Crochet: The Hook Obession

So ... now that Hubby has evolved from making simple chains and circles in single chains (sc) to double crochet (dc), he's investigating his crochet hooks.

All of my crochet hooks (Clover Takumi and Denise) are inline hooks.  Most of my inherited Boye and Bates hooks are either inline (Bates) or tapered (Boye) (although I would dare say there are more Boye than Bates hooks).  And Hubby's mini collection (Bryspun, Brittany, Knitter's Pride & Clover Soft Touch & Amour) are either inline (Bryspun & Brittany), a hybrid of inline and taper (Clovers) & a taper (Knitter's Pride).

He went on the internet and found a controversial battle between hard core inliners (Bates) and taperers (Boyes).   And he began to wonder ...  So, he assessed our collection of hooks and took out all the various hooks and studied them.  He then researched further the differences between them and found that inline hooks tend to be "beginner's" hooks due to tension issues.  That somewhat offended him (after all, he doesn't want to be a "beginner" forever); so now, he taking the plunge and trying out all the Boye hooks we have.

So ... What has he discovered?  Inline hooks allows you to make tighter stitches while taper hooks forces you to make looser stitches.  While you can make tight(er) stitches with both hooks, you can only make your stitches so tight with taper hooks.   He's also discovered that his technique with the taper hooks are different from how he uses the inline hooks.  It's not better (or worse), it's just different.  He's learned that small hooks are harder to use with his thicker DK weight yarn (verifying what I told him about hook size and yarn weight); and he now understands about what I meant about having a different contrasting color needle with your yarn (he was using a green coloured hook on a green section of his yarn and realized it was very hard to see what he was doing! :P).

Ultimately though, he's found that both styles are ok with him; it's just a matter of what he's trying to do.  He definitely seems to be an advocate of both styles of hooks as his perspective is that one should use whatever hook he/she feels comfortable with for that specific project/yarn. 

It appears that we're on the road to (possibly) getting more hooks! ;)  Oh no ... Hubby might be getting the H.A.S. (hook acquisition syndrome)! *yikes* :P