Such a Simple Thing: My Best Tip For Thread Crochet

When my mother taught me to crochet (over 33 years ago now!) she taught me by making granny squares out of yarn from her stash. She held her hook in a pencil hold and her yarn like this:So that is what I did, too. It worked just fine for the first year or so, because I only worked with yarn. But I was longing to try working with thread, even though I was intimidated by it (I don't really know why, but I was.) So one fine day I bought some size 20 thread and a doily book from Perry's (a local 5 and dime store in my home town, Gilmer, Texas) and rushed home to try it out. I loved crocheting with thread, but I was surprised to find that after only an hour or so my hand was tired, and I had to stop. I had been crocheting with yarn for several hours every day, and didn't know what difference working with thread made, but something was definitely going on.

A few weeks later, I was visiting my Grandmother, Dorothy Ferguson, whom all of her grandchildren called "Big Mama." I think it is a southern thing, she wasn't really big, but she was about the best crocheter I have ever known. I told her about my hand getting tired, and she said "Let me see what you are doing." She handed me the doily she was working on and I crocheted a few stitches. "I see what is wrong," she said. She took the end of the thread as it came from the ball, and wrapped it around my pinky finger. "Now try that," she said. I did, and was amazed at how much better it felt!
It seems that my problem was that I had been squeezing my fingers together to try to control the tension of the thread, and that was what had been making my fingers and hand get tired so quickly. "That is so much better!" I said. "That wrap is your brake," Big Mama said, "Like the brakes on a car. And sometimes, with some threads, you might even have to wrap it around your finger twice."

Thread wrapped around my pinky finger.

Another view of the wrap.

I find 2 wraps work better on smaller sizes of thread, such as 20 and 30.

It is amazing that such a simple thing could make such a big difference; I might never have become a designer if I hadn't learned this little trick!

So I want to share it with all of you; maybe you already know this and are thinking, "Well, duh, Ann, everyone knows that!" but I have met many crocheters at conventions and other places who do not know it. You learn from the person who teaches you, and you do things the way you are taught (even if it is wrong!)  My mother only crocheted with yarn, so the way she held the yarn always worked for her. (She also "hooked" her yarn, and I did that too, until I went to work at Annie's Attic and an editor showed me the right way to do it; but I will post about that another day).

Simple things can make all the difference; do you have a favorite tip that makes your crocheting easier? I would love to hear about it; anything that makes crocheting easier is of great interest to me!