Toucans, hooks and shawls

While on holidays I started my first crochet shawl. I’ve knit many shawls but had never crocheted one for some unknown reason. The pattern I chose was the Elise shawl (Ravelry link) and it has been plain sailing and very enjoyable to crochet. There are only two rows to remember which makes it very easy to do. The yarn I’m using is Malabrigo sock and it’s gorgeous to work with and I just love the bright pink. In fact I was loving everything about this project until the crochet hook I was using started to really annoy me. I use a few different kinds of hooks. My favourite ones are the Clover hooks as they have a big comfy handle and the metal is smooth so the yarn slides easily on them. I have them in the sizes I use most, they are more expensive than other hooks though. For the other sizes I use Pony hooks as they are easy to get and fairly inexpensive. From 4.5mm down the Pony hooks are made of metal and are fine apart from the fact they don’t have a comfy grip. I usually prefer metal hooks as I find the yarn slides over them more easily. The larger Pony hooks are plastic and I was using a 5.5mm one.

The problem is with the little groove where the size of the hook is printed. You can see it clearly in the picture here. Every time I made a stitch the loop would slide up and get stuck in the groove. Maybe it’s the way I crochet and it wouldn’t bother some people but it started to really irritate me. I’ve checked my other Pony hooks and my 6mm hook doesn’t have this annoying groove and 6mm is embossed on it higher up than on the 5.5mm. I got a Clover 5.5mm hook which solved the problem and I started flying along happily on the shawl again.

I’m still working away on the shawl, I seem to be working on loads of things all at once these days. I’m hoping to get the numbers of projects down to a manageable level soon though. I did manage to get one thing finished recently. A friend asked me ages ago to crochet him a toucan and well who am I to argue with a request like that? It just so happened that I had just the pattern. I found a toucan in Brigette Read’s Super super cute crochet and promised to make him. Reading the reviews just now it seems like many people had problems with the patterns in this book. I have to say I didn’t find anything wrong with the pattern for the toucan at all. Now saying that I’ve made quite a few crochet toys at this stage and am used to the usual construction and increasing and decreasing methods. To me most crochet toys are made in a similar way so perhaps I just didn’t notice any mistakes. Perhaps a beginner might find it more difficult. I was very pleased with how the toucan turned out especially his fabulous beak. I made sure the beak would have the proper curve by stuffing a pipe cleaner into it and using that to give the right shape. However the real test was whether my friend would like him. Thankfully he was very pleased with him.

I’ve finally started some baby knitting and am making quick progress so I should be back here soon with some cute finished stuff to show you.