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.