Although I find wool a comforting substance, I am not usually one to craft with it.

I don’t knit, although my mum was a great knitter. It just never really appealed to me, beyond my first clumsy stocking stitch attempts at the age of around five.

I never learned to crochet either.

But I do find that I would like something crafty to fiddle with in front of the telly of an evening. The sewing machine is too noisy and intrusive, and hand sewing leaves my eyes straining and my fingers bleeding.

So finding two of these for 50p in the charity shop around the corner pleased me greatly…

It’s a flower loom.

I always wanted one as a child, when they used to advertise them on telly in those shouty Ronco adverts. I had visions of myself in a flowered poncho, which sadly never came to fruition.

I’ve had a go already…

… and I’m happy to report that flower-loom-winding is the perfect simultaneous-telly-watching craft activity.

You can do it comfortably on a sofa; plus, it requires very little equipment and even less concentration  – I can even manage it whilst watching programmes with subtitles!

And – crucially – the resulting woolly blooms still look ok when examined next morning. Even those made in dim light, whilst half asleep. Unlike my evening hand-sewing attempts.

I’m thinking that after a few months of relaxing evenings winding, I’ll have enough flowers to do something subtantial with.

I’m thinking a bedside rug might be nice.

Now I just need to find a source of cheap-as-chips wools in fabulous colours…

And it occurs to me that my flower loom has just given me a new excuse to go thrifting.

And thus, I love my new evening companion even more. ♥