New Tool

A few days before CJ arrived, the very nice people at Denise Knitting sent me their new crochet hooks. I'm embarrassed to say it took 2 months before I got to touch them (and we all know why, but still...). Luckily I finally got to play with them this week, because I had a few projects I was designing in Tunisian Crochet. The hooks were so handy. Instead of having to have my bucket of afghan hooks, I could easily grab the Denise booklet and settle next to CJ while she played. See with Tunisian you need to think about the size and the length of the hook before you begin since when you crochet you work the entire length of the row at once (instead of one st at a time as in tradition crochet). Therefore when you are swatching a project, you never know exactly which hook you will need. And these hooks take the length problem out of the picture. You can easily lengthen and shorten the cable with a quick twist. Here are some close-ups of the hooks and cables.

The hooks and cables are plastic. Now I know some don't like plastic hooks, and for traditional crochet I agree. But with Tunisian you are holding the entire row of stitches on the hook, and for me the lighter the hook the easier on my hands. Anything easier on my hands is great! The cables twist onto the bottom very easily with a 1/4 twist. They can be extended to as long as you need. They come with 4 caps, so you can have 4 projects going at once if you are like me with tons of WIPs at once. The only think I am not a fan of is the knife of the hook. I like more of a swoosh in my hook then a hard knife point, but that's just my preference. I know a number of crocheters that prefer that hook knife.

So what can you do with them? Here are two swatches. In the coming days, I hope to show you a few more ideas. Till then, check them out. You might want to add them to your holiday wish list. I found them to be very helpful in bringing me back to Tunisian. I hope you do too.