AMAZING NEEDLE? Is it a hook or a needle?

http://www.amazingyarn.com/Pages/amneedle.html

Here’s a link to Crochet With Dee’s blog wherein she writes about the Amazing Needle on March 18 and 19. She calls this a ‘new’ technique. Dee is such a cheerleader for crochet and has loads of good ideas to share.

http://http://journals.aol.com/crochetwithdee/CrochetWithDee/entries/2007/03/18/amazing-needle-vs.-tunisian-crochet/2052

I first became familiar with the Amazing Needle at the Crochet Renaissance in 2001. That’s the only crochet convention I’ve ever been able to attend. The Amazing Needle class was taught by Nancy Nehring and Janet Rehfeldt . Click here to read a description of the class:

http://www.crochet.org

I was still relatively new to crochet so I soaked up a lot of good stuff at the convention. I even got to met Bill Elmore in person!

So what is the Amazing Needle? It looks very much like the locker hooking tools on the market right now. It’s a crochet hook with an eye in the non-hook end of the tool. You thread a leather thong thru that hole and crochet over it. I was told that one can use any knitting pattern with the Amazing Needle. The finished product looks very much like Tunisian and the loops are worked off the needle the way tunisian is.

At then convention, we were given a pattern for a sailor’s scarf and everyone in the class began to crochet it using the Amazing Needle.  I’ll admit that the technique was pretty easy to learn.  I was enthusiastic about it because I thought it would allow me to interpret knit patterns into crochet.  However, it didn’t turn out to be that easy for me.

I later learned to knit and found that I really do not enjoy it.  Same for tunisian.  I know how to do tunisian crochet and find that it’s really well suited for certain crochet projects, but I find it too repetitive and boring – and it seems to be twice the work since one works each row twice!  Well, that’s my take on it.  I’m sure others feel differently.

Patterns designed specifically for the Amazing Needle are available at www.amazingyarns.com.  But, you don’t really need specific patterns.  You can use it for any crochet pattern – and, as I am told, any knit pattern.  The downside is that I’m only aware of this one site to obtain an Amazing Needle.  It’s available in sizes E – P and is made of wood with an in-line hook design.

This site contains a picture of a work in progress:

http://www.rexie.com/AmazingNeedle.html

At any rate, it’s another crochet technique that I wanted to share with my readers.  Check it out for yourselves by reading Dee’s article and others: