How To: Buy A Crochet Hook

Which crochet hook should you buy?

I have a personal rule on this blog that I only recommend things I’ve tried. I own 4 different brands of crochet hooks: Clover Amour, Susan Bates Soft Ergonomic, Loops & Threads, and the Woobles hook that comes in its kits. Being a beginner doesn’t make a crochet hook any better or worse for you — hooks are either easier or more difficult to use across all difficulty levels.

I decided to put these four hooks to the test, and you can read about that and further thoughts from my experience below. But here’s my summary:

The price does make a difference. You’ll see below that the quality does scale with price. The most expensive option (Clover Amour) did the best, and the cheapest option (Loops & Threads) did the worst.

If you’re thinking of grabbing the Woobles hook with your first Woobles kit, I’d say just go for it rather than buying another brand separately unless you want to spring for the Clover. I’d recommend starting there because the 4mm gets you through a lot of beginner patterns and worsted is a very beginner-friendly yarn weight. If you fall in love, save up for the Clover.

If you aren’t learning from the Woobles, and don’t want to commit to Clover or to the hobby of crochet yet, then go for Susan Bates as a good budget option.

Don’t bother with Loops & Threads unless you really can’t afford the Susan Bates hook. It’s so much worse.

And if you’re wondering, I hold my hook with more of a knife hold.

The Test

I tested all four out on the same pattern:

Row 1 Ch11, turn, and, starting with the second chain from hook, SC 10 [10]
Row 2 Ch 1, turn, HDC 10 [10]
Row 3 Ch 1, turn, DC 10 [10]
Row 4 Ch 1, turn, Sl st 10, fasten off [10]

The pattern isn’t meant to be pretty (there’s not enough height for the DC), but just to practice what it felt like to do 4 different types of stitches and the time it took me to do them.

I tested them out with the same type of yarn of Brava worsted weight yarn.
I went in this order, and did Clover both at the beginning and end to try to control for familiarity with the pattern:

Clover, 1st time: 4 minutes 19 seconds
Woobles: 4 minutes 31 seconds
Susan Bates: 4 minutes 21 seconds
Loops & Threads (4.5mm): 5 minutes, 3 seconds
Clover, last time: 3 minutes, 40 seconds
I averaged the two clover times together to about 4 minutes.

BEST CROCHET HOOK: Clover Amour Crochet Hook

Clover Amour

Cost: $8 for a single hook, $43 for a set of 7 (~$6/hook). These prices are from Amazon. You will see these sets sold for much higher prices at most brick and mortar locations.

I fell in love within the first 10 seconds of ever trying this hook. It glides super smoothly through yarn.

I had heard rumours for a while in Facebook groups I was that people could crochet more quickly with these hooks. The first time I used mine, I thought that was probably true, but I wanted to keep myself honest by running the test, and even I was surprised by the results. It is much quicker than the Loops & Threads hook, and a little quicker than the Woobles & Susan Bates. That matters over long periods of time. To put that in perspective, that means a project that might take me 10 hours with the Loops & Threads would only take me about 8 hours with Clover Amour. That’d be 2 hours of my life to spend on other projects.

I see two main benefits: I crochet much more quickly with this yarn, and it causes less of the shoulder pain I sometimes struggle with when I crochet. The higher cost is easily justified considering how much time I spend on the hobby. I regret not purchasing these sooner.

BEST BUDGET OPTION: Susan Bates Ergonomic OR Woobles

I think the times I spent on each during the test were comparable. Susan Bates was slightly faster, but it was also my third time doing the pattern so it’s not clear that it was the hook. I think they’re about equivalent.

Susan Bates Ergonomic

Cost: $5 for a single hook, $24 for a set of 8 ($3/hook)
I tend to hold my hook close to the yarn loop, so I found the ergonomic handles were too far down to make a difference for me. In the test, I found it did about the same as the Woobles hook. I slightly prefer the Woobles hook, but that might just be from familiarity.

The Woobles 4mm Crochet Hook

Cost: $5 as an optional add-on to the kit, no other sizes or sets available, not sold separately from the kit

I learned with this hook, and probably have the most long-term experience with it. It’s a fine hook if you’re on a budget, but it definitely has more friction than the Clover Amour. I prefer its handle to the Susan Bates hook.

WORST HOOK: Loops & Threads

Loops & Threads

Cost: $6 for a set of 6 ($1/hook)
It was noticeable during the test how much more friction there was with this hook. I had a harder time grabbing hold of the yarn and getting it do what I wanted it to do. It is the cheapest one I have, and probably why I first grabbed it off the shelf at Michael’s years ago when I first tried to learn with these hooks, a skein of yarn, and some Youtube videos. (I failed at that try, by the way). It’s actually easy to see now why with this hook and the yarn I first bought that I struggled. If you’re on a strict budget, I get it. They still get the job done. But if you can afford it, I’d recommend springing for at least Susan Bates.