The Market

 

I sold all the bath puppets at the market on Saturday, so I was pleased about that. I didn't sell any towels. I think people are looking for inexpensive items. I did some shopping at the market too - pecan nuts and mushrooms, kambucha and eggs....

Ready For Market

 

I've been merrily working on bath puppets and have this bunch ready for the morning market on Saturday.  

Major Surgery Required

 

Repeating a pattern, be it a tatting pattern or a sewing pattern, leads to speed and efficiency, no doubt about it. But there always comes a point in my repetitions when I think I've 'got it' and don't pay enough attention, leading to a ridiculous error of some sort. Here I forgot to turn the pink mouth inwards before joining the two halves of the puppet, so I ended up with a raw edge showing or a dysfunctional crocodile. I'd sewed up the sides very firmly, and towelling is not easy to undo, so I had to cut the seams off, making the body too narrow. Hmmm. I woke in the night with the answer, I suppose my brain had been working on the problem while I was asleep - side gussets. 

I think this will be fine. I try to keep the price of the puppets down by minimising waste, so I didn't want to have to abandon him! 

Puppets and Honey

 

Moving swiftly on, I completed the next bath puppet order. This is Louise's second gang. 

The bee keeper came last night to take honey from the hive in our back garden. He emptied half the frames and filled a 20 litre bucket, so the bees have done well. He'll process the honey and then give half of it back to us. Jack snitched a few combs from the bucket. 

Mark Two

 

The lady who ordered the Kylo Ren towel came on Thursday afternoon and explained that she wanted the lines to be wavy, not straight, and didn't like the silver triangles on my original version. Right. I spent much of Saturday working on the second version. The wavy lines had to be sewn down by hand before I could sew them with the sewing machine. A power cut put an end to my endeavours, but I finished early on Sunday and sent off a picture. Whatsapp says it has been seen, but I've had no response, so I assume the lady is still not happy with it. Enough now. I've spent way too much time and energy on it already. It's a child's swimming towel, not the Mona Lisa. 

Here's what someone else said about commissions: "[My wife] is not generally too happy about them because non makers form a picture in their mind of the finished product, which is often literally impossible to make, and in any case poorly communicated, but any deviation from that is in their eyes defective".

Managing The Bulk

 

My blanket is progressing very slowly! But it is now much too big to sit in my lap while I work, especially in this hot, humid weather. For quite a while I put it in a big basket, but eventually it outgrew that. Then I put it in a flat basket on the floor. The problem was that if bits escaped, they'd be on the floor and likely to get dusty. I accidentally discovered that the answer is to put the flat basket on a small table. If parts fall out of the basket, they're hanging in the air. I find it best to rearrange the blanket in the basket at the beginning of each side so that the side I'm working on is at the top. Onward, onward...

Gangs

 I've been creating gangs of bath puppets for orders:

Julie's gang.

Louise's gang.

Sarah's gang.

Louise has ordered another gang, so I'll do those next and then make some more puppets for the next market.