This is what a birch hook looks like...

...after a little dog named Stuart Little gets a hold of it:

Crochet Hook Roll for Birch Hooks

I needed a crochet hook roll for my new birch hooks, and today, I spontaneously made one. It's made from pink and green fabric I bought at Joann's a couple of months ago. Here's what it looks like:

I wish the print on the green fabric went in the other direction, but oh, well... too late now!

The birch hook and Square Target

Yesterday I wrote that I was aggravated with the shallow throat on the birch hooks that I bought because I kept splitting the yarn. Well after I wrote that, I finished making the crochet square I was working on, and I didn't split the yarn a single time after that! Too funny. Not sure if I just got my groove on or what, but I didn't have any other problems.


Here's the "Square Target" square I made from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. It's an easy/1-hook pattern. I made it in Lt. Celery, Robin Egg and Medium Thyme. Sorry the phto is blurry.

Bamboo vs. Birch...

So... I started working with the 4mm/G birch hook that I got in the mail yesterday afternoon, and I HOPE I'm not going to regret my purchase. As you can see in the picture below, the hooks are beautiful with the turned ends, and I like that they're extra long.

However, check out the picture below. The hook in the front is the bamboo hook and the one in the rear is the birch one. Notice how deep the throat is on the bamboo hook; it's twice as deep as the birch one. As a result, I've been having a hard time because I keep splitting the yarn when I'm using the birch hook. Maybe this is something I'll get better at with more use, but right now, that's incredibly frustrating, and I hope it's something I can work around.

Oh yeah: birch crochet hooks!

Oh yeah! My new Britany birch crochet hooks arrived yesterday afternoon! I am SO happy to get them. I was going to empty the hook roll I made for my metal hooks and house these birch ones in it, but the birch hooks are 9" long and that hook roll only fits 6" long hooks. So, I'll have to make another roll (which is fine--I'm getting good at making them).

I'm such a dork!

My bamboo hooks are marked with the mm size on them and not the letter. So, I used the laser and engraved the letters on them. To MAKE SURE I wouldn't engrave on top of the mm marking, I engraved at the very end of the hook. A minor inconvenience, but I've been having to pull the entire hook out of its pocket to see what the mm and letter size are. Duh! I just realized I can put them in the pockets hooks down so the ends are visible! Why didn't I think of that before?

Birch Crochet Hooks

Okay, okay! I totally didn't need them, but I ordered an 11-piece ultimate set of Brittany Birch Hooks from Jimmy Beans Wool. I only need a 3.75mm/F because I don't have that size in bamboo, and I want/need one because I don't like the blunt-nosed metal Boyle's hook that I have. This set is D, E, F, G, G+, H, I, J, K, L and M. I'm getting used to mm sizes so the letter sizes are starting to feel foreign.

The set I bought doesn't come with a silk holder like the $101 sets have, but I'm getting good at making crochet hook rolls so I'll just make another one for this set (or I may just use the roll I made for my metal hooks instead--I'll banish those back to the zippered case I had them in).

The only reason I fell in love with these hooks is because I like the cool turned decoration at the ends! I'm really not sure why I couldn't find these hooks when I was buying the bamboo ones because I would have bought this set instead. I searched for "wood crochet hooks" and I guess I was stuck on bamboo, and ignored the birch ones. I also found several very expensive hooks (like $25+ each). I LOVE those, but I'm not buying them for myself.