Not being one for patiently and correctly learning a craft, I picked up the happy hooker book and started teaching myself the stitches needed for the sweet pea shawl. The first line has gone fine, and I have a chain with a set of shells on it. The instructions for the next line have blown my mind however.

From looking at the picture, it appears that you are supposed to single crochet into the top of each shell, chain 3, double crochet half way down the side of the shell, chain 3, double crochet into theside of thenext shell, chain 3, single crochet the top of the shell (which is what Im doing, and it looks relatively similar to the picture, which seems alright).

But in the instructions it keeps saying things like "skip next chain -2 space"; "sk next 2 ch - 1 spaces". Can anyone shed any light on what these instructions actually mean in case I ever end up trying to follow instructions without a picture?

I am hoping to put some kind of engraving tool on my xmas list to use for a silver bracelet engraving project I have in mind. Can anyone recommend a good one that is not too expensive?

When I was looking I found some very nice expensive ones that work on wood and stone as well, which would be nice but all the ones I found that seem to do this were thousands of pounds, which seems a bit excessive! Does anyone know of any cheaper ones capable of engraving stone? Also am I likely to find if I get one that does this it is a bit too big/strong for the delicate-ish metal stuff I really want to do with it?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer (also if there is a better place on the forums to post this please could you let me know)?

I have recently dissasembled my old CD player, and it has a fantastic bit of circuitboard in the back. Its crying out for some kind of crafting (leaning jewellery-wards at the moment, but could be anything really) but I cant really figure out what specifically I want to do with it.  Does any one have any suggestions?

These are some memory sticks which I personalised using Fimo as Christmas gifts:



It was very difficult to figure out how to get the clay off the stick to bake so I didn't melt the memory stick in the oven. I was quite pleased with the way they turned out though. Comments/criticism very welcome.