That was a week, that was!

Monday night, Julie and Caroline took off for Scotland, to go to the Robbie concert with Sally.

That left Doreen in charge, with me as sidekick. We had one or two very interesting customers. One lady was from Australia, and had found us because she wanted the ribbon scarf yarn. We were a bit shocked when her card machine receipt came out in Australian dollars!

Then there was the Spanish lady who had virtually no English. She'd brought in a t-shirt with a couple of little holes in it, and we offered different ways of mending. You try it, without any language in common!. But we found something she was happy with and she went away smiling.

Then there was the lady who bought the fluorescent green Stylecraft Special. She wanted to make caterpillars! She breeds moths (why would you?) and has a whole load of these caterpillars IN HER BEDROOM! Now bear in mind that I hate moths. I hate moths with a passion. But I smiled ...

Julie and Caroline came hurtling back on Wednesday for Stitch Bournville. There we had our newest member: baby Louis, aged 9 weeks. You can see Caroline got a cuddle!

Then the group picked out the raffle winners from the Marie Curie day. This is my prize (sorry, Maureen!)

Thursday I blocked my entry for Bournville Summer Show:

It came out much bigger than I expected. Now you have to bear in mind that this is our fifth year living in Bournville, and each year I was going to enter but couldn't decide what to make. This year I went through: a maypole, a Matellasse blanket, a mask for Blodeuwedd, a piece of crochet overlay etc.

When I'd blocked this I changed my mind again, and asked for a top I made for Rhiannon, which she has never worn.

Friday I finished the 22 sheepy key rings.

Saturday morning, at nine o'clock, I was standing over Julie while she finished her entry, and rushed her so much we forgot to take a photo. It's a tea cosy made of the ribbon yarn, with sandwiches and cakes on top. The sandwiches were particularly clever! We hustled round to the Sports ground and found the marquee in less than hi-tech form, with ladies drawing out labels for entries because they had run out of printed ones...

We managed to get back to the shop before Maureen arrived, so she didn't even know we'd entered and could go off to judge completely impartially. Jules got a Highly Commended, and I won!

Looks impressive, but I'll tell you a secret: there was only one other entry!

I'd like to say I'm looking forward to a quiet week, but with 2 happypotamuses and one elephant to make for commissions, and two lessons to prepare for, there's not much chance.

Tales from a wool shop

Let's begin with a moan. On Friday we had a delivery of seven boxes from Katia, and Jules and I drooled over the loveliness. There are some lovely glittery yarns, and even lovelier multicolour. I carried round a favourite, like a teddy bear, all day. Yesterday Rhiannon went down to the shop, and GUESS WHAT SHE CAME BACK WITH!

She's even started knitting with it!

We've had some interesting customers in this week. For example, there were a couple from Seattle on a 3-month tour of England. They were, I think, looking for woven things, but had found their way to us.

Then we met Charlotte's little sister Evie for the first time, and she sat on my knee and gave us the sweetest of smiles. 

There were some duh! moments, like the lady who wanted lace for the bottom of a doll's dress and looked as if we were geniuses when we suggested crocheting round the bottom. These are the moments I like best in the shop, when we're trying to solve someone's problem. Sometimes it's difficult to believe the ignorance of people - like the woman who insisted you could not crochet with the same yarn as you knit with. But then there are the fascinating ones, like people completing their projects for design degrees. Of course they are often dashing in at the last minute and are really grateful for our suggestions.

A particularly welcome visitor was baby Mia:

She's so pretty! I hope her parents took away the hippo Phil commissioned for her: meet Fenella.

Notice the violet eyes! These hippos have been a real success in the shop; they are very pattable, with their lovely fat bums, and attract a lot of attention. Some people have gone away with details of how to get the pattern. (Pity we're not on commission!) My first two were raffled for the Marie Curie fund, and we have Catherine's in the shop being raffled now; I think we have sold something like £60 of raffle tickets so far. I love her multi-coloured one:



I have commissions for another two, (both pink! yuk) and then I'm going on to Heidi Bears elephant.

