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Now, this post may seem like I’m going backwards in my crochet journey, but in fact having ‘got going’ with crochet, I can now reflect on how easy and inexpensive it was to begin, and by writing this post perhaps inspire someone out there to take up this wonderful hobby.

Ready to commence? Then here’s what you’ll need:

A wide size range of crochet hooks.
Buy purchasing a set you’re ensuring that you’ll have the right sized hook for most projects. Whilst you could probably purchase some from your local wool shop, I would recommend taking a look at Amazon or eBay. I suggest this because from my own experience, my local wool shop (sadly) only stocked individual hooks and limited sizes, whereas on the internet I found all sorts of hooks made from materials such as wood, bamboo, plastic and of course the traditional aluminium with varied anatomies; available as sets or singletons.

I myself went cheap, cheerful and colourful, going for this set of 14 (up to 10mm) for under a fiver. Bargain! 😀

If you’re feeling geeky and want to learn a little more about different hooks, take a look at the review at ThingsCrafty.
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Wool/Yarn Needles
Wide eyed needles to help you weave in those troublesome loose ends. I picked up a set of 4 from eBay for £1.50.
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Stitch markers
Useful little things which can help with keeping count of stitches/rows or mark the beginning of a row when working in the round. Once again, mine were from eBay for 99p.
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Wool or Cotton (‘to taste’)
The material your end-product will be made of. I suppose wool and cotton thread are the 2 commonest materials used but with crochet, the possibilities are numerous. Depending on what you wish to make you might consider T Shirt yarn, rope, wire; I’ve even seen items made out of paper raffia and felt!
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Often patterns will recommend wool to be used. You don’t have to stick with the recommended brand, but you may want to pick something similar in weight, in order to achieve the same effect.

Visit Craft Yarn Council to learn a little more about wool weights. The cost of wool varies depending on the type and quality. My local wool shop has a great range of Yorkshire wools, and the obvious advantage of buying from a shop is that it’s easier to gauge the quality and colour of the wool you’re buying, but also in my opinion it’s quite lovely to be in a shop surrounded by rainbows rainbows of wool.

Pattern Instructions.
You can peruse the web to find patterns for anything and everything. Some are free and some you have to pay for, but you’re are sure to find tons of lovely things to make. Patterns are tried and tested and generally categorised according skill level. Once you’re up and away you may even fancy free styling sans pattern. My own personal goal is to design and produce my own patterns one day 🙂

I myself have been compiling a list of web resources to find cool patterns on my ‘Library’ page, and also pinning them to my ‘Crochet Board’ on Pinterest which you are very welcome to look through. Many of the ones I found were free 🙂

UK Vs US
It’s important to be clear in your mind from the outset if you’re following UK or US abbreviations to ensure that you’ll get the right result using the correct stitches and hooks.

Common Stitches:

UK Name UK Abbreviation US Name US Abbreviation
Chain Ch Chain Ch
Slip Stitch Sl St Slip Stitch Slip st
Double Crochet dc Single Crochet sc
Half Treble Crochet htr Half Double Crochet hdc
Treble Crochet tr Double Crochet dc
Double Treble dtr Treble or Triple Crochet tr or trc
Triple Treble triptr Double Treble or Double Triple Crochet dtr or dtrc
Quadruple Treble quadtr Triple Treble or Triple Triple Crochet trip tr or tr trc
Yarn over Hook yoh or yrh Yarn over yo


Crochet Hook Conversions

Metric UK & Canada USA
2.0 mm – –
2.25 mm 14 –
2.5 mm 13 1 / B
2.75 mm 12 –
3.00 mm 11 2 / C
3.25 mm 11 3 / D
3.5 mm 10 4 / E
3.75 mm 9 5 / F
4.00 mm – –
4.25 mm 8 6 / G
4.5 mm – –
4.75 mm 7 7
5.00 mm 6 8 / H
5.5 mm 5 8 / I
6.0 mm 4 10 / J
6.5 mm 3 10 1/2 / K
7.0 mm 2
8.0 mm 0 11 / L
9.0 mm 0 13 / M
10.0 mm 0 15 / N
11.5 mm – P
12 mm – 17
15.75 mm – Q


You are now ready to begin. Should you get stuck, there are lots of resources on the net which can help you out. On YouTube you’ll find many tutorials such as Meladora’s Creations, BobWilson123 and CrochetHooksYou.

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Lastly, I would recommend joining the online crochet and crafter’s communities where you can share tips, patterns and projects and mingle with fellow crocheters. The largest and well known is Ravelry.

On Twitter also there is a fantastic community spirit. I’m a member of #creativesunite – a Thursday night gig between 8-10pm; a time when all crafters use the this time to craft together from the comfort of their homes (plenty of tweet action inetween too!) And most recently I discovered #handmademonday where every Monday people show off their makes.

And so, If you’re are thinking about taking up crochet, I hope I’ve have given you a little inspiration and a little guidance on how to get hooked 😀