Favorite Tools & Things

[Kiki]

Does anybody else have a favorite crochet tool or something special? For me, it's a bag that was my grandmother's purse in days gone by that I now use as a "ready bag". Click the link below to see it!

 

Grandma's Bag

[Luvmyrott'nboy]

That is a great bag! Gee whiz, it brought back memories of my childhood...my mom had summer bags like that. She may still have them as she throws NOTHING away:)

 

My favorite "crochet thing" is a large straw basket that I keep on my coffee table. It hold my WIPs, hooks, knitting needles (cannot get into knit yet!) and yarn scraps for my stitch experiments.

 

I love the way it looks full of colorful yarn, hooks and stuff.

[Kiki]

I have had to take my baskets of yarn and projects and tuck them in. I have a cat who has decided to protest the other female cat we are guesting by peeing on my yarn! I usually have 2 huge Americana baskets filled with yarn and hooks and needles that I love!

[Kiki]

I have my mother's thread hooks, too, but I have yet to try them!

[jimbo]

not related to crochet, but its my dad's old banjo that he used to play, with my mom on guitar when we lived on the ranch. The fretboard is worn from his fingers and every time i look at it i can remember good times we had up there... and it fuels my dream of rebuilding the place... which is the same place my hooks originated (so there is a tie there to crochet afterall....albeit a little stretched)

[Kiki]

I have things like that too. My grandmother gave me all of her hats for my birthday, from the days when ladies wore hats! I have them on a special display board on my wall!

[Qmare]

not related to crochet, but its my dad's old banjo that he used to play, with my mom on guitar when we lived on the ranch. The fretboard is worn from his fingers and every time i look at it i can remember good times we had up there... and it fuels my dream of rebuilding the place... which is the same place my hooks originated (so there is a tie there to crochet afterall....albeit a little stretched)

 

Hi Jimbo... does your family still own the ranch? What wonderful memories. The kind of stuff I dreamed of while growing up in the city!! Now I am blessed to have kids who play to me on their guitars! Life is good, eh?

[jimbo]

Well...ok here you go.

the short answer, is yes... i was able to buy the ranch back a few years ago... well at least 30 acres of it (and that's where the wood for my hooks come from... sacred stuff, that wood). And my dream is to build a cabin where i can get whats left of the family back together for gatherings like we used to have (thats where the proceeds from my hook sales go to).

Here's the long answer:

I only lived there a few years when i was little.. then my dad got sick and we had to sell the place to survive, and move to a town where he'd be closer to hospitals and such. He died when i was in the second grade and from that time (in 1953) its been my life dream to get the place back. And i did on Oct. 4, 2000.

Some of my best earliest memories are from up there and i'm swept back in time whenever i can go up and spend a little time there. Mom and dad used to play for dances in a tiny one room school about a mile or so down the road from our house (which is no longer standing). They'd slide the desks aside, sprinkle the floor with sawdust and Ivory soap flakes, and all the folks from the area would come to dance. Us kid's would slide around the floor in our stocking feet till we wore out and then lay on benches along the wall till we drifted off listening to the music and laughter. We hardly had a dime, but i wouldn't trade those memories for anything. Yes indeed life is good and memories like that... oh they just make me smile at the oddest times.

Oh, i could tell you stories for hours on THAT topic.

[jimbo]

aw geez... i went and turned the topic a bit. Well, to get it back.. mom crocheted, when she wasn't washing clothes or us in the tub, or stoking the cook stove, or feeding the chickens, fishing the crick... she crocheted stuff. And she taught my sister Sandy to crochet too. I think Sandy's got mom's old hooks and maye even a doiley or two, and she'll tell you they're HER favorite tools (if i could ever get her to post something).

[Hounddog]

I have my mother's steel crochet hooks and my mother-in-law's metal embroidery hoop. The hoop still has cork inside the hoops.

[goldi316]

Wow, jimbo - wish I could sit by a roaring fire on that land of yours listening to you reminisce. I LOVE hearing stories like these! I'm so glad you were able to get even a piece of that land back. And it is going to make those hooks I get from you even more special in my mind, thinking they came from there.

 

It's funny, there's always been country in my blood even though I was born and raised in an urban environment. Most people are surprised when I tell them I'm a "city gal", they always insist I struck them as a "country gal" instead, lol! I've always felt like a fish out of water in the city, but haven't been successful in my efforts to escape! Yet... I dream of having a little cottage in the country, with enough land to have a good-size food garden and lots of flower beds. :dreaming

 

As far as favorite crochet tools go, hmmm. I can't really point to any one thing, just all my tools in general. The vast majority of what I have, tool-wise, I inherited from my mil from my first marriage. She is with me every time I pick up a hook, or even a needle for weaving in those evil tails! I cherish the lot of it, even the cheesy plastic hooks, of which I estimate I have somewhere well over 100 - 40 in size F alone! Though not quite as numerous, she left me a lot of aluminum ones too, at last count I had 25 F hooks and about as many in size J too, not counting hooks hiding out with the WIPs. We used to joke that she must have robbed a craft shop, to have so many hooks! That woman was never caught without some project in process, she was prolific, and she gave most of it away, made many many people happy. She's been gone over 20 years and I miss her still. She was, and still is, my main inspiration to crochet.

[eurolyons]

My favorite crochet tools...my cheetah print handle Ginghar scissors, my leopard fun fur print zippered pencil bag that I use to hold all my hooks, scissors and so on...I love my hooks...love my books...especially my stitchery encyclopedia (actually I have more than one, but the one I use the most is the first one I ever got...it's like from the 70's...)

