All About HOOKS

Hooks - general info  |  Hooks 1  |  Hooks 2  |   Hooks 3  | Hook Sizes  | 

Hooks
Please click on thumbnails to see larger pic.

If you're looking for a sizing chart, you can find that here

If you want to see my latest acquisitions, click on the links above.

Here is a picture of my hooks taken end of 2006. Some of these have since been passed on to my daughter and others, but most are still in various places around my house. And my collection continues to grow, of course!

First, you should know the parts of your hook to aid in discussion with other crochet fanatics. You'll notice the difference in Bates and Boye hooks as to the size of the shaft. Bates has a very small shaft, whereas Boye has a longer shaft. Not all crochet hooks have a grip. Some are straight or made in other ways, such as the wooden or clay hooks.

Buying hooks can be confusing. Did you know that there are dozens of different kinds of hooks? I'm going to take some time to show you a few. I'm sure I will just touch the surface of this subject, but at least it will be a start.

There are two basic hook types. I call them Bates and Boye, but they are really inline and tapered. This refers to the head and throat of the hook though sometimes you will hear me say the "hook part" which might refer to the head or the throat interchangeably. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference. Most crocheters, however, have a strong opinion of which is better, meaning which one they prefer to use, often exclusively. I am a Boye or tapered gal. I rarely use Bates, but I am not opposed to using them. It is just my preference at this time. I don't even promise that won't change through the years though it hasn't yet. Everything does, doesn't it? :-)

Here is a wonderful photo of the difference, used with permission from Hooklady. You can visit her blog for more info.

I recently (Jan. 2008) had occasion to try and explain the difference between the hooks and took multiple pictures of both Boye and Bates so I thought I'd add those here as well. I tried to take photos from different angles so you can hopefully see how they differ. Sometimes it is hard to tell, depending on the manufacturer. The blue hook is a Bates and the grey one is a Boye-style though it is an Inox hook.

Hooks also come in different sizes and can be made from different materials. I will cover steel, aluminum, plastic, brass, Corian, and wood. The steel hooks are the tiny hooks, usually used to work with thread. The larger the number, the smaller the hook. In other words, a size 10 hook is much smaller than a size 1 or 2. I had a number of interesting hooks in my collection. Here are pictures of a few.

If you clicked on the thumbnails you saw that last hook a price on it. 15 cents. The price is right on the hook. I have a number of these with different prices on them.

The "larger" hooks (in other words, not the tiny steel hooks) can be made of many different materials. The ones I have come across are usually made of aluminum, wood, brass, Corian (or similar material), or plastic. They can be sold by letter or number or millimeter. In this case, the larger the letter or number, the larger the hook. In other words, a J hook is larger than an F hook, a J hook can also be called a #10 hook, while an F hook is a #5 but that doesn't necessarily mean 5 mm. Note that size may be slightly different from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Some hooks have the size noted right on the hook - sometimes they show the letter size, sometimes they show the size in mm, which is really confusing to me. My preference is to see the letter size. In fact, I keep a sheet in my box with a translation so I can tell which hook I'm using. If you have a hook with the size stamped on it rather than engraved into it,  you might like to mark it in some other way because if you use that hook a lot, the stamp is going to wear off. If you make mostly afghans as I do, hook size is not a big factor and I usually just eyeball the hook and say, yeah, that's about the right size for this yarn. The hook and the yarn have to be compatible. If you are making something where it MUST come out the proper size, then you need to check gauge, but that's a whole different topic.

The big thing is to remember which hook you started with (you might consider keeping it with your work or attach a card with the pertinent info on it) so you don't start with one hook, put the project down and use a different hook when you pick it up again. That is bad news for your project which will appear smaller or larger at that point. I had a time gathering all these hooks because they were all over the place. :-)

Not all hooks have the size written on or embedded into it. This is especially true of custom made hooks.

Some manufacturers color code their hooks (see Skacel below). I can't remember which size the hook with the brown top is or what size the green one or the orange one is supposed to be, but it is nice for you young folks with a memory. Much easier to grab a brown hook then to have to look through them all to read the size.

 

All About Storage - Organizing

03/02/09
 

The buttons above were my first at the Cabana. I keep them for sentimental reasons. :-)

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