Medieval Medicine Trending- Leeches Are Sucking Back!

Poison & Crochet Leeches Jars

Thought it was time for a more crochet centred post as I seem to have been distracted my lovely summer events and activities recently (I'm not sorry). This morning I was inspired by this story on BBC Wales www.bbc.co.uk/Medicinal leech farming making a comeback in Wales

Istanbul Leeches

Apparently,"leech-farming is back in Wales... the 60,000 leeches a year they provide for hospitals throughout Europe make Swansea's Biopharm the biggest suppliers of leeches in the UK." Long associated with quack medicine, they actually introduce a powerful anticoagulant chemical into blood making them "perfect for microsurgery, particularly when severed fingers or toes have been reattached".

 So far, my only sighting of real leeches was an odd spin on the imagined old glass bottled leeches (previously available in all good old apothecaries). I spotted a large plastic drum (a recycled water cooler I suspected) of leeches for hire on the edges of the Spice Market in Istanbul a couple of years ago which both intrigued and slightly disturbed. The glamour was further enhanced by the plastic crate it was balanced on.

Clare Baker Ceramic Artist

Earlier this summer I'd been making jars of crochet fruits as sweet objects for a kitchen dresser (including my own mini dresser of wonders) and as pretty additions to my craft stall. I had previously seen and much coveted Clare Baker's decadently dark porcelain 'leeches' jar www.bakerart.org.uk/ceramics (see pic) and thought it'd be fun to make my own woolly version to satisfy that darker undercurrent in me. Surprisingly, googling 'crochet leeches' images or pattern yielded no results at all, so I set about making a pattern for them, quite pleased to have been so weird that I was quite alone in this endeavour.

Crochet Leeches

If you want to have a go at making your own, here's how! Unfortunately, the actual pattern is (temporarily I hope) lying hidden amongst the many scraps of paper & works in progress in my cluttered home so this is a very rough guide, which should be fine as they all were made to be all different sizes anyway.
UK terms used. With a smallish hook (I used 3/3.5 but my tension is quite tight) and DK wool:
Rd1: Start with a magic ring (it's crocheted in the round like amigurumi), 4 dc into ring & pull closed. Slst to secure (4st). Use stitch marker to keep track of 1st st in each round.
Rd2: 2 dc into each st around (8st)
Rd3: In back loops only, dc into each st (8st)
Rd4: In both loops (from now on), half treble into each st (8st)
Rd5: htb2tog once, then htb into each st around (7st)
Rd6- onwards: continue with as many rows as you wish, decreasing by at least one st each time to get the tapered effect. Then finish off & sew in ends.
Sparkly Mouth: using metallised thread (I used 'Starmist' in black by Jomil, knits as 3 ply), join & dc in each st of front loops left after Rd3. FO & sew in ends.
Experiment with the number of dcs into Rd1, hook sizes and decreases to make different sized leeches.

The BBC tell me that "Wales first became a leech-farming hotspot owing to geography... the mud-flats of Pembrokeshire and Gwent provide an ideal habitat.Traditionally they were harvested by women, who would lift their skirts and wade into muddy pools allowing the leeches to attach themselves to their bare legs for long enough to take them to an apothecary or specialist leech dealer". Fascinating stuff indeed.