WIP

 

I'm working on puppets again. My stocks are low and I've booked a table at a market on the 10th December. I plan to make a couple of hooded towels too, since I have none in stock now. I like to make them to order, but it's as well to have a sample or two for people to see. 

Peach Chutney

 

A friend gave me a big bowl of peaches last week, too many for us to eat fresh. I have plenty of jam in the cupboard, but not so much chutney, so I went on the hunt for a peach chutney recipe. I found this one  that I had most of the ingredients for. I used dried cape gooseberries instead of dried cranberries. The peaches were tasty and juicy, but too small to make peeling them viable. It didn't seem to make any difference to the final product, so I may forego peeling in future! 

I use the top of a plastic bottle when filling jars; it has a wider mouth than any funnel I've been able to buy, and helps keep the top of the jar clean:

I finished up with five full jars and a little bit for tasting:

Lion And Tiger

 

It's funny that after not having towel orders for months and months, I've had three in quick succession. The latest order was for a lion and a tiger. I haven't done a tiger before, so I went back to a Crazy Little Projects tutorial.  For most of the towels, only the hood is decorated, but a tiger needs stripes:

Silver Thread

 

 I bought this thread some time ago, wondering if I could tat with it. It's very slippery, so slippery that it doesn't stay wound on the ball! But it tats up fine:

I've been tatting snowflakes to sell at markets. I sold 6 on Saturday and am now making for the next market. When there are so many snowflake patterns out there, it seems a bit odd to make the same one over and over, but I want to just do it, without thinking or deciding! They're much shinier than they look in the photo, so I don't think beads are necessary. 

Three More

 

I finished my towel order, in spite of lengthy power outages. I'll have all 11 towels packaged and ready to be picked up on Thursday. 

I sold seven puppets at a market on Saturday, so I need to make some more of those.  

Helix Hat Revisited

 

Remember the helix hat that I knitted in variegated yarn? Well at last I have managed to spin some wool and dye it in solid colours to try the pattern again. The stripes show  up much more clearly, with the snail shell helix on top. You can see in the bottom picture that you do get a jog where the colours change over. Since I finished knitting this, I found a video on Pinterest that promises to show how to avoid the jog on helix stripes, though I haven't had a chance to study it yet. I guess I will have to knit another helix hat! 

Rain And Towel Progress

 We're in the rainy season again and the market was rained off again. At this rate, they'll have to find an indoor venue. I was more disappointed about not being able to shop at some of the usual stalls than I was about not selling anything, because I have the towel order on the go. I have made progress:

Three rabbits and three dinosaurs!