September 14, 2007
I Say This Entry's Not Really Off-Topic if One of the Characters in the Story Spins
Warning: Today’s entry is not for the spider-phobic!
For the last two or three weeks, TMK has been unable to use her garden table—and the girl dearly loves her an afternoon brewsky and a read in her sunny yard—thanks to a monster of a spider that’d taken up residence in her garden umbrella. How much of a monster? It even made me, the Sir Galahad of Saving Insects, The White Knight of the Six, Eight or No-Legged, The High Priestess of the Church of Ugly, shudder and say something that sounded like, “Blechity blech blech blech.” What’s weirder, this was just a regular garden spider, just like the small kind ubiquitous to Seattle gardens, the kind that spins a web that you're always walking into so you break out in the spider dance, prancing around on your toes, slapping your face and you hair, and saying, “Ptooie, ptooie, ptooie!” But, eventually, TMK had had enough of our “pet” and of being denied her afternoon reads so last weekend I escorted the spider over to a mound of coreopsis in what’s left of the natural dye garden.
So here we go, and here is where the squeamish should just run off and read someone else’s blog. Move along; nothing to see here.
The thing on the left, a dried coreopsis blossom. The thing clinging to it on the right, the spider. Life size. With a round, fat abdomen about the size of a dime, or, coincidentally, a dried coreopsis blossom. Even more interestingly, a little to the right and down, an eensy-weensy male spider that arrived to court her—with much hesitant spinning of webbage, cautious tapping of her abdomen, and a little bit of "How YOU doin'?"—immediately upon my dumping her unceremoniously on the plant. And, although, he’s hard to see, slightly above and to the right of the most visible of her hind legs, another Don Juan who arrived, unfortunately for him, five seconds after the first suitor. The first male won. Or so I interpreted the fact that, when I went back out again half-an-hour later, she had suspended herself from the coreopsis blossom on his side of the flower, had wrapped her legs around herself, and was swaying coyly in the breeze. The whole thing had sort of a female-Russian-Olympic-bodybuilder-wearing-a-wispy-pink-negligee feel to it. If female Russian body-builders eat their husbands after a romp in the hay.
Speaking of the Olympics…
Olympic Squirrel is done! Er, give or take the inside sleeve hems that need to be tacked down, and a few errant yarn ends that need to be woven in. But, I say eff ‘em. It’s done. And the final tally is:
580 days, or 1 year, 7 months, 3 days to finish
Or...
564 days, or 1 year, 6 months, 18 days longer than it was supposed to.
And, continuing my uber-smooth subject transitions, speaking of Olympic Squirrel and, by extrapolation, Stephanie, TMK and I are going to be at Third Place Books early-ish, about 5 p.m/5:15 p.m., if anyone wants to join us for an impromptu knitting party.
I'll be there! Any chance Stephanie would like a round of Wii boxing with TMK?
Posted by: elaine on September 14, 2007 01:08 PMUp on the island here we have noticed all our garden spiders out these days. I walked up to my favourite blackberry picking spot today and had to carefully pick around many, many webs full of fat striped brown spiders. Too cool - your photo is amazing! If you hadn't pointed out the third spider I don't think I would have noticed him.
Have fun tonight!
Do you mean that YOU, who can't handle a sock monkey, has no trouble moving a creepy, scary, watch ME scream like a girl & run the other way, spider? I'm having trouble reconciling this.
Posted by: Samina on September 14, 2007 01:41 PMHoly crap - I saw the little spider first, and thought to myself that it musta seemed a little larger in person, or you and TMK are maybe not so realistic in your spider measurings. Then I saw the first one, and YUCK.
Posted by: Carrie on September 14, 2007 01:44 PMCongratulations on finishing Olympic Squirrel!
Posted by: Kat on September 14, 2007 02:58 PMI would like to say that I would not have had a visceral shudder if I had seen the lady spider in person, because I love bugs... but dang she is huge!
Posted by: Seanna Lea on September 14, 2007 03:24 PMI'm showing up around 5ish too, sock in hand!
Purdy picture of the spiders. Can you make a larger version available so I can see the female properly? Thanks-
Posted by: Wren on September 14, 2007 03:45 PMI like spiders and would have rescued her, too. I took a picture of an eensy jumping spider that makes it look bigger than your spider.
Posted by: Joan in Reno on September 14, 2007 10:13 PMEeewww...I don't usually mind spiders if I see them first, but that's a big one. Don't go for the big ones. I have a couple of spider pictures too, I saw a rather huge interesting-looking one on a lovely yellow rose outside the church where we'd just attended a wedding. Image: crowds of people happily snapping pix of the emerging Newlyweds - I, with knitting basket over arm, happily snapping pix of ugly insect life in a rose...wonder what that says about me?
Posted by: dale-harriet in WI on September 15, 2007 01:41 AMRyan, sorry I didn't get to do more than wave at you tonight. We got there about 5:25 but needed to get some nourishment once we had seats staked out and the lines were long. I did see the sweater from my seat and it's impressive.
That is one large spider, even by the standards of the ones I shared my childhood with in the deserts of Arizona.
Posted by: KarenJoSeattle on September 15, 2007 04:01 AMI have a spider story from my son in Chiapas to pass on -- I'll post it later today or tomorrow.
You are one brave and heroic lady to move the spider instead of squashing it like a, er, bug.
Posted by: kmkat on September 15, 2007 08:37 AMI just surfed in from the Harlot's blog and have had a wonderful time visiting! I was terribly impressed with the Squirrel sweater, congratulations for that. And I want to knit your "Dublin Bay" socks - I was given the rose one by my sister-in-law last year (she was trying to grow it IN A POT, and gave