Quote of the Day #7

"The only real fault is not to change one's faults."

--Kermit Buddha Master of Zen

My Big A$$ Crochet Hook

hook in progress with small doily and the beginnings of my big-a$$ doily rug

Recently I came upon this wonderful doily rug, and I wanted to make my own version. After scouring the internet for the biggest yarn I could find, I finally settled on cotton piping as the best likely substitute. I got 100 yards of the 1/2" (16/32") kind off Amazon and then turned my sights on finding a giant crochet hook.... But there were NO giant crochet hooks to be found!* However, I did find a few resources on how to make my own. The first website I found gave me the confidence to give it a go, and the second really broke it down step by step.

* It was like 2:30am by this time; plus I'm really bad at searching the internet. Please don't take my word for it and conduct your own search before feeling the need to make your own hook.... unless you just want to! That's totally allowed.

After a trip to Home Depot, I came home with:

•  3/4"x48" rod (cut into four 12" lengths--just ask and they will cut it for you for free)
• 1/2"x48" rod (cut into four 12" lengths)
• 10-piece wood file set
• sandpaper--rough and fine (should've gotten but didn't--oops!)

What I had at home:

• box cutter (NOT the kind with the snappable blades. If you use this kind, PLEASE be careful not to snap the blade while cutting.)
• sandpaper--> emery board (desperate times...)
• soft rag
• oil (olive, canola, mineral, etc.--I used coconut. love that smell!)
• wax paper

First I used the following photo to help me draw a line where I wanted the hooked part to be. I also grabbed my blue 10mm hook (the biggest one I have) as a guide to give me a 3-D image of what I was going for.

cut guide from Serendipity Crochet

I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but with a variety of files and a box cutter, I seem to be making progress. Top to Bottom: Serendipity Crochet tutorial, pencil, cutter, files, hook in progress, blue hook for guide.

I started with the 3/4" rod because I was pretty sure that 1/2" would be too small (which it is). I was kind of chicken to start with the knife, but I needed to get some kind of marks in the wood to control the filing, so I laid the knife on my pencil mark and rocked back and forth to make a shallow, controlled cut in the wood. This was good because it was so shallow that when I changed my mind about the placement of the hook (which happened no less than 3 times), the marks were easily sanded smooth later.

When I was fairly sure about the hook placement, I used the same rocking method to make a deeper cut. Then I got out my files and tried to file away a notch before the hook. I'm sorry I have no idea what files I used when because I was just randomly grabbing them and trying to make it work! I did notice that I only used the smaller, flatter ones with success, so that might be a place to start.

After filing for ages with little results--there was just a smooth indentation, rather than a pronounced notch--I bit the bullet and grabbed for the knife! (I was so scared I put on rubber-coated gardening gloves just in case. Better safe than sorry!) First, I marked with my pencil more or less the shape I wanted to make on the hook using my actual hook as a guide. It made an acute angle with the hook mark when viewed from the side (see photo above). Then the cutting began.

I started shaving from the back of my mark toward the edge of the hook and was amazed at the beautiful curls of wood that came off! It looked just like what I'd seen on tv of someone whittling! Anyway, alternating with files and knife, I continued to shape the notch, being careful around the mark I had made for the hook. I mostly used files around the hook "beak" to keep more control in that most important of parts. The flatter file and the triangular file really helped to continue carving out the notch under the "beak," creating the hook itself.

After I was happy with the hooked beak part, I set about shaping the head. I used the knife to shave off the edge, so it looked something like this:

shaping the head--front view
(with 10mm blue hook for scale)

shaping the head--side view

Then I used the files to smooth it. (This was the easiest part--it took like 5 minutes tops.) After that I pulled out an emery board, since the USA-CAN women's soccer semi-final was on and there was no way I was missing that to go out and buy sandpaper! The emery board worked surprisingly well, but next time I will definitely buy sandpaper. It isn't quite as smooth as I'd like and the fibers from the cotton piping kind of got stuck in it before I oiled and waxed.

