Review: Susan Bates Quicksilver crochet hooks

These are my very favorite crochet hooks.  Made out of a special heat treated aluminum, they are smooth and light weight.  The most important thing to me, though, is the head -- these, like most Susan Bates hooks, have an inline head.  The head is slightly shallower than most Susan Bates hooks, however they still have that nice sharp edge so I find that it took some getting used to, but is not a problem.

The thing I really like about these hooks is the finish.  It feels almost powdery in the hands, and is very smooth for speedy hooking.  It isn't, however, TOO slippery -- I'm happy working with these hooks on everything from grippy wool to slickery bamboo.

The one issue I have with them is how easy it is to damage that finish.  That being said, I have kids who like to do thinks like repeatedly drop my hooks on the concrete to make them go "p-ting-ting!"  So my experience with that may be skewed.  But my kids aren't allowed to touch these hooks.  They are my favorite.

Do you have something you want me to review? Needles? Yarn? Notions? Drop me a line! marusempai at gmail dot com Put "Maru reviews" in the subject line.

Hand-dyed cashmere, even

Also, red is my FAVORITE color.

The second review in my cashmere series is a real treat... Sumptuosity Lace by All For Love of Yarn.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  It is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere, and hoo nelly, do I love this yarn.  It is a very fine lace weight - there are 1300 yards in 3 oz - and so you need to be careful not to work it at too loose a gauge.  That being said, most lace patterns it's not overwhelmingly important exactly how big the finished object is, so that's easy to work around.  It is a two ply, but I haven't been having issues with splittiness like I do with a lot of two ply lace.

As for texture... I cannot stop patting this yarn.  It is beautifully soft and smooth.  It is also, however, extremely slippery.  One of my attempted swatches, I did on nickle plated needles (it was the only US4 I had!), and let me just say that it was a good thing the kids were already in bed.  My husband now jokes that I only swear when I'm in labor, and when I'm knitting lace.  It behaved itself quite well on my Harmony wood needles, however, so it's just an issue of the right needle for the right yarn.  On the note of swatches, this yarn really doesn't like to be frogged.  That fine baby alpaca halo just grabs.  That's a good thing tho if you happen to drop a stitch - if you catch it right away, it doesn't seem to run too far, which makes for much easier fixes.

Angela's yarns all have fabulous color.  The high silk content of this yarn in particular means it just DRINKS dye... the color is rich and saturated and glossy.  The kettle dye is very subtle, just enough to add some depth to the color, without distracting from the pretty stitch work at all.  It does have some halo to it, but not much.  A suggestion of a halo, perhaps.  In short?  I very much recommend this yarn.  It's absolutely delightful.

Do you have something you want me to review? Needles? Yarn? Notions? Drop me a line! marusempai at gmail dot com Put "Maru reviews" in the subject line.

And now, a review.

Nothing remotely design related today (nothing interesting, anyway), so I thought I'd do a review.  Anybody who knows me in person knows how into metal knitting needles I am.  They are fast.  They do not cause my hands to cramp.  They are shiny, and everybody likes shiny things.  But then I started to do lace.  Yeah, metal needles were NOT cutting it.  So I found these:

 These are the Knitpicks interchangeable Harmony tips.  Now, I did learn to use DPNs on bamboo, and quickly switched to Harmony DPNs.  But they were really more of a stepping stone to metal DPNs, which are now the love of my sock knitting life.  Lace, however, is a different beast entirely.  These needles are nice and smooth, but not so slickery that the teeny, tiny little lace stitches pop off.  And they are pointy.  My favorite part of them, however, is how very light they are.  The difference is quite minimal when using something as tiny as DPNs, but with a circular, it is definitely noticeable.  With these, I feel like I could knit for days, they are so light.

Downside?  There is a bit of a catch to them, right where the metal and wood come together.  I don't find it particularly problematic, but it might drive some knitters round the bend.  I like them.  Will I be buying a set?  No.  I am still a plated nickel girl, really.  But for lace, this is my new go to.

(And yeah that's a swatch under those needles.  No, I'm not telling you what it is.  You'll find out soon enough.)

Do you have something you want me to review?  Needles?  Yarn?  Notions?  Drop me a line!  marusempai at gmail dot com.  Put "Maru reviews" in the subject line.