Monday, April 29, 2013

Your crochet hooks

I was reading about crochet hooks on a blog site and I kept thinking: what am I looking for in a crochet hook? When I first picked crochet as a hobby, I would crochet with steel hook only. Why? Well for basics reason:
- I did not have a list of yarns where to choose from. The only place to dig into was my grandma´s basket and she not only crocheted with only 100% mercerized cotton but also the list of colors were not very long.
a) white
b) beige
and that was it. that was the list. No blue or red or pink or let alone variegated. I never saw her uses other color but these two.
The hooks were all steel. But it is not like you could find more choices in the stores either because even the stores where grandama could buy her hooks came down to be less than the 5 fingers in a hand.
Time went by and once I was cleaning my mothers stash and she had some very nice 100% wool from years back that she never uses and there were some pretty nice colors too. This specific wool called for a much larger hook and she had one big wooden # 6 hook and only than I discover there were other material than steel. So I get more involved in crocheting and knitting I started digging and I was not only amazed but also overwhelmed about the plethora of crochet hooks available in the market:




 
 
and much more
 

 
 
 
 The list is endless....
 



So I started a real quest about crochet hooks and I discovered they come in different materials as:
Steel, bone, ivory, aluminium, plastic, bamboo, wood, acrylic, resin and the list goes on...
It became more difficult too with so many different brands such as:
Boyle, Susan Bates, Yellow Gold, Clover, Tulip, Brittany Birch, Lion Bran, Crystal Palace, Create for less...
Then someone thought it was not hard enough to have so many categories and they added simple hooks, intercheangeable, ergonomic....
I even discovered hooks for pepople that suffers Carpel Tunnel Syndrome.

It was amazing what I discovered during my journey into the world of crochet hooks. Th more I slooked the more I learned and I fall into the trap barehands by becoming particular about my hooks although not picky at all about the brand I uses and by that I also mean that quality is not a necessity for me however I need to feel comfortable If I am crocheting a big project as a bedcover or afghan, a blanket etc. For a quick doily I may be not so picky but again...I do not crochet doily as often as I used to during my younger years.

Each project may call for a particular kind of hook depends on the yarn that you will be using
My first choice goes to steel over anything else (maybe it´s force of habit) but I don´t mind using the aluminium ones although they are king of heavy and if you have sweaty hands they are not the right choice for you.

I stay away from plastic, resin and acrylic at all cost because of the annoying snags and squeaks and I think plastic hooks tend to leave burrs on the hook. I totally refuse to use them on any project no matter what.

Some people favors the bamboo and woods hooks because they address they weight issue. They are very light and comfortable and they do not transfer heat versus steal or aluminium. I don´t use them often unless the pattern calls for it.

My conclusion is that you have to feel comfortable with the hook you choose so no one will know what right for you but yourself. Now, go crochet something beautiful.

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