The inconsistency of the shaft and work space issue is exactly what gripes me about many hooks being sold on the market today, and it’s present in wood hooks as well a metal. When I give lectures/demos about hooks, I talk about this. That widening of the shaft causes a lack of consistency in the stitch loops, which besides causing strain on your hand, also causes changes to your stitch appearance.
I don’t know why this is happening in hook-making today, but I suspect it has to do with the time involved in making the hooks and in the case of metal hooks, strength. (And perhaps lack of knowledge?) So many of the older hooks I find are just better made. The quality of the metal is better. My favorites metal hooks have hand-machined and cut heads. The shafts are strong and they will flex, not snap or permanently bend like modern hooks will.
And you know what it reminds me of? How good knives and swords are made. Good knives and swords are strong and will flex with pressure, but not break. And especially in miniature crochet, we put a lot of torque on those hooks.
Perhaps part of all this points to the possibility that metalsmithing and true metallurgical knowledge is not what really goes into our metal tools anymore?
What about you? I’m intrigued to know. What quirks do you notice about crochet tools that get under your skin? And what can we do about it?
What Gripes Me (Crochet Hook Shapes) – Crochet Ruminations
Filed under Crochet Education, Crochet Ruminations, Editorial, Random Thoughts
Crochet Liberation Front:
What gets me is the cushion grips on some manufacturers’ hooks. After a while the metal hook tends to loosen up and there’s slight movement between the hook and the grip. Also I loved Addi’s hooks (not the Swings, I adore those), the metal hook would actually COME APART from the plastic (non-cushioned, mind you) handle.
Now the Swing hooks I adore. Love them. Good for a majority of hooking uses; however, for stitches like bullions or double trebels or quad-trebels etc, or essentially any stitch with a lot of yarn overs, the Swings are not good because the shaft isn’t long enough.
What bothers me about some of the wood hooks is how some of them are TOO hooky (where the yarn actually catches on the hook) or in the case of Clover soft touch (not to be confused with the Amours) they aren’t hooky ENOUGH. In either case, both hook types end up causing delays in overall hooking/project completion time, due to slowing down to deal with slippage or snags.
That being said, If I had to pick ONE hook for every single possible need, I cannot go wrong with a Bates or Silvalume. I can do smaller tunisian entrelac projects using a basic Bates hook, I can use any type of yarn without fail.
But for garment work, I find for myself, my Etimos, or Clover Amours, or Addi Swings work just fine.
That is a lot of really detailed and helpful information Maven! I wish you were here so I could take photos of your hooks and what you are describing!
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I prefer Susan Bates, too. The finger rest is closer to the head and the head has a good size consistency, unless you are talking very large or very small, then all the heads are the same. Any of the hooks that are “ergonomic” are a problem for a knife style holder like me. There are some good bamboo hooks out there.
Maven, I have a 6mm Addi Swing hook for sale- I love the shape but it’s not proportioned correctly for my tiny hand.
My main gripe is that with all these great attempts at ergonomic shapes and materials, the handle still gets narrower with the smaller hooks. One of the reasons I want the special handle is preventing the strain from holding a small hook for so long, and yet the special handles on the smaller hooks are still smaller than the ones on the bigger hooks!
The hooks I go to are either my Tulip Etimo hooks (also with the shrinking handles, but they glide soooo nice) and Clover’s plain bamboo hooks (when I can find them).
I agree with you, Julia about the widening of the shaft of the hook. Why do they do that? I’d love Laurel Hills if it wasn’t for that. The other thing that gripes me is that a lot of the hooks on the market shape the head similar to Boye hooks – blunt and rounded. I prefer the Bates style, not only because it’s inline, but also because it’s pointed and the lip/chin is nicely tapered. I really haven’t found this shape in any other commercially made hook that I’ve seen.