[Fleecewife]

Thanks Ellied, Dunfermline isn't impossibly far from us so that will be a good mission for a sunny day.

We used to use Boddies of Boroughbridge in Yorkshire, which we found when we lived there.  Then later we travelled frequently up and down the A1 so always stopped in.  They had some amazing stuff.  I was beginning to worry about where they sourced their wood  , when they realised themselves it wasn't sustainable.  Now there is very little variety, and the tropical hardwoods are no longer sold there.  The business seems to have shrunk, or they've changed track a bit, and anyway we no longer travel the A1, so it's good to know where to try up here.

[Buttermilk]

OK - I'll ask it  .  What's a twiddlemuff?

http://www.repod.org.uk/downloads/Twiddlemuffs_Instructions_24-01-15.pdf

[Fleecewife]

Thank you Buttermilk - isn't that just the most wonderful idea      I hope it catches on in all homes and hospital units for older folk with dementia.

[Lesley Silvester]

Going by googling twiddlemuffs, a lot of hospitals are asking for them now. There is a lady from my spinning group who collects them as she works in community health. She said the recipients love them and don't want to part with them even for laundering. They cuddle them as well as twiddling. I imagine it's similar to a toddler's security blanket. I use eye lash yarn at some point in each one as the texture is so goo. For my BIL, as he is blind so enjoys sound, I crocheted a circle onto the muff, then inserted some crumpled sellophane and crocheted over it to make a ball that crunches.

[Dogwalker]

Similar idea.
Our WSD guild made a lap blanket with different colour/ texture squares for the challenge at last years All Wales get together.

[pharnorth]

To answer the original question, no.  Been utterly distracted by painting outbuildings and driving around th country buying unnecessary sheep and goats. I wish I would just buy handbags like everyone you read about in the media. But then I prefer to muck out the goats than a handbag any day.

[Buttermilk]

Handbags are hard things to muck out.

[pharnorth]

You haven't seen inside mine Buttermilk- it usually has more straw and cobwebs than the goat house. 

[Bionic]

Who knows what might be found at the bottom of my handbag

[Fleecewife]

Hand bag      Whatever do you keep in your pockets then?

[Bionic]

Hand bag      Whatever do you keep in your pockets then?

My pockets are already stuffed so I need a handbag to keep everything else in. A long time ago I found a discarded lightbulb at the bottom of my handbag. God knows how long it had been there or where it came from :-)

[Lesley Silvester]

We were on holiday in May in rather posh hotel (Mum's idea of a good holiday and she was paying) and, while in the bar, I was looking for something in my bag. I plunged my hand in and found something very slimy. I took myself of to the nearest toilet to investigate and turned out my bag. At the bottom was a partly decomposed banana skin that I was presumably (some time earlier) taking home for the goats. It was stuck to everything and my mum was banging on the door to see if I was alright, I was in there so long.


Note to self: if taking banana skins home for goats, take them out of bag as soon as home.


Second note to self: there are three windfall apples in bag that were donated this morning. Get them out NOW. 

[pharnorth]

Other people's hand bags mysteries can be useful too. I was once leaving work and my car wouldn't start. Before the days of mobile phones so I walked back towards a phone passing a colleague on the way. Problem? She asked. Yes.  I said. Do you have a hammer?  Yes. She said, taking one out of her hand bag. I walked over to my car and smacked the starter motor into life, then handed back the hammer.  I'm not sure who was more surprised her or me, or the male colleagues walking past but neither of us showed it!

[muddypuddle]

Been too busy but I think my next project is another crochet bear for my friend who is expecting her second baby, I like to do personal gifts where I can. I cannot knit to save my life but I may have a go at also crocheting a twiddle muff and send it off, it is a lovely idea 

[Lesley Silvester]

I love the idea of a crocheted bear. Don't forget the picture of it when it's finished.


The great thing about making twiddle muffs is that you can use up all those oddments that have been hanging around.