Crochet Break: Size Matters

 Taking a break from the info seshes on women’s health to talk a little bit about crochet. Which, other than sleep and research, is how I spend most of my days until my surgery on Friday.

Lately, I started reflecting on the finer points of crochet like gauge, hook and yarn size. When you’re just starting out, these are things that tend to get jumped over and it’s true enough that they actually don’t matter for a great deal of projects… but are pretty integral on many others. I wouldn’t say that gauge is always important for fashion unless fit is a strict requirement. You typically don’t have to obsess about tension once experienced because it doesn’t matter as much as trusting the hook and the combination of hook size and yarn thickness or type.

Yarn type is a subject I could fill several posts with alone so I’m not covering it here; instead, I wanted to cover what I have really enjoyed doing as of lately; doing the same pattern with different hook and yarn sizes. Done correctly and with some knowledge of how and where to adjust the pattern (this is mostly in the number of rows, generally where there is a static repeat), you can really enjoy the results.

In this case, since I have most sizes of hook, it comes down to selecting different yarns. I used a thin bamboo silk thread (several ply like a yarn), ombré roving yarn (like Red Heart Unforgettable) with a milk cotton solid, and a chenille/velvet yarn I snagged on AliExpress (which is tough to work with for a beginner because plush yarn is deceptive in strength and thickness). These became my small, medium and large dragons. 

Picking the hook is actually fairly simple in this case; most yarns are best done with about 5 hook sizes. If the label itself has a recommendation, it’s that plus the two sizes above and below. So if the label says F hook, then D-H will likely be the optimal range. If it doesn’t say, sometimes you know by experience. Generally, you don’t want a hook that doesn’t fit the entire width of the yarn nor leave huge gaps in the work (unless that’s desired, but even then, a too-large hook will snag and work clumsily so you’re often better off making taller stitches or longer chains with a smaller hook). In this case, I used my smallest Clover Amour hook for the smallest yarn (B), an F for the medium range one, and a J for the largest, using the actual smallest, medium, and largest hook in the set. I did start with an L hook for the largest  but I could tell right away it was way too happy for this yarn and just one size down wouldn’t be quite enough.

So, if you’ve gotten through the lingo and I haven’t lost you, enjoy the results of this little experiment. And hop over to Etsy and snag the dragon crochet pattern if you have to try it yourself.