Today I'm working on Zoe's fairy slippers. They look weird, but I hope they will be magically transformed by the power of Zoe's foot. If not, I'll try again.

Next week Jules and Caroline are off to Scotland for a couple of nights so Doreen is in charge and I'm the underling. Phil is off to Liverpool for a boxing match, so we really are on our own. Then on Wednesday we have Stitch Birmingham and will be able to tell our knitting friends the latest on our fund-raising.

At the moment the total is about £2,400, and still rising. Next year's will be even better ...

Joining grannies

I'm still working on the granny squares for workshops. I want a few patterns which students can choose from to practise the basics. This - with ends darned in and cord applied - will be a bag for a little girl.

I've been playing with mug cosies for some time. The problem with them is that they tend so stretch and fall off the mug, even when they are fastened. Here we have my latest:

You can see how much I enjoy darning in the ends!

This is 3 small granny motifs with a double crochet edging. When you get to the short end, you work into the back loop only. This gives a stretchy bit which will (I hope) make the cosy stay on. It's going to be fastened with 2 linked toggles.Students will get a pack - yarn, mug, toggles, pattern.

Today (day off) I'm going to be joining the motifs for my third hippo. Lynne came in yesterday with queries about motifs, so I thought I'd show you my method of joining. I always join as I go, so from the second motif onward, on the last round, this is what I do:

The motif on the right is finished, so I'm working the last round of trebles on the one on the left. When I get to a place where I want to join, I work one chain, then take out the hook. (If you lengthen the loop as you do it, you'll avoid accidents). I insert hook where the join is to be, and pick up the working loop again.

Work one chain, and then I continue trebles on the unfinished motif. You can vary the number of chains to get different effects, or even use none at all.

Next I'm going to work on variants of grannies - rectangles, and then one with a little granny in the corner.

People - well, one person - has asked about Teasel, the newcomer to our home. She is settling in well, though it has taken three weeks, and is gradually exploring the house. Here we have her after a session of mad torture of the fish given her by Amanda.



You will all have recognised that I am rubbish at photos. I know it's a combination of impatience and ignorance, but I want to be crocheting. I asked son Gareth for photos of Teasel, and not content with a plain ordinary photo, he comes up with Ghost Cat.




But being 'artistic', he can't do my photos for me: he has to be 'inspired' and have the 'conditions right'.

So you'll have to put up with mine.

In praise of granny squares

We are offering, at the shop, a class on beginning crochet with granny squares, and I've started preparing for it.

First you need to understand that 'granny square' is used in crochet for a motif of any shape. For the purposes of the class, I'm working with the traditional motif known as Old America.

I  was reading Lucy's blog this morning at attic24.typepad.com. She talked about the pleasures of meadows of buttercups and inspired me to try to 
capture the colours of fields of daisies and buttercups, with the flash of red from a poppy here and there.

I've been working with the African flower motif lately

for Heidi Bears animals.

And playing with this motif

from Betty Barnden's book:

But for the moment I need to concentrate on Old America. Maybe people could make a mug cosy during their first session, or a purse bag for a little girl.

Then there are cushions and woman-sized bags to play with, and maybe even a blanket. People who book for another session can try their hands at designing something for themselves. Once they grasp the principles of the square, they can go on to make hexagons and so on, if they choose. Once people have confidence in the basic stitches, there is no limit to what they can do.

Today Doris Chan's new book, Convertible Crochet  arrived; I'll report on that as soon as I've had a good look.

And guess what? I'm making another Happypotamus.

Further to fundraiser

This is a very quick report because I can't wait any longer to hang this up in my window. This is a gorgeous sun catcher angel, in the Marie Curie colours. Sally had one made for each of us. Apart from the fact that it's such a lovely idea, having a memento of the day, I've loved things like this since I was a kid at school. The tank used for frog spawn used to sit on top of the cupboard for the rest of the year, and acted as a prism on sunny days.

