Clay Crochet Hooks

 I had seen adorable crochet hooks made with bake clay online and picked up a couple of these on sale in the US. My favorite clay-covered crochet hooks were red with white dots so red and white were the logical choices for colors.

 I used a bamboo handle crochet hook to judge how far up the crochet hook the clay should go. My work area is lined with wax paper to avoid mess and color transfer and I had a packet of wet wipes nearby to clean my hands between color changes. Here you can see two piles of clay dots. The smaller ones were the best, but oh-so-hard to get just right.

 I lined a 9x13 baking tray with aluminum foil because you probably shouldn't have the clay in direct contact with things you plan to use for food later. The directions on the package were a bit sparse and I judged the "per inch" part to refer to the length. Since I sort of scorched my hooks, I'm thinking it was actually referring to thickness.

But, even with a few scorch marks, my hooks came out lovely and are so much easier to work with now that they have built-up handles. Two packages of clay made eight crochet hook handles in case you want to try it. Also, I rolled the clay into handle size first and then inserted the hook rather than wrapping the clay around the hook. I also kept the flattened piece on each hook free of clay just like it was on the bamboo hook. The tutorials I found online all seemed to cover this up, but I think it is important to leave it as is for comfort's sake.