Finding larger hooks.

[wyndwalkr]

Hi !

 

I am a country bumpkin who has to make a LONG DRIVE to the BIG CITY for anything less than the most common (I.E. Walmart stocked) supplies. Me and the BIG CITY try to avoid one another. So I count on buying online mostly.

 

I VERY MUCH prefer the narrow necked "Boye" style crochet hooks. I am having trouble finding a source to add sizes L and M to my collection. I have an N in aluminum and find it is not too heavy for me, but I would be willing to try plastic (I am really thinking "ick" here...but I'm willing ) but what I find of those seem to be fat neck "Bates" style. I would guess for strength, the narrow neck ones should probably not be plastic anyway.

 

Can any of you out there tell me where I might find what I'm looking for?

 

Thanks a bunch!

[FrLopLady]

Amazon.com. I found the larger size soft touch hooks there that I've never seen in the stores. I don't know that I've ever seen anything larger than the N in metal. M hooks are not very common it seems?

[teapot]

Hey a fellow country bumpkin!!!! I too live far from a good craft store!!!

I would avoid the plastic hooks for they are not that great.

Hope you find a good source!!!

[acraftylady]

You can order directly from Jo-Anne craft store online and pretty sure can find those size hooks on the site. If not I bet you could get them on ebay. My metal M hook is Jo-Anne's sensation brand and I got it from ebay and my metal L is Boye and I bought it right at the craft store with a 40% coupon. Another good site with speedy shipping for hooks is www.123stitch.com. Wonderful lady to order from and she has tons of stuff so check and see if she has those hooks and if not email and she can probably get them for you. Mary

[acraftylady]

Ok simplicity has the boye aluminum L. I don't know if boye makes an aluminum M. As I said mine is Jo-Anne's sensations brand M and I got it off ebay because the store had stopped selling them when I needed it. Mary

[RoseRed]

Believe it or not, the plastic that the large Bates hooks are made from really does have a nice 'slide' to it. They're really not icky to work with at all.

 

Other than that - I really can't help much. I'm a Bates girl so I've never gone looking.

[acraftylady]

I have a plastic L and a boye metal L and that one I prefer the metal. Now my small and large P hooks are plastic and are good too as they don't make those in metal. Mary

[Chrysantha]

I just got some from www.paradisefibers.net that are WONDERFUL ( I aslo got some Kollage yarn, 80% milk and 20% cotton thats the BEST feeling stuff)...they're from Kollage and they're square wooden with a metal head, for those of 'us' with RA. it's THE best money I've spent in a LONG time for hooks.

[jimbo]

OR.... you can make your own! I did a hook making tutorial in my blog. You can check it out at

 

http://jimbosfrontporch.blogspot.com/2006/08/hook-in-progress-gone-to-crick-be-back.html

 

you can make one as big as you like with a hook and throat as you like, from wood you've gathered right there on the farm.

[acraftylady]

I just got some from www.paradisefibers.net that are WONDERFUL ( I aslo got some Kollage yarn, 80% milk and 20% cotton thats the BEST feeling stuff)...they're from Kollage and they're square wooden with a metal head, for those of 'us' with RA. it's THE best money I've spent in a LONG time for hooks.

 

 

Can you post a direct link to them please. I looked under crochet hooks at knit picks but those are not listed. Is the tip like susan bates or boye? I love those susan bates bambook hooks but I can't crochet with their tip and I need a tip like the boye hooks. The susan bates tip catches and snags the yarn, think it's jut the way I crochet that the boye style does not do that for me. Mary

[wyndwalkr]

Thanks Jimbo! (OMGosh, a new blog to follow!) I have actually made a hook from a wood dowel. Oak, so give me credit for that task! That was because I wanted a larger Tunisian hook than was available. It would be nice to have one of the really fatter hooks in wood rather than plastic and made my me!

 

Thanks everybody for the suggestions so far, I'm busy looking them up.

[wyndwalkr]

Humph. I'm still looking. I believe I have discovered that the actual Wright's/Boye company does not make an M. But I do not neccessarily need that brand but that tapered throat style.

 

One can look through pages and pages of crochet hooks, like on Amazon, and they are not described well enough to know the style so you squint at the pictures and can't tell. I am beginning to think fat neck flat head (showing my prejudice here ) hooks are taking over!! Could it be that a lot of preference depends on how one holds the needle and so many crochet TV shows and tutorials and teaching videos have one holding the hook like a pencil. ( gives me the creeps to watch!) while hold my hook like a trowel. Maybe the 'pencils' are Bates people and the 'trowels' are Boye people?

 

I'm keepin' lookin'.......

[jimbo]

Thanks Jimbo! (OMGosh, a new blog to follow!) I have actually made a hook from a wood dowel. Oak, so give me credit for that task! That was because I wanted a larger Tunisian hook than was available. It would be nice to have one of the really fatter hooks in wood rather than plastic and made my me!

 

Thanks everybody for the suggestions so far, I'm busy looking them up.

 

Making a hook from oak is quite a challenge. Oak isn't my most favorite hook wood.

I did some extensive research and found an M, sitting right here in front of me between my keyboard and the screen where these words are magically appearing. I believe the hook was made pretty much for trowel holders, by an old reprobate with a soft spot for bumpkins and who might be sweet talked into sending it to you free.....

