One in ten crocheters is left-handed and nearly every tutorial is made for the other nine. Here is everything that is actually different, which is less than you fear, and how to learn in your own hand.
By the Crochets team · written with left-handers first, in memory of Susi · updated September 2026
About one in ten people is left-handed, and almost every crochet tutorial, chart and photo is made by and for the other nine. When you follow a right-handed video, you are asked to do live geometry: mirror every movement in your head while your hands try to keep up. That is the hard part. Not the crochet. Once the mirroring is removed, left-handed crochet is exactly as easy as right-handed crochet, because it is right-handed crochet in a mirror.
My mum was left-handed, and I watched her fight exactly this. Crochets is built in her memory, which is why its lessons come with left-handed videos wherever one exists. This guide is what every left-hander should be handed in week one.
Hold the hook in your left hand, either like a pencil (hook resting between thumb and index finger, pointing down) or like a knife (hand over the top). Neither is 'correct'; try both for ten minutes and keep the one that doesn't make your wrist ache.
The yarn is tensioned in your right hand. The most common wrap: yarn over the little finger, under the ring and middle fingers, and over the index finger, which becomes your 'yarn post'. Your right index finger controls tension; your left hand only moves the hook. If your stitches are tight, the fix is almost always in the right hand, not the left.
Right-handers crochet from right to left across a row. You crochet from left to right. That single fact explains every difference:
Symbol charts are drawn for right-handers: row 1 reads right to left, row 2 left to right, and so on. As a lefty, read the same chart starting from the left on every odd row. Motifs worked in the round read clockwise. If a chart confuses you, take a photo of it and flip it horizontally on your phone. That is now your chart.
Step-by-step photos are the sneakiest: the hook appears to be in the wrong hand and the stitch 'slants the wrong way'. Ignore the slant and copy the position of the hook relative to the stitch, under two loops, around the post, into the space. Position is what matters; direction follows automatically.
Look for teachers who film a separate left-handed version rather than flipping the video (flipped videos have mirrored text and the teacher's voice-over still says 'right'). Bella Coco, Crochet Guru, Moogly (Tamara Kelly), B.Hooked, The Crochet Crowd and Winding Road Crochet all publish true left-handed tutorials. The ones in the Crochets stitch dictionary are vetted, mirrored lessons for every stitch that has a video.
No. The movements are identical in mirror image. What's harder is learning from right-handed materials; use left-handed videos or a mirrored chart and the difficulty disappears.
No. Hooks are symmetrical; any hook works in either hand. Choose one with a comfortable grip.
Yes, without changes. 'Next stitch' always means the next stitch in your working direction. Only picture-based colourwork comes out mirrored.
Left to right across rows, and clockwise in the round. The mirror of right-handed crochet.
Only if it feels natural. Most lefties who force right-handed crochet end up with tension problems. Learn in your own hand with mirrored lessons.
Crochets has left-handed videos for its lessons and stitches wherever one exists, charts that read in your direction, and patterns written for the hand you use. Free to start.
Start left-handed, free →