September 15, 2003
Let’s Play Dress Up!
On Friday, I posted a link to a site for animals made out of clothes. Doing a complete about-face, today we have sites with clothes made for animals! First, a sweater knit for a rat (close-up pictures; not for the ratophobic).
Secondly, a site for a Japanese company that makes clothes for cats. Don't miss the “Anne’s Housekeepers Package.” A cat wearing a red ringlet wig. Now I can die a happy woman.
After exploring the cat site in some depth, I discovered how they so successfully put and kept hats and wigs on cats, which traditionally have large pointy ears that uncooperatively take up much of the cat’s head. Their secret? They very cleverly use cats that don’t have ears! See? (Now, before any cat lovers have horrible nightmares about cat ears, sharp scissors, and creative pruning, it's natural for this breed of cat to have smaller, folded ears. Scout’s honor. Some of them have ears that are so small and squished it looks as if they don't have any ears at'all. Again, see?)
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Back to animals made of clothes. My comments in my Friday entry about sock monkeys released a veritable flood of similar confessions from My Dear Readers. They divulged that they have similar feelings about Curious George; Lamb Chop; anything that has a face and is made out of a sock; Winchel Mahoney puppets; and Howdy Doody. I further divulged that Mr. Rogers gives me the creeps but his cat puppet even more so. (I was so relieved to recently find someone else who feels the same. Trust me; you do not want to go through life as the one and only person who finds Mr. Rogers creepy.)
Anyone else want to add to the list of Cultural Icons That Everyone Else Thinks Are Cute But That You Are Afraid To Admit You Don't?
Knitting Knews
Hallelujah! The Sisyphus Scarf is finished! Below, a photo of one end with buttons attached. (Of course, the weight of the metal buttons make you walk around all hunched over like Quasimodo, dragging the scarf and the buttons along the ground, gathering dirt as they go, but, hey...)
Dye Garden Dyegest
Below, a swatch knit from the hollyhock-dyed yarn. It looks extra dark because I had to squirt it with water to get it lie down. It was quite the battle, let me tell you. Kind of like those cartoon battles where all you see is a cloud of furious fightin' activity. (Not likin' this genyoowine aran yarn. It's the only yarn I've ever used that's so rough that it makes the skin on my fingers sore. Ouch!)
Oh, yes, me, me! The first time I saw a Betty Boop cartoon I was horrified that anyone would make this stuff and that anyone would find it amusing. I never recovered from that - my nice neighbor has a whole library of Betty Boop videos and I put my hands over my eyes whenever I walk by it.
Posted by: CarolineF on September 15, 2003 11:56 AMBetty Boop!! Love it! GREAT addition to the list! Come to think of it, I've always thought she was a little odd, too.
Posted by: Ryan on September 15, 2003 12:32 PMRyan, your blog is a daily must for me. Almost always a good laugh or at least something to wonder at. Thanks for your time and effort.
Posted by: Lisa on September 15, 2003 01:16 PMLisa, comments like yours can REALLY make a girl's day! I'm smiling even as I type this, thanks to you! You know, I may not have many readers, but the ones I do have are becoming more special to me with every entry I post...
I never new this blog could be so much fun, but it has just been a joy for me to do since day one. When I start an entry, I don't have a clue what I'm going to write and then all this STUFF just seems to pour from my mind down through my fingers, onto the keyboard, and onto the screen. Hmmmm... maybe I'm *channeling* someone funny. :-)
It's also important for me to give credit to The Mysterious K. She has loaded, cropped, optimized and emailed manymany pictures to me without complaint. And, more importantly, she puts up with my public teasing.
Thanks so much, Lisa!
Posted by: Ryan on September 15, 2003 01:25 PMThe scarf is BEAUTIFUL!
I had seen the cat costume link before, thanks for reminding me of it! It was too funny.
Thank you for the compliment on the scarf, Rebecca! It was fun and easy to knit, although it took a lot longer than I thought it would...
Posted by: Ryan on September 16, 2003 09:53 AMWhen I was little, I thought Mr. Rogers was cringingly, embarrassingly corny... so corny that I didn't know whether he was being serious or sarcastic, and that caused me enough confusion to make me avoid his show. I mean, the puppet voices were so lame that it seemed he could not be serious. I loved Sesame Street, though. I appreciate Mr. Rogers' kindness and good philosophies now that I'm older and cornier myself.
Posted by: Fran on September 16, 2003 03:37 PMAha! Someone ELSE who doesn't think Mr. Rogers is all that. Phew! It's officially safe for me to go out in public!
(BTW, Seattleites, if you haven't already, be sure to visit Fran's wonderful site "Northwest Notes" at http://northwestnotes.net/. Fran is a bicyclist and photographer which allows her to take and post beautiful, unique, and interesting photos of Seattle.)
Posted by: Ryan on September 16, 2003 04:36 PMlove the scarf! can you please refresh my memory on the yarn you used? tia, vanessa
Posted by: vanessa on September 17, 2003 04:00 AMVanessa, I used Mountain Color's Weavers Wool Quarters. I think the color was either "Larkspur" or "Winter Sky" but I'm not sure since the yarn band went to The Big Recycle Bin in the Sky a long time ago. You can check the colors on their web site at www.mountaincolors.com.