Clover Amour Honest Review: What the Cushion Grip Does and Does Not Fix

Most reviews of the Clover Amour hook set read like they were written by someone who crocheted one swatch, loved it, and typed up a love letter before the yarn cooled. I want to give you the other version. I am Joanne, a retired middle school math teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts, and I have been crocheting for about thirty years, since my aunt sat me down with a ball of worsted yarn and a hook she trusted me not to break. I work in a recliner with a floor lamp over my shoulder, I make blankets, dishcloths, hats, and baby gifts for my church's donation drive, and I have a right thumb that gets stiff when the weather turns cold. So I care about grip comfort the way a person who teaches math cares about a proof: I want to see the claim tested, not just stated.

Here is the short version of my honest review. The Amour cushion grip is genuinely good, and it has changed how my hand feels at the end of a long evening of crochet. It is also not magic. It will not fix the way you hold a hook, the way you tension your yarn, or the stiffness in a thumb that has been doing this for three decades. The title of this article asks what the cushion grip does and does not fix. After about a year of near-daily use, I have a clear answer for both halves of that question.

How I've Used This Set

My testing method is different from most reviews because I did not test for an afternoon and write a verdict the same week. I have used this set for the better part of a year, across three finished blankets, a stack of dishcloths, and a basket of baby hats for the church donation drive. I crochet in the same recliner every night, under the same floor lamp, which matters because the light affects how closely I watch my tension and my stitch count. I am the kind of crocheter who treats a gauge swatch like a word problem, so I noticed when my gauge changed and when it did not.

I also kept my old aluminum hooks within reach on purpose. If the Clover Amour set was going to earn a permanent place in my hook case, it had to beat hooks I have used for nearly thirty years, not just feel nice on the first day. That comparison is the reason I can tell you the difference is real, and also the reason I can tell you the difference is limited.

One more detail about how I hold a hook. I hold it the way my aunt taught me, roughly like a knife, with the handle resting against the side of my index finger. People who hold a hook like a pencil will feel the cushion in different places. That difference matters, and I will come back to it, because it is one of the things nobody tells you about this set.

What the Cushion Grip Fixes (and Fixes Well)

The first thing the grip fixes is the cold. Aluminum hooks pull warmth out of your hand on a cold morning, and on a damp Massachusetts day that cold travels straight up your arm. The Amour handle stays at room temperature. My husband Glenn laughs that I keep a hook in the pocket of my cardigan from October to April. That is the whole point: a hook that works with you instead of against you.

The second thing it fixes is the pressure point on my index finger. With an aluminum hook, the weight of a blanket in progress rests on a narrow strip of metal. Halfway through a border, that spot starts to ache. The cushion spreads the same weight over a wider area, so the sharp, focused soreness is gone. I can feel the difference after about twenty minutes, and I can feel it more clearly after two hours. My thumb still gets tired after a long evening, but the ache at the base of my index finger does not show up anymore.

The third thing it fixes is the grip pressure itself. The cushion is soft enough that I do not have to squeeze the hook to keep it from rotating in my hand. That relaxed grip is what helps my thumb the most. Think of the difference between clutching a pen for an hour and letting it rest loosely in your fingers. The padding does some of the work, and the softer material does the rest. Together they mean my hand is not fighting the hook by the end of a project.

What the Cushion Grip Does Not Fix

Here is the part the love letters leave out. The grip does not fix your tension. If you crochet tight, you will crochet tight with these hooks, because the hook cannot change the way your yarn feeds through your fingers. I am a tight crocheter, and my gauge swatches with the Amour set look almost identical to my swatches with aluminum. The grip makes being tight more comfortable. It does not make you looser, and no handle in the world will do that work for you.

It does not fix yarn splitting either. Splitting depends on the tip of the hook and the twist of the yarn. The Amour tip is smooth and polished, which helps with some yarns and does nothing for others. A splitty acrylic blend still splits occasionally, and I have learned to slow down on the last loop of a stitch. That habit matters more than the hook in my hand, and I would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.

And it does not fix a death grip, because the hook cannot stop you from squeezing. What it does do is make the squeeze less painful, which sounds like the same thing and is not. I caught myself gripping the Amour hook hard on a complicated border and only noticed because my wrist was tired. With my old hook, I would have noticed the sore spot on my finger first. The grip moved the warning sign. It did not remove the problem.