[Kiki]

Wow, jimbo - wish I could sit by a roaring fire on that land of yours listening to you reminisce. I LOVE hearing stories like these! I'm so glad you were able to get even a piece of that land back. And it is going to make those hooks I get from you even more special in my mind, thinking they came from there.

 

It's funny, there's always been country in my blood even though I was born and raised in an urban environment. Most people are surprised when I tell them I'm a "city gal", they always insist I struck them as a "country gal" instead, lol! I've always felt like a fish out of water in the city, but haven't been successful in my efforts to escape! Yet... I dream of having a little cottage in the country, with enough land to have a good-size food garden and lots of flower beds. :dreaming

 

As far as favorite crochet tools go, hmmm. I can't really point to any one thing, just all my tools in general. The vast majority of what I have, tool-wise, I inherited from my mil from my first marriage. She is with me every time I pick up a hook, or even a needle for weaving in those evil tails! I cherish the lot of it, even the cheesy plastic hooks, of which I estimate I have somewhere well over 100 - 40 in size F alone! Though not quite as numerous, she left me a lot of aluminum ones too, at last count I had 25 F hooks and about as many in size J too, not counting hooks hiding out with the WIPs. We used to joke that she must have robbed a craft shop, to have so many hooks! That woman was never caught without some project in process, she was prolific, and she gave most of it away, made many many people happy. She's been gone over 20 years and I miss her still. She was, and still is, my main inspiration to crochet.

 

You have quite the collection! I only have doubles on 1 hook!!

[Kiki]

My favorite crochet tools...my cheetah print handle Ginghar scissors, my leopard fun fur print zippered pencil bag that I use to hold all my hooks, scissors and so on...I love my hooks...love my books...especially my stitchery encyclopedia (actually I have more than one, but the one I use the most is the first one I ever got...it's like from the 70's...)

 

Leopard print?! That's funny! I use a cow spot pencil case! And those have to be some great scissors!!

[Sherri1]

Love the bag! I have lot's of bags but nothing that sentimental. My sentimental thing is my Grandma's crochet hooks and knitting needles.

[eurolyons]

Leopard print?! That's funny! I use a cow spot pencil case! And those have to be some great scissors!!

 

Yep! Ginghar shears are like the Rolls Royce of shears in my opinion...I have 4 pair...but until recently never had a pair with cheetah print handles...found them at Joann.com and tried in vain to not buy them...but with 50% off coupon, free shipping and the fact that they were marked down too, got them (and a pair of embroidary scissors) for half price...I was in hog heaven when they got here...I love them and they are ONLY for my crochet projects...my sewing machine has it's own pair of Ginghar shears (non cheetah print handles though) and then I have a 20 year old pair that are in serious need of a sharpening...

[Kiki]

I have one pair, pinking shears, and I adore them!

[melissacrochets]

Y'all are so inspirational! I don't have anything "favorite." My crochet is just all over my house. I guess my house would be my favorite crochet thing.

[LadyBeBop]

My favorite crochet thing? The 58 inch television in the living room; I watch a lot of TV as I crochet.

[eurolyons]

My favorite crochet thing? The 58 inch television in the living room; I watch a lot of TV as I crochet.

 

Have to add, my portable dvd player...because if Serenghetti gets too out of hand while I'm trying to crochet, I can take my crocheting, and the player and lock myself in my room...

[Kiki]

The TV is essential for me, too!!

[chickpea67]

In Real Simple a few issues back they had an article on treasured family possessions. One lady had her grandmothers knitting bag...it was gorgeous-- looked alike a little leather bucket with room for all her needles on the outside--what I wouldn't give for one of those! (Kinda looked like a bucket boss--the things men can put around the outside of a bucket that holds all their tools)

[eurolyons]

Have to add, my portable dvd player...because if Serenghetti gets too out of hand while I'm trying to crochet, I can take my crocheting, and the player and lock myself in my room...

 

I actually had to do this today...I wanted to work on a project, she was too wired for sound for me to deal with, so I went to my room with the project and the dvd player and Chicken Run...I hate to leave her out of the loop, but better that than to get seriously annoyed at her...we had a much better day after that...

 

That leather bucket sounds cool...

[Kiki]

In Real Simple a few issues back they had an article on treasured family possessions. One lady had her grandmothers knitting bag...it was gorgeous-- looked alike a little leather bucket with room for all her needles on the outside--what I wouldn't give for one of those! (Kinda looked like a bucket boss--the things men can put around the outside of a bucket that holds all their tools)

 

Lonaberger had one of those for some of their baskets!

[TracyD]

My grandmother used to crochet long before I was born. She filled up her "hope chest" with not only crocheted things but she also did embroidery and cutwork! (If you're not familiar with cutwork, it's very fine and amazing to see - I'm still not sure how she did it). She got married in 1927, so you can imagine how old this stuff is. Believe it or not, my mom still has most everything she made. Grandma was very frugal, and she didn't like to put out her fine handiwork because she didn't want it to get dirty! So, we have several boxes of very fine starched linens, and her doilies and table runners can be found all over my mom's house.

 

My mom took up crochet for a while, but with yarn, not thread. Grandma only did thread crochet. So, when I took up crochet, my mom passed along grandma's steel hooks (we always called them "needles"), which she kept in an old cigar tube (from HAVANA). Some are Boyes, but the old Susan Bates ones are truly amazing - far superior to what Bates is putting out now. The tiniest ones are a little bent on the end - not hard to tell which ones she really used!

 

So grandma's old hooks are my favorites. Even though I never saw her crochet, I can almost see her hands when I look at my own. It's a strange feeling.

 

Cheers,

 

Tracy