INOX.... Tunisian/Afghan... 2mm...

A quick Google for 2mm afghan hooks and didn't readily see the brand you're looking for, but brought me:

there was plenty more shops in the U.S. Then looked up circular afghan hooks. I see that Boye has one called a flexible afghan hook but only in larger sizes: was curious to know how one would use such a hook? I've done a lot of tricot crochet and can't wrap my head around this one. Dianne

Um - first - thought I'd note that this is not the Rec Knitting group - so you may have posted to the wrong crew.

But, WRT 2mm circular needles - the tips - about 5-6 inches each will be

2mm, but the connecting cable is generally pretty thin. It's just a "holder" so to speak. But, when you knit, you're knitting on the tips, which is as if they were really short needles. Just be sure to get a circular that's long enough to carry the entire width, even smushed, of all the stitches you've cast on.

I'd google for knitting stores - there are a bunch of places to buy on-line.

ellice

> And there was plenty more shops in the U.S.

Jeeze, now i feel like a putz. In my prior scourings, i found inox to be the only widely available brand in any small sizes. when i was googling, i therefore ignored any other brands.

duh. anyway, it all comes out in the wash, as the price for a few inox, shipped from UK would've been about 30 dollars, and i just spent

10 on 1 Addi from the US. but whatever, at least now i know a shop in the US ! Thanks much !

BTW, I use these for beading, something like crochet-bead-cross-stitch. I work a row onto the hook, and as i work it off, i slide the beads in where i want them to be. i've done some quite nice works with it. it's easier than switching colors, and produces a cleaner look as well. Obviously for clothing it's not appropriate, but what i've done is take some nice cross stitch patterns and adapt them. I'll use closely colored seed-beads, and when needed, switch thread colors for accents and whatnot. It's quite fun, and it's rather odd i've not been able to find any trace of this craft through google or friends. Anyone done such things ?

A Tunisian hook is actually a long crochet hook, with the curved end. You need to pick up stitches all the way across and then go back and work off the same stitches. It's also called Afghan stitch. A regular knitting needle wouldn't work.

Lucille

Oh, is THAT what that's called? I've used those for years. Afghans made with that stitch are great to cross stitch on--which is the only reason I pick up a hook at all.

snip

In my defense, i'm crocheting and not knitting. And in all actuality, as you can see from another reply, it's not a common form of crochet. i'm using, well, thread... and beads. I don't know anyone in person or otherwise who's tried this, so by posting here, i was trying to get a different and wider audience's viewpoint.

again, not knitting but crocheting. just as knitting and "needlework" are different, so are knitting and crochet. And, I've googled. Try this: go to ebay and type in "inox 2mm afghan". You'll get nothing. Similarly, if you go to froogle, you'll get nothing. if you use raw google, you'll get 90% ebay hits, which clearly are either false positives or UK hits. Which i was trying to avoid. As for the other

10%, see my other reply in this thread.

Pretty interesting - I didn't read through your first post well enough and thought you were looking for knitting needles. I've seen some wire crochet with beads, and wire knitting - so I guess some of those people use these. To be truthful, at some stitch away one of the shops gave a goodie bag with red wired, and some beads for doing some crochet or knit jewelry - but I haven't even tried it yet. Maybe I will now - this sounds pretty nice.

ellice

Yeah - I actually re-read after hitting send while I was googling with the mail open, and well, so, not the first or last time I'll sound like an idiot ;^)

Ellice

PS - thanks for the description

I always just thought it was called an afghan hook.

Isn't it amazing that we can do something forever, and do it well, and never know it has an actual name other than the thingamabob, or in this case, the long crochet hook..

Lucille

Understood once I re=read your post - but it did sound like you posted to this instead of RCTY (yarn)- which is full of knitters & crocheters

Try this google link:

listed a bunch of places that might have what you're looking for Good luck, ellice

The double-ended crochet hooks and the flexible afghan hooks are not the same diameter for the entire length. They're like a regular afghan hook part of the way, and then it's like heavy fishing line after that. But, it works just fine. By the time the stitches slide off onto the nylon part, they're far enough down that they keep their size. I'm doing an afghan in tunisian that is fairly wide, and not worked in strips, so the entire thing is on the hook. The only thing I could find that was wide enough to handle it was one of the longer double-ended/ circular hooks. Obviously, I didn't need the hook on the other end, but it's not a problem having it there.

I'm not sure what tricot crochet is, but for me, they work just like an afghan hook except they're longer. There's also a technique that many people use the double- ended hooks for (forget what it's called--something like "speed crochet"?) which seems to be similar to tunisian, except you don't work back and forth along the row like you do with Tunisian. You work always in the same direction, so you need the hook on both ends.

Best wishes, Ericka

Then Erika answered,

Well, of course you got it right. It's Tunisian crochet (aka afghan crochet). My head doesn't work anymore.

Where are you all getting your patterns? I have two essays on my site and would love to send people to where they can get up-to-date, delicious patterns. I made a baby afghan pattern and had it on my site, but my hard drive crashed and I lost the pattern. I used Dahlgren baby wool. Absolutely soft as down and light as a feather. I'd like to make a full-sized one out of this wool but haven't found a suitable pattern, and I'm not up to designing one.

Dianne

Sounds interesting! Got any pictures of your work???

Joan

They aren't exactly falling off trees, as you know ;-) This last one I've done is a really neat plaid design, where you use different colors to make the plaid effect. I got it from this book:

think it's the only Tunisian crochet pattern in there,though, or maybe there are one or two others. It's a verycool design, though, and you could work it up in all sortsof colors. It's pricey, though. Full sized afghans inTunisian crochet take up a *lot* of yarn. This one isparticularly pesky because you've got upwards of a dozenballs of yarn all going at the same time. It's not a veryportable project ;-) It's also murder on your wrist, withthe weight of the entire width of the afghan on your hook.It would make a sweet baby afghan in baby weight yarn. Best wishes, Ericka

I've done several Christmas ornaments with #10 thread and beads. My aunt made a beautiful doily that way. The only catch is you have to know how many beads to pre-string on the thread, and it's a little clumsy to handle.

And I've also used cross stitch patterns for crochet. It's fun to see the difference in size of the finished pieces!

Not yet, but this latest project will be one that's photo-worthy. It's an asian-symbol for the word "Beetle" ... my wife's a VW beetle fanatic. I'm not using multicolors or anything, but now that i've thought of using them little children's Iron-Fuse-Beads for a cheap "bead" something colorful will be in the works right after the "Beetle" is done. Shall i keep you posted ?

Please do - this sounds very intriguing.

MargW

Dianne, This sight looked to have some patterns, and links to others: