Your Hands

Not today, hand pain.

First, a little background story.

When deciding on the design of the first Furls Crochet hook, our founder took a lesson from the drumstick industry.

Drumsticks, in case you were wondering, come in a variety of different girths.

This means that they have different diameters, or that the shaft of the drumstick can be wider or thinner depending upon which size you get. Many drummers don't know how to find the best size for their hands, they just stumble upon their perfect drumstick by trial and error.

It's really quite easy to find the best size for a drummer though; the girth of the drumstick just needs to be the width of the Metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint of the hand. All a drummer has to do is line the stick up against his or her MCP joint and if it fits, its a match!

 

metacarpophalangeal joint and tranverse carpal ligament

What does this mean for Crocheters?

The crochet hook industry has done something rather peculiar, however.

Most frequently, the shafts of crochet hooks are sized according to the size of the hook, so an 8mm hook will have an 8mm wide body, a 4mm hook will have a 4mm wide body, and so on and so forth. This makes manufacturing extremely easy because you just have to make a single-sized rod and then shape the hook. 

It turns out, though, that this single-sized rod can cause excessive strain on the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the hands.

Have you ever noticed that its more comfortable to crochet with a larger hook? Some people even find it most comfortable to use something like an 18 mm hook because this gets close to the width of their MCP and other important joints in the hands.

streamline wooden Furls ergonomic crochet hooks in ebony

What's the solution?

The solution to this problem is to have a standard body size that fits approximately all hand sizes, which then tapers down into different hook sizes.

This gives the benefit of comfort without compromising the variety of hook sizes.

Also, if you taper the other side, or the tail, of the crochet hook, you set up a perfect rest for your ring finger and pinky. Because the bones of the ring finger and pinky are of different lengths, they have different natural resting places (completely relax one of your hands and see how the pinky sits slighty back of the ring finger).

This is why our crochet hooks taper at both ends, so that your pinky and ring finger can reach their natural resting place.

This takes pressure off of the flexor digitorum superficilias and, in turn, relaxes, the band of tissue that circles the wrist (flexor retinaculum), reducing wrist strain.

alpha series crochet hooks in multiple wood species

Ready to try one out for yourself?

Whether you choose one of our Streamline Wood or Resin hooks, a Candy Shop or Alpha Series, or the super sleek Odyssey, your hook will be backed by our Furls Promise.

Furls Fiberarts guarantees that our products are the most luxurious and beautiful fiberarts tools and notions you have ever experienced. If your Furls products do not make your art a more comfortable, luxurious, and beautiful experience, return them for a full refund within 90 days of your purchase.

AGAIN...

If you do not immediately experience less hand fatigue, if your stitches do not become more even, if you do not find your fiber art more enjoyable, or if you are not artistically pleased with the aesthetics of your product, return them - pain-free, for a full refund!

Let's go shopping!

xo, Furls