Amigurumi Hook Size & Yarn Weight Guide

The best hook sizes for amigurumi

If you’ve ever made an amigurumi using the recommended hook size for your yarn (the hook size found on the yarn label), you probably ended up with loose stitches and lots of stuffing showing through. That’s because hooks for amigurumi need to be smaller than the recommended crochet hook for the yarn. With this amigurumi hook size guide, you’ll never second guess if you’re using the right combo!

There is a fine line between a hook that is too small for your yarn and one that’s too big. If you go too small with your crochet hook, you’ll wear your hands out trying to get your hook to go through the stitch. But if it’s too big, you’ll have holes in your amigurumi and it will look sloppy and unpolished.

If you’ve ever heard that you need to crochet tighter and with more tension to make amigurumi, listen up! Your hook size should be doing all the work to make your stitches tight and hole-free! If you are using the correct size hook for your amigurumi, you won’t need to change the way you crochet. June Gilbank of Planet June has an in-depth post about crochet hook and tension for amigurumi.

Another thing to note is that there is a lot of variety within yarn weight categories. Yarns in the same category have different thickness and stretchiness. The hook size & yarn guide below accounts for this and has a range of hooks you can use within each category.

Amigurumi Hook Size & Yarn Weight

YARN WEIGHT SYMBOL & CATEGORY NAME	TYPES OF YARN IN THIS CATEGORY	TYPICALLY RECOMMENDED HOOK IN METRIC SIZE (MM)	RECOMMENDED AMIGURUMI HOOK IN METRIC SIZE (MM)
	Fingering Thread 1-3 ply	1.4 - 2.25 mm	0.6 - 1.25 mm
	Sock Fingering Baby 4 ply	2.25 - 3.5 mm	1.25 - 1.5 mm
	Sport Baby 5 ply	3.5 - 4.5 mm	1.75 - 2.25 mm
	DK Light worsted 8 ply	4.5 - 5.5 mm	2.25 - 2.75 mm
	Worsted Aran Afghan 10-12 ply	5.5 - 6.5 mm	2.75 - 3.75 mm
	Chunky Craft Rug 12-14 ply	6.5 - 9 mm	4 - 5 mm
	Super Bulky Super Chunky Roving 14-16 ply	9 - 15 mm	6.5 - 9 mm
	Jumbo Roving 16 ply+	15 mm and larger	10 mm and larger

Pin the image below for easy reference!

A handy trick to finding the right hook size

If you use the more common yarn sizes (levels 2-5), a handy trick for figuring out what hook size to use is to take the smallest recommended hook size and subtract 2 mm to get the amigurumi hook size you should use.

For example, the recommended hook size for light weight (dk or light-worsted) is 4.5 – 5.5 mm. Take the smallest recommended hook size (4.5 mm) and subtract 2 mm from that. So the hook size you should use for amigurumi is 2.5 mm. 2.5 mm isn’t a common crochet hook size in the US, but it is right between 2 hook sizes – size B (2.25 mm) and size C (2.75 mm). Depending on the thickness of my light weight yarn, I would use either of these hooks to crochet my amigurumi with.

Amigurumi Yarn & Hook Recommendations

My favorite hooks for crocheting amigurumi are Clover Amour hooks in size B (2.25 mm), size C (2.75 mm), and size D (3.25 mm) depending on my yarn weight.

My current favorite amigurumi yarns are Ricorumi DK weight yarn and Paintbox Yarns Cotton Aran. If you want more yarn recommendations, check out this blog post for reviews of popular cotton yarns for amigurumi!

And click here to see a complete list of my absolute favorite amigurumi crochet supplies.

RESIZING AN AMIGURUMI PATTERN

The great thing about amigurumi is that you can easily change their size by changing the yarn and crochet hook you use. I do this ALL the time! Check out the Sweet Birds below – the top one is made with DK weight yarn and a size B 2.25 mm hook and the bottom one is made with worsted weight yarn and a size D 3.25 mm hook. This small change makes a big difference to the finished product.

MICRO CROCHET

If you want to get extreme with your amigurumi, you’ll love micro crochet! For micro amigurumi, you use fine thread and a thin crochet hook to make amigurumi that can sit on your finger tips! You can go as tiny as possible by using cotton sewing thread and a 0.6 mm hook (although this is NOT for the faint of heart). I’ve personally only gone as small as using DMC No.8 Pearl Cotton and a size 1.15mm hook and that was small enough for me. Trisagurumi has a great, in-depth post about micro crochet if you want to give it a try!

The Cheeky Egg below was made by Dally Delos Santos using 2 strands of cotton sewing thread held together and a 0.7mm steel crochet hook – WOW!

JUMBO AMIGURUMI

You can also go to the other extreme and make a supersized amigurumi! If you want to make a jumbo amigurumi, Holly Salzman of Storyland Amis is a pro and has a great post about finding the right yarn for your project.

What new amigurumi hook size and yarn weight are you excited to try? Let me know in the comments!