Knook...

I was in Joann's the other day with coupons burning a hole in my pocket.  I know, it's a rough life. Jake was roaming the aisles with Mims, trying to keep her amused while I took way too long to pick out the beads for the surfer girl necklaces and the friendship bracelets (beads were 30% off! Score!).  As they wandered, they ran across a package of Knooks and thought the weird little hooks looked like fun, so they brought it to me.  I threw it in the cart, since it did look like fun, even if I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting, and it wasn't on sale (and thusly, I would be able to use my 40% off coupon).  So my $9.99 Knook set was only $6-something, and with an additional 25% off-of-everything coupon (double score!) I think the final price was around $4.50.

I had read a review of the Knook on Planet June awhile back, and so I went back to try to find out what exactly I had brought home with me.  After re-reading her post, and the booklet that came with it, and then playing around with it for awhile, I can say, I think the set was worth $4.50 to me, but I'm not sure how often these will be used in the long term...

The size H knook.  My set came with a G, H and I.

Here's the deal.  If you know how to knit, this is a challenging, rather inconvenient way to knit.  It is fun in the beginning, but I am not a pleasure knitter.  **Okay, I'm going off on a tangent here, if you don't want elaborate back-story, just skip to the next set of double astrisks...  My first yarn-craft love is crochet, but I spent most of my twenties as a knitter.  A knitter with great focus and determination.  I went to classes, flew cross-country to workshops, and actually worked free-lance as a professional knitter finishing sweaters for clients that 'didn't want to screw that part up'.  It was not relaxing to me, ever.  I used to knit to get the item that I was knitting, not to enjoy the journey. On the plus side, I am a crazy fast knitter, so at least it wasn't too many hours of teeth-grinding determination to get through a set of hats for my family as Christmas presents... **  So for me, taking the relaxing, calming, peaceful aspects of a craft that I adore and putting in the extra frustrating knit/purl stitch aspect, not being able to 'throw' my yarn the way that I'm used to, and the fact that it's slower than just using knitting needles, made this a not so perfect fit for me...  

Until I realized that it was perfect for small amounts of knitting in the middle of my beloved crochet.  I've been lurking on a freeform crochet forum, and I've been reading Renate Kirkpatrick's Freeform Crochet and Beyond: Bags, Cushions, Hats, Scarves and More so I've been trying to think of some ways to add some freeform fun into my projects.  Once I thought of it that way, I couldn't wait to knook...

I was able to effortlessly switch between knitting and crocheting!  I didn't have to keep track of rogue knitting needles.  I had so much fun, before I knew it, half a scarf was done...

 But, now that it's halfway done, I've kinda run out of steam.  I took these pictures, but instead of bringing my project upstairs with me to sit in the air conditioning and work, I left it downstairs.  I'd like to blame the fact that I wanted to take a nap, but I brought a different project up to work on.  I'm sure I'll come back to it, but for now, I'm all knooked out.

xoxo