Friday, September 07, 2007

the costs of being a hooker

After a mammoth dyeing session (er, that's mammoth as in "huge" as opposed to mammoth as in "extinct mammal"!) on Wednesday I now have lots of Jaeger Como in wild colour mixes inspired by (a) the blackberry bush next to which I did the dyeing (on a pasting table in the garden) and (b) a somewhat Gustav Klimt palette of golds and oranges, with flashes of greens and turquoises. Since I'm totally hooked on croceheted ripple stitch scarves at the moment I think I'll use the yarn to make more. But, big but, I realised that I'd need some large hooks. The ball band specifies 8mm, but I like drape, so I've decided to try 9mm, too.

Alas, I couldn't find any in my supplies bag. So off to town. And the awful discovery that the only large crochet hooks available in Cambridge at the moment are Pony hooks. AARGH. I hate Pony hooks. The hooked end is all catchy and splitty! After several months of intensive crochet I've realised that my top favourite hooks are susan Bates silverlume aluminium (and not just because of the gorgeous colours), followed by Britanny, followed by any other hook that isn't Pony.

Worse was to come. Not only did I have to buy Pony hooks, but in these large sizes they cost £3.30 each. Ouch.

End of rant!

3 comments:

Ambermoggie, a fragrant soul said...

ouch that is expensive:(

Lyndsey-Jane said...

thats the problem with cambridge - expensive and not much of a selection! By the title of the post I was expecting some Rugby related news. I will have a one track mind over the next 6 weeks - its the men in tight shorts that does it!

Alison said...

order some of the surina hooks, they are beautiful and have good defined hooks.
i got mine on the skipnorth junket to winghams, and they sell them mail order. the plain, without fancy turned heads are around £2.50 - £2, so the same price as the pony ones, but much nicer. as far as I know, the silvalume hooks only go up to 6.5mm, maybe 7. the biggest i have is K, and that's 6.5. susan bates do the crystallites in bigger sizes, KCG sell them here.