#knitpicks

Here's the playlist.

If you've been wanting to knit/crochet this popular hue shift blanket, now's a good time because KnitPicks is having a big sale!

The Boye aluminum hooks are fine and affordable, but not the most comfortable to use as I'm getting older. I do prefer the tapered head hooks versus inline (I do NOT like the Bates hook I tried).

I tried a couple different things and ended up sending them back, then ordered the Knit Picks Dots set that I've heard about here and there.

They cost a little less on Amazon than on Knit Picks website, so that's where I ordered them, and overall they're inexpensive for a 9 count set.

I did read reviews and watch videos about them, and most people said the same things: The handles are great, and the hooks are not.

Since they're unpainted aluminum hooks, that's fixable, so I decided to risk it.

These aren't as sharply tapered as Bates hooks but are the same style of head, which is what I prefer. The hook extends past the shaft making it a little easier for me to catch the yarn and work more quickly. I find with an inline hook I miss or split the yarn a lot and have to redo more stitches, slowing me down in a way that's frustrating instead of meditative.

Auto-color-correct got a little silly there.

Everyone was right, the hooks are ROUGH. The feel horrible to work with, other than the smaller ones that are smoother. They're gross. Yucky. But the handles are PERFECT for my hands.

So I fixed them.

Now, you can use a buffer head on a Dremel if you have one but I don't and that can be expensive to get so I use a 4-sided nail buffing block like this:

These are inexpensive and easy to find. I need to get a bulk pack, though, because I use these for a lot of small, non-fingernail-related smoothing tasks around the house.

Anyway, you start at 1 and rub until it doesn't feel rough anymore then switch to 2, etc. I go the long way up and down the hook since that's the way the yarn moves but you can try tiny circles if you want. Tiny circles do give a better surface.

You can SEE how rough they are.... This was AFTER buffing.

Some of the reviews said that the larger hooks were roughest and that's pretty accurate for my set except my 3.0 had a teeny tiny burr that was ripping at the yarn and I had a hell of a time finding it to smooth it out. It was way up in the hook, and I had to get in there and burnish it smooth with the back side of an X-Acto blade to get rid of it.

These hooks take some work to be excellent but I do feel like the way the handles suit my hands made it worth that effort. The handles are long and I don't feel like I have to choke the hook to have a comfortable, stable grip on them. I do use a knife grip. Violence.

Looking for a quick and easy knit? Add this Tyne Cloth pattern to the top of your short list!

Get the pattern: 👉 https://tidd.ly/3wg07x0 (Cluck Cluck Boots)