Jake's hooks...

My dad always carries a pocket knife.  It is pretty handy, but Mims has become particularly fascinated by how useful it is for quickly getting new toys out of the crazy-elaborate packaging all her toys come in.  For Father's Day this year, she insisted that her daddy needed a pocket knife like her papa's.  So, we bought them both new knives!

My husband, Jake, is a writer and an excellent (amateur) sculptor, and is currently obsessed with puppets.  Not so much the puppeteering part, but he's really into the creation of puppets.  He pours over patterns and schematics and YouTube videos on puppet construction.  He has gotten really into the idea of making a hand-carved, wooden marionette.  He has spent the last couple of months trying to get me to go with him to Prague to take a 3-week intensive course on puppet carving.  Uh, he's never carved wood before.  He sculpts with clay.  Oh how that man constantly amuses me!

Okay, so Jake was super excited to get his new pocket knife for Father's Day, and has now become a whittling maniac.  We have gone on stick-finding expeditions!  He has carved twigs (? not really branch size, but not like a toothpick size either?) from our yard.  He now pulls over to look at other people's tree trimmings!  Ahahahaha!!!  I love it!  It makes me happy to not be the only crazy one around here.

I suggested that he should carve me some crochet hooks.  He took it on as a challenge.

The top of the hook is sanded smooth, and then the handle part is a little rougher, which I like because it makes it a little grippy.  He would have sanded it down if I hadn't stolen it away.  It seems to be about the size of my J hook, but it's just not worth buying a pair of calipers to know for sure.

The smaller hook is about an H.  I love them, and I love that he made them for me.  You know, if he keeps getting better at making hooks, I'm going to think about selling them on Etsy.  We could use the money to go puppet-carving in Prague...

xoxo