Sometimes you find yourself in a pickle, with no crochet hook but an amazing knitting pattern you just have to start right away. Or, sometimes curiosity might just get the better of you.
If you happen to find yourself in one of these scenarios, you might wonder if you are able to crochet using knitting needles. And no, this isn’t some sort of best-kept secret that has been hidden for ages, it is a genuine search into whether or not you can actually crochet with knitting needles.
Can you crochet with knitting needles? Crocheting with a knitting needle is not recommended. It is difficult to pick up stitches with the straight end of a knitting needle. Crocheting requires a hooked needle.
A knitting needle is longer than a crochet hook, which could make it uncomfortable to maneuver. The process of crocheting with a knitting needle will be tiresome and slow, so it really is just worth using a crochet hook, unless you are a sucker for punishment.
We’ll dive into this topic a bit more below so you can understand the difference between crochet hooks and knitting needles a little better.
Understanding Knitting Needle Basics
Knitting needles are fairly basic tools that allow us to hand-knit items. They go from a very thin 2.0m to chunky 50mm needles for large knits. Knitting needles can be made from a large range of materials, such as steel, wood, and plastic.
Most people decide on their knitting needles based on their preference of material used, as it doesn’t make such a difference to the work.
There are also different types of knitting needles to choose from. There are your normal straight knitting needles that are pointed on one end, or double-pointed. Circular needles are perfect to use to make socks and winter hats.
Knitting needles help keep stitches in place along the shaft, and the pointed ends help to easily pick up stitches as you knit.
Can You Knit With a Crochet Hook?
So now that we have established whether or not you can, or rather should, crochet with a knitting needle, it might be worth finding out if you can knit with a crochet hook. Now, where this gets interesting is the creation of the knook.
The Knook
The knook is a fusion between the crochet hook and a knitting needle, and it does make knitting with a crochet hook a little bit easier. It is a crochet hook that has an eye at the end of the non-hook side, with a nylon cord attached.
If you are wanting to take up knooking, you will need to learn a whole host of new stitches, as you cannot use crocheting or knitting stitches with a knook.
To begin knooking, you thread the yarn into the eye of the hook. The first row is completed just by crocheting a single chain.
To continue to knook the first row, you need to insert the hook into the chain of stitches and pick up the working piece of yarn. You then slip all the loops onto the cord.
Then you need to pick up a new row of stitches with the hook by inserting the hook into the loops that are placed on the cord. Depending on the way you wrap the yarn around your hook will depend on whether the stitch is a knit or purl.
Carrying on this way will leave you with a pattern that looks very similar to a knitted piece. The benefit of having worked in a crochet manner but landing up with a knitted looking piece is the main reason people look to use a knook.
Love2Knook offers a great knooking set on Amazon.
Benefits of a Knook
While it might seem a bit of a strange tool to use, there are some benefits to using a knook. It does take some getting used to, but it can be quite nifty to use once you get the hang of it.
- Crocheters will be comfortable using the knook to create knitted pieces as it involves very similar movements to crocheting.
- You don’t need to cast on stitches, you just crochet a chain, which crocheters will find really easy to do.
- All the stitches remain on the cord while you work through the pattern, so there isn’t too much of a chance of you dropping any stitches as you work.
Cons of a Knook
The knook is a handy tool to have, but as with everything there are some downsides to it as well.
- You will need to learn new stitches, how to wrap your yarn around the hook to knit and purl, they will be different from the normal stitches you use to knit and purl.
- There are some knooking pattern books available, but the range isn’t as wide as that of knitting and crocheting patterns.
- The nylon cord attached to the knook does not have a stopper at its end. If you are not careful how you store your knooking, the stitches could fall off easily.
Crochet Hook Basics
The reason a crochet hook works so well with crocheting is that it has a hook. Without the hook, you won’t be able to pick up stitches to continue your piece. The hook allows you to pick up the stitches easily and helps to pull the stitches through the work.
A crochet hook is a slender tool with a hook at one or both ends. The hook is used to pull yarn or thread through loops to create stitches. There are different types of crochet hooks to choose from:
- Steel – Steel crochet hooks are usually the smallest and are used for finer threads.
- Aluminum – Aluminum crochet hooks are available in a large range of sizes. The aluminum allows for easy and quick crocheting.
- Plastic – Plastic hooks are quite common. They are available in all sizes, and even in jumbo sizes. The larger plastic hooks are usually hollow.
- Bamboo – Bamboo hooks are great to use because they are eco-friendly. They are lightweight and feel warm in the hand.
- Tunisian – Tunisian hooks are different from normal crochet hooks. They are longer and can sometimes have a hook on either end.
- Ergonomic – Ergonomic hooks have larger or softer handles to reduce strain felt when crocheting.
- Knook – A knook is a crochet hook which has a hole at one end. A piece of yarn is attached to the nylon string at the one end and stitches are created, which look similar to knitting stitches.
Crochet cooks come in a variety of sizes, and the sizes may be based on the material, brand, and country the hook was produced in. The crochet size is measured by the diameter of the shaft found in the crochet hook.
Knitting With a Crochet Hook
Knitting with a crochet hook is probably easier than crocheting with a knitting needle, but only because of the creation of the knook. Otherwise, it would probably not be so great.
In fact, you wouldn’t be able to knit at all using just one crochet hook, and could you imagine how difficult it would be to slip stitches between the hooks with the two hooked ends getting in the way?
Crochet hooks are also shorter than knitting needles, so most of your work would slip off the other end, as there won’t be enough space and there are no stoppers at the end of a crochet hook.
The only thing that could possibly work in your favor is being able to get the same size crochet hook as the knitting needle you need, but crochet hook sizes are judged on the diameter of the upper shaft, and often crochet hooks often have larger handles to make crocheting more comfortable.
There just isn’t any viable way it could all work really.
Is It Worth Trying?
A crochet hook is called a ‘hook’ for a reason, and the same for a knitting ‘needle’. There really is no reason to be switching and swapping between the two, unless you just like taking the hard route with things.
The answer to it all though is the knook. Without it, there would be no proper cross-over between crocheting and knitting. Most of us enthusiasts are able to both knit and crochet but do have a favorite.
Crocheters love the movements used in creating a piece, while knitters probably love the look of a knitted item. These two worlds smash together ever so well with the knook.
So, cut out the trouble of experimenting whether you can crochet with a knitting needle or knit with a crochet hook and take our word for it, it really isn’t worth trying.
You will either land up with an item that looks fairly strange and miss-sized, or you will give up after a short while because it will be so frustrating and time-consuming to even get a few stitches done!
Sometimes it is better to ask whether we should, rather than whether we could, and this is probably a great example of that. Rather stick to what you know, keep your tools doing what they were made to do and enjoy some happy knitting and crocheting in the most hassle-free and stress-free way possible.
Picking Up A Knit on Crochet
Although we wouldn’t recommend crocheting with knitting needles, you can absolutely pick up a knit on a crochet pattern. This means you can easily swap between knitting and crochet stitches on your next project, so you get the best of both worlds.
To learn how to pick up a knit on crochet, check out this video by B.Hooked Crochet & Knitting on YouTube.
