Ingenious Devices: Bamboo Tweezers

Before the blog becomes 90% about bugs, lets get back to crochet with a new series of equipment posts! Rather than talk about every tool you could use for amigurumi, I'm going to pick out unusual or interesting items that you could use, but may not have thought of. First up, bamboo tweezers.

I know that people have all sorts of things they use for stuffing their pieces, but I find that custom tools are a bit plastic-ey, and other things just don't work very well. Bamboo tweezers, though, are absolutely brilliant. They work (most importantly), and bamboo is an attractive and sustainable material. Plus they're cheap! My pair are 14 cm long, and taper nicely to a point, which lets you grab the fiberfill and slide it neatly into small spaces.

If you want a pair yourself, they're often listed on eBay as being for handling computer components, or sometimes for jewellery repair.

Crickets!

Ah, bugs. Bugs are awesome. I had far too much fun photographing crickets and grasshoppers on our walk today. Less butterflies, but crickets chirp and jump and are fun to catch!. Acorns and hazelnuts and blackberries are ripening in the hedgerows as well, which is maybe a sign that summer is coming to an end. Here is my cricket picture; he stayed obligingly very still!

It's a Roesel’s Bush-Cricket apparently, and I've learnt that crickets have longer antennae than grasshoppers, and are more likely to be seen at dusk, whereas grasshoppers are out more in the daytime. I'd love to crochet one, but I haven't worked out a good way of doing it yet. Maybe one day!

You say ladybug, I say ladybird...

My partner and I once saw some tiny ladybird pin badges at a craft fair at Hatfield House, and we always wished we'd bought one afterwards. They were really lovely wooden ones that were painted, and when they were pinned to you they looked so real people wanted to brush them off. Well, I finally got around to making my own. Not out of wood, unfortunately, but I think he looks sweet!

He's actually made out of green stuff, which is a kind of modelling material. The back is just a standard pin badge back, with half a drawing pin soldered on to another piece of brass. How I love to solder! There's something quite therapeutic about using a blow torch...

Ahoy!

So begins my blog of amigurumi, photography, and crafty bits and bobs.

This first issue comes with a free gift - an ammonite pattern! I've been wanting to have free patterns for a while, but Etsy doesn't really allow that sort of thing. I love ammonites, possibly because they're nautical and ancient at the same time. What could be bad about that? It's a simple project, and might be good for people who are new to amigurumi. You could even fill it with catnip, although seeing your cat chewing on a fossil might be a little strange...

This is what it should look like when you're finished!

By the way, the above ammonite is now available for sale on my Etsy shop. If you don't crochet yourself, you may want to take a look.