How do you hold your hook and work?

[Desirae]

I was on a thread at Crochetme where people were discussing how they hold their hooks. As I'm self taught and just held the hook how it felt natural, I don't really fall into the pencil or the knife category. I hold my hook almost as if I were holding a chopstick. I hold it just behind the grip spot and it rests on the first joint of my middle finger and the space between my thumb and forefinger. I control the hook by rolling my thumb back and forth over it to yarn over and pull the loops through. I hold my work with my thumb and forefinger of the opposite hand and control yarn tension with a loop around my pinkie and draped over my middle finger instead of index.

 

I was just wondering if anyone else had developed their own weird way of holding their hook or work and if anyone was familiar with my strange method! My aunt can't even watch me crochet, she says it hurts her eyes to look at it, but my tension is good and I can crochet fairly quickly too.

[magiccrochetfan]

Interesting question! I hold my hook almost like you describe, it rests on my middle finger at the joint closest to the fingertip, then on my index finger at the base of the finger, and I use my thumb to roll it. This is exactly the way i hold a pencil. I don't think I ever use the knife grip. The rolling motion seems really important for me, and I can't do that with a knife grip which just feels really awkward to me. I wind the yarn around my left hand differently than you most of the time, but sometimes i don't need much tension so just loosely hold it without really winding.

 

The way you describe your grip doesn't sound odd at all to me...:Djust a little difference in the angle from how I do it. What grip does your aunt use?

[Desirae]

She uses the knife grip but she holds her hand very crabbed up. I told her that she is bound to get arthritis with the way her hand looks all cramped up!

[magiccrochetfan]

Well, some of my best friends use the knife grip but it looks really awkward to me! If I try to use it I feel like I have to move my whole hand and wrist, but the pencil/chopstick;) grip allows me to just move my fingers, much more precise and comfortable for me!

[marikamum]

I hold slightly differently depending on what I am doing, the mood I am in, etc. but have noticed that with my holds and styles of handwriting as well...

 

I did receive a comment from one of my beginning crochet students as I worked out a bit of a swatch that I made it look difficult ( Thanks alot! )

 

This is because I move both hook and yarn when I am getting in a rhythm. I tend to use a knife type hold, but I think I hold it relatively lightly, not crabbed up, but I move my hook to catch and hold the yarn, and also throw the yarn over the hook with my yarn holding hand - which I drape over the front of my pinkie finger (with a loop or two if very slippery or fine yarn or thread) then feed behind my ring and middle fingers and loop over my index finger - controlling tension mostly with my index finger, but somewhat with the whole drape... Again, though, that holding method will vary with material, project and sometimes mood...

 

I find the pencil hold very tricky to manipulate, though I use it in certain instances - like for the crab stitch/reverse single crochet - and sometimes seem to gravitate towards a hold somewhere between knife and pencil.

 

Cheers!

[Nila]

I always hold my hook like a knife, or maybe closer to a toothbrush as I've seen other people describe. And my yarn just goes over the back of my wrist, down between my pinkie and ring finger, and then back up between my middle and pointer fingers. Any more drag on the yarn drives me crazy.

 

I've noticed my crochet style is changing lately.

 

The way I've done it forever was to hop my fingers over the hook to wrap it when doing sc, and to lift them up and sweep the hook under them when in a rhythm with any larger stitch. I'd always then grip the fabric with my pointer and thumb.

 

Now I find myself more holding the yarn up with my pointer and grabbing from there. And I grip the work with my middle and thumb. I don't know why I started doing it, but for certain stitches like dc it's good once I get into a rhythm.

 

The new way is a bit more stressful on my hand though, and it's not easy to do with all stitches, so I do a bunch of swapping back and forth between the two methods.

[jimbo]

Here's a thread I started awhile back.... see if you can pick out your grip style from the ones shown there.....

 

 

http://www.crochetville.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19098&highlight=post+picture+grip+style&page=2

 

My conclusion from that thread is that there are MANY different ways to hold a hook... all of them right.

 

Jimbo

[miss scarlet]

I hold my hook like a knife. Tried to hold it like a pencile but didn't get to far.

[flyinghigh]

I knife it. I hold my work in the left, and I haven't ever been able to hold my yarn in my left hand as well.. So I keep it with the right and have a slight pause to wrap the yarn around the hook. It may not be the fastest, but it feels alright for me.