The last thing it does not fix is the small sizes. The hooks made for fine thread have a smaller handle, because they have to. If most of your work is size 10 thread, the comfort you get from the middle of this set will not be there in the tiny hooks. That is physics, not a flaw, but it is exactly the kind of detail a five-star review skips.

After an evening of crocheting a blanket border, my thumb felt the way it does on a good day. That never happened once with my old aluminum hooks.

What Nobody Tells You About the Amour Set

First, the smooth finish can feel slippery with some yarns. My cotton dishcloth yarn slides along the hook beautifully. Certain acrylic blends feel slick enough that I have to watch the loop sitting on the hook more carefully. It is not a reason to avoid the set, but it is a reason to borrow a friend's hook for an evening before you commit to ten hooks of your own.

Second, the size markings wear down. The numbers and letters printed on the handles are clear when they are new, but my most-used hooks have lost part of their labels. I now keep a gauge ruler in my hook case and check the size when I am between projects. That is the kind of detail a retired math teacher notices and a weekend review misses.

Third, the case is neat but not a display piece. The folding case keeps all ten hooks in one place and protects the grips from the bottom of a tote bag. It does not stand open as a pretty holder, so I take the hooks out and lay them on my kitchen table, which is where I do my blocking anyway. If you imagine a beautiful open case on your shelf, adjust that picture before you buy.

Fourth, the set covers the middle of the road, not the extremes. For the bulky yarn I use in winter blankets, I still reach for a bigger hook that is not in this set. For thread crochet, the smallest hooks here are serviceable, but serious thread work deserves a specialty hook. Think of this set as ten excellent everyday hooks rather than an answer to every crochet situation.

One last small thing nobody mentions: the Clover Amour hooks are light, lighter than the wooden ergonomic hooks I tried years ago. That matters more than it sounds. A heavy handle pulls on your wrist a little with every stitch, and over a two hour session that pull turns into an ache. With these, the weight sits in the grip, close to my fingers, and my wrist stays quiet.

How It Compares to the Hooks I Used for Thirty Years

I kept my old aluminum hooks for a reason, and it was not sentiment. I wanted to know whether the Amour set was a genuine improvement or just a nicer feel. After a year, the answer is clear. The Clover Amour hooks are the ones I reach for when I sit down to real work. The aluminum hooks are the ones I grab when I want to try a new stitch pattern on a scrap of yarn and do not feel like digging through the case.

What you are paying for, beyond the basic hooks, is a softer grip, a smoother finish, and a case that keeps the set together. You are not paying for better stitch counts, because your stitch counts will not improve. My tension did not relax, and I did not finish blankets any faster. What changed is that my hand stopped complaining. For someone who crochets as much as I do, that is worth a good deal.

If you are on the fence because you have hand stiffness and you wonder whether a grip can help, here is my honest answer. It helped my thumb, but it is not a brace and it is not a treatment. On a cold morning when my thumb is stiff before I even pick up a hook, the Amour grip makes the session comfortable instead of painful. The stiffness is still there when I stop. It is the pain that does not show up, and that is the honest trade.

A Year of Evenings: What Actually Changed

The honest measure of a hook is not how it feels in the store or on the first swatch. It is how it feels on the third Tuesday of a blanket, when the border is the only thing left and your favorite show ended an hour ago. A year of evenings taught me that this set holds up in exactly that situation. The grip has not flattened, the hooks have not bent, and the smooth finish is still smooth, even under the weight of a heavy afghan in my lap.

What also changed is my habit. I no longer leave a project half-finished because my hand hurts. I finish the row, turn the work, and keep going, because the hook is no longer the reason I want to stop. That is the quietest benefit of this set. It does not show up in a swatch. You only notice it in the number of finished pieces that stop collecting excuses.

Who This Is For

This set is for the crocheter who sits down for a real session, not a quick swatch. If you make blankets, hats, or anything that keeps a hook in your hand for more than an hour, the cushion grip will earn its place in your case. It is also for anyone whose index finger or thumb starts to ache partway through a project and who has suspected the hook is part of the problem. It was for me, and I would buy it again knowing exactly what it does and does not do.

Who Should Skip It

Skip it if you only crochet occasionally with light yarn and short sessions, because a comfortable hook will not matter when your hands have nothing to complain about. Skip it if most of your work is fine thread, because the small hooks in this set do not carry the same cushion. And skip it if you are hoping a hook will fix your tension or your yarn splitting, because no handle in the world does that work. Come back when you want comfort, not a cure.