How to Hold Yarn in Crochet
By Rachel – 7 CommentsJust like there isn’t one way to hold a crochet hook, there sure isn’t one way you have to hold your yarn. It’s all about experimenting and finding what works for you! So here are some ideas for holding your yarn to get you started if you are a beginner. In all the pictures the thumb is normally down helping to hold the work, but for the sake of showing where the yarn is, the thumb is up.
For left handed pictures roll your mouse over the image and it will change for you!
I’ve seem many people hold their yarn like this, wrapping the yarn around the pinky finger and over the pointer finger.
Others like to do something similar, but weave the yarn between the ring and middle finger to give it more tension.
And then there’s the method to grip the yarn with 3 fingers and then over the pointer finger again.
I’m sure I missed some other methods, but for the life of me I can’t crochet using any of the above methods because I can’t keep my finger straight! So here is a picture of what I do. I weave the yarn between my ring and middle finger then make a hook with my pointer finger.
Feel free to try some methods out and if none work for you, there’s no shame in inventing your own method!
How do you hold your yarn?
I hold it wrapped around my pinky and then around my first finger, though I usually wrap it around my first finger 2 or 3 times.
Hi,
I wrap the yarn once around my pinky finger and then, rather than drape it over my index finger, I drape it over my middle finger while I hold the work with my index finger. I know, it’s a bit backwards. And I realize that when I crochet in public it may appear to people opposite from me that I am making an obscene gesture! I can’t help it, this is how I’ve always held my yarn. I really have tried changing…
Rebecca in Toronto
I never really thought about how I actually held my yarn until… right now! I actually had to break out a hook and a scrap peice and start doing a chain to see how I do it. I hold it sort of like the first picture except I dont wrap it around my pinky. It just kind of goes between my pinky and ring finger and then drapes over my index finger. I pull my index finger further away to control the tension of my stitches.
I have always wondered-do you wrap it around the hook clock wise or counter clock wise
[...] feels comfortable. As you crochet, you can experiment to find out which method is right for you. How to Hold Yarn in Crochet – Just like there are lots of ways to hold a crochet hook, there are lots of ways to hold [...]
As I said on the hook post, my mom taught me and my brother to crochet, and I taught my husband, so we all hold both the yarn and the hook the same way.
We hold the yarn like a cigarette, at the second joint between the index and middle fingers [I don't smoke, so I've always found this funny].
I’ve tried several different wrapping holds, and I can’t make them work for me — either there’s too much tension, or not enough.
Thank you. I looked this up because I have been using Method 3 and I find I’m bending my pinky finger to hard. If I don’t change, I’m going to have arthritis before I’m 40. Though it will be hard work to figure the other methods out, it will be worth it.