5 Essential Crochet Supplies & Skills

As a beginner or experienced crocheter, there is no doubt that how enjoyable you find crochet depends on how easily you can pick up your project and crochet. That not only depends on how knowledgeable you are regarding the many stitches and techniques used in the pattern and the supplies and skills you already have, but also on a very overlooked aspect of the craft: ergonomics and the importance of tools you enjoy using to master your craft.

Since this post is going to be dedicated to speaking about the essential supplies and skills you need to begin your crochet journey, I will leave the discussion about tool ergonomics to another blog post  that I plan on writing (maybe), which will speak about the importance of having wrist friendly tools to prevent or ease pain caused RSI (repetitive strain injury), arthritic hands, or carpal tunnel syndrome. I believe dedicating a whole post to ergonomic tools in crochet is important because excessive typing on computers can also cause wrist strain.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. The information I hope to provide in the post I have mentioned above which I plan to write about ergonomic crochet tools is based on personal experience and research. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to your health and/or crochet routine and tools when in doubt or if you have concerns about repetitive strain injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritic pain, or wrist strain. 

Crochet is a hobby for many of us, and that means we want to reduce the friction (or activation energy for chemists) that prevents us from picking up our hobby. This leads me to the discussion of how not only what type of tools you use, but also the mindset you have, can be essential in your crochet journey. Here are the five most important supplies and skills you need to get started when crocheting.

Yarn

Yarn is one of the most fundamental tools that is used in the world of crochet. There are numerous types of yarn that you can find all over the internet and in almost every craft store that you visit. There’s merino wool, polyester, bamboo, regular wool, cotton, acrylic, chenille and so many others, but I really recommend you spend time reading about them here. I spent time researching what the difference is between each fiber and how that can help or hinder what you’re making in that blog post. For this blog post though, I want to focus on discussing the different yarn thicknesses or weights as they are called more typically, in dictating which hook you buy to crochet with. The weight of yarn is usually written on the side of a yarn ball label, and can give you information about how easy it is to see your stitches to the size of crochet or knitting needle you can use when crocheting or knitting so that you can make an item that is more uniform looking. I would recommend you only buy yarn that has information about it’s weight on the label when you are a beginner crocheter, but you can try to estimate what hook size you want to use with a yarn that has an unknown weight if you were to buy a crochet hook set. 

When you don’t want to invest too much and just want to test the crochet waters, I recommend sticking to the hook size mentioned on the side of a yarn ball’s label if you only buy one ball of yarn and one hook before jumping into the world of crochet.  

The yarn weights that are from 0 – 4 are typically thinner and better to use when you’re more experienced with crocheting. If I were to learn crochet again, I would recommend using a yarn weight that is 5 and above to begin, with the corresponding hook size on the side of the label. But, a 4 weight yarn will work in a pinch too. 

Crochet Hooks

One of the most important tools you need in your crochet journey is… drumroll… crochet hooks! I know, who would have thought, right? But in all seriousness, you can’t really start this hobby without crochet hooks to crochet. Crochet hooks can be a hard resource for some people to afford, so I have heard that people have success buying them at thrift stores or yard sales. For another option, you can find several types of crochet hooks at your local craft store. There are some decorative ones you can find on Etsy that are handmade as well. If you want to test the waters and only get one crochet hook, make it from this brand if you can: Clover Japan. I purchased the Clover 6.0mm Crochet Hook for one of my projects because of several people on the internet who were raving about how it glides through yarn like butter. And it lives up to the hype! Before you buy any crochet hook though, I recommend you buy a thick yarn that allows you to see your stitches first, which is why I wrote about the yarn in the previous section. 

Stitch Markers

Stitch markers are another useful tool that can help prevent you from frogging your work. What is frogging? Frogging is when you rip out your stitches from previous rows. In crochet, it is easy to frog, you just tug at the end of the yarn after removing your hook from the loop on your hook, and you will see that you can remove stitches from your row easily. 

