An Unusual Valentine's Day Kit!

Get set for Valentine's Day with this crocheted kit to cover all eventualities: love potions to help you win over your object of attraction, fruity condoms for protection and penicillin for recovery if that protection didn't quite work out!

Disclaimer: other lifestyles/ romantic preferences are available, spells don't work + wool makes an awful prophylactic!

I love creating potion bottles. There's real glass inside each one so they maintain a rigid, precise structure, so hopefully they appear a touch more sinister, rather than squashy and amusing. Previously, my failure to let go of any interestingly shaped bottles has led to a mildly out of hand glass hoarding situation developing in my already over stuffed little house. Thankfully the Great Glass Clear Out intervened to save me, and a lot of shelf space, from this collecting compulsion. These days it's special bottles only that are saved from the recycling to await transformation into curious potions, poisons and ointment soft sculpture pieces.

The fruity crochet condom packets were a fun little addition to a range of giant sperm I crocheted up a few years ago. The original batch ('splash' of sperm maybe?) always made people smile at craft fairs and since all have been sold to amused new owners (often people thinking they've found the perfect present for pregnant friends), it's probably time to hunt out my pattern and release some more into the world...

The penicillin is from my favourite collection, woolly Petri dishes! Unique little pieces of science-meets-art. A plastic petri dish is filled with crochet 'agar' and colonies of fluffy penicillin mould made using yarns and fleece. Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived originally from common moulds. First discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming and used to treat infections from the 1940s, they were among the first medications to be effective against many bacterial infections caused by staphylococci and streptococci. Although Penicillin is still widely used today, many bacteria have developed resistance. Fun fact: penicillin is the modern treatment for Syphilis, taking over from the frankly horrifying previous 'cure' of mercury.

What ever you get up to for Valentine's Day, have fun and stay safe!

Browse the Petri dishes

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