tell if you did it correctly, or not, either.
For projects like this it's often completely okay to work along as you can, perhaps counting the stitches so you get the right amount per row, and not worrying about where exactly they're going.
I'd say that a stitch marker would be useful, but a custom-made one from scrap yarn. What I'd do is take a strand and make a loop in it and before you start your next stitch, slide it between the work and hook, with the loop facing away from you, this way you can use the other side of the marker (that being the side without the loop because you turn the work) and you pull that side and guide the hook through. To help with the chain row, I'd pull the marker through the loop with the hook in it.
