i knit: a brief history PLUS SOME MONSTERS!

During one of those grade school summer trips to my grandparents house I encountered that yarn and needle thing people do.  That town still hasn’t grown over a thousand and with not a lot to do, weeks at my grandparents included a lot of puzzles and John Wayne movies.  I distinctly remember one of those weeks in which my grandmother, seeing me working that Kermit the Frog puzzle again, tried to teach me to crochet.  My kid fingers couldn’t quite grasp the twists and draws, but I could chain like a madman. I made an orange rope of loops that stretched to every room in the house.

Years later, in 2005 during a semester living in Oxford, I learned to knit and crotchet.  We all lived, us study abroaders, in a house on Canterbury and something about the English Autumn outside the common room window and the old sofas caused us all to go down to the charity shop past the high street and snatch up some old needles and yarn and make a bunch of lumpy scarves.

Since then, I haven’t been able to kick the habit given my inability to sit in a taskless calm.  But lumpy scarves are a thing of the past.  I’ve done a number of hats, some sets of gloves, but before my mother came to visit I made these to send home for my sisters:

And now, I’ve finished quite an opus.  The 8″ tall monster (10″ with the hat) is a gift for my 8 year pen pal.  The pockets will each hold a folded page of the letter I’ve yet to write.  I was so proud that this morning I took him out for a quick photo shoot.

I mean, look at him Work. His. Angles.

I made the little guy without a pattern, and I’m just excited to put him in a box and get him on a plane.

Read Full Post »

monster matchmaker

When I started this blog, I had hoped that I would be able to steer clear of typical blogdom. Mostly I mean that I hoped I would subject my posts to a literary standard. It would not be a recepticle into which I would vomit whatever bit of my personality I feel I need to share with the world. But then I read something that makes me want to throw such a standard to the dogs.

So, forget it, I’m giving in because some friends’ recent blog post struck a chord that, well, resonated.

Please go read their original recent post at Lara and the Reel Boy. It reminded me why I really like those two people. And it made me want to share my own list of 6. (I know at LATRB theirs was five, but I want 6. So what?!)

Six what? Well, six monsters I would like to have around. Some would make great pets. Others would be more like great friends. At the end of the post please comment and leave your own list. Or post some to your own blog and let me know. (My literary blogging soul is hating me for this… )

6. Mike Wazowski (Monsters, Inc.)- Look at that stunned face. So comic. I mean, he’s a monster, AND he’s Billy Crystal. You get two in one one-eyed pal! I don’t see how there could be anything wrong with this.

5. Falkor (The Neverending Story, etc.)- It’s funny how I think the desire to have my monsters around feels so self-explanatory. In this case I want to say, “Come on! He’s a luckdragon!” Plus, I’ll get to fly from world to world, taunt bullies, find cures for diseases, and if I’m ever flung into the ocean or left dangling on a cliffside, I’ll be saved… “With luck!”

4. Aughra (The Dark Crystal)- Sometimes I’ve got a hankering to banter with a cantankerous old lady. So number four was really a dual between Aughra and Morla, the giant sneezing turle from The Never Ending Story. But really, there’s all the doom with Morla, and plus, Morla’s more like a place to hang out at than a person to hang out with. In general, Aughra is much more impressive, what with the embodying of the planet Thra, the ability to control vines and other Thra-types, and reading the universe. Plus I would love to just hear her talk about various apocolypses and say things like, “It’s the Great Conjunction!”

3. E.T. (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) This I believe is the coolest monster/alien around. He’s the title of my favorite movie. We’d build things, make stuff hover, and do some general healing. And there’s something about the guy that tugs at my spiritual heartstrings. Major downside: He dies = I die.

2. Thing (The Addams Family, etc.) – Thing is everything I could want in a monster pal: good sense of humor, doesn’t mind doing your dishes, likes sports like skateboarding and tennis, and won’t hesitate to save the day. Plus he’s different from the other monters in that there’s no getting around how humanish, severed and undead he is. He’ll make all my friends wriggle.

1. The Muppets- If you know me, you know the following: a)It would be cruel to make me choose one Muppet. b) I actually have always wanted to be a Muppeteer so this makes absolute sense. There is not a Muppet that would make bad company (unless you include Skeksis in the Muppet bunch). Bring on Sesame Street, Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppets in Space. I would play guitar with Kermit, teach with Big Bird, think about the enormity of life with Gonzo, and bring Miss Piggy to my friends’ ANTM parties. My roommates would certainly be Rizzo and Pepe, and in the end I’d poke fun at all of it with Statler and Waldorf. This would be a dream.

Read Full Post »