April Hook Auction's OVER but see too the Annual April 1 Rock the Crochet World Revolutionary Hook

Carol is the high bidder.  Thanks everyone for stopping over!

This has got to be one if not THE most beautiful hooks I've made.. so much so that a display stand is included.

I'm back!  So here's the scoop on this beauty that I've been saving and working on off and on for some time now.  The hook started as what looked like an "ordinary" blank of Cocobolo, one of the most beautifully colored woods with striking grain color variations found anywhere.  Actually it's from Central America and is prized for it's beauty and adaptability especially for musical instruments.  You'll see it on beautiful high end guitar bodies.  And I've used it before for hooks.  Amazing wood with natural oils that hardly need a finish, it machines so smoothly.  But this one does have a precautionary coating of polymerized oil, kind of a belt and suspender thing, to assure longevity.  So as the hook emerged from the blank, always a wondrous surprise for me to see how grain emerges, this angular dark-to-black-to-variegated orange emerged; with the confluence happening right where the thumb rest should be.  You can see it in the top picture.  So with careful placement of the hook, the thumb rest became outlined by the black stripe.  Not quite happenstance but impossible without the kind help of the wood.  A truly amazing hook emerged.  So much so that I decided this one deserved a display base.

Now the base is also made of a really beautiful wood, Wenge.  Wenge is one of the more difficult woods to work because it splinters so easily.  But it was chosen for the wavy and complimentary variegated grain pattern that leads to the hook.  

A unique hook and a unique size.  It measures at 5.25mm (between H and I), partly intentional because I didn't want to interrupt the grain pattern that was going so well, partly because it's not a hook size you'll likely have in your arsenal, and partly to encourage freestyle work (shouldn't an artsy hook make artsy crochet?).  Length is a bit more standard for Jimbo hooks, 7 1/4 inches (18.4cm).

A hook that, thanks to the natural beauty of the wood, can be enjoyed as a useful tool and as a piece of art.

And it's up for bids.  

Ok now the crass commercial stuff.  We'll run the auction till  Tuesday, April 12 and close on that date at 10pm Pacific Time.  Please send your bid via email to      (Jimbocrochetwhittler@yahoo.com) with your bid amount.
I'll post bids as soon as possible (however I don't hang around the computer all the time, especially when I'm up on the Ranch).
If you are out-bid and would like to raise the bid, please increase the previous bid by a $5 minimum (done to eliminate penny increases at the last minute).
Tying bids will be resolved in favor of the earliest bid received.  I do charge postage now ($2.50 for US regular mail... more for foreign or speedy mailing and/or insurance).
I do take proxy bids if you prefer but again, tying proxy bids will be resolved in favor of the first received.
Thanks once again.  I appreciate everyone who drops by, bids or not.
Jimbo

Bids:
(I'll be gone to the Ranch from today (April 7) till Sunday (April 10) but send your bids anyway... I'll post them when I get back.  Have a great week end!)

PK's in first with $15
JoAnn raises it to $40
Carol bumps it to $60

And now for something totally shocking and revolutionary to the world of Crochet....

THE ALL ROUND JIMBO HOOK

Yes folks I've done it again.  Never will you ever have to go searching for that thumb rest in order to orient your hook the right way.  This hook needs NO thumb rest whatever!  Why, you ask? Because, I answer, it has an all round hook!  No matter where you grip the hook or your grip style, this hook always has the yarn catching throat in the correct position.  "Why didn't we think of that!!??" cry major hook manufacturers in utter anguish and despiration while reaching for the phone to contact their bankruptcy attorneys.  And my answer..... "Duh, because you didn't think of it on April Fools Day!!"

Heh.