Finding the right crochet hook is really a matter of preference. I have tried many different types of hooks and have gone back and forth between the ones I prefer.
Show of hands, how many of us remember the first hook we ever used? I DO! It was a purple plastic hook that came as part of a learn to crochet kit that mom got for me one summer. Boy was that thing squeaky and static-y. All I can say is good riddance to that hook!
After this devastating crochet hook experience, I bought a Boye crochet hook, and for many years I thought these were the only crochet hooks in existence until I decided to work up a project with a C (2.75mm) crochet hook and boy was that a nightmare. This is when a realized that Boye was not the only hook out there, Clover Amour also existed! My life was changed, but before I get into my crochet hook preferences, let us chat a bit more about crochet hooks.
Looking at all the crochet hook brands out there we might become overwhelmed, but really there are basically two types of hooks, and they all have the same parts.
Tapered hooks
Inline hooks
There are a lot of good articles written about the difference between these hooks, but the main one is that in the tapered hook, the point (or head) and the shaft are not a perfect cylinder, the throat tapers in. As suggested by the name, this is not the case with the inline hooks. From the pictures, we can notice another difference, the shaft of the tapered hooks tends to be longer (Boye) than the shafts of the inline hooks.
Now, lets talk about handles, we have got what I call non-ergonomic naked hooks, ie no rubber handle.
And ergonomic hooks with rubber or plastic handles ( I specify the type of handle because furls is a brand of ergonomic hooks with naked handles) … Ok, this got a tiny bit intense there.
Let us take it back a notch, In my hook collection I have naked metal hooks, naked wooden hooks, polymer clay hooks and rubber handle hooks like clover amour, soft touch, and tulip. There, we are back to simple.
My Hook Preference:
1. Tapered hooks, sometimes I like to switch it up and work with the inline hooks but that is not often. I find that tapered hooks allow me to go faster, this might just be because they were the ones I trained with. Out of all the tapered hooks I own, I really like clover and the tulip hooks. The throats are flatter and they are tapered and the head (or point) is the right mix of point and bluntness to glide into each stitch.
2. Handles, I have always liked the clover amour, the rubber is soft and lightweight, but right now, I am especially digging the Tulip crochet hooks, the rubber is so much squishier and smoother to work with, worth every penny. However, while I do love ergonomic rubber handles, I find them cumbersome for 6mm hooks and above, seriously, they do not float my boat. Again, this is a matter of preference, my aunt does not get along with any type of ergonomic crochet hook and she crochets using a 1.75mm steel hook!
3. Weight, this one is tricky. I have always felt that Boye hooks were heavier than the Tulip crochet hooks. When I hold a Boye H (5mm) crochet hook on my left hand and a Tulip 5mm hook on my right, I feel that the Tulip hook weighs less. BUT… this is not the case, in fact the Boye hook weighs 7 grams and the Tulip hook weight 11 grams. SHOCKER! but in hindsight it makes sense, the Tulip has a rubber coating on the handle, the weight is just better distributed.
Whilst I do have a lot of clover soft touch hooks in my collection, they are my least favorite out of my ergonomic clover collection. While they are comfortable for my pencil grip, after a while of intense crocheting, I find them painful on my thumb and on my hand.
While I do love the beauty of the polymer crochet hooks, they are one of my least used hooks. This is mostly due to the polymer clay itself, how much the artist adds to the hook, the “ergonomic shape” they give it. I have polymer clay hooks in my collection from 3 different artists, two of the artists shape the polymer clay into an hourglass shape unless not a lot of clay was used when shaping the hourglass this shape is hard for my pencil grip.
The other polymer clay shape I have in my collection is flat, much better for my pencil grip, but the size of the decorations at the end do add a lot of weight to the hook and makes it unbalanced.
Nonetheless, I do love looking at them, they are works of art and bring me so much joy. Seriously take a peek at the McGonagall hook and the Malfoy hook in the previous pictures, they are perfection.
All in all, nobody can tell you which hook is better for you, this really depends on you!. Keep experimenting until you find the perfect one, it will be worth it!
Which hooks are the most used in your collections?
XOXO
Clarisabeth
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