Every house should have a crochet hook. In fact, I may add it to my list of essential parental ingredients, right up there with duct tape and super glue. A little duct tape or super glue can pretty much fix anything and now that krazy glue has its new gel formula, you can take your time while you fit together those tiniest of tiny plastic pieces AND you won't have to worry {as much} about gluing your fingers to each other or to said tiny plastic pieces.

With a crochet hook, you can also, for instance, pull pieces of string through tiny holes in plastic bottles. Say, for instance, your son wants to make a jet pack for his Jango Fett costume. You find a plastic bottle left over from some sparkling water someone brought for Thanksgiving last year and are amazed that it is still there, tucked away in the dress up box, ready for this very project. You poke four small holes into the the bottle. You then figure out how to affix said bottle to your son's body, precisely where a jet pack would go, with some string that was used to tie up the Christmas tree last year. {You wonder if you would move this string if you had to move and when you think, no, you wonder if you should get rid of the rest of it. But you are using it, so there you go. Maybe you would move it.}

The string goes easily into the first set of holes on one side of the bottle but you soon see it is nearly impossible to maneuver the string into the holes on the other side, once inside the bottle. You see, the string is threaded through the bottle to make sure it stays on! There is nothing more frustrating than a jet pack that keeps falling off, slippery strings loosely fastened around the bottle, and the best way to make sure it stays on is to make it stay. And then it dawns on you! A crochet hook! The very thing to coax the string through. Within minutes {because it does take a little time, after all} you have hooked the string with the handy hook and gently pulled it through. Eh voila! A jet pack, handily, securely attached. Ready for action.

And then, fifteen minutes later, it is on the floor again. On to the next game. But the strings are still there, threaded through the bottle, ready for next time.

Yes! A crochet hook. Right up there with duct tape and super glue {gel}.