Coco Knits – Yarn Snip

THE REVIEW

A collection of new tools received from Coco Knits

I first heard of Coco Knits at a Stitches West conference. When I walk through the expos or craft fairs, I typically don’t buy on-site. Instead, I’ll wander through and grab a lot of business cards, making notations on what I’m finding that’s interesting or that I like. Then, I usually revisit those cards a few months later to figure out what still stands out as something that seems interesting and useful. Coco Knits made that cut, and I was excited to see some of their tools show up as a gift for my birthday.

What grabbed my attention about these Coco Knits tools is that they are all magnetic, so I can keep my most frequently-used tools at hand and not worry about them spilling all over the place. I happened to receive the magnetic, concrete tray, which you’ll find in a later review. However, I was most excited to try the Yarn Snips.

INITIAL REACTIONS: I’m accustomed to using regular scissors for cutting my yarn ends, and typically keep a pair of higher-end ones on hand. What first struck me about the snips was that I had expected them to feel smooth in my hands, and instead they were a bit rough. The coating almost feels like it has been sanded, although it’s uniform. The snips are a good weight in the hands, and they fit my hands rather nicely. I was disappointed by the sanded feel, though; I expected something that felt a little more high-end. They were oiled when I received them, so I made sure to wipe them off before their first use.

THE TESTS:  I have a massive blanket with dozens of ends that needed to be woven in, and I decided to start my Yarn Snip test here. This blanket incorporates three different acrylic worsted weight yarns, and a super-bulky, wool-acrylic blend, boucle yarn that was a bit of a mess to crochet with in the first place. I wove in my first few ends of the worsted weight yarn and immediately realized the benefit of using snips over scissors: one-handed action. In a very smooth motion, I could pick up the snips and immediately cut the end. I never thought of scissors being something that I fumbled with until I realized that I didn’t have to manipulate the scissors to get my fingers in; it really was as easy as pick up and snip! I was a bit disappointed with the rough action until I realized that the blades are intended to rub against each other; these are inherently different in construction than scissors are. The cuts were clean with the worsted-weight yarns, but with the super-bulky, boucle yarn, it took several tries to make my way through the end to cut it off. I finally switched to scissors to handle the boucle yarn.

On all other projects where I’ve used the snips, I have found that I prefer them generally over scissors because of the one-handed action. I’m investigating whether and where I can get them sharpened further as I suspect they may dull due to the nature of the design.