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Whitting in the Wood – my first handmade wood crochet hook

June 7, 2008 by Katie Lee

We bought a woodland recently. You know, as you do. The story of how it happened is too long (and possibly not very interesting), but the short version is that we love camping, we love woods, and we found a woodland for sale that was near enough to Crystal Palace for us to be able to drive to our very own woodland campsite in an hour.

Most of our time spent there so far has been used for clearing some space for the undergrowth to start returning, making a few paths and taking down dead trees. But in between the hard work, there’s plenty of time to sit and stare at the camp fire and pass the time with a spot of gentle whittling.

I thought I’d have a go at whittling a crochet hook. As you can see, I still have a long way to go before I’m anywhere near to making something that’s usable. But since this photo was taken, we’ve got some proper wood working knives, which makes life easier. It’s also a lot easier once you’ve got a bit of wire wool involved in the process to help keep it looking a bit more tidy. I’ve made better attempts since this one, but still nothing I’m entirely happy with.

My brother in law is an especially keen whittler, and he produced this finished hook (above), which he’s sanded and gently waxed, making a hook that’s surprisingly easy and comfortable to use – much better than those jumbo plastic ones I’ve got. (Click for bigger)

Maybe one day, we’ll be as talented as the amazing Jimbo. Check out his blog for some truly beautiful handmade wooden crochet hooks.

Filed Under: Shinykatie Makes... Tagged With: Craft, crochet, crochet hooks, Good Hooking, woodland

Check out these bad boys

March 21, 2006 by Katie Lee

My jumbo tampons crochet hooks arrived. Roll on the slouchy shrugs.

Filed Under: Shinykatie Makes... Tagged With: Craft, crochet, crochet hooks, Crochet Shrug, Good Hooking

Supersized Crochet Hooks

March 19, 2006 by Katie Lee

Yes, I really can get an entire post out of the subject of “crochet hooks”. I am Boredom incarnate. The thing is, I’ve been checking out a lot of US patterns recently and for some reason those pesky yanks (no offence to any pesky yanks reading) feel the need to use gimungous crochet hooks. I mean, who ever heard of a size P crochet hook? There’s no such thing. I looked it up on a conversion chart and metric doesn’t even go that high. It must be thicker than a jumbo tampon for gawd’s sake.

My mother, and more especially my grandmother, used to use teensy hooks to create intricate, detailed doilies and sandwich protectors and other bits of useless ephemera beloved of people in the 50s (don’t ask me what sandwich protectors are – I just made that one up but it sounds like something they’d make). If I handed my grandmother a size P crochet hook she’d look at me like I’d gone loopy (whereas in fact it’s the other way round). I’m not even entirely sure what size P means. I’ve looked at lots of different conversion charts and some say it’s 16mm and some say 11.5mm and I’ve also seen it quoted at 10mm, 12.75 and 15mm.

The largest hook I’ve managed to get hold of so far is an 8mm, which strikes me as more than large enough for anything you’d like to achieve. Any larger than that and even I’d start to feel a little embarrassed to be seen crocheting on public transport.

But since it’s currently the US’s turn at running the show, it looks like I’m going to have to concede defeat and put in a special order.

[comedy jumbo crochet hook pic taken from Stitch Diva]

Filed Under: Shinykatie Makes... Tagged With: Craft, crochet, crochet hooks, Good Hooking

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