Posted on 27 Comments

Custom-made crochet hooks, anyone?

Yesterday was the day I’d been waiting for: no appointments, no other work that couldn’t be postponed… So I dove into hook-handle-making.

6389519817_95381e18d7-flickr

6389519891_6c7ca57c7a-flickr

6389519979_ff2c1523d8-flickr

6389520057_d7ed6b3a43-flickr

6389520127_6082bcefda-flickr

6389520287_3b29c8cd2f-flickr

By the afternoon, I had made enough hook handles to determine my best practice for future orders.  By evening, I had sanded and buffed the daylights out of all of the handles I made.  By bedtime, I’d gotten the order form up on the website.

A very very hooky day, if I do say so myself.

And so, without further ado, I am so happy to present: the new Polka Dot Cottage Gift Shop, featuring Made-to-Order Polymer-Handled Crochet Hooks!  I’ll be collecting orders for the next week (or until I have as many as I can realistically handle), and then it will be all hooks all the time over here at the Polka Dot Cottage World Headquarters!

I greatly appreciated all of your valuable feedback about these, and am truly looking forward to filling your orders.  You can choose your hook size, hook brand, handle pattern, and whether or not you’d like an indented thumb rest.  I will have them completed and shipped by mid-December, hopefully well in time for gift-giving.

Oh, and for those of you who don’t particularly care about crochet hooks, I’ve decided to add a little something: you can order custom-made shawl pins and stick pens, too.  Stick pens make great teacher gifts, especially in red ink (hint, hint).  Enjoy!

LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH!

Sign up for occasional Polka Dot Cottage news and get a coupon for 10% off your next order!

Don't worry, we won't bother you more than once or twice a month!

Posted on 27 Comments

27 thoughts on “Custom-made crochet hooks, anyone?

  1. They look wonderful – how clever you are. off to decide how many and who for,um, including me!

    1. Thanks, Adele!

  2. Polka Dot Cottage: Custom-made crochet hooks, anyone? http://t.co/6IaVZqxL

  3. A brilliant idea and a fantastic execution! These are just wonderful. Your work w/ polymer clay astounds me!!!

    1. Thank you, Sally! I haven’t done much of it lately, but something like this is actually quite relaxing to me once I get in the groove.

  4. Amazing, as always!

    1. You’re sweet. Thanks!

  5. Lisa, the new hooks are so pretty! Your canes and color combinations are always brilliant, you were one of my inspirations back when I started! (that doesn’t mean we’re not getting younger!) 🙂

    I hope you’ll have great holiday sales in your new store! good luck!
    Iris.

    1. Aw, thanks, Iris! I’m a big fan of yours, too 🙂

  6. (forgive me if you've heard this before)Just a few more hours left to order custom #crochet hooks, shawl pins & pens! http://t.co/Xbh1b56O

  7. Cool, when are you going to make knitting needles:)

    1. You know, I’ve been thinking about making knitting needles for *years* but they don’t really lend themselves to it as well as crochet hooks do. I’m not entirely sure how I’d do it without compromising the function of the needles. Any ideas?

      1. How about just making an end cap for straight knitting needles? You could have them look something like the end of these needles:

        http://www.yarn.com/webs-knitting-needles-single-points/knitters-pride-nova-single-pointed-needles-10-inch/

        You don’t want to make them much bigger or longer than that or you would loose some of the length on them. Just a thought!

        1. I considered doing something like that, but it’s hard to add too much personality through such a small bit of clay. I’ve seen it done well by people who do sculptural things, but I’m not so sure it would work well with my own brand of embellishment. Still, it’s something I want to play around with. I’ve had some needles in mind to experiment with for some time. Just haven’t tried it yet!

  8. […] Lisa Clarke’s post about making crochet hook handles out of polymer clay. […]

  9. […] minding my own business, working on your custom claythings (crochet hooks, pens, and shawl pins, if you remember), when we had a bit of a medical drama unfold with my older […]

  10. […] with all of the hook-handle-making I’ve been doing around here lately, I just couldn’t bring myself to start a crochet project with a plain, boring, unembellished […]

  11. Love these, you are so creative, I’ll be wanting to gift these to my hooky friends in future. Love your blog, just discovered it.

  12. I was wondering if you have any crotchet hooks in purple? I would love to order

    1. Hi, Sylvia, thank you for your interest! I have to update the shop. I made more hooks last month and they’re not listed yet. I don’t *think* there are any purple among them, but there may be.

      I plan to re-open the shop for custom ordering later this month, and so you can order purple hooks then, if I don’t have any in stock.

      Hope this helps!

  13. have you ever made the entire hook from clay not just the handle and how flexible/stiff is baked polymer clay. thanks

    1. No, I haven’t. I like the extra strength a metal armiture provides. Plus, I think it would be tricky to get the hook diameter and shape just right.

      Polymer can be fairly strong when baked, as long as you use a professional grade brand. Even so, I’m not sure it would hold up to the kind of stress some people put on their hooks.

      1. thanks for answering because in trying to decide if i should make my own hooks and what to use. have a great day😀

        1. My pleasure ☺ Good luck!

  14. My mom has rheumatoid arthritis and hand tremors and several other issues going on her hands shake so bad sometimes she can’t hold the crochet hook and I’m trying to find someone reasonably priced waiting crochet hooks that are big enough that she can still crochet can you help me out please

    1. Hi, Melissa. I have a few hooks in stock that might be appropriate: http://lisaclarke.net/handmades/handcrafted-crochet-hooks/

      If none of them will work for her, I’m open to doing a custom order. The only difficulty is that I am unable to use my work table at the moment, and it might be a few weeks before I am able to get back to work.

  15. Hi can you make a Betty boop crochet hadle

Leave a comment!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.