Ready to keep learning how to crochet? Let’s talk about how to hold your yarn when you crochet. This post is all about yarn and how to hold it to achieve that perfect tension when you crochet.
After holding a hook, learning how to hold your yarn is your next big step in learning how to crochet and learning to be consistent.
Just like with holding your hook, there are a million and one ways to hold your yarn. But, the good news is that you don’t have to learn them all!
Yarn Tension
As you will see in the video and links below, the key is finding the hold that works best to help you keep a consistent tension on the yarn.
The tension is what helps to size your stitches and keep your work looking consistent throughout. You will hear people describe different tensions like tight and loose.
A tight tension will make your stitches tighter and smaller. A loose tension will make your stitches larger and looser. You will find that over time, you will develop your own tension and you will learn to adjust patterns to fit your tension.
Tension really comes into play in patterns where sizing is important, like a hat or a sweater.
For now, as a beginner, you really just want to worry about consistency and trying to keep your tension steady so that your stitches are all the same size.
How to Hold Your Yarn
Holding Your Yarn Comfortably
The other key point that I want to make about holding your yarn is to focus on comfort as well as tension. Crocheting shouldn’t hurt!
So, focus on your hand health and if a hold feels uncomfortable or makes your fingers or wrists ache, change it!
It is also good to have a few holds that you might switch out if your hands start to get a little stiff if you are doing a marathon session!
You can also set a timer and stop to stretch out your hands and take a little break.
Keep those hands and wrists healthy so you can crochet for years and years!
Yarn Tips
- Practice….seriously! Practice, practice, practice. This is the only way to learn tension and how best to hold your yarn.
- Try different ways and see what works best as you begin to work stitches. Feel free to adapt or adjust to your hands and how you work with the hook.
- Remember to use a light colored yarn to start and you might want to go to a bulky yarn to get a better feel for the movements.
How to Hold Your Yarn to Crochet
Check out these other options for how to hold your yarn when you are crocheting.
How to Hold the Yarn When Crocheting
I like this tutorial because she shows photos of some different options for holding your yarn while crocheting.
Beginner's Guide - How to hold your yarn while crocheting
Here is a video that shows a few other options for holding your yarn.
Yarn Holds in Crochet: 3 People Holding Yarn Tension 3 Ways
This is a video that shows 3 different ways to hold your yarn just to give you a few examples.
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