This next little gecko was trouble from the very first ring with a bead that didn't close properly, and it just went on from there. There was more untatting done than 'normal', maybe I was getting too confident. Well she who never made a mistake never made anything!!
Finally he was finished and as I stood back to admire him I suddenly realised..oh no! he is deformed!!!
Take a look at his back legs..the one at the top of the photo doesn't come out of his hip, poor little gecko!!
I fiddled with his head too to make it a little longer and put Swarovski crystals in the head rings.
Notice too that again the legs are colour co-ordinated back and front. This is too much of a coincidence to be true!
Another gecko..number 4 of this run was made not with hand dyed thread but with Flora 20 variegated. My very favorite discontinued thread.
Did a bit more fiddling with the head, this time adding extra rings either side of the snout, not sure this helps much but does give me a slightly different shaped gecko. He has a Swarovski crystal too, sure catches the light. Golly look how the legs are colour co-ordinated in this thread too, quite by chance must be some sort of magic pattern!!
She reminds me of my favorite gecko Phelsuma standingi (Standing's gecko). Not quite the right colour but with a bit of computer jiggery pokery here she is...much more of a silvery lichen green. Also a day gecko from Madagascar she hasn't got any bright coloured spots or stripes.
I am sure you will all know or have guessed that DH keeps geckos...some of the best kept geckos in the world!!
He used to keep Day geckos but nowadays they are mostly nocturnal ones.
But there is one remaining standingi, we have had her for 19 years, no photos of her as she is way to fast for that. Here is a link to one in a zoo, looks so like ours.
One day she saw her opportunity and she was out of her cage in a flash. There was no way we could catch her, she is like greased lightening and as smart as they come.
Every time I would go into the room there she would be one the wall but in a flash she had spotted me and was gone. Sometimes we wouldn't even see her just hear the swoosh as she was gone!
She lived free for 11 years, a very happy gecko mopping up any flies that wandered in. The gecko room has a velux window which is open all summer and what amused us the most was that she used to go out of the window onto the roof.....and come back in again....she was obviously a home loving gecko!
Until one day we suprised her..as we both went into the room there she was on the frame of the velux, neither out nor in. She nearly jumped out of her skin and before you could say P h e l s u m a s t a n d i n g i she was gone..out of the window.
It took several days before we could be sure that she hadn't come back in. We searched the shrubs in the garden, knowing that in the summer she wouldn't die of cold.
No luck, no sign of her.
Maybe she had been picked off the roof by a bird,a big bird as she is about 10 inches from nose to tail. Or maybe she fell off the roof and a cat got her.
But
One month later while we were out and our son was in there was a knock on the door...one of the next door neighbour's grandchildren stood there and said (one of those memorable phrases!!)
"Grandad says to tell you there is a gecko in our bathroom...is it one of yours?!?!?!?!"
Mmmm now you are probably thinking..poor neighbour.. but they are well use to us! and the grandchildren come in to see the geckos.
And so off went Criss to bring her home......how long she had been there in the small cloakroom/shower room between our two houses and, how he caught her we will never know!
She was not unscathed as she had lost most of her tail, had an nasty encounter somewhere!
She now lives in a cage again, was given lots of TLC and has regrown her tail.
I feel very sorry that she is no longer free.
What an amazing, well written gecko story! Also very interesting to see the comparison between hand dyed and manufactured thread. You have certainly been very busy!
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