Tuesday, September 11, 2007

drift wood crochet hooks

I've always loved nature and natural looking things, and wanted to incorporate nature somehow in my knitting or crocheting. In past years, I hadn't had much luck, until I was recently inspired by the idea of using drift wood sticks as crochet hooks. So, this past sunday, DH and I took a walk along one of the small beaches of Lake Ontario in Port Credit, and picked up a handful of sticks 10" and shorter.

Upon bringing them home, I soaked them in vinegar to get rid of whatever scoobies may be in the wood:
Then I nuked them in the microwave to spead up the drying process, and whatever dampness remained was dried on my window sill: (next to my faux jade Buddha) ...
And then afterwards, it was a matter of getting the hang of carving the crochet hook part (where a few had broken and were discarded) plus some sanding, painted designs on a few, and varnishing:
... once they're completely dry (the varnish takes 24 hours, so they're still a bit sticky) they'll be posted on etsy.com to sell.

2 comments:

Jeremy said...

Just wondering how you may have guessed at when each one was the right size.
Or do you basically just sand them each differently and use them for your own "gauge-less" patterns?
I may be interested in making these, looks really fun!!!
btw, enjoyed skimming through your many projects pics here and at Ravelry (I'm anotherpill)

knitphomaniac said...

I picked drift wood sticks that seem approximate to crochet hook sizes. I've a guage setter that mesures needle size - available at most knitting stores - so using that determines which hook can be used for which project.