Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Bamboo Crochet Hook Review

This week I'm staying at my boyfriend's place, and thought I'd be perfectly happy crocheting the socks I started about half a year ago to get them out of the way. Wrong! I wanted to crochet other stuff since I'm not enjoying making these socks, but had only brought a teeny tiny hook with me, so the boyfriend graciously offered to take me to Walmart and buy another hook and some yarn. They didn't have any metal hooks, so I just grabbed the 5.0mm bamboo hook figuring it'll be basically the same thing but eco-friendly. Wrong!

There was definitely a learning curve to using this new crochet hook. Firstly, bamboo itself is a rougher material than the smooth metal I was used to. While it felt pretty similar in my hand, it was much harder to run it through the yarn. This, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. While it was initially very frustrating to be slowed down, I realized it was helping me loosen up my stitches. I am perpetually making my stitches too tight, so I definitely recommend a bamboo hook to anyone with this problem, especially beginners who haven't learned to be conscious about their stitches. After finishing a dish cloth I had quite gotten used to this aspect of the hook and was nearly up to my normal speed, but with looser stitches.

That said, it also has a prominent downside. I'm not sure if it's because of the bamboo material or the actual hook is too shallow, but I am constantly losing my yarn on this hook. Sometimes I have to try to yarn over two or three times before it finally catches. This is something that hasn't gone away with a little practice, at least not for me. I'm on my third dish cloth and it still happens fairly regularly. Maybe more practice will help, and seeing as I have no other options for hooks right now, I will definitely touch base to let you guys know if anything changes this week!

Curious about trying a bamboo hook? Order one up and tell me what you think. If you prefer bamboo hooks over metal hooks, let me know why in the comment!