What happens when you get a bit obsessed with your filet crochet project and work on it as much as possible? Your hands cramp up and you get a deep groove in your thread-carrying finger! Back in the 1980s I wrapped my steel hooks with layers of fabric and hair tape (not too sticky and messy), and put some of that tape around my finger when the groove got too painful. These days there are lots of options so that you can keep crocheting into the wee hours.

For that pesky, painful thread-carry groove, the Clover Yarn Guide is adjustable and helps keep your tension even as a side benefit.

Just like fat pens, fat hooks are easier to hold and less tiring when you use them for a long time. You can wrap your hooks up or buy special ergonomic hooks.

The Susan Bates Comfort Cushion is a soft tube that slides on to your steel hook. I have been using these since the 1990s, and they help a lot. They do gradually slide down the hook, so every 20 or 30 minutes you’ll need to stop and push the cushion back up, which may be all right so that you can take a break once in awhile.

There is a large selection of ergonomic crochet hooks, but only a few brands make the steel hooks for our small threads. They generally cost 2 to 3 times more than a regular steel hook, but may be well worth it.

Clover makes the Soft Touch Steel Crochet Hooks singles, or the whole set, which have a long fat handle and a cover for the hook (lost within days, if you’re anything like me…). You can even get a nice little pink case to store them all in.

Susan Bates makes steel hooks with a bamboo handle. This series of hooks are longer than the others mentioned here, including the hook part and the handle part.

The Tulip Etimo Steel Crochet Hook Set (the hooks are actually aluminum) have a thinner handle than the Clover, and are only available in a set. The set includes 8 hooks with tip covers, scissors, ruler, needles, and a pretty blue case. The handles are elastomeric plastic.

If you’d like to try ergonomic crochet hooks for a very low price, there is an entire set (20 of them, from very small to large) by Hotgee made of carbonized bamboo. The steel hooks have fat bamboo handles, and the larger hooks are made entirely of bamboo, and they come in a zipper case. They don’t have American sizes indicated on them, so you will have to convert the millimeters to the size you want to use.

Let me know what you use to make your crocheting more comfortable!