Seriously, it’s just as well these ‘knitty gritty’ characters are so easy on our pockets – or our ‘still at home’ family would have remained static decades ago. (I’m not counting the ‘outside dog’ kids and the ‘inside cat kid’, They’re fairly ‘average’ in appetites and costs, and we can manage their needs, happily.)

Just imagine – kids who don’t flatten your food bill budget, have no need of clothing or shoe stores, don’t use up all your toilet paper daily and electricity hourly. No medical emergencies or acne or other teeny-bopper traumas. Kids who never talk back to you – only whisper their love when you’re REALLY ‘up close and personal’… kids who happily sit patiently in a corner until picked up for cuddles and photo shoots – like this one…

Pleased to meetcha… I’m Simon Scarecrow, and this is my little brother Scotty.

So when it comes time to face the burning issue- ‘To increase, or not to increase? That is the question.’ – the decision is a little easier in our case.

You may remember the kerfuffle late last year when Simon’s twin, Worzel Gummidge was found in Tasmania leaning over his mother’s shoulder as she valiantly tried to read out loud to her family. Here’s the link – Brothers re-united at last – believed to be twins.  SO… when I stumbled over Scotty, in a charity shop in a small country town on the way home from Adelaide, I had a true deja vu moment. For a near-heart-stopping moment, I thought there were triplets. In truth, I believed this improbability until the moment I did the photo-shoot of the sadly separated pair. THEN I saw the size difference and could only guess at the gut-wrenching parting they’d endured.

The long-lost brothers, separated from birth are ecstatic to be reunited. They tell me they’d always sensed something missing in their lives. The resemblances are uncanny – the robin red-breasts on their right arms, the lady birds on their left feet, trousers, hat, blue bowtie, straw poking out every which way. There’s only two differences I can find so far. Scotty has a mouse on his hat with a long, long tail, and he wears a button up jacket with a flower in the lapel. Probably hasn’t done too much crow-scaring yet. Looks to be just a tad of a lad yet. Simon assures me he will teach Scotty all the big, ferocious stuff.

Since then, and because we are now related in a rather unusual fashion, Carol Ann Martin discovered and sent me another member for my Knitty Gritty family, and I won’t bother with a link this time, because Molly’s story follows straight on from this one.

I have yet another small member to add to the Knitty Gritty family, but think he just might need a story of his very own. Back soon as I can.

Christine