At a bare minimum to get yourself started on crochet you’ll need a crochet hook and some yarn. As you become a premier hooker you’ll build up an arsenal of hooks of all sizes, and you’ll also find it handy to have stitch markers and a yarn needle.
Different brands have slightly different benefits to their hooks. Bamboo hooks can be nice to work with but sometimes little splinters will grab your yarn. You can also get steel and plastic hooks, ultimately any cheap hooks can be a bit grabby and tough on your hands after hours of absent minded hooking. Soft rubber handle hooks are more gentle on your hands and they are a much better choice for people suffering from arthritis and finding it difficult to grasp a thin hook.
There are (unfortunately) three different ways to refer to the sizes of crochet hooks, these are outlined in the table below.
- The U.S. identify hooks by letters and numbers from B to S and 1 to 15.
- There are imperial measurements of the shank diameter (common in The U.K.).
- Australia commonly uses the metric measurement of the shank diameter.
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Steel crochet hooks are finer and generally used with lace weight yarns and crochet threads.
Crochet Hook International Size Conversion Chart