I make dolls from braided yarn or cord, and the heads are knots. The head knots need to be tightened up, which means that each strand has to be pulled up, one at a time. The pulling causes blisters, and sometimes I don't notice till those blisters have busted.

ml1201 wrote:Oh! Ouch, that's got to hurt. Can't you get a clamp or something you can use to pull the strands with, or no?

If it's like how I do latch hook, not really, those yarn strands are usually so thin and fragile that doing it with anything but your bare hands will make them tear in two.

Spirit_of_Auron wrote:

ml1201 wrote:Oh! Ouch, that's got to hurt. Can't you get a clamp or something you can use to pull the strands with, or no?

If it's like how I do latch hook, not really, those yarn strands are usually so thin and fragile that doing it with anything but your bare hands will make them tear in two.

I hadn't even thought of that, but you're probably right, KAS. Just for me with the dolls, most the time the strands have no loop, so there's nothing for a hook to hook onto, either. And with a tool like that, I don't feel like I'd be able to properly feel when the strand's tight enough. I have, when using strong worsted and on a doll with looped hair, sometimes stuck my scissors into the loop and used them to pull, but like I say, I don't feel as much confidence that I've gotten all the slack taken up. And a lot of the yarn that I use isn't strong worsted. LOL

I only use the hook part for getting it around the canvas, I actually pull up on the string barehanded(and thus get a ton of blisters and rubbed raw spots on my knuckles) because the hook can't tighten them and trying to use a pair of pliers would destroy the yarn(closest thing I could think of that would save my hands lol)

But i love working with latchhook too much to give it up over a few sores and rubbed raw areas.

I'd forgotten that part of latch hooking! You're right.

*offers you high five* Pain is nothing in the face of the joy of creation, eh?

Tam I am wrote:I'd forgotten that part of latch hooking! You're right.

*offers you high five* Pain is nothing in the face of the joy of creation, eh?

*high 5* Exactly, besides my knuckles heal pretty fast from it, and every time I keep at it, my skin gets tougher and more resistant to it anyways:)