Right Side, Wrong Side

 

 Unless worked back and forth, crochet always has a right side and a wrong side. But it's more pronounced in a textured pattern like this one, where the bobbles and ridges are all on the front. Jack asked me how I know which direction to work in. That's easy, just have the right side facing at all times! 

Inching Along

 

You couldn't say centimetreing along, could you? Things are quiet here at the moment - no puppet orders, no preparation for craft in the retirement home - so I thought I'd take the opportunity to make  progress on my blanket. It can take up to an hour to complete one side of my giant square, depending on the stitch, so progress in terms of depth is slow. 

Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas to all those you observe Christmas, around the world. I didn't make any new decorations this year, tatted or beaded, but there are enough in storage to decorate the little rosemary bush Christmas tree. 

A Couple More

 

I thought I was done with puppets for a while, but had another order for two, crocodile and giraffe. The order specified that the giraffe's mouth should be orange. Right. Here you go:

Sunflowers And Lizards

 

I finished Kim's gang of puppets and crocheted another round of my blanket. Both are 'more of the same' so I thought I'd show some pictures from our garden instead. The sunflowers are rather festive. 

Our garden seems to have become a haven for all kinds of lizards. Some of that is down to Rag, the border collie, who keeps cats out of the garden and doesn't chase lizards himself. Jack saw a Ground Agama laying  eggs the other day and managed to get a photo without disturbing her:

There are also a lot of Tree Agamas, which we usually call Bloukops or blue heads:

There's a whole lounge of skinks between the front and back gardens. (Yup, I looked up the collective noun of lizards!) Geckos come out on the veranda walls in the evenings. There are not many lizards inside the house itself, which is fine because I'm happy to watch lizards from a distance but am  squeamish about getting close up. 

Puppets Galore

 

In the run up to Christmas, the bath puppets are finding homes as fast as I can make them. The orange giraffe left the same day as the pink one. I made a monkey and a crocodile as gifts. Then came Ruth's gang - monkey, crocodile, rabbit and hippo. Now I'm working on Kim's gang - frog, hippo, crocodile and rabbit. I had to go and buy more towelling yesterday. 

 Ruth bought four towels too, so I was pleased about that. Aside from the Star Wars towels, I don't seem to have sold a towel for a while. 

A Pop Of Colour

 

Work on my blanket has been intermittent lately as I've been busy, but it is progressing slowly. A friend suggested that I put round of colour every now and then to break up the grey. It's a  good idea.  I'm following the advice, even though it means a return to playing yarn chicken and worrying that I don't have enough to finish the round! 

Egg Boxes

 

At the retirement home I visit every week, we've been making flower wreaths from egg boxes. They turned out really well, I thought you might like to see them. It's fascinating how we give everyone the same raw materials, but the end results are so different. 

A Pink Giraffe

 

This is another order. You want your giraffe pink? Pink it shall be. It's to be a gift for a baby girl. 

Twin Crocodiles

 

I had an order for crocodile puppets for twin boys. So here they are, fraternal twins. 

Brushing Up

 It's a while since I did any beaded crochet. I'm brushing up my skills by making key rings as gifts for the members of the craft group in the retirement home I visit once a week. (Last year I gave them each a tatted bookmark.)

 I thought I'd take the opportunity to try my hand at creating my own designs:

The zigzag one came out as I visualised it, the blue one, not so much. I wouldn't have a hope of creating that design if I wanted to, so I'll happily settle for serendipity! I still need to make a few more before Friday. 

Giraffe

 

I didn't have enough orange fabric for another lion puppet, but there was enough for the crocodile pattern. Hmm. I've turned the crocodile into a giraffe. It looks better in person than in the photo, where it looks rather like a goldfish. Those are ears, not fins. 

The Baby Yoda  and Kylo Ren towels were collected this morning, hooray. All's well that ends well. I'm just relieved I won't need to look for other buyers for them. 

Christmas Cake

 

I baked my Christmas cake on Monday. That's probably late by Northern Hemisphere standards, but when Christmas is in mid-Summer and the weather hot and humid, I think it would be a mistake to bake it too far in advance, 'feeding' with brandy notwithstanding. It's a slightly 'alternative' Christmas cake this year. I used half conventional dried fruit, like raisins and sultanas, and half an island mix:

It has things like dried cranberries and papaya in it. I added a handful of our dried gooseberries too. 

Our power was off for much of yesterday, so I was relieved that the cake was safely cooked already!