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ebHqXidLuc8/TcrM8eSY-XI/AAAAAAAABaw/Zg2kkHjhrIs/s1600/IMG_0601.JPG

It, of course, is the darker hook of the two, the top being a Q egg hook, made for egg holders... heh.

PM me if you'd like to give the M a spin...

[wyndwalkr]

An update: I did find that Skacel/Addi offers (in glitter infused plastic) a L, M and the really obscure O, and they are $6.49 each off of Ebay at this time. I haven't ordered yet. Trying to search out every possibility.

 

Thanks Jimbo! Is there really someone out there who willingly gives up a hook from their collection?!* Except for the dowel hook that I made, and a plastic Q for many a rag rug, I have used nothing but aluminum all my life. Would like to try wood for yarn. Will be in touch.

 

We are not living in a time when there seems many soft spots for bumpkins. Thanks, too.

 

*When my mom passed, I got her crochet hooks. She did not crochet much with yarn--thread edgings and doilies in her younger years--so many small hooks. But there were a couple small Bates hooks. They work really well for cleaning the oogly clog out of bathroom drains!!

[DogCatMom]

Regular crochet hooks by Chiao-Goo made from bamboo can be ordered from Bargain Yarns in sizes H-8 (5mm) through P-16 (11.5mm).

 

Chiao-Goo also makes 9-inch and 13-inch Tunisian hooks in sizes E-4 (3.5mm) through P-16 (11.5mm), as well as flexible Tunisian hooks: 24" and 32" available in G through P; 40" and 60" available in M through P.

 

Bargain Yarns also offers the Susan Bates four-hook set L through P (L, M, N, and P).

 

I ordered the 13-inch Tunisian hooks in April and absolutely love working with them.

 

DCM

[acraftylady]

Keep checking ebay in fact you can put what hooks you want in your ebay favorites and every time they come up you will get an email so can bid on the auction right away, one of my favorite features of ebay. Ebay is your best bet for hard to find stuff. Surprised Jo-Anne's online didn't have them as I am pretty sure they had them before on the site to order.

 

I don't know if it was an O I saw but a few years ago and the knit and crochet convention here some booth had this really really huge wooden hook, I think it was actually a U and she also had the gigantic knitting needles too, was very neat to see people using these in person. Mary

[DogCatMom]

Lion Brand sells its own brand of larger crochet hooks. This page displays the S-19 (35mm) red "speed hook." Joann's online store is offering the same hook right now (tonight, don't know for how long) on a special.

 

I just found this presentation on the development of the large-sized crochet hooks in modern times.

 

The Denise interchangeable crochet hook kit goes from F up to Q. You can make the hooks almost any length you need to, since more than one cord can be attached to one head: Head + Cord #1 + connector + Cord #2 + end button, for example. But more connectors and more cords could be inserted.

 

Absolutely *the* largest crochet hooks I've seen offered are at http://www.stitchdiva.com. She sells hooks made by Ed Jenkins Woodworking in the following sizes (regular length, maple, $20 each):

 

N - 10 mm

O - 11 mm

P - 12.75 mm

Q - 15.75 mm

R - 17 mm

S - 19mm

T - 22mm

U - 25 mm

V - 28 mm

 

Stitch Diva also offers Tunisian hooks by Ed Jenkins Woodworking. I purchased an "S" Tunisian hook from Stitch Diva in April and just now, for this post, measured it. The wooden head is 10.75" from point of head to end, where the flexible cord is attached; the cord adds another 25" of available length, so the crocheter can really pack TONS of stitches in! The Tunisian hooks are available in the following sizes (flexible cord, maple, $30 each):

 

N - 10 mm

O - 11 mm

P - 12.75 mm

Q - 15.75 mm

R - 17 mm

S - 19 mm

 

I hope this additional information helps those who are actively looking for large hooks.

 

DCM

[Knitting Lene]

I have different Tunesian crochet needles. Some made of wood and 2 which I'm sure are made of bones (they are from before plastic was invented) from my grandmother (fathers mother born in 1886). I have some of metal and 2 belonging to my knit pro set of knitting needles with loose wires, 2 of plastic which I got some years ago in the 1980's and 2 small of wood with a hook in each end which I bought in Sweden last autumn.

 

So I don't have an excuse for not making Tunesian crochetting.

[tas]

I'm starting Tunisian crochet as well, which is why I'm looking around here. Usually I do thread crochet with a 1.75 steel hook, it has a lovely long narrow taper, but it seems they don't make'em any more. Instead, those thick necked things make the longer stitches loopy and ugly. I wonder if the same applies in Tunisian?

 

Bec

[tas]

"But there were a couple small Bates hooks. They work really well for cleaning the oogly clog out of bathroom drains"

 

HOW COULD YOU????

 

 

 

If we lived on the same continent I would come and steal/save the poor abused things, that'd teach you!

 

Bec

 

(good luck with the Tunisian)

[Grammie Essa]

Have you tried the lighted crochet hooks? By doing a Google search? They have lites built-in and then when the electricity goes out in the winter in the country , your prepared to continue crocheting in the dark.can't think of the brand name right now and my hook is at my desk at work. Google it!