And just in case anyone thinks I'm doing nothing, this is the current pile of widdle fat sheepies. And as soon as the elephant pattern is published by Heidi Bears, I'll be on that!

Any flashes in Bournville might be the sun catcher, or my hook flashing!

Who, what, where ...

Further details of the Marie Curie tea party!

Thanks to Maureen's husband, John Drinkwater, we have some more photos; this is a general view.

This was when we were getting towards the end. The group standing are relations of Christine's, with baby Mia in the push chair. Seated are a group of ladies from Stitch Bournville and other customers and friends. As you can see, we were blessed with bright sunshine in the afternoon.

Now, who came? So many people! I think almost all of our customers (who aren't on holiday) came down. 

I enjoyed meeting Maureen's daughter, Rebecca, and her (Maureen's!) twin granddaughters, Amelia and Grace. Sheila was back from their family honeymoon, and promised to show us photos of her daughter's 50's themed wedding. Gillian's friends wanted to see her prawn tea cosy

People arrived bringing plates of gorgeous cakes, including some people we didn't know, who had heard about the tea party and wanted to support the Marie Curie organisation. You should have SEEN the plates and plates of cakes. Lesley's daughter made us a tea cosy cake, which was delicious. We had scones with jam and cream, fairy cakes, fruit cakes, even mince pies, not to speak of Rhiannon's rhubarb blondies.

This is Doreen admiring some of the pretties. She was in charge of the kitchen, with Kate helping her. I'd love to know how many drinks Doreen prepared, and how many cups she washed up.  It's a bit silly hiding someone who looks so good in the kitchen, but she likes it there! It being a tea party, we had china cups and saucers, loaned by Kate. Very elegant!

People also arrived bearing things to sell - another Nemo tea cosy, baby cardigans, and even a lovely pair of daffodil earrings. They emptied the Lucky Dip chest, and bought three books of raffle tickets.

Phil was in good form, throwing insults at the staff and charming the guests.

It was a really lovely day. A friend of mine came over from Leicester, and after she left sent us a text to comment on the friendliness she'd experienced. Birmingham is a much friendlier place than Leicester, and Bournville even more so. I feel more at home here after less than 5 years than I did in Leicester after more than 30. It was one of those days when your face ached from smiling.

Today we were all rather flat. We folded raffle tickets so we could draw for Sally's tea pot cake:

Look at the tiny daffodils round the top! It's a shame to eat it, really.

Two reps came in so we had a little look at wool, with me poking my nose in as usual. (I can't resist wool).
Katherine came in, bringing us the hippo she had made - lovely bright colours - and bought wool for three more!

And one lovely lady in a mobility scooter brought us a donation AND bought a tea cosy. Julie thinks that so far we have approaching £2,000, and it's creeping up still.

Needless to say, we are already talking about next year.

My first yarn bomb

And possibly, Bournville's first, too!

The Marie Curie day we have been working so hard towards is held each year to celebrate the life of Christine Davis, who died at this time five years ago.

The yarn bomb is only little, but it is on what we all know as 'Christine's tree'.

After I'd put that up, the day began soon after. The formal start time is ten o'clock, but we were under way well before that. Here's the daffodil tree:

and next to it, the table holding gingerbread men (Caroline), macaroons (Sally) and fudge (Rhiannon).

At the back there is the table where Maureen and Pat sold raffle tickets; the prizes were on display in the window behind them.

The tea cosy competition board isn't in shot: photos are taken of each tea cosy as it arrives, and then we can sell the cosies. All the photos are on display, and people can vote for their favourite. A lot of votes were cast, but the winner hasn't been announced yet. Almost all of the cosies have been sold; these are the ones we had left at the beginning of the day:

But they had almost all been sold by the end.

Cakes kept arriving all through the day; this photo is one of Sally's.

Julie and Caroline are beside the first of the cakes - Caroline on the left with the collecting bucket.

Sarah's cake was sold for £100!



Thanks, Brad, for the generous contribution to the funds.

Today we are all a bit flat. Tomorrow I'll tell more about who did what, who came, and Phil throwing things at me.

