Beware smaller sizes of Crochet Lites

So, the whole light-up crochet hook thing seems to be on the rise. I got some from friends who got them in their goodie bags at Stitch'n'Pitch and don't crochet. I thought the idea was great, because I like to crochet in the car while my husband drives and this way I don't need a light on when it gets dark. Brilliant.

Then while I was at TNNA, the company rep pointed out that they are also great when you are working with dark yarns, because it helps you see the stitches. Well THAT was an amazing discovery, as I'm in the middle of a black-yarn heavy project and am sick of sitting under a bright light all the time.

So, while I was at the LYS last week, I picked up an F hook. Last night at SnB, I had forgotten my normal F-hook in the car, but realized I had the Crochet Lite F hook in my bag, so I pulled it out to give it a try for the first time.

That lasted for about 3 seconds. The clear plastic shaft that forms the hook part gets gradually larger toward the handle, so an F-hook STARTS as an F-hook, but it only remains an F for about 1/4 of an inch. After that, it goes up in size to, I'm guessing, about an I. So, unless you form all your stitches riiiiiight up against the hook and hold your yarn extremely close to the stitch so you can YO, your stitches will end up being as large as if you were working with a much larger hook. I assume it's because the handles all have to be a certain size to accomodate the batteries, and they didn't think to resize the opening to the handle and just figured they could taper the hook part because the engineer had never crocheted before. The larger hooks don't seem to have this problem, but I have an F and a D that are basically useless as an F and a D. I might be able to get away with using them for a pattern that uses a larger hook with a thin yarn, but other than that, they are pretty much useless.

So, take caution when buying these and look at the hook shaft. If they are still tapering by the time they reach the handle, they aren't the size they claim to be. If they've evened off before then and are straight by the time they reach the handle, you should be good to go. It's a shame, because the idea of these is brilliant.