Crochet hacks- tips and tricks to help make crocheting easy

/ Crochet / By natashaj

Introduction

Crochet hacks are techniques, tips or tricks that will help you make your crocheting journey easier, fun and more enjoyable. These are useful for all levels of crocheters. Beginners to advance level crocheters and use these easy tips and tricks to save time, money and efforts.

Crochet is a time consuming craft. It requires a lot of patience and effort. So if you have any kind of helpful trick to make it easier it will be really helpful. Like a simple tip of using a stitch marker when working in rounds can reduce your chances to making a mistake by a massive percentage.

In addition to making crocheting easier crochet hacks can also help improve the quality of the finished project. Like using proper finishing techniques like blocking will give your finished product a professional crisp look if done in the right way.

Crochet hacks can be applied to different aspects of crocheting like the hooks, yarns, helping tools, techniques and projects. For example using a simple tool like a yarn bowl can make a remarkable difference in your crocheting process.

Crochet hook hacks

Crochet hook is the most essential part of your crocheting journey. So choosing it wisely would be the best hack of all. A few things that can make your hook more productive are:

1. Use a pen grip of a knife grip on the hook handle, which ever makes you feel more comfortable.
2. Use led light hooks when working with dark color yarn to increase visibility and reduce chances of making a mistake.
3. Use ergonomic hooks which are soft and comfortable to hold to crochet comfortably for long hours.

Yarn crochet hacks

Yarn is the key component in crocheting after the crochet hooks. So here are a few hacks on maintaining and storing the crochet yarns.

1. Use a yarn bowl to keep the yarn ball when crocheting to help keep it in place and prevent rolling away and getting dirty.
2. When washing crochet pieces made with expensive natural fibers use a mesh laundry bag to keep it safe from the wear and tear.
3. Hold the end tails of the yarn balls with a tic-tac clip to prevent it from unwinding and tangling when stored.
4. Use center pull balls that are easier to use as they stay in place you crochet with it.
5. Wear a knitters finger ring when working with rough yarn to prevent injuring your fingers and maintaining an even tension.

Crochet hacks for other helping tools

There a lot of helping tools that you can use while crocheting that will help you in number of ways. So in the third crochet hack I will talk about a few of these helping tools.

1. The first crochet hack for helping tools is to use stitch markers. Stitch markers have a number of different purposes other than keeping track of rounds. I have written a post on it previously that mentions 10 benefits of using a stitch marker. You can read it here.
2. The next one in the crochet hacks is to use yarn bowls. That I have already mentioned before. Yarns bowls again have more than one use. They are pretty and are fun to own. They can hold the yarn ball while you work with it and also they can be used to display yarn when you are not crocheting.
3. The third tool in crochet hacks is the row counter. These are useful when you are working on big projects with row repeats. Keeping track of the rows is critical when you are following a pattern to avoid mistake. The row counters will take off that pressure form your mind. You don’t need any special type of counter as simple click counter will also do the job.
4. Knitters rings would be the next in list. these help maintain even tension in the yarn as well protect your skin form any rough yarns like hemp or jute.
5. Yarn ball winders and yarns swifts are another set of time saving tools. They can make yarn balls 5 times faster than you can do by hand. So use these to save time.
6. Use blocking boards and pins to block your finished project conviniently.

Crochet project hacks

Let us now see some project crochet hacks to make crocheting fun and easy.

When doing a project a a lot of things determine the outcome like what you are crocheting, the yarn and hook used, the pattern and so on. To ensure that you do everything correctly choose everything with caution.

1. Choose the proper hook for the project preferably an ergonomic hook of suitable size.
2. Select the yarn size and materials as per the project and the use.
3. Wind yarn into balls if you have a skein or hank you yarn.
4. Use a yarn bowl to hold the yarn ball while you are working with it.
5. If you choose to take a break from your project in between for a few days, use a project bag or basket to store the unfinished project with the hook and the pattern.
6. When finishing the project weave in the ends securely using a tapestry needle to give it a nice neat look.
7. Block your finished piece in most cases to give it a professional crisp look. I have a post on the blockng techniques too. If you are not familier with blocking do read it here.
8. Make a gauge swatch to select the correct size hook and yarn for your project.
9. Read the entire pattern once before you start crocheting to ensure that you understand everything.

Time saving hacks

All the above mentioned hacks are actually time saving hacks directly or indirectly. Like choosing the correct and yarn will save time by getting the project right the first time and not having to rip it and crochet it again, thus saving a lot of time. Similarly the helping tools are also there to save frustration and avoid mishaps to save time and energy both.

Other then hose mentioned above here are a few more points to consider:

1. Make a gauge swatch before starting with the actual project the select the correct hook and yarn and familiarize yourself with the stitch. This is prevent the need of ripping off the project if the size is not correct and thus save time.

1. Use yarn ball winders to make yarn ball to prevent wasting time and energy in winding the yarn by hand.
2. Keep all you crochet supplies organized so that you can quickly find anything that you need.
3. Use LED light hooks to work with dark color yarn to see the stitches better and crochet faster and efficiently.
4. Learn to do the foundation rows for starting the projects like the foundation single crochet or foundation double crochet stitch rows. These work up faster than working in chain.

Happy crocheting!!