Post a picture of your grip style

[Ladycrochat]

Wow this is really interesting! My grip is like Donnalynn's..I guess you call it the toothbrush grip!..How many different types are there? Amazing that there are so many different ways to do the same thing! And I think the calender is a cool idea! I would buy it!

[jimbo]

Yeah Debbie i think its fascinating. Your grip is probably most like Lisa at post #61 or Madeline's at post #86, i'd guess... if you are a Donna gripper. Kinda like a steak knife? Right?

[Ladycrochat]

Very similar, but my pointy finger is curled under the hook like in post number 89..... I need my teen aged son to help me take the photo and upload it, and he is traveling at the moment.....if you can wait until Sunday or so when he gets back???......I call this the toothbrush grip because it is like I hold my toothbrush too!

[natcat]

Since I've been using Jimbo's hooks, I haven't had the trouble with my hand I did before:cheer

[Shelleden]

I just got my Jimbo hook! I posted pics on another thread called My new pretties. I love my new hook. I think I'm going to sell my 2,000 aluminum ones! My grip is like Donnalynn's. One of my aluminum hooks is worn down where it rubs my hand.

 

 

[thecrochetdude]

Here ya go:

 

 

[Ladycrochat]

Oh Jimbo!!! There you go! My grip is just like the Dude's! What grip style would you call that?

[natcat]

Well, I have the same grip too, what is it called??

[nucki]

Oh Jimbo!!! There you go! My grip is just like the Dude's! What grip style would you call that?

 

"Dudette" of course!!!!!

[jimbo]

I was thinking something along the lines of

Debaroldude...... ladies first,you know.

A fun kind of grip to whittle for, i have to say.

[Ladycrochat]

I like it Jimbo! ! What do you say Dude???? Carol???? BTW Jimbo sent an e-mail to you concerning your payment Please get back to me about it ASAP.....thanks...I am already making plans for my hook.....BIG PLANS!!! :yes

[Aggie May]

I made this wee video and found that I could load it to Photobucket so here is my hold style.

Please excuse the weedy pots at the beginning. My husband thought he was making a feature movie.

 

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/Aggie2may/?action=view&current=Swimmingsocceretc.flv

Cool concept isnt it.

Can others make a Video too?

Have fun.

Colleen.

[crochet_queen_03]

Both hands together. My bf's mom says that I hold it weird and to her, she said I yo backwards lol.

Since I haven't seen anyone else do this with their left hand, I guess I hold it funny. My bent knuckle stays hurting anymore, and I've tried to change it but nothing works for me. (my purse pattern in my lap, that's what I was working on)

And then my right hand. I like to hold it really close to the hook part of it all. I have a better grip that way.

 

Mwahahahaha! Aggie May gave me an idea Here's my video

 

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b248/ChckLiz/Crochet/?action=view&current=102_1052.flv

 

Video by my mom

[Aggie May]

Crochet Queen,

What you do is a cross between left handed knitting, continental knitting & crochet.

Looking at your work, there is nothing wrong with your method, including the YO, I just have reservations about how long you can crochet with your left index finger bent so far, for so long.

Using my method, I can crochet for hours without getting sore hands, but if you dont have a problem, keep going as you are.

I love the ducky duck and the rest of your work & I would like to know how you got my cat Bella into your yarn basket.

Your work is beautiful, especially the spiral pattern. Makes my one look like an easy one to do, which it was. Linking the spirals together would take a bit of concentration.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/Aggie2may/TradeMe158.jpg

I think your mum was a better camera person then my husband. Maybe you even have a better camera but it is great to be able to add these Videos.

Have fun.

Colleen.

[crochet_queen_03]

... soo... I'm knitting and crocheting? well lol who knew

 

The spriral doily was something that my great grandma made, I think it's lovely and she must have had A LOT of patience when putting all that together! Maybe one day I'll try to make something like it

 

On the finger hurting part, when I'm crocheting I don't really notice it. It's really only when I touch it on something. All my fingers do that anymore but I really am starting to think I may be getting a touch of Carpal Tunnel which wouldn't surprise me (colorguard, gymnastics, painting, using the computer, cake decorating, and now crocheting... years of hard work on my hands, especially my right) so it wouldn't be a big surprise lol..

 

lol, I don't know how I got Bella in my yarn stash lol . I thought he looked sweet sitting there and he actually sat there for quiet a while until mom's dog came in the room, then he took off and went to play lol.

 

Yes I loved the videos!

 

Crochet Rules!

Elizabeth

[nucki]

Okay, it took me a couple of days to do this... first I had to FIND the camera... then CHARGE up the battery... then find somebody in the house to video me without constantly telling me how daft I am. (Finally found her... the 9 year old! )

 

But here ya go:

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c175/NuCkInGfUtZ_/Crochet/?action=view&current=CLIP0001.flv

 

I've tried the "sticky-uppy-finger" thing... but eventually, my fingers just revert back to this way. And one day, just out of curiosity, I tried holding my hook "pencil-style." There's NO WAY IN H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS I could EVER crochet like that. After just a few stitches my wrist started to hurt! I don't know how y'all who DO do that... DO THAT! I'm not saying it's wrong (just to clarify my point here!) but DAYUM! It would absolutely KILL me to do an entire project holding my hook like that!

