Spice up my hooks!

When I started crocheting I used some old crochet hooks my grandmother and my mother-in-law had given me a long time ago. I didn't think about 'good' or 'bad' hooks. It was just a hook, wasn't it? But one day I needed a hook size I didn't have in my stock and so I went to our local yarn shop to buy a new hook. It was a Clover with a soft grip. 

What a DIFFERENCE!!!!

I couldn't believe how easy it suddenly was to crochet even for several hours. The next day I searched the Internet getting more information about the world of crochet hooks. You can get very cheap ones and ones that cost more than the yarn you need for a blanket. I immediately fell in love with these wooden hooks.

Last year my siblings gave me this set as a birthday present. I was so happy! It is very comfortable to crochet with them, I enjoy it a lot but sometimes I just need a thicker handle. But I have so many crochet hooks already, I don't really want to buy more of them. I just can't throw things away that are still usable. I love to repair, to renovate and to find a different usage for something no longer suitable. I wear trousers, shoes and shirts that are more that 15 years old, our furniture is a mixture of old family heirloom and flea market finds.  We always keep things that might be used otherwise. And things we do not keep, we try to give to someone who still could use it.

 I just don't want to be part of the throwaway society though I am aware that it is not possible to escape entirely from it. 

Back to the hooks... What to do with the simple metal hooks that do not feel comfortable to work with? Do you also have quite a few of them lying around?

The lovely lady in my local yarn shop told me about the possibility to make a handle for hooks using polymer clay, here in Germany called Fimo. You can get it in all different kinds of colours and I chose red and white just to start with. My daughter was enthusiastic about helping me and she couldn't wait to start.

First we put some white Fimo onto the hook. You have to knead it a little until it is soft.

We decided to mix the white and the red to get some kind of polka dots.

You really have to roll it for a long time to get it soft and smooth. Finally we were able to cut pieces. But I already realised that the inner circle was not really round. So maybe no polka dots?

But we put the pieces enthusiastically around the white handle until it was completely covered.

Once the hook was covered, we use our hands to gently roll the hook, squidging all the clay so it sat evenly around without any seams. No, no, no, no round polka dots, but we didn't mind, just taking the next hooks to try. 

 That afternoon we made four handles, trying different methods. When we finished them they had to be baked in the oven. I put them into a mug filled with black La Gomera sand (oh holidays, where art thou...) and put the hooks head down in the sand.

That's how they looked like after baking. The left one was our first. The next one is a polka dot hook now. We just put little white dots on the red clay. The other two were made by my daughter. Very creative indeed! And she got hooked on spicing up even more hooks! A couple of days later I had to buy green and blue clay and we started again. 

This is the result:

Three more hooks that are wonderful to work with and they look wonderful, don't they? I really love to crochet with them! All in all we embellished seven hooks, here you can see them in all their beauty!

 And though it is just 13 degrees above zero, no flip-flop weather, no homemade ice tea and sunbathing in the garden, we still enjoy German strawberries that I have bought on the market. The ones in our garden are still far from getting red...

I LOVE THEM!

Dark chocolate brownies topped with mascarpone cream and strawberries is a treat you can enjoy in all weathers.  

I hope you also have something to enjoy this weekend. 
Back to crochet!

Viola