Starting · Beginner
Left-handed crochet
Left-handed crochet is the mirror image of right-handed crochet. Hold the hook in your left hand and the yarn in your right, and every stitch is made the same way with the directions swapped: rows run from left to right, and rounds run clockwise. A written pattern is followed just as it is written.
How to work it
Hold the hook in your left hand
Take the hook in your left hand and the yarn in your right. Make the slip knot and the chain as they are taught for the right hand, with the two hands swapped. The chain hangs away to the right.
Work each row from left to right
Work the first row back along the chain, starting at its left end and moving to the right. At the end of the row, make the turning chain and turn the work, and the next row again starts at the left. The stitches themselves are made in the same steps as for the right hand. The picture shows a row of single crochet (UK double crochet).
Mirror charts and pictures
Symbol charts and step pictures are drawn for the right hand. Read a chart as its mirror image: where it shows a row worked from right to left, work it from left to right. For a picture, hold a mirror beside it, or flip the picture on a screen.
At a glance
- Used for
- learning to crochet with the hook in the left hand; following patterns, charts and tutorials made for the right hand
- Rows
- Worked from left to right.
- Rounds
- Worked clockwise, where the right hand works counterclockwise.
- Written patterns
- Followed as written.
- Charts and step pictures
- Read as their mirror image.
- Right side
- Still the face of the piece that is meant to show.
Worked from a plain pattern, a left-handed piece comes out as the mirror image of a right-handed one. For most things it makes no difference: a scarf, a blanket or a hat in one color is the same either way.
It matters where a design has a direction. A picture worked in colors from a graph comes out reversed, and letters and numbers read backwards. To get the design as it is drawn, work from a mirror image of the graph. Directions inside a written pattern swap too: "to the right" becomes "to the left".
Right side, in a pattern, still means the face of the piece that is meant to show. One way to tell which face is toward you is the starting tail. When row 1 is the right side, which is usual, a left-handed maker has that side facing when the tail hangs at the lower right corner. For a right-handed maker it is at the lower left.
Learning from a right-handed person works well face to face: sit opposite, and copy what you see as if in a mirror.
Tips
- When a tutorial has only right-handed pictures, a small mirror stood beside the page shows each one as it looks for the left hand.
When it goes wrong
- My picture from a graph came out backwards.
- The graph was drawn for the right hand. Flip it left to right, on paper or on a screen, and work from the flipped copy.
- The pattern says to work into the stitch to the left, and there is nothing there.
- Swap left and right in directions like that one. Your next stitch is to the right.
- I learned right-handed and it feels wrong.
- Left-handed people crochet with either hand. If the right hand feels wrong, start again with the hook in the left: the stitches are the same, mirrored.
Questions
- Can I use any crochet pattern if I am left-handed?
- Yes. Written patterns work as they are. Only charts, graphs and pictures need to be read as their mirror image.
- How do I read a crochet chart left-handed?
- As its mirror image. Each row is worked from the opposite side to the one the chart shows, and rounds go clockwise.
- Does the right side of the work change for left-handers?
- No. It is still the face of the piece that is meant to show. What changes is the clue: when row 1 is the right side, that face is toward you when the starting tail hangs at the lower right, not the lower left.