Crochet hook
Encyclopedia
Crochet
Crochet is a process of creating fabric from yarn, thread, or other material strands using a crochet hook. The word is derived from the French word "crochet", meaning hook. Hooks can be made of materials such as metals, woods or plastic and are commercially manufactured as well as produced by...
stitches. The crochet hook's earliest use appears to have been in the late 18th century or early 19th century.
Typical materials for crochet hooks are wood, plastic, casein
Casein
Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoprotein proteins . These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk and between 60% and 65% of the proteins in human milk....
, or aluminum. Historical examples also include bone, steel, porcupine quill, celluloid, agate, ivory, and fossilized mammoth ivory. They can have decorative handles. The handle may be shaped to fit the hand for easier use. Some hooks are made with wooden or plastic handles with the hook made of metal and inserted into the handle.
An alternative form is the Tunisian crochet
Tunisian crochet
Tunisian crochet, also known as Afghan crochet, is a type of crochet that uses an elongated hook, often with a stopper on the handle end, called an Afghan hook. It is sometimes considered to be a mixture of crocheting and knitting. As such, some techniques used in knitting are also applicable in...
hook, which is much longer than a regular crochet hook, in order to accommodate the multiple loops used in Tunisian crochet. A type of crochet needle with a hook at each end, known as a cro-hook
Cro-hook
The cro-hook, is a special double-ended crochet hook used to make double-sided crochet, which is a variation of Tunisian crochet. Because the hook has two ends, two colors of thread can be used simultaneously and freely interchanged....
, is used to make double-sided crochet pieces.
Differing size systems
Hooks come in various sizes (measured in millimetres or fractions of an inch), according to the thickness of the needle. There are several systems of letters and/or numbers that describe the sizing of crochet hooks. The size of the hook is usually matched with an appropriate ply or thickness of thread.
Other uses
Crochet hooks can be used in many instances where it is necessary to pull a string through a hole. For example, many knitters use them to fix dropped knitting stitches, and tailors may use a crochet hook to thread a drawstringDrawstring
A drawstring is a string, cord, or rope used to "draw" or tie closed an opening in fabric or other material...
through its casing. Their use is not limited to fiber arts, either; crochet hooks can be used to maintain dreadlocks
Dreadlocks
Dreadlocks, also called locks, a ras, dreads, "rasta" or Jata , are matted coils of hair. Dreadlocks are usually intentionally formed; because of the variety of different hair textures, various methods are used to encourage the formation of locks such as backcombing...
by pulling stray hairs back into the main dread.