All posts tagged dementia

And another (scrappy) thing

I can’t resist sharing this latest scrappy creation – a third twiddlemuff, this time made from a piece of abandoned crochet.

Ages ago, my friend Danielle gave me a piece of crochet she’d been working on, but which had gone rather wonky along the edges. Originally, I was going to frog it and use the yarn for some charity knitting or crochet, but I was reluctant to pull it apart when the only issue was the edges. Having finished my last twiddlemuff, it dawned on me that this lovely bright, stripy creation would be an ideal outer and that all I needed to do was stitch it into a tube to hide the edges and then make an inner layer.

Tucked away with in the same place, I found a crochet heart that I’d made when I was experimenting with a pattern and that came out too big for the project I was working on at the time, but was perfect for a little pocket now. So, a bit of blanket stitch, some crochet embellishment, a few more buttons from my box, a bit of unwanted ribbon and a piece of cord, some more scrappy yarn either donated or left over from old projects, and Danielle’s abandoned colourful stripes are transformed into another twiddlemuff:

That’s my last one for the time being, but I’m really pleased to have made use of some more “scrap”.

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by The Snail of Happiness on April 13, 2019 • Permalink

Posted in craft, Scrap Happy

Tagged crochet, dementia, twiddlemuff, yarn

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on April 13, 2019

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2019/04/13/and-another-scrappy-thing/

Fiddling with texture

My second twiddlemuff is complete. Again I used quite a lot of Scheepjes Softfun yarn, but I also included oddments of three pure cotton yarns (sunshine yellow, purple and an odd sort of pink/beige) and some cotton-rich bits that came, I think, originally from Jenny (Simply Hooked) a long, long time ago. Anyway, it’s nice and soft and easily washable and, yet again, I added some eyelash yarn so there was something fluffy to stroke and a pocket with a pompom on a string, plus a couple of crochet flowers, a crochet bobble that I found in my bag of scraps (I think it was originally a dragon nostril!), another pompom with sparkly bits and two firmly tied pieces of cotton tape that had once fastened a box of French chocolates.

Outside

Inside

Finally I rummaged through my button box. I focused this time specifically on finding different textures and selected:

a mother of pearl button with 4 holes, stitched on with a cross, for extra texture
a shiny, smooth button with a shank… one of the last buttons left from the first cardigan I ever knitted (about 40 years ago)
a black ridged button with a shank
a classic plastic button with a star indent
a green wooden heart

I actually pulled out more buttons than this originally, but the suggestion is that there are only about five items on the inside and five items on the outside, so I whittled my selection down a bit.

I really like this sort of scrappy project – it gives me the opportunity to work with bits and bobs that would otherwise probably remain languishing in a box or bag, plus it’s actually useful. I’m on a bit of a downer about how many scrap projects I see in various places that just convert one useless thing into a different useless, ugly thing…. and even worse, things that potentially spread problems further (plastic bag bunting, for example). I want to find ways to use scraps to make beautiful things, or useful things and that’s one of the reasons I’m always so inspired by the monthly ScrapHappy posts from everyone who joins in – long may you all continue to be so creative.

27 Comments

by The Snail of Happiness on April 9, 2019 • Permalink

Posted in craft, Scrap Happy

Tagged buttons, charity, crochet, dementia, twiddlemuff, yarn

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on April 9, 2019

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2019/04/09/fiddling-with-texture/

Twiddling

Patricia’s post about knitting for good causes resulted in many suggestions (here on the blog and on Twitter and Facebook) of worthy recipients for our work. One, in particular, caught my eye because it was so local and covered two good causes: Incredible Edible Carmarthenshire (a group who promote community growing in public spaces) were asking for twiddlemuffs, apparently they keep a stock of them to hand out at events and they are running low. For those of you who are not familiar with twiddlemuffs, they are knitted or crocheted tubes, incorporating various textures and items that can be given to people with dementia so that they have something to occupy their restless hands, plus they can simply keep hands warm. I’ve made a few in the past, so I decided this would be a good way to use up some scraps and stash yarns.
Periodically I acquire yarn that I probably wouldn’t actually go out and buy, and projects like the twiddlemuffs can be a great way to use some of this up. My Crochet Sanctuary weekend resulted in me coming home with some lovely blue Scheepjes Softfun yarn, intended to be used for a hot water bottle cover that we started during the retreat. However, on reflection I decided I didn’t really want another hot water bottle cover and so I frogged my work and put the yarn to one side. Rummaging through my stash, though, I came across it and knew that it would be an ideal base for a twiddlemuff – washable and soft.
I started by crocheting a tube, with a few added stripes of yarn with different textures – a bobbly one, a couple of wooly ones, a bit of rough silk/cotton and some eyelash yarn, all left over from past projects.

Double the length, so it can be folded in on itself

I added a little pocket, found a couple of crochet flowers that I made when I was teaching a workshop and stitched these on and made two pompoms – one for the inside and one attached by a crochet chain to take in and out of the pocket. To add some texture, I tied on a piece of cotton tape and a length of silky cord. Finally I attached a few buttons – nothing too weighty, because twiddlemuffs shouldn’t be able to cause harm!

I photographed it right way round and inside out so you could see what treasures lie hidden. The orange bits are on the inside.