Boye Aluminum Crochet Hook, $1.38 at Amazon

If the past year and a half has taught us anything, it’s that life is never as smooth sailing as we’d like and, sometimes, no matter our best efforts, we find ourselves face to face with an unsightly snag (or two). Some snags are not so easy to fix and can be difficult to deal with (such as worldwide pandemics) but, the good news is that when the snag happens to be on your favorite (or not so favorite) sweater, a small $2 tool will allow you to sort that out in fifteen to thirty minutes (depending on the number of snags you have to deal with).

This $2 tool – the humble crochet hook – will fix all your sweater snags. I work as a tailor and pattern maker for film and TV, so I know quite a bit about is sewing.

Crochet hooks come in a variety of sizes. For sweater pull fixing, a smaller hook - size 5 or lower - is the easiest to use, but any will work if you’re cautious. The looser the sweater weave is, the larger the hook you can use. If you own a lot of sweaters and are especially accident-prone (like me), consider purchasing a whole set of hooks.

To fix a snag, carefully insert the crochet hook from the inside of the sweater through to the outside at the snag. Making sure not to grab any threads. Push only the end of the hook all the way through – not the handle.

Once the hook portion of the tool is through to the outside of the sweater, insert it through the snag and pull those threads back to the inside of the garment. This could take a little finagling (a technical term) as you do not want to pull any other strands but the ones that have snagged. You also want to avoid making the hole any bigger.

With the snag successfully pulled to the inside, remove the crochet hook and gently stretch the sweater at the snag site to coax the pulled thread back into place.

If the snag threads are still in a loop and not broken, use the crochet hook once again – this time make a knot in the loop to hold it in place. If the threads are broken, tie the loose ends together as close to the garment as possible.

Next, turn the sweater right side out and smooth and tug the knit back into shape. I usually use steam from an iron to make everything as flat as possible. Be wary of applying the iron directly to the sweater though. Use a press cloth – which can simply be a cotton handkerchief – between the sweater and the iron to alleviate the possibility of any accidental scorching or melting.

Lastly, admire your handiwork and the fact that your sweater looks as good as new.