hand-carved | Aberrant Crochet (TM)

Tag Archives: hand-carved

October 11, 2012 · 12:00 am

Bidding On The Grandmother Tree Crochet Hook Begins At Midnight!

Well, here we are – it’s time for the silent auction! And those of you who are night-owls and international readers, you will get the one up on everyone else for the bidding! Thanks for being true! Read on for the details about this hook and how this silent auction bidding will work.

UPDATE: Just letting you know that bidding began at midnight on Thursday morning, October 11! Read below for more details about this hook and to see all the illustrations and photos about this hook’s design (you’ll even learn a bit more about crochet hook anatomy). But I will update the silent bidding right here. To bid, email your bids ($5 increments) to Worx@PixieWorx.net with “crochet hook auction” in the subject line. The auction will run for the rest of this week, ending at 11:59 pm Central Time on Sunday October 14th. Any tied bids will be settled in favor of the earlier entry. This is just a brief bit on instructions, read below for all the details and check out the hook. My intention is to use this series to help educate as well, so please do share my posts with others! Thank you!

BIDS: Kay opens the bid at $25!
Doug bumps it up to $45

Final Notes On The Making:

The Grandmother Tree hook has been polished and done for a week now. However, I’ve been out of pocket working for a tech convention in town last week and this weekend/week I’ve been kicked out of my house a few times for the sake of a potential buyer for our home. Hence, there just hasn’t been any way for me to sit at a computer to write about this hook! Both the buyer for our home and working at the convention were good things of course, but certainly they also became hurdles for me in my quest to blog about and carve a hook every week. The carving has continued, but I have to catch up on the blogging. So here I am, covered in saw dust and all. Uh, maybe I better brush off before I ruin my laptop. Hold on.

OK, here she is – Grandmother Tree’s crochet hook!

Meet Grandmother Tree’s Crochet Hook!

My darling daughter helped pose with the hook right-handed so I could take specific photos for you. After all, this particular hook has a curve that makes it more perfect for a right-handed crocheter than a left-handed crocheter. I illustrate it best in the photos, but it’s something essential to know and see before you bid. (That is, if you want to be happy using the hook.) The branch that I carved this hook from curves and twists slightly to the right. Because of this, I wouldn’t expect this hook to fit very nicely in a left hand, since it would curve away from it instead of into it like it does with the right.

Details about this hook:

This hook is hand-carved from a tree branch off a 500-600 year old live oak tree in my back yard. It took over 9 hours to make and it is “al natural” with no stains or sealants used on it. Just highly polished wood.

From head to tail, the hook is about 6 inches long, give or take when you consider the curve. And the size of the hook’s work space is M or 9mm, up to the handle.

This hook is best suited for an overhand crocheter. Also, I would recommend this hook for straight forward and standard crochet stitches, but not bullion or other stitches that require a lot of loops on the hook at one time.

Grandmother Tree’s crochet hook has qualities that are like an inline hook, however I don’t consider that it technically qualifies. (See photo.)

I pulled out my 100 year old antique bowler hat to lay the crochet hook on and give it some contrast in the photos for you. The hat is not as old as the tree, but I think they are both aged enough to have a mutual respect for each other. 😉 (Hat is not for sale, nor part of the silent auction, btw.) I want you to be able to see the hook’s shine! But also notice the optical illusion created by laying the hook on the hat! The curved hook looks straight while laying on the rounded top of the bowler hat. But as you can clearly see in the other photos, this hook is not straight at all! It does however curve nicely in the right hand.

Thanks so much for hanging out with me on the journey of making this hook and for my Crochet Hook Challenge! And please share my work with others if you think they would find it interesting. I’d really like to get the word out not only about my Crochet Hook Challenge and silent auctions, but also about hook anatomy and shape in general. Let the crochet infection continue!

Silent Auction Bidding – How This Works:

If you’re new here, please read the previous posts about my crochet hook challenge and subscribe to my blog. It’ll be a whole lot easier to stay on top of things that way! 🙂

Please email your bids ($5 increments) to Worx@PixieWorx.net with “crochet hook auction” in the subject line. The auction will run for the rest of this week, ending at 11:59 pm Central Time on Sunday October 14th. Any tied bids will be settled in favor of the earlier entry. Like Jimbo, I’m not at the computer all the time, but will try to post bids as soon as they come in. I am including free shipping for this auction within the US. If you are international, I’ll pay what it would have been for shipping in the US if you’ll pay the difference. Payment accepted by Paypal. Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks again to all who have shared my writing and work and of course those who’ve entered the bidding! As well, our family thanks you! Our son’s vision therapy is underway, but we definitely need help to finish out the year. Gratitude and thanks from all our hearts.

What’s Next?

Stay tuned for pics of the hook I’ve been working on this week. I’ve been calling her Mrs. Mapleworths.

It’s Official – I’ll Carve One Special Crochet Hook Per Week: Happy Fall My Friends

This is absolutely my favorite time of year. My favorite season, my favorite three months out of the year. Some would say it’s because my birthday is next month. And they might be right, but I don’t think so. I think it’s more likely because down here in Central Texas, the summers are brutal. And as my husband said the other day when the weather was finally nice enough to throw the windows open: “This. This is why we live here. This is why we put up with the heat of summer. For this.”

Here, fall is a sign of relief, holidays and family gatherings around the corner and in many ways, to me a new beginning. But then, I guess October is my New Year.

In celebration of my favorite season, and in leaving the safety of 40, I have agreed to take on a challenge handed to me by friends. Can I do it?

I have pledged to hand-carve and blog about at least one new special crochet hook per week from now until Christmas.

And I better get cracking. These special hooks will be offered up for sale each week here on my blog. And through the process, I hope you may learn a bit more about hook anatomy and why the design of your crochet hook is so important.

I have decided to handle the blog sales the same way my carving mentor, Jimbo Price, does with his own hooks – by silent auction. Opening bids for each hook will begin at $10 ($5 increments there-after), with the respective blog post updated as bids are emailed in (to worx@pixieworx.net). Bids will run for the week and then end.

Funds from these sales are primarily to benefit our son’s vision. After writing my previous post about our son’s rare vision issues and the need to be able to finish his treatment, we found out he will need more than we expected. About twice what we expected and at a cost of $3000 more. Already, one of my customers has made a generous monetary donation on our son’s behalf that has helped us get started. You know who you are and from the bottoms of our hearts – again thank you.

When it comes to the challenge itself, I’m not quite sure what will evolve out of it. But I know it will be intriguing to me. It takes me 3-5 hours to carve one of my hooks, depending on exactly what shape I am aiming for and the wood I’m working with. I will have to treat this “hook a week” challenge much the way I have to treat NaBloPoMo coming up in November – with discipline and innovation. There are plenty of events and life activities to get in the way, but you just do it and stick to it somehow. And when you think you’re out of ideas, you ask for input, turn yourself upside down and you think of something differently. (You don’t think I’m going to make the exact same hook each week, do you?) To make it fair, part of the caveat (straight from the NaBloPoMo playbook) is that even if I make more than one hook in a week, I still can’t work ahead and skip a week. I have to carve and blog about at least one hook a week. That’s the challenge. To have that discipline.

The goal in part is for me to see if I can do it. Just like the goal in NaBloPoMo is to blog every single day, without fail, through the month of November. Only this is carving a hook a week for an entire season plus a week. It sounds easier than it is. But in the long run the badge of accomplishment is worth it.

So be watching for an intro into hook anatomy and the first hook offering! 🙂 See you on the flip side.