Before tobacco health warnings

Was tidying out some craft stuff, and found these old pipe cleaners. They're real pipe cleaners, not the coloured craft ones you get now. (They came from my Granny.  For craft purposes - she didn't smoke a pipe!)

The text on the back is interesting:

 

WHAT IS A PIPE?

It is the poor man's friend. It calms the mind, soothes the nerves and makes a man patient under all difficulties. 

From the moment a man takes to a pipe he becomes a philosopher.

It has made more good men, indulgent husbands, kind masters and fathers, than anything else in the world.  

STUDY YOUR HEALTH and clean your pipe daily for it is a filter which purifies the smoke before it enters the mouth. 

IF YOU ARE WISE you will smoke two or more pipes alternately and leave a pipe cleaner in those not in use. You will find them all the sweeter.

Rather overblown claims there, maybe?

Crochet centre

Did you know it's possible to replace the centre of a crochet square without taking the whole thing apart?

Neither did I, but I thought I'd try and see.

I'd somehow managed to make one of the scallops with only two trebles, and it looked weird 

(I also, oddly, had the first scallop of each row with a chain and three trebles, so I had enough spare wool).

So, first I unpicked it and unravelled the centre.

Then I started as usual, did the first scallop and the following chain.

Then, with a narrow crochet hook, I pulled all the long tail of wool through the two corner scallops of the next row (helps to hold the loop at the end of the chain on another crochet hook while you're doing this), and then pulled the chain through as well.

I then carried on with the next scallop and chain, pulled it through, and so on...

And here's the finished result - much more balanced!

It was obviously rather more complicated than redoing the whole thing, but I think it was quicker. And it certainly was more interesting.😄

How myths get perpetuated

In the course of my work, we sometimes give instructions for children's crafts which involve toilet roll insides. At least, they would involve toilet roll insides, if it weren't for the fact that 'you're not allowed to use toilet roll insides in crafts any more - Health and Safety.' So we make vague references to 'cardboard rolls', or perhaps tell them to cut paper towel rolls in half.

However, I discovered recently that, despite popular belief, there is no law, or even official guidance, against using toilet roll insides. Schools may have their own rules, but there is no sense in which there is some kind of blanket ban. On the contrary, according the the Health and Safety Executive (who are unfairly blamed for a lot of nonsense): "as long as egg boxes and toilet roll centres look clean, there is no reason why they should not be used."

Great! So we can stop beating around the bush and tell people to use toilet rolls again!

Except... no, we can't. If we did, people buying the book would think, 'don't they know you're not allowed to do that?' It would look bad, like we were out of the ark.

We could put an explanation, but depending on the context that might be a bit OTT. And even if the club leaders are convinced, some parents will be horrified if their children come home with crafts made of toilet roll insides.

So we continue to speak vaguely of 'cardboard rolls', and because the myth is unchallenged, it continues...

 OK, OK, I'll get back to work...

Lazarus

We were doing the story of Lazarus in Sunday School. The book suggested a craft which I liked very much. In fact, I thought it was quite cute.

 

My class of 5-6 year old boys were excited to go home and show their parents what they had been making -  

DEAD BODIES!  

(Please imagine this written in a creepy Hallowe'en font.)