Modifying Hooks with polymer clay.

[MeToo!]

Thanks for your comments and esp. that photo. Yes, that is the way I hold my hook.

When I brought up the topic of shank length, I was referring to the business end (the metal part) of the hook only, that is, the very tip to the beginning of the plastic holder. It is so short!! Suppose you are making stitches that require a bunch of loops on the shank; they'd never fit.

Funny, all this discussion (on the internet) about hooks. I am old enough to recall when there were only a few brands of hooks (Aero being one) and they all looked more or less the same to me. Nobody placed a pencil grip, clay covers or anything else on their hooks. We just suffered with crocheting for hours with skinny little hooks, whether plastic or metal. I could never go back to that.


But of course, the bottom line is what works for you, and that's all that counts!

No truer words. We have to try different things and see what works out.

[Nova55]

That's always been my complaint about hooks with cushioned thumb rest/handle. The manufacturers always seem to shorten the shaft (sometimes a lot!) and yes, if you are creating a stitch with many loops on the hook, it becomes very difficult if not impossible to do those stitches. I don't get it! They're charging more for the hooks anyway, just make them a little longer. Obviously they're not consulting with or listening to people who actually crochet.

[MeToo!]

Obviously they're not consulting with or listening to people who actually crochet.

No kidding. Really, the best hook I could imagine is the Furl's or something very similar. The 2nd best, at least for me, are my few (3) Addi bamboo hooks. The entire shaft is perfectly round and you can use it like that or place a gel pencil grip (or other type of grip) on it, if you wish, and off you go. The large ones, like 8 mm or so, you don't have to put any grip at all.

No wonder some people pay $90 for a Furl's. But I hear that some of their lower priced models are not as good; the shape is good but there are other problems. If I were lucky enough to find $100 lying on the street I would send away for a Furl's top of the line hook just to see what the fuss is about. How about you? I am shocked that in this world there are people buying up these things like they were cheap as candy. Apparently Furl's is making $$$ hand over fist. What the hey...

[spoula]

I agree if you have a hook that has a short shaft it is impossible to get a lot of stitches on it.

I have a hook that has a short shaft and it says it is a 0 0 (from England) I looked it up on the Internet and it was listed as a 3.5MM Thread hook. It is bigger then my E/4 hook that is listed as a yarn hook. I tried to use it the other day and with the short shaft it makes all the stitches the same size. I like that but because of the way I crochet with other hooks it made my hand very tired.
I have a mixture of hooks in steel, metal and plastic none of which are expensive. If I was a professional I would invest in a nice set of hooks that didn't make my hands tired.

[Nova55]

It's true some people swear by Furls, but my budget doesn't allow for such extravagances. I won't say I've used every hook on the market, but I've used many of them. For me, none of them have made any significant difference with my carpal tunnel or arthritis. So far, what matters most of all is the thickness of the yarn and the tightness of the stitch. Right now I'm finishing a baby blanket in the Hearts ZigZag stitch (mainly sc) using Caron Simply Soft with an H hook. Definitely should have used an I if not a J hook! The stitches are tight and I have had to use thumb splints, lots of ice, pain killers, and lidocaine patches. As a comparison, I just finished a wrap using the nest stitch, which is a rather concentrated stitch, with fingering weight yarn and a 3.5 hook, with no problems at all. I realize that as the arthritis gets worse I'll need to thicken the handles, but looser stitches seems the best way to go for me.

[Jean Marie]

I mentioned in another post (unless it was on this post) that when I'm crocheting and my right hand gets tired (I'm right handed), I try and use my left hand to help my right hand or just use my left hand to pull the yarn through the loops.

[MeToo!]

I have a hook that has a short shaft and it says it is a 0 0 (from England) I looked it up on the Internet and it was listed as a 3.5MM Thread hook. It is bigger then my E/4 hook that is listed as a yarn hook.

An E/4 is supposed to be 3.5mm but it's an old system of sizing so doesn't correspond exactly, as you found out. I read that when they decided to standardize hook sizes according to the metric system, not everything previously manufactured and labelled under the lettering system fit into that.

Apparently different manufacturers would make somewhat different sizes of hooks using the same letter. I am grateful for the metric system and wish they'd just do away with the old one.

[spoula]

I mentioned in another post (unless it was on this post) that when I'm crocheting and my right hand gets tired (I'm right handed), I try and use my left hand to help my right hand or just use my left hand to pull the yarn through the loops.

Hi Jean Marie, I was just wondering,wouldn't pulling the yarn or helping with your left hand mess up your tension?
spoula

[spoula]

Hi MeToo. I look at the difference between yarn and thread the bigger the number on the hook for thread the smaller the hook. For yarn the smaller the number the smaller the hook.

By the way, the other day I tried to crochet using your pencil method. Ha, I got about 3 to 5 stitches completed and they looked nice and neat but I could not crochet very long that way. It took me forever to do just those few. Can't teach an old dog new tricks.

spoula

[Jean Marie]

Hi Jean Marie, I was just wondering,wouldn't pulling the yarn or helping with your left hand mess up your tension?
spoula

Hi Spoula,
I'm right handed as you probably remember so when crocheting a dc I do the yarn over with my right hand and pull the loops through with my right hand then I pull the loops back down with my left hand for tension. Then I pull the loops back up a little bit with my right hand so the hook will fit through the loops. I yarn over with my right hand and pull the yarn up to the loops with my right hand and then I turn my left hand and try to use my left hand to help pull the yarn through the 2 loops and then yarn over with my right hand again and pull the yarn up to the loops and then turn my left hand to help pull the yarn through and if my right thumb gets too tired from pushing on the crochet hook I don't push as hard or I don't push my thumb on the crochet hook at all.

Once I do yo for dc and pull the yarn through w/my right hand and pull the loops back down for tension w/my left hand then as I'm yarning over w/my right hand that's when I pull the loops up a bit so the hook will fit through the loops.