I know it’s considered bad manners to read at the dining table, but it’s one of the few times I can read without feeling guilty, however, I’ve always struggled to keep the book open so I can read without having to hold it. Over the years I’ve used various things, usually a hole punch, to keep the book flat, but our current hole punch is very large and cumbersome and casts a shadow over the pages.

Recently I was watching a programme about old books on TV and the presenter had a book weight that looked like a white snake. (In fact I’ve just googled and discovered that they are called snake weights!). “That’s what I need!” I thought. I suspected they might be quite expensive, so I wondered how I could make one.

My first thought was a length of chain in a crochet tube, but the chain in the local builders’ merchant wasn’t heavy enough. I was stumped for a moment and then I thought, pebbles!

A quick trip to a nearby river provided me with 14 suitably sized pebbles then I just crocheted a simple net of trebles (US double crochet) around them.

It was all improvised, but I found that 5 or 6 trebles with either 1 or 2 chains between worked well, depending on the size of the pebble.



I’m delighted to say that it didn’t take long to make and it works really well! All it cost was a little time and patience.

Current Mood: accomplished