I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!  

Spiraled/Twisted Crochet Hooks

I promised a blog posting on May 31, 2015, and I am sorry that I am almost a month late.  This blog was to accompany the article in the Autumn 2015 Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) Chain Link Newsletter.

In that article I referred to a favorite antique hook...and although it is not spiraled, but rather has cross-hatched markings,  here it is:

It is bright copper, with an elongated in-line size 13 hook head.  Other than liking in-line style heads, I can't really say why I like it so much, but I find it to be a great hook for working fine threads.  Finding a hook like this is one of the advantages of collecting many types of crochet hooks.

But my article was about spiraled or twisted crochet hooks.  Here is a picture of those in my collection:

Most of these hooks are vintage.  On the top is a very long spiraled celluloid plastic one.  Celluloid is an early plastic.  The two hooks on the left in the line-up are bone with simple spirals incised in the base of the handle.  The third is also bone, but has more deeply carved spirals.  The fourth is ivory, with a lacey spiral-carved handle, with a clamp on top for the missing hook.  The fifth is bone,with incised spiraled vines.  The sixth (the one with the carved hand) is ivory and also incised with spiraled designs.  It is followed by one with a spiraled mother-of-pearl handle.  The eighth is the 2012 CGOA annual hook.  It was made by Knitting Glass Guy and is glass with spiraled latticino within the handle.  It is followed by a Celtic Swan forged brass hook.  I probably bought this about 15 years ago, when they still made brass ones.  I would love to get one of Celtic Swan's silver or gold ones in which they now specialize.  That is followed by three vintage forged steel hooks.  The second to the last hook in the line-up is a metal hook with incised spirals.  I think it was a nut pick, that was repurposed into a crochet hook.  The last in the line-up is one with spiraled wire, spiraled again around the handle.  On the bottom is a relatively new hook with a spiral-carved olive-wood handle.  This hook was found on eBay.

I mentioned one other kind of spiraled hook, one that is made of naturally twisted wood.  I don't have any like that in my collection, so I started a search for one.  I did not have any luck.  I found a vendor on Etsy who carves hooks, some which look almost like they are naturally twisted in the photographs.  I asked her if they were and she told me that wood like that usually has been damaged by insects or rot.  Anyway, I still want one.  We had a pawpaw tree fall in our yard, with many years' growth of vines.  Below is a photo of some of the twisted branches/vines I salvaged.  Maybe someday I will attempt to make one (or more) of my own.