How to Make a Latch Hook

Learning the process to make a latch hook usually takes only a few minutes, even for children, but completing a latch hook project takes some time. Whether you start from a kit or make a latch hook design from scratch, the steps are more or less the same. When you're finished, you can use your latch hook project as a rug or wall hanging, or for other craft projects like pillows.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Latch hook canvas
• Latch hook tool
• Permanent marker
• Yarn or fabric scraps
• Scissors (optional)

1. Choose a canvas. Although it's called canvas, the latch hook product is different than ordinary canvas since it's more like a mesh than a piece of fabric. Choose a size around 4.5 holes per inch for regular yarn, or 3.3 holes per inch for very thick yarn or rags.

2. Draw your design on the latch hook canvas using a permanent marker. You can draw freehand, place the canvas on top of a large image and trace, or use a cross-stitch pattern and count the squares.

3. Cut small pieces of yarn or fabric, unless your yarn is pre-cut. Use pieces of yarn 2- to 3-inches long. If you'd rather use fabric scraps, cut strips less than 1/2-inch wide and 2- to 3-inches long. Keep different colors of yarn or scraps in different containers.

4. Choose a latch hook tool proportional to your yarn and canvas. Small for thin yarn, and medium or large for heavier yarns and rag scraps. Make sure the tool you choose fits through your canvas.

5. Fold a piece of yarn in half over the metal neck of the latch hook tool. Hold the hook in your right hand and the yarn in place with your left hand.

6. Insert the tool down through the canvas in an area appropriate to the color of yarn you are holding.

7. Push the tool back up in the square directly above the square where you went down, capturing a single strand of the canvas. When the tool falls open, bring both ends of the yarn up (over the canvas strand) and place them in the hook of the tool.

8. Release the ends of the yarn and pull the hook out of the canvas. This should pull the ends of the yarn through the canvas too, creating a knot. Pull tighter if the knot seems insecure.

9. Repeat Steps 5 through 8, covering the entire canvas with yarn knots in the appropriate color for each area.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're left handed, you will probably hold the ends of the thread with your right hand and use primarily your left hand to manipulate the latch hook tool.