Overboard

I look forward to this day every year: the day after I close down the shop(s) for the season.  It’s a day to take a deep breath, relax, and then jump headlong into the Christmas preparations I’ve been neglecting all month!

I’ll be making my gift-giving list later today, and getting myself all organized – I can hardly wait! I love this part: the planning and the scheming.  I’m not too big on the shopping and the wrapping, but I perk up again when it’s time for the giving.  Such fun to play Santa, I think.

So, I’m not really doing the handmade Christmas thing this year.  Not on the grand scale I usually do.  But there was one project that really caught my eye last week, and I just had to add it to my list.  I’m not going to say what it is, just in case one of my sons happens to read this post, but I will give you the link (click here!) and trust that those boys will be good enough not to sneak a peek…

So, did you look? There could hardly be a more perfect crochet project for me to undertake for my boys than that one!

So I ordered a bunch of cotton yarn, and I saw that I needed an E hook. Perhaps you can guess what happened next?

Well, 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 hook.  (Really, can you blame me?)  So I decided to cover an E hook. But, the thing is, I have had it in my mind for some time that I would like a nice coordinating set of hooks for myself, and it seemed that stopping with just an E would be wrong somehow.  Now I know you know where this is going…

Allow me to present my new hooks:

This was originally a set of Boye hooks (I really hope I like working with them – I didn’t have the sense to try one out before I covered the whole crazy set) and each hook is covered with a different color variation of my Triangles cane design.  They all match, but they are still different enough to tell them apart at a glance.

I love them!  I sanded and buffed them all, just like the ones I made for the shop recently, and I just love to pet them and feel how smoooooooth they are.  (I know, I have a problem…)

Later tonight, I will curl up on the couch with my project instructions, my colorful box of yarn and my new E hook, and try my hand at this amigurumi thing.  I don’t know if I can manage to finish the entire project – it’s a little ambitious for me, particularly with just a week before Christmas – but even if I only complete part of it, that part should still be gift-able.

Let the merrymaking commence!