Best Crochet Hooks For Beginners

When you are learning something new, you want to make sure you have the right tools and the right knowledge.

In crochet, you are lucky to be using only one tool, a crochet hook. If you look around though you will see a huge variety of hooks of different sizes, thicknesses, made from different materials and so on. It can be pretty overwhelming to choose the right crochet hook for you. In the post, we’ll go over some of the best crochet hooks for beginners.

Since crochet hook is your main tool, when choosing one, you can go one of two ways: getting a simple inexpensive hook to learn with and later upgrade to a better, more expensive hook, or you can invest in a better hook right away and know it will serve you for many years to come.

The great thing is that you can get a great crochet hook that will serve you well at a very affordable price. There are great beginner-friendly hooks that will not break the bank that are well known and well respected by crocheters. These hooks come from companies that have been around for a long time and can be relied on.

You can get great hooks that won’t just do a great job, but will have ergonomic handles that will make it easy on your wrists to crochet for a long time.

Be it inline hooks or a tapered hook (which refers to the shape of the head of the hook), you can find one that will be perfect for you. Often, you can get a hook that comes with few other accessories like stitch markers or a carrying case or pouch.

Different Types of Crochet Hooks

As you will see in the craft stores (or on Amazon), crochet hooks come in different styles, materials, and colors. From the beginning of times, crochet hooks been made from all kinds of materials: wood, ebony, ivory, steel, then aluminum, plastic.

There are different reasons why some hooks are made from certain materials. For example, the tiniest of hooks are usually made from steel since you can’t really make the size that small from wood (it would snap like a toothpick) or plastic (it would bend all the time).

Medium size hooks though are made from all types of materials like wood, plastic, aluminum since they are thick enough to stay straight and serve you well.

Larger hooks are often made out of wood or plastic as making them out of metal would make then really heavy and hard on the wrists.

Which one do you choose? Really, it’s up to you, but here are some things to keep in mind:

• The yarn sticks a bit more to a wooden hook, so if you find that yarn tends to run away from your metal hook, try a wooden one. Bamboo-based or other silky yarns are great with wooden hooks
• Plastic hooks are the least expensive ones and are kind of in the middle of the slipperiness factor (I know, I just made this up) and will work well for many types of yarns and yarn thicknesses. My personal preference is to use these hooks with a chunky yarn
• Metal (steel) crochet hooks are great for a very fine yarn that’s also sometimes called a thread
• Aluminum hooks are great for pretty much any type of yarn

Here are some of the best hooks for a beginner crocheter:

Aluminum Crochet Hooks

The hook size that I started with and that I recommend, is a 5.5mm hook. The first one that use was an aluminum hook by Boye. This brand is well known and makes a hook that is sturdy, inexpensive and smooth. You can get either a 5.5mm or a 6mm hook when you are just starting out, especially if you crochet with a medium or Worsted weight yarn (also known as size 4).

A 5.5mm or 6mm crochet hook size is a perfect size to start with when you are just starting out as you will find that most of the crochet books and patterns you find in stores use this hook size.

When you are in a craft store like Michaels or Jo-Ann, you will often see Red Heart Super Saver worsted weight yarn that comes in these huge skeins and very cost-friendly and this yarn uses this size of the hook.

It’s like a Goldilocks hook – not too big and not too small. When I started crocheting, I used that hook size for a while before I moved over to anything else.

Of course, Boye aluminum hooks come in different sizes, but 5.5mm or 6mm hook is a great crochet hook size for beginners since most of the things you would try to make can be done with this size hook. Things like dishcloths, hats, scarves, baby booties, mittens, baby blankets, headbands, pouches, cup cozies, granny squares, all can be done with this size of hook using worsted weight yarn.

If you want a really comfortable ergonomic crochet hook, this Clover Soft Touch hook with a thumb rest is fantastic:

If you want to read up more on best ergonomic crochet hooks, see my post here.

Aluminum hooks come made completely out of aluminum or with a soft comfortable grip made out of soft rubber that goes over the handle of the hook. These hooks are great if you are worried about carpal tunnel syndrome. The rubber handle fits nicely in your palm and reduces hand fatigue. Another great thing about these types of crochet hooks is that they often come in sets of different sizes with stitch markers, darning needles, row counter, double-pointed yarn needles and other accessories included. Once you get such a crochet kit, you are pretty much set for a while.

Stainless Steel Hooks

Stainless steel crochet hooks are often used when working with thinner yarns. They are usually smaller hooks and are used when working on crochet projects like lacy dress collars, doilies, fine shawls, mini amigurumi and other crochet patterns that have a lace-type fabric or a very fine detail.

The beauty of metal hooks is that they are really sturdy and can be made in the smallest of the sizes. These hooks often used with beadwork, where the hook has to be small enough to pass through the hole in seed beads.

Due to their nature, these hooks don’t come in large sizes. If you are wondering how to make sure you have a right hook for the size of the yarn you are using, you can read this post.

Plastic Crochet Hooks

Plastic crochet hooks are a lot of fun. Because they are made out of plastic, they come in a variety of solid and clear colors, different types of plastic and are very affordable. They come is a variety of different sizes, but I usually get them in medium to larger sizes.

Many of my crochet blanket pattern use a bulky yarn and call for a 15mm (or size Q) hook. The best hook for these patterns and the one I use and recommend is the plastic hook like this one by Lion Brand.

This large hook has served me well for the past 3 years.

When working with less bulky yarns I use this fun set of plastic hooks in pretty colors from Susan Bates (like the one you see in the photo above.

Bamboo Crochet Hooks

Wooden crochet hooks are such a classic and have been around forever. Bamboo hooks are sturdy, beautiful and of course bamboo is a renewable resource because of how fast it grows. The amazing thing about bamboo hooks is that they come is such a wide variety of sizes. From the tiniest hooks that use bamboo for their handles (with steel heads) to huge hooks you can use to work with roving yarn.

Here is a great set of crochet hooks from smallest to large, with a case included for just over $10.00:

Tunisian Crochet Hooks

In the last few years, Tunisian crochet has been gaining more and more popularity. Tunisian crochet that marries knitting and crochet, uses special hooks that look like long knitting needles with a hook head at the end. To learn all things Tunisian crochet, head over to TLYarnCrafts blog.

Toni, who is an amazingly talented crocheter creates gorgeous pieces using this type of crochet and she recommends 5 great Tunisian crochet hooks sets in her blog here.

So, with all that said, I don’t want you to have an analysis paralysis while picking a type of hook and never buy one (and never start learning crochet), so if you need help choosing, you can just start with this great crochet hook here and see how it works out for you.

Once you have been crocheting for a while and begin to notice your habits and preferences, you will be better equipped to pick out a perfect crochet hook for you.

Where to buy crochet hooks for beginners

• Michaels
• Jo-Ann
• Walmart
• Target
• Amazon
• Hobby Lobby