bad metaphor

For some perverse unreason, I am perfectly content to invest the time it takes to knit and stitch together an octopus, or a knitted creature – yet when it comes to photographing these things and posting them to sell on Etsy, it can take me months. Maybe it’s an artist’s reluctance to part with her creation:

This prissy little thing has been sitting on top of our television since last fall, or – gulp – maybe even last summer.

Or maybe it’s just that I have needed to go to the hardware store and get a proper bulb for the lightbox that my boyfriend made for octopus photography purposes, in a rare fit of craftiness one day. Or even just plunk these puppies outside in natural, non-yellowy lighting. Apparently that is more difficult for me than making an octopus or a puff kitty. Ah well, we all have talents and traits, and timeliness is not one of mine.

A blobby thing that could be a bunny or a dog, depending upon which way you want to position the ears. I have deemed it a bunny for taxonomy purposes.

The possibility of another continental jaunt coming up soon has finally moved me to post these critters. And since they have been sitting in inventory for awhile (through no fault of their own, of course), I am selling these for a low low price of $6.50! All are 100% hand made and stitched by yours truly, out of yarn, felt, thread and polyfill. Discriminating buyers will note the lack of “lead” or “salmonella” on that ingredients list. If you need a baby shower gift, a birthday present for a wee tot, a cat toy, a dashboard decoration for a car, something to dangle from the handlebars of your bicycle – etc. – check out these creatures and more at bad metaphor knits!

Slightly related to my last post – a couple I know is having twins next week! A few months ago I had asked the mother if she knew the gender of the babies yet; she replied that they knew but didn’t feel that they wanted to share that information until the babies were born. A sensible position I say, since people will then make a sincere effort to give gender-neutral baby gifts.

So I made these for the two little ones:

Baby booties in the sunshine, before delivery.

I think I am starting to get to that age where everyone around me is either having babies or talking about them. I’m still more of a kitten / puppy person myself, I have to say – why no kitten showers or puppy bjorns? Some babies are pretty cute, though, and they are generally a lot more cooperative than their animal counterparts when it comes to wearing knitted gifts!

…it will now be rechristened “Cats & Knitting”:

Quark, looking away from the camera, trying to evade the humiliating fate of being posted on the Internet yet AGAIN, clothed.

Seriously, I have other things going on in my life, but nothing more interesting than the intersection of yarn and furbags. I originally undertook this as an entry to Crazy Aunt Purl’s Cat Sweater Sweepstakes, and actually finished the knitting part in time, but due to laziness and apathy, did not get the thing stitched up, buttoned, and photographed on the cat until well after the deadline. C’est la vie.

In other news, I’m trying the National Novel Writing dealie again. Hopefully this time I’ll be sufficiently entertained enough by my own plot to actually stick with it this year! If you’re curious, bored, and have absolutely nothing better to do (really, sure you’d rather not finish folding your laundry?), feel free to check out my novella, tentatively titled Beyond the Earth and Sea.

“Why hello there good sir, and good evening!”

“Oh, how do you do.”

“Could you point me in the direction of the nearest ocean?”

“You are far from it my friend, you are in a landlocked state”

“Good heavens, I have quite lost my way! Whatever is a fellow to do?”

“Well…you could go that way,”

“…or maybe walk that way,”

“and eventually get to some sort of water.”

“Oh dear, that is a lot of walking indeed! You wouldn’t happen to be heading in that direction, would you my good fellow?”

“Well…”

“…maybe…”

“I’ll have to sleep on it.”