Crochet hooks with needle eyes are used as multi-purpose tools. They are used as crochet hooks, bodkins for threading ribbons and cords through fabric tubes, locker hooks for making rugs, needle tatting needles, and knitting to both pick up dropped stitches and create knitted fabric.
Patents for a crochet hook with eye include DK 13279, GB 215914, and US 3678712.
Patents US 1611474 and US 2217524 have modified the eye to try to keep the thread or yarn from slipping out of the eye and/or let the thread or yarn pass through the loops more easily. I have not seen hooks with either type of eye so I don’t know if they were ever manufactured.
