You Will Want To Get The Right Crochet Hooks

Posted by admin on July 22nd, 2007 filed in Articles

No matter what common sense may tell you, crochet hooks have not been established as long as crochet itself has. Nobody in fact knows how long the simple art of crochet has surfaced for. While images may indicate that crochet stitches were used in ancient Egypt, the materials put to use in crochet generally don’t hold up as well as pyramids do.

As we know them, crochet hooks first came to light in history during sometime in the nineteenth century. The use of metal for hooks and the need to make some of the work more uniform probably led to tools made from tough material that could be identified as crochet hooks.

The Hooks That We Use Today In Crochet

Today’s crochet hooks are manufactured from modern elements of course and are made to standard sizes. As important as it is to find the hooks that work the best with your preferred materials, fit your hand comfortably and make the necessary stitches, it is far more essential to know how to determine which crochet hooks are right for you and your project. The ability to easily find free patterns on the Internet means having to know what materials is called for in each pattern.

The size of crochet hooks is not the same in the USA and England. USA hooks have a number and a letter to specify the size. The metric size is usually found on the package and on the hook as well. The English system uses a digit. If a USA crocheter found a pattern using English notations, the size of the hook given as 10 would translate to an American D/3 which in metric is 3.25 mm. Luckily, the ease in finding free patterns is matched by the ease in finding tables to translate from one type of system to the other. All systems use bigger numbers for bigger crochet hooks.
Finer yarn and crochet thread calls for more petite hooks. Using the same weight of yarn with different sized crochet hooks will result in tighter and looser results. The size of the hook also affects the gauge. Changing the actual size of the hook can be an easy method to change the size of the end product. Just be certain to play around with the gauge first.

When a pattern calls for a steel hook, it is not telling you to steer clear from the plastic ones. Steel hooks are the very tiny crochet hooks used with crochet thread to make lace. You can find graphics of the different hooks in pattern books and on the Internet to make certain. If a pattern calls for a hook that you are not used to, ask someone who is more experienced or source a book or make use of the Internet. Whatever the case, just be sure you use the correct crochet hooks for your projects.

Crochet is such an enjoyable art and by following the correct procedures and guidelines there is no reason why your projects cannot be both successful and rewarding.