hooks and hooking

Yay, I made it back here after a weekend hiatus. I actually had a social life for at least part of last week, so hopefully it'll continue!

The picture to the right there is a selection of my hooks: top is a plastic Palette, middle a metal Palette and bottom is a dinky metal Pony. This is useful if you're going to read on... *hint*

At the moment I'm working on another hat <3 and my friend's dog coat. I'll have to get round to uploading some pics as I go.

I'd love to get all the hats I made from my free pattern (see my patterns segment if you'd like to take a looksy) and line them up for some photos. How twee! I still have some of them (my own one, the xmas hats) but one has already gone to it's new home (and she STILL hasn't paid me for it >:|) so I guess it'll have to be a pic without the fluffy white sister hat. Oh well, every family reunion has someone missing!

So on to the topic of conversation today- hooks! Ah, hooks, such a joy to behold and to hold! :D
The reason I'm blogging about hooks is that I lost my 6mm and 3.5mm on Saturday (I later found them but that's not the point) and had to go buy replacements as these are two of the four sizes I use most often (the other two being 4mm and 5mm if you're interested).

This got me to considering my own hooks. I have a 3mm and a 3.5mm that my mum gave me (generic Pony hooks, good enough for me!) but the rest are ones I've bought. I have a Tunisian hook (3.5mm as if you care!) that I bought with the intention of learning to TC so I could make a big old Afghan. It still ain't happened. I keep ending up with a shrivelled thing that looks like a mad scientist's attempt to create a robo-raisin gone horribly awry! So yes, still no TC in the essex hooker camp.

The hooks I bought were all purchased in Hobbycraft, which is a big UK craft store. There's not much space devoted to yarn arts (by that of course I mean crochet... and knitting *whinge*) but they do have some nice wool. The range of hooks they carry is just Pony and Palette (the people who make Palette yarn) so it's kind of limiting to only have those kinds of hooks easily available.

Finally, I'm getting to my point ("at last", I can hear you shouting from here!). I don't mind crocheting with Pony's plastic hooks (although I actually prefer to use alu/s.steel when I can) but I hate the Palette ones with a rabid passion. The Palette alu hooks are fine (and green, my favourite colour, woo!). They're nice to work with, I admit, but the plastic ones (which are a "lovely" garish orangeypink- ugh!) drive me mad. I just can't use them. I just don't enjoy the feel of them in my hand, and I especially don't like the way the yarn makes that "skreeeeek" noise as you pull it through with the things. None of my other hooks make the yarn squeal- why should the plastic Palettes?

So the crux, or nub of the post if you will, is this: urgh plastic Palette hooks, yay metal.
I've put some big Addi hooks (12mm, 15mm, 20mm) on my Christmas list, as well as some bamboo or wooden ones in my preferred sizes to see how I fare with them. From what I've heard, wooden hooks just improve with age, and I intend on being a crochetier for a long time to come- I wonder what'll snap first, my hooks or my wristbones?

Ok, I guess that's it for today. Something tells me I should make a poll and ask my visitors what kind of hooks THEY like, rather than ranting about what I don't... I'll do it in a bit.

Oh yes, and the xmas stuff is STILL in production!