I’ve been officially designing and selling crochet patterns for 5 years now (wow!). I’ve learned so much about the designing and pattern making process in general, but also about my preferred crochet tools and processes. I thought it would be fun to share the items that have become my 10 favorite tools and notions over the past few years for crocheting, embroidering, and designing.

My 10 Favorite Notions and Tools For Crocheting and Design

1.) Boye Yarn Crafts Metal Crochet Hooks

My mother, who originally taught me to crochet when I was a young girl, had a lot of Boye crochet hooks in her collection so I grew up mostly using them. Out of all the metal and plastic hooks I’ve tried, Boye are by far my favorite. I prefer the point shape on them, and to me they’ve never felt super uncomfortable to use. I also know some people prefer wooden hooks over metal, but I’ve never found them hard to work with.

2.) Square Gauge Ruler

One of the basics of designing a crochet or knitting pattern – especially clothing – is taking the time to make a swatch. A swatch is a square of crocheted or knitted fabric that is a small sample of a prominent stitch or repeating stitch pattern in a design. Swatches can be bigger than 4 by 4 inches (10 by 10 centimeters), but the typical surface area used to measure and calculate stitches and rows or stitch pattern repeats per inch is 4 by 4 inches. A square gauge ruler makes this really easy! Mine is from Twig & Horn (not affiliated), but you can find them from many yarn and craft stores.

3.) Embroidery Scissors

I have a pair of larger craft scissors, but since working mainly with fingering weight yarn and adding embroidered details, I prefer using these smaller embroidery scissors when weaving in and trimming yarn ends and finishing off embroidery. These embroidery scissors have a very sharp, fine point, which makes trimming close to details much easier.

4.) Darning Needles

Darning needles are commonly available in metal or plastic, but I prefer metal. These darning needles are dual purpose for me – I use them for weaving in yarn ends and seaming crocheted garments together and for embroidering on crocheted garments. I use a bigger darning needle for sport and worsted weight yarns and a smaller darning needle for lace and fingering weight yarns, crochet thread, and embroidery thread.

5 & 6.) Yarn Ball Winder & Yarn Swift

I’m putting these together because, well, they work together. I’m so glad I purchased this yarn ball winder and yarn swift (from knitpicks, not affiliated) years ago, because being able to efficiently cake yarn hanks I’ve purchase with these tools allows me to start my swatching and designing process faster, and it saves my hands and arms from repetitive strain pain from hand winding yarn.

7.) Beeswax

Coating embroidery thread with beeswax helps it move through fabric more smoothly and with less tangling. I will also use beeswax with cotton crochet thread when using it to embroider. I know there are other thread “glosses” and waxes out there, but I haven’t tried any yet. Plain old beeswax works really well so far for me, so I haven’t felt the need to try anything else.

8.) Pom Pom Makers

There are several methods for pom pom making using forks, cardboard, your fingers, but a pom pom maker set is especially nice if you design and make a lot of hats. I love this Clover set – larger two here, smaller two here – because they are easy to use with lots of different yarn types and sizes, even novelty yarns.

9.) Tassel Maker

Similar to the pom pom makers above, there are several methods for diy-ing tassels using cardboard or your hands, but if you’re making a significant amount getting a tassel maker is worth it. It’s a simple object but having something that’s not going to wear out as fast as cardboard and that also has built in increments for different tassel lengths makes the tassel making process smoother. Note: this is a mini tassel maker, and there’s a larger one here.

10.) Finishing Needles

Finishing needles are weird looking little needles that are open all the way through the center instead of just at one end and are specifically designed for weaving in short or finicky yarn ends on crochet and knit makes. I don’t use these all the time but they are worth mentioning, because when you’re in need they are super helpful. Be gentle with them, though, since they are made of plastic and are very thin, especially the smallest one.

Do you have any favorite, go-to crochet or knitting tools for making and designing?

PS. Check out this older post for some more basic crochet design supplies and resources.

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