 

It would be enough to make me want to STOP crocheting... and well... we don't want THAT now, do we?

[KnicKnac]

Ok, I thought it interesting that you all took videos of yourselves crocheting, so I did the same thing. I also wanted to find out if someone knew by looking at the way I crochet why I tend to always crochet so LOOSE. Every pattern I do I have to go down at least a hook size because my guage never matches. Anyway, here it is:

 

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h136/KnicKnac/?action=view&current=P1010004.flv

[Aggie May]

KnicKnack.

The only difference between how you and I crochet is that I hold my work between the left index finger and thumb and use my middle finger as the tension spring.

This may be the answer to your question but maybe you have done it that way for so long, it would be hard to change.

Using a different hook is probably still your best bet.

If you know that you need to do this, it should not be too much of a problem.

I find that after I have been working with thick yarn, which is not too often, I have a bit of trouble getting my tension right on finer yarns.

I do notice that a lot of people here use double thread and large hooks a lot of the time.

This could be a climate thing in parts of the US, thus you need thicker afghans.

In NZ, the climate is not too bad, except in certain places, so we tend to use finer yarns.

The main time you need to get your tension correct is when making clothing.

For most other things a bit loose does not matter so much.

Good on you for joining in with the video.

I think it makes it very interesting to see how others actually work.

I still think that Crochet Queen has the most inventive way of crocheting that I have ever seen in all of my 50 squillion years of crochet and knitting.

I have tried but cannot replicate what she does.

Have fun everyone and keep those videos rolling.

Colleen.

[KnicKnac]

Thank you Colleen for taking a look and giving me some thoughts. I have always felt it was my tension in my left hand that is the culprit to the looseness. I have tried to be tighter, but then it hurts and I feel like I am forcing things.

 

I do agree with you on the finer yarns. I just picked some up the other day, first time I dealt with very nice and expensive yarn. Boy what a difference. I need to go even smaller on the hook!

 

Crochet Queen crochets like my friend knits. She uses the style "continental" and that looks like what Crochet Queen is doing.

 

Thanks again!

[crochet_queen_03]

I'm just a little clueless.... how can I be doing something if I wasn't taught it?? lol. My bf's mom tried to teach me and all I could understand from her was how to ch, then instead of her trying to teach me how to do something simple in the beginning, like doing a slip st(she doesn't know how to do this I found out - she's been crocheting for years) or a sc, she went straight into teaching me how to do a dc. Well.. I didn't understand that, but I was doing something else, which I learned after purchasing a book on crocheting, was tc! She said she didn't even know that st existed. Who knows... lol

[funkyreporter]

 

My grip style, front and back... and what would this be called?

[nightowl]

Wow, it's fascinating looking at these videos. Everyone's method is different, but they all look so elegant. . . the hook dancing this way and that, the tension finger dipping up and down or flicking to and fro. .. it's like a dance! And nothing like what I do at all

 

I hold the yarn in my left hand, wrapped right around my little (pinky) finger and over the next two. My middle finger is the tension spring, to use Colleen's brilliant phrase, and I hold the work between my index finger and thumb.

 

I hold the hook like a knife, with the hook itself pointing left; I never turn it. It goes through the stitch and slightly upward, almost in a rocking motion, so that it automatically goes under the yarn and catches it as I pull the hook back. I don't move my yarn finger to throw the yarn over the hook, and I don't actively "hook" the yarn up either; there's just this in-and-up, back-and-down motion. Someone very early in the thread (mudpie?) likened her hook motion to the way needles on a knitting machine work, forward and back, and I think that's what I do too. [Edit: apologies, I was remembering another thread about "hooking" versus "throwing" the yarn.]

 

I suspect my method has been heavily influenced by having been a shuttle tatter, especially holding the yarn over the left middle finger and keeping it still. It seems to make my work nice and even but I'm not nearly as fast as those of you in the videos! Perhaps it's because the hook has to go quite a long way forward to go under the yarn and catch it?

 

The funny thing is that I learned to crochet as a little girl before I learned to tat, and as far as I can remember then I held the hook like a pencil and used to turn my hook over and back to catch the thread. But when I took up crochet seriously again a year or so ago it seemed automatic and natural to work like this. I hope you can understand what I mean; unfortunately I don't have a video camera or anyone to film me. I'd love to know if anyone else works like this, or hear any comments.

[jimbo]

 

My grip style, front and back... and what would this be called?

 

Just kidding...

I'd call it a Choked toothbrush

[funkyreporter]

Just kidding...

I'd call it a Choked toothbrush

 

 

A Choked Toothbrush:irk ... you call my grip style a Choked Toothbrush? And how did you come to this conclusion? The Encyclopedia of Crochet Grip Styles, Volume 3, calls this the Choked Toothbrush - not to be confused with the Stabbing Knife????

 

Fine. Choked Toothbrush it is.

[KnicKnac]

:laughroll :laughroll

:rofl :rofl

 

Chocked Toothbrush, how do you choke a toothbrush???