When you are a beginner crocheter who may struggle to keep track of where their rows end when you are crocheting your work flat and not in the round, stitch markers can help mark where the last stitch of the row is. This is also quite useful even for intermediate crocheters who work on large projects such as blankets, since it would be inconvenient to forget where the last stitch of the row is. Stitch markers come in handy when you want to count the number of stitches in a row. This is because if you have a project of 150 stitches, and you need to crochet 150 stitches in the next row, you can add 15 stitch markers across the row you are currently working on, each on every tenth stitch. This would allow you to check that you have exactly eight or nine stitches between each stitch marker, which would be on (maybe) the first and tenth stitch. 

Or you could add stitch markers before you start working on the next row, in the case that you are counting up how many stitches you have in total. In this case, you would be able to add a stitch marker every 25 stitches, so that if you mess up your counts, you just count how many stitch markers you have from the beginning so far, multiply it by 25, and then continue counting from the last stitch marker before you messed up counting your stitches. Then you just multiply the number of stitch markers by 25 (or however many stitches apart you placed your stitch markers and the number of stitch markers you used), and you have the number of stitches you crocheted in total. If you use this trick, just make sure you divide the number of total stitches in your row evenly, so that you have an even division of stitches between each stitch marker.

Moreover, stitch markers can serve as a way to show where your stitch increases are when you work in the round.

Stitch markers are also useful when you want to prevent your yarn from being pulled when you set aside your project for another time. To use stitch markers in this way, you just add a stitch marker to the loop you have on your hook, and then you can remove the hook from the loop. This ensures that even if your yarn that’s attached to the yarn ball gets accidentally pulled, your project won’t come undone because your stitch marker will hold your place.

There are two types of stitch markers that I have used when crocheting. When I first learned to crochet, I had ring shaped stitch markers, that you just ‘twist’ onto the yarn. Although these worked for a while, I noticed that they would split the yarn. So, I decided to make the switch to plastic stitch markers that were shaped like safety pins. These worked so much better because you could prevent them from falling out from your stitches, unlike the rounded ones that you would have to twist into your yarn. That’s why I recommend using the plastic safety pin shaped stitch markers if you have them. If you don’t have access to them immediately, I’ve seen people use creative ways to mark their stitches as well, such as using hair pins.

Crochet Books, Websites, YouTube Tutorials or Kits

As a beginner crocheter, or even an intermediate one, you can find several amazing ways to learn how to crochet. Stitch and Tell Crochet is one of the many sites that teach you about the fundamentals of crochet, but you can also benefit from the many websites, crochet books, YouTube tutorials and kits that may also be instrumental in learning how to crochet. Each one of these resources have their own strengths. For instance, a book may teach you how to read patterns with stitch abbreviations, whereas a YouTube video will show you what a stitch would look like visually. A website like Stitch and Tell can not only give you an overview of what each stitch looks like, but may also go over different stitches and patterns that you can attempt to solidify your knowledge and skills in crochet. Kits are also invaluable in some ways, because they can be viewed as a way to test the waters when you want to gauge your interest in crochet while being given most of the resources (such as a hook, yarn, and pattern) to begin your crochet journey. 

These four resources I have mentioned are still valuable when looking for new patterns or learning new stitches as a more experienced crocheter, so it is a great idea to keep your avenues open when it comes to considering how to learn new techniques and concepts throughout the course of your crochet journey.

A Positive Mindset

Last but not least, crochet is one of those crafts where you learn to develop a positive and persistent mindset. When you first start learning to crochet, you have to realize that it is okay to go at your own pace. When you run into issues, and you have been trying to work at them for hours to no avail, take a break and come back to it. It’s okay to not know how to do something immediately, even if it can seem like second nature to other crocheters out there. When I was first learning to crochet, I didn’t know how to make a slipknot. I spent several hours attempting it but failing. When I was single crocheting, I learned that I was doing single crochet by yarning under, which creates a different stitch from the standard single crochet. That was when I learned to yarn over. It’s important to note that as with any skill, learning to crochet isn’t any different because it isn’t a linear process, so keep at it if you feel stuck and learn to pivot and look at various resources when you do something wrong.

Well, I hope this blog post helped to clear up some confusion or provided some insight into how you can learn to crochet. My goal was to make crochet seem as approachable as a hobby as possible for those of you who are reading this, so it would be great if I helped even one person feel like they have a better understanding about what crochet takes. Hopefully, this article also provided some new insights for expert crocheters. Thanks for reading, and happy crocheting!