Need a Hand?

I do! And I don't mean some help.

I need a "hand" to "model" my puppets. I need to spend ages taking photos of all of the ones I have finished revising so that I finish these patterns off and sell the finished puppets. Another bag full out of the way.

Last time I asked Benjamin for help to model some he was in a very bad mood because he wanted to be off doing other things and was very uncooperative!!!!!!

I was looking at those wooden ones on eBay but when I saw them in a shop, the thumb didn't go where I needed it to.

Anyway, Mark helped me make this. He bent the garden wire and I covered it in the no longer needed tube bandaging and stuffed it.

It works like a dream!

Of course, if the finished puppets sell well, I may make some more.

To be honest, I don't want to spend my time crocheting to sell but I am trying really hard to save up to get my A-Z published - which isn't easy with the reduced hours and a 12 year old son who always needs something new.

So far I have made about £17 on ebay with all the stash. Not as much as I was hoping for but better than nothing and also saving just either throwing or giving everything away.

I also found the gorgeous green chenile I knew was up there. No way am I getting rid of that. I have been dreaming for years about what I am going to make from it!

And in the wardrobe, I found the bag of chunky I was saving to make myself a cardigan. Some of my nice warm woolies are getting a bit past their "use-by" date. The elbows are getting thin and stringy and the cuffs are starting to unravel.

And there was no way I was going to buy any new ones when I knew all that stuff was in the attic just waiting to be used.

And about that Clematis.

I haven't given up. I ordered some of the sagey green thread to make the leaves from. It have arrived and is ready and waiting for me to use it but I have a long list of things which need to be done first.

Besides, small cotton leaves are definately a summer project as I can't be making chunky cardigans then!

Funky Fibre Give Away

I am trying really hard to clear a load of stuff out.

I have found a bag of assorted balls of funky yarns which I really don't want to throw away.

So, email me for my address, send me an S.A.E. with a large letter stamp on and I will send you a selection of at least 6 x 6m lengths.

If I don't get a big response, you can have more as I will only throw them out otherwise.

And please pass the news on, I need to clear out my wardrobe!!!!!

Finished Luceting.

At last. It is just as well that I had to make the frame smaller otherwise it would have taken me almost twice the time - if I had been able to finish it!

I ran out of thread. Not a major problem, I can just order some more - or so I thought.

Also, I had hunted high and low for a ball of thread I thought I had. I distinctly remembered ordering two balls of 4 different colours at Christmas. However, this was just before I broke my wrist. When they arrived I was in a lot of pain, couldn't crochet and just dumped the whole bag in the wardrobe.

When I finally looked properly in the bag, I realised I had been sent one ball of green short which had never been sent on.

I phoned Tandem Cottage, ordered another two (plus two other colours) and queried the ball I was missing. A few days later my thread arrived - minus the green I desperately needed.

As it was the weekend I couldn't phone them so I hunted online and discovered that I couldn't buy the colour I wanted anywhere. Purple Linda was very helpful and I finally discovered that DMC have changed their colour chart for Petra and the green I want is no longer on it.

After saying a lot of rude words, I phoned Tandem Cottage and asked them about it. It turns out her rep has not been anywhere near the place in ages, she can't get any answers from DMC themselves and she didn't know about the colour range changes.

She did, however, have the colour I want in a size 8, so sent me that. I got it the next day and have finished off the bits I needed to after more rude words. Thinner thread used double gets tangled ever so easily and I spend almost as much time untangling it as I did actually making the bits I needed.

As you can see from the first picture, its a bit of a mess. Most of this is due to all the loose ends in all directions. I can't hide them because of the way I have made the frame.

But don't worry, they are not staying like that. I will be using all the ends to sew the leaves and flowers on after thay have been crocheted.

And after I have decided what colour to make them in! I can go for either a deeper forest green or a lighter sage green.

I hope the other pictures, that I cleared the loose threads out of the way for, give you a better idea of what it looks like.