We had a fabulous day.

Not my best side

There's a poem with this title by Ursula Fanthorpe which I used to share with my classes in the days when I was a teacher. It deals with George and the Dragon, and each of the three characters tells his or her own story.

Now you know teenagers and poetry - it's boring. But by the time they had found all the salacious bits in what the Dragon had to say, they were hooked. Poor George comes off very badly, in Fanthorpe's version and the ones my students wrote.

With this in mind, I give you ESMERALDA.

The name came to me as I was titivating her ears. And she was distinctly underwhelmed by the photo, so I tried again.

Her destination is Christine's of Bournville, for the Marie Curie tea party on Saturday.

I have it in mind to make at least one more, smaller hippo, so I needed more stuffing. I told Phil I needed a big bag - look what he got me!

Rhiannon has the day off work tomorrow to make fudge to sell at the tea party. The clues as to flavours are yellow, red and green.

So, Esmeralda finished, I turn my mind to Bournville show. I can't share my tribulations with you because Maureen is one of the judges, and she'll read this. But we have some workshops beginning in July, so I'll share my preparations. Onward and Upward!

Can do better!

I never wrote this on a school report, but it does apply to my latest efforts. Do you remember the traffic cone? And the daffodils? The idea was to make a daffodil tree for the Marie Curie day, to stand outside the shop. I should have left time to re-do it because the crocodile stitch 'tree' is far too stretchy to sew the daffodils onto. Nevertheless, here are two photos of it under way:

There are lots more daffodils on now. But then Caroline had a thought and came up with some blue bows, which make the whole thing much more interesting. Interim photo here:

It's finished now, and we've added some sparkly butterflies. I'll add a photo later in the week, but I'll do a better one next time!

At long last we have some ducklings on the pond, though they were missing today. The goslings were there, though.

They were trying to avoid the camera, and one shot just had water, but I got them in the end.

Digital cameras are wonderful, but they can't capture the scents of spring. The may is in riotous bloom, and the smell is intoxicating. 

This is the footpath I go down with the dog most days; I had to hold the camera over my head to get some of the may in the university sports ground.

One of the joys of may-time is the pretty like orange-tipped butterflies around. I don't like butterflies, but these little ones are so cheerful as they flash their orange bits.

My front garden is either overgrown or a wildlife sanctuary, depending on your point of view, but these are wild strawberry plants - so pretty.

Tonight or tomorrow I shall finish pink hippo. Then I want to make something for the Bournville show, which is in three weeks' time. The problem is, what?

Hortense? Henrietta? Harriet?

Horatio seems to have made quite a hit, so another Happypotamus is in the making:

The colours suggest this one will be a lady, but until she has eyes we won't know her name. Will she be homely or elegant, cheerful or moaning? Watch this space.

Preparations are well under way now.
At Stitch Bournville we collected lots of things: lovely tea cosies from Gillian's mother; egg cosies from Sandra and Val, another doll's crib from Kate; and more.
People are also dropping into the shop with offerings. The mermaid on a rock tea cosy is one of my favourites so far. One of the problems with the tea cosy competition is the need for enough tea pots; Lesley had a novel solution and brought in hers supported by a half-inflated balloon.
Today one of our customers brought the first cake. She got the date wrong, but once we'd rescued the cake from Phil, Julie put it in the freezer ready for next week.

The table has been moved into the window:

We continue to be entertained by our customers. Yesterday we had a lady wanting ribbon for a garter. In the calmest, most undramatic way she told us she was getting married today and needed a garter! True to my notion that you can get almost anything from Christine's, Julie produced a choice, and she went off happy. The only fly in the ointment was that Phil wasn't there to offer her a pre-wedding kiss!

I've been partly out of action this week after I had a wisdom tooth removed on Wednesday. As the swelling goes down (lop-sided hamster  best describes me on Friday), so a bruise is coming out. Perhaps I should start making up stories to explain it. Encounter with an indignant hippo whose rest has been disturbed?