HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUISE!

Congratulations to our dear Louise for passing through another year of glamour and good times. 

Questioned about her birthday she said "It's all been marvelous."

Rosemary and I made her this hat. Louise has a soft spot for turbans and shells, but a loathing of polyester chenielle, and having rather a lot of polyester chenielle in the back room, we thought we would put it to good use. Rosemary made the turban shape on the knitting machine and I crocheted the shells, which go all the way round the hat. By adding a slight sparkle yarn to the chinielle, it took on a lovely crispy quality, which Louise wears so well.

SO COOL, HIS PANTS WON'T BURN.

I was quite excited when he asked me to do his laundry.

He suggested I listen to the Carpenters while I ironed his shirts, and having bought all of their albums on the recommendation of Sonic Youth during the Washing Machine era, this seemed like a good idea.

All the shirts were blue, I enjoyed ironing those, then came the pants, which had seen better days.

By this time, I was bored and wanted to tag the pants with an iron burn.

I put the iron face down, went to make a cup of tea, came back....no burn!

The pants wouldn't burn! So I took them to Prick Your Finger where we conducted an experiment, placed bets and the results are as follows. 

The Aim - To burn a mark in the pants, recognisable as being the mark of an iron. The iron to be on the hottest setting and timed.  The mark must be dark enough to be seen from over the road.

The Bets- 50p each- Celia 35 minutes; Rosemary 30 minutes; Louise 20 minutes; Rachael 45 minutes. This is what happened.....

19 minutes - the pants started to stick to the iron, but the fibres changed from blue to green, not brown.

32 minutes -there was a smell of burning, with slight browning under the iron, but still no even coverage for iron shape burn.

40 minutes the burn had not reached the tip of the iron.

1 hr, an iron burn was present but with no sign of steam holes, and no brittle fibres.

Conclusion - there is still life in this mans pants.

CELIA'S DARN DAY 3.

Celia made good progress today, darning most of the front, and discovering new holes.

Celia says it was a delightful day, and we talked a lot about animals.

Tomorrow is the last darning day of Celia's darning holiday.

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS.

Congratulations to Fleur Emery for knitting a brilliant orange culinary solution. Anyone that has dined with our friend Jamie, will know that his very comforting dinners are made in a rather special way. Many a time, trying to help, I've checked the roast using an old sock as an oven glove. Fleur came to PYF to learn knitting and here we can see her first piece, in pure wool roving, felted into this multi purpose pan mat oven glove thing. What a brilliant idea!

NAORI'S PIN CUSHIONS.

"I don't know" said Penguin 1 " I feel like I can focus better with two pins in my head."

"Well it's alright for you, I can only hold one pin in my head, and I can't focus on anything." said Penguin 2.

"Eh! My friends," said Monkey, "no problem, we're on a shelf, we don't need to focus on anything...."

But the Polar Bear was clearly focusing on something already and just smiled.

If you can come up with a better story then please leave your comment below. 

Naori's pin cushions can be saved for £19.99

CELIA'S DARN DAY 2.

Thank you to Miss Celia Pym, for bringing peace to Prick Your Finger this week. 

Celia is a darning artist, tending to a Norweigen jumper which has seen better days.  Some of the holes are so big, that Celia does not yet know how she will fix them. 

Yesterday, she made good progress across the back of the neck and one shoulder, darning in Lion Brand cream Arran. The woven patches looked liked snowballs splattered against the intricate snowflakes of the fairisle, knitted we suspect, in the 1950's. 

We all love this jumper.

It has been knitted with love, loved as it's worn, saved, and now it is being mended with yet more wooly love.

Watch this space for the next installment. 

SPANNER'S BONE.

Spanner is not a puppy any more. His teeth are strong and sharp and here he his, tucking into a treat after Sunday Lunch. 

Re-cycled Sari - Yarn is spun from ripped up saris, by women in Nepal. The yarn is incredably tough, being made mostly of silk. The strength of this multi coloured yarn, makes it perfect for teasing Spanner, by crocheting around his bone. 

Spanner gets confused when he meets one of my crocheted bones. He can smell scores of ladies going about their daily lives in India, cured bone and me. 

After struggling to pick the first holes, Spanner then gets very excited and takes the bone off on his own to spend the entire afternoon sharpening his teeth and licking his lips. 

Sari Yarn is 50p/10g and cured bones aprox £3 from your local pet shop.