How to Latch Hook

Latch hooking is a craft in which short segments of yarn are tied to the horizontal strands of a small- or medium-sized canvas grid. It can be used to make small rugs, wall hangings, or pillows. It is the dainty version of rug making, which uses grids large enough to cover a floor and fewer colors than latch hooking.

Once you understand how to read a pattern and how to work the latch hook tool, latch hooking can be a very relaxing hobby. Both adults and children are able to use latch hooking to craft something beautiful and -- best of all -- fuzzy.

You will need either to buy a latch hook hit or to prepare one on your own. A good kit should include a pattern, a canvas grid, and pre-cut yarn segments. Most kits do not include the latch hook tool, so you will need to buy that separately. Most craft stores sell everything latch hook related on the same aisle. If you want to prepare your own kit, you will need to buy canvas and yarn and to make your own pattern and cut your own yarn segments. The pictures in this instructable are of a self-made pattern, but beginners should start with kits.

Tools:

• Latch hook tool
• Scissors
• Marker

Materials:

• Pattern
• Canvas grid
• Yarn segments split by color

Measure a 1 1/2" in on all four sides of the canvas grid and draw a border with your sharpie. The extra grid prevents the latch hook from fraying and leaves room for sewing it into something else, like a pillow. Some kits may have this border already marked.

Select the second to bottom row of the grid and choose the leftmost square within the outline you have drawn.

Slide your hook tool underneath the canvas strand and bring it back on top of the grid through the square above.

Position the tool so that the latch rests on top of the strand, with the strand in between the latch and the tool’s bar.

Check your pattern and slide the appropriate colored yarn segment under the handle of the tool until it is flush with the canvas strand. The pattern should have symbols for each color of yarn and a key for decoding the symbols. Each box on the pattern represents the strand at the top of a row of squares, not the strand at the bottom.

Take both ends of the yarn in your fingers and pull them to the left of the tool and under the latch.

Wrap the yarn to the right around the latch and tug the tool down quickly.

The latch should rise so that the ends of the yarn are in between the hook and the latch.

The hook should pull the ends of the yarn through the yarn looped around the latch and through the canvas square.

The end result should be the yarn segment knotted on the canvas strand.

Continue to follow your pattern and latch the appropriate colors onto their appropriate strands.

Check the back of the canvas grid to see if the yarn is knotted properly. If it is, it should look like this picture.

After hooking several rows, check to see if the hooked yarn segments are uneven, and use scissors to cut the excess.

Note: Always work to the end of the row before moving to the one above. Hooking yarn next to the yarn segment on a higher row can lead to the tips of yarn from the higher row catching in the latch.

After a while, you will begin to see your latch hook project take shape. Congratulations!