This is mostly a knitting blog. Sometimes pictures of things I've made, sometimes not. I'm a guy who knits, I usually attend a men's stitch 'n' bitch on Monday nights, and I prefer natural fibres to artificial ones. I have a love-hate relationship with bamboo yarns: I love what they can do and how they look, I hate how they are made. I've been knitting since about 2003, though I really didn't get into it until 2005, while convelescing with a broken leg. I must have discovered something good, 'cause I'm still knitting years later.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Little Tiny Figures!

I am pretty much a basic knitter. I churn out scarves, hats, some shawls, and a few sweaters. Practical, useful things that are intended to keep the people I care about warm in the cold weather, sometimes something with a little flair to make them a bit fabulous, but really, when you get down to it, I'm a basic knitter.

So please explain to me why, when I saw the cover of the newest Webs' catalogue, that I went, “Squeeee!” It has the cutest little snowmen on it! Totes adorbz!

I have in my collection of knitting books several that give you patterns to make cute little objects.
Knit Your Own Dog, by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne. I've got two of those (Volume I only, though I should probably pick up Volume II). I have a thing for dachshunds, and since I can't have a real one, why not knit my own? At least I won't need to scoop up after it.

A few years ago, when Prince William married Kate Middleton (thus making her The Princess William) my friends Franco and Adrian, who live in the UK, sent me a copy of Knit Your Own Royal Wedding. Fiona Goble put together a delightful tableau of the Queen, Prince Phillip, and all their family. She even included patterns for the Queen's corgis. Since the book was published before the royal wedding actually happened, some of the colours she chose were wrong, but since it's now in the past, a knitter could make adjustments (she showed Prince William in a blue jacket, when he actually wore a red one, and the Queen actually wore primrose, instead of blue).

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in primrose, not blue, at Prince William's wedding
I've never been interested in the Mochi Mochi knitted figures. When my LYS did a knit-a-shark knit-along for Shark Week (no, I haven't seen Sharknado 1 or 2), I thought they were cute and funny, but had no desire to make one. Besides, I know that the Polar Vortex would flatten Sharknado. I should look for a pattern for a knitted polar bear.

So here I am, gazing at the cover of the newest catalogue, totally entranced. I opened it up, and there, on the inside cover, was the information for ordering the patterns for not only the snowmen, but for the cute, stackable trees that are on the cover with them! The patterns are only $3.99! Not only totes adorbz, but totes affordable! And if I buy a few other patterns I saw that I liked, it would make it completely worth it.

Even if I do order this pattern, I probably won't knit the cute little snowmen (you can be politically correct and call them snowpeople if you wish, but I know they're a family of gay snowmen with the lovely little showchild they adopted from China). This just isn't my style. On the other hand, along with knitting my stash, next year I want to challenge myself to go off in new directions, to learn to be a Knitter, rather than a knitter. I have some really good role models for this, and maybe now and then I need to knit something a bit frivolous.

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