{"id":278,"date":"2013-02-09T13:07:17","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T13:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/?p=278"},"modified":"2013-02-09T13:07:17","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T13:07:17","slug":"review-chiaogoo-bamboo-steel-crochet-hook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/?p=278","title":{"rendered":"Review &#8211; Chiaogoo Bamboo &#038; Steel Crochet Hook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Notes: I\u2019m a natural left handed, \u2018knife\u2019 holder \u2013 but can work pencil hold and right handed.\u00a0 I\u2019ve worked all 4 styles for this review, but mostly for my natural preference.\u00a0 My preference for hooks is straight, tapered with a deep throat.\u00a0 I also have very small hands.\u00a0 Obviously using a hook for an hour is different to using one for a month and some of my \u2018issues\u2019 might simply be due to habitual practice and adversity to change \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For this review I tested a 1.8mm hook.<\/p>\n<h2>First impressions<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A lovely smooth handle which is warm to the touch and feels very secure in its attachment to the hook.<\/li>\n<li>Laser etching of the size (in metric and US) is clear and easy to read.<\/li>\n<li>Very light in the hand, with the weight being slightly forward (like a dart)<\/li>\n<li>Has a tapered, deep throat and a pointed head<\/li>\n<li>Slightly shorter in overall length than my \u2018vintage\u2019 steel hooks (and by slightly I mean a difference of less than \u00bd\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Touchable and I found myself wanting to hold the hook just to see how it fit in different parts of my hand.<\/li>\n<li>A 1.8mm hook is a slightly strange size as longer term UK crocheters would be more used to a 1.75mm or a 2mm sizing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Working with yarn<\/h2>\n<h2>The Hook<\/h2>\n<p>The hook is very slick and smooth on a variety of yarns and threads, creating a sense of almost no friction.\u00a0 The tapered head and deep throat are very good at picking up, and holding onto, the yarn and it was easy to get up a decent speed (for a new hook, there was very little \u2018learning curve\u2019).<\/p>\n<p>The length of the metal hook part is suitable for most stitches (including shorter bullion stitches). Though the hook shaft does taper slightly wider into the handle I don\u2019t think that would bother most users.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to be doing Tunisian, but the start of the handle is about the same place as the thumb rest on most of my other brands of crochet hook so has the same shaft length to go at as a standard hook (<em>the Lantern Moon hooks have almost no thumb rest and don\u2019t have this issue)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The head is a nice point which inserts into the stitches very nicely with a clean motion and made easy work of the crochet thread, 2ply and cobweb weight yarns I tried with the hook.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be honest, I <strong>adored<\/strong> the metal section (the hook and shaft) of this tool.<\/p>\n<h2>The Handle<\/h2>\n<p>The handle is so smooth it <em>almost<\/em> feels waxed or plastic (surprisingly) \u2013 but it is warm and comfortable to hold.\u00a0 It has a nice stable grip and is very easy to hold in terms of touch.\u00a0 I found myself picking it up just to feel it, and automatically held it in pencil hold, fairly far down on the shaft.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Chiagoo-hook.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chiagoo Hook profile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Chiagoo-hook-e1360414671266-300x65.jpg\" alt=\"Chiagoo Hook profile\" width=\"300\" height=\"65\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have a slight preference for the thin straight hooks with a relatively long handle and I found in knife hold that the end of the handle of the Chiaogoo was short enough that it rubbed uncomfortably on the outer edge of my palm \u2013 however I have very small (almost child sized) hands, and that might not be an issue for a \u2018normal\u2019 person as the end of the hook should nestle more into the palm.\u00a0 Pencil hold completely solved this problem.\u00a0 <em>Incidentally I have this exact same problem with my shorter straight hooks, so it\u2019s not an issue specific to this hook.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There was a little learning curve in finding the \u2018right\u2019 place for me to hold the hook. The shaping goes from a lovely flat plain at the back of the hook to a more rounded shape at the front.\u00a0 When you pick up the hook, your thumb wants to sit at the point of change, but I found in practice that this positioning was too far back for me and I wanted to work further up the hook.\u00a0 I also found in this \u2018natural\u2019 hold (the one you want to adopt on picking up) that it was difficult to get the little bit of roll needed to move the hook, which used a little bit more wrist action than I was used to \u2013 but nothing drastic.\u00a0 For me I found moving up the handle slightly to the more oval lozenge shaped barrel solved those problems.<\/p>\n<h2>Pros<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Very light<\/li>\n<li>Comfortable to use in Pencil Hold<\/li>\n<li><em>Very<\/em> fast hook<\/li>\n<li>Nice deep throat<\/li>\n<li>Warm to touch<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Cons<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Uncomfortable for me in Knife Hold<\/li>\n<li>Hand placement on Handle shaping needs a little thought\/practice to find the \u2018sweet spot\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Slight \u2018plastic\u2019 feeling of bamboo<\/li>\n<li>Some might find the hook too \u2018fast\u2019 (slick)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Would Suit People who prefer<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pencil hold<\/li>\n<li>Warm feeling hooks<\/li>\n<li>Broader holding areas<\/li>\n<li>Light hooks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Would I buy one?<\/h2>\n<p>This is a really nice tool, but I don\u2019t think I would, simply because of my own personal preferences of working style.<\/p>\n<p>If I had bought one as a trial I wouldn\u2019t be disappointed and would consider it money well spent, but I probably wouldn\u2019t buy any more (maybe in a sale, but even then only maybe)<\/p>\n<p>I <em>loved<\/em> the hook but wasn\u2019t over keen on the handle, if I could get that fabulous hook on a straight shaft I\u2019d buy the set!<\/p>\n<p><em>For \u201cscientific purposes\u201d I handed Mr TuesdayFortnite the Chiaogoo, a Clover SoftTouch, One of my Vintage steels and a Lantern Moon for comparison.\u00a0 My partner, a natural right handed, non-crocheter picked up all the hooks like a pen.\u00a0 He also naturally held the Chiaogoo down on the shaft but preferred the feel of my Clover soft touch and was surprised to hear the Chiaogoo was bamboo.\u00a0 Having taught him how to chain, he discovered he is actually a knife holder and found the Chiaogoo much less comfortable to hold in knife hold (and he has bigger hands than me ;-).\u00a0 His favourite overall was the Clover, but he could also see the appeal of the Lantern Moon.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Notes: I\u2019m a natural left handed, \u2018knife\u2019 holder \u2013 but can work pencil hold and right handed.\u00a0 I\u2019ve worked all 4 styles for this review, but mostly for my natural preference.\u00a0 My preference for hooks is straight, tapered with a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/?p=278\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[51,45],"tags":[5,49,48,50],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Ifg0-4u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuesdayfortnite.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}