Book Two

 

I've finished the set of puppets for the second trainee teacher. Left to right we have Scout the shark, Silas the sea otter, Sadie the sealion and Eric the elephant seal. The teacher is going to collect them from me at the market on Saturday. 

This Is Where I Came In

 Two years ago, I was asked by a trainee teacher to make puppets for a story telling project. Following that, I started making my bath puppets that have been so successful! Last week I was contacted by two more would-be teachers. One of them also wants puppets, specific ones to illustrate her story. The other one wanted a monkey puppet and a story board with felt animals that would stick to the board. She needed hers promptly, so I made it over the weekend. Luckily I already had a monkey puppet in stock.

It was quite good fun to create. I'm hopeless at drawing, so I looked online for a cartoon version of each animal and then printed it out to use as a pattern. Of course, even I can manage a snake and a spider! 

PS My photo resizer stopped working, so I downloaded another one. I haven't altogether got the hang of it and haven't been able to put my name on the photos. I'll get there eventually. 

Unsuitable

 

I was given a bunch of fabric pieces and a pattern to make Pierrot dolls, for the  craft group. The donor asked that one doll be returned to her. Step one was to make a sample. Well, after many hours and much fiddling, I can safely say that it's not a project that is suitable for the craft group. Even without the nine pom poms the doll is meant to sport. We're grateful for all the donations we're given, but sometimes they're just not appropriate. 

Sample

 

One of the craft group members suggested we make milk jug covers out of net remaining from making food covers. Good idea. I'm happy when suggestions come 'from the floor'. Traditionally, milk jug covers have beads around the edge to hold them in place. I thought I'd subvert tradition a bit by using buttons instead of beads. Whether the group members do the same is up to them! 

Scarf

 

Phew, winter seems to have disappeared. The weather is suddenly much too hot for scarves! Good thing I had fun making it. I was knitting it at the knit'n'natter session last week. Is this long enough? I asked. No came the answer, loudly and in unison. So I knitted another ball. Good thing I have fellow knitters to keep me on the straight and narrow. They're right, it was too short. 

Ten

 

I've done ten 'bunches of lavender' for the order. I still have five to do. I've made a start by tatting the butterflies:

I've put a link to the lavender pattern on the side bar, on the right hand side of my page. The butterfly is on Jane Eborall's pattern site, under doodles. 

Sewing

 

I need a new nightie. Surely there's enough of the pale yellow fabric to make a nightie?  I tried this pattern and that pattern, this way and that. Nope. I used the same solution I used here and cut the sleeves out of a different fabric, in this case a lace fabric. Hopefully it gives the nightie the right sort of lingerie look! 

I also got around to making the second blue skirt at last. No, I'm not going to put tatting on this one, which is going to the lady who gave me the fabric. She also gave me some lining fabric last week, so I used some of it to line the skirt. The colour in the photo is way off - the lining is actually a paler version of the outside blue. I hope this skirt will fit.

Spearmint

 

It has taken me a while to spin up the green wool that I dyed last week, because I've just been spinning in the evenings. I have a number of projects on the go at the moment, so I've been allocating them different time slots - tat in the morning, sew in the afternoon, spin in the evening! The green is much paler than in looked in the dye bath and probably looks paler too when combined with a thread of natural wool, but I do like the look of it. 

More Lavender

 

I have an order for another 15 'bunches' of lavender. I had a quick look at my pattern and began. I've used all the butterflies I had, so I'll need to tat some more of Jane Eborall's very small butterfly before I continue with the flowers. 

Cleaning X Rays

 

The butterfly project went well yesterday. These are some of them.

There were quite a few comments on the previous post, thanks, so I thought I'd write more about the cleaning of x-rays. I was advised to soak them in a bath of water with dishwashing liquid and bleach added. Apparently, on some of them the ink will just float off, some need rubbing and some won't come clean at all. Mine required rubbing with a sponge. 

Butterfly Sample

 

I was given some used x-rays recently to use for the craft group. I knew that some of the other groups had used x-rays to make butterflies, so I picked some brains and learnt how to remove the image from the x-ray. I was pondering how to display the butterflies when I saw this post - scroll down to see the stained glass butterfly. Jack bent some wire into shape for me and I think it'll work. I'll cut some butterflies out of x-ray for the less dexterous and make templates for the more capable to cut out their own. Everyone can decorate as much or as little as they fancy. 

Better

 The market on Saturday went much better for me than last month's market, so that's good. I took along my spinning wheel and some of the multicoloured carded batts, because they're so eye catching, and indeed they did start conversations. Since then I've spun the batts, so that I can finish knitting the scarf.

I've sold all the fingerless gloves, so I need to make some more. A yarn customer said she's keen to see solid colours plyed together, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, spin some 'barber pole' yarn to show her and knit gloves with it too. First step is to dye the solid colour, jade in this case:

Puppet Parade

 

It's been a while since I made a new puppet design. I hereby introduce Miss Mouse. 

After a few days at the sewing machine, I think I've filled the puppet basket enough for Saturday's market table