...Which brings us to the next (and last!) steps of oiling and waxing. You can see how the color deepened and it starts to look pretty professional, right?! I used coconut oil because it smells great and I've been obsessed with it lately. After furiously rubbing that in (it's so wrong, but you gotta do what you gotta do), take your wax paper and do the same. The warmer the paper (friction = warmth), the more wax will nicely coat your hook. The wax really smoothed out the last bit of roughness. I still want to go back over with a fine sandpaper, but overall I'm very satisfied. (I better be after all that rubbing!)

And the finished product: TA-DA!

My finished 3/4" crochet hook! clockwise from doily: doily made with 2mm hook, rag with coconut oil, wax paper for finishing, emery board (my mcgyver sandpaper!), 1.75 mm hook, 10mm hook, 3/4" hook (after), 3/4"x12" rod (before); you can also see the cotton piping in the box and in the lower right corner

Please drop me a comment if you have any questions! Happy Hooking! :D

I'm officially a bad blogger...

I guess I can officially call myself a bad blogger, not to mention a bad friend, when I haven't blogged in (let's see... September '08 makes...) 9 months! Wow. Even I am shocked by my bad behavior.

Here's a brief summary of what's happened since then. In October, Tosh and I quit our jobs (during the beginning of the global decline in the job market of all times) and officially said November would be the last month in our apartment in Tokyo. Then I found out that I totally misunderstood Tosh's visa situation, which meant that we had to stay in Japan for 10 weeks AFTER leaving our apartment. So we moved in with Tosh's very generous parents in Kyoto for those 10 weeks, while getting Tosh's paperwork in order. It was an interesting two and a half months, but I loved living with my in-laws--they are great people--and eventually we got everything worked out. We came to California on February 9th with Oto and Leo in tow, and then proceeded to live with my (very generous) parents for the next three months. Then, after T got in touch with an old friend, he started a business and decided to make our new base camp in Long Beach, CA. Why Long Beach? Well, Tosh has always wanted to live by the beach again. I figure it's as good a reason as any. So here we are, a 5-minute walk from the beach. Too bad it's so dang cold here! (What can I say? I'm too used to Fresno summers.)

We've been in Long Beach for about 6 weeks now, and it's finally starting to turn into summer. I love the flowers and greenery here.

Last night I went to kendo practice here in Long Beach. I didn't take my bogu, so I just changed into my kendo-gi and hakama and did some stretches and suburi with the beginners. I felt kind of weird that I was with the beginners, but they worked hard! We worked hard. I think that was the best thing I could've done, though, because I haven't practiced in a year and a half and I needed to get back into the swing of things... gradually. I still ended up with a blister on my left thumb, one on the soft spot on my left big toe, and a nice, deep blister that I'm sure will pop at a future date on the pad of my left foot below the other blister. It's nice to have something to look forward to. But on the bright side, I really enjoyed practice and the people I talked to at the dojo. I'm looking forward to going to practice again.

If you want to see some posts that T and I did over the last six months or so, you can check Toshio's blog.

Janie's Quote of the Day #6

"You cannot see the lettuce and the dressing without suspecting a salad."

--Arthur Conan Doyle, The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard

more...More....MORE....!

More new posts!

Instead of going into details, I'll just say, check out July and August again. Enjoy!

New Posts!!

I finally added two new posts, as promised. I back-dated them so they would be in their proper place. Neither one is about my summer vacation, but beggars can't be choosers.

I spent quite a bit of time writing and formatting them (and trying to remember what did I do exactly?) and I even included some Japanese in the post about Nagashi Somen.

Please read and enjoy!

やっと新しいポスト二つを書きました。両方とも夏休みについてではないんですけど、「流しそうめん」のポストでは日本語で頑張って書いてみましたので、読んでください！

July 19th, 2008--Nagashi Somen 流しそうめん

July 7th, 2008--Tanabata Festival 七夕祭り

Janie's Quote of the Day #5

"My country is the world and my religions is to do good."

--Thomas Paine