my creative space - book inspired making

We have a lot of books in our house - often stacked 2 books thick in our bookshelves, and in little "overflow" piles on tables or cupboards. Somehow, though, we spend much of our time reading the same ones - and this is one of our favourites.

A persuasive, expressive, occasionally bad tempered pigeon who really wants to drive a bus - what's not to like? Yes there have been times when I hear pigeon-inspired complaints ("I never get to do anything!"), but isn't quoting from literature a good thing??

I decided to try and make a little pigeon for our house. I'd originally planned a softie, but was home sick, did not feel like leaving the house under any circumstances, and discovered that I had some bits of (cheap and nasty) felt in the necessary colours - a finger puppet seemed a good idea.

After designing a modified pigeon that could fit on a child's finger, and cutting out the pieces, I realised that I had no idea how to make skinny little pigeon legs - I knew this felt would not be up to the task.

I decided to try crochet, in spite of my very limited crochet knowledge - and it kind of worked...

but was a bit lumpy and gappy (poor technique? wrong size hook? crocheting stranded cotton because I couldn't find wool?) so I cheated (sssh!) and "sewed" through the legs to pull everything together.

Finally my pigeon was finished - a little plumper than the original (perhaps a few too many hot dog parties!) - but still pretty cute, and still quite talkative!

For more creative space inspiration, visit Kirsty, and for more on this book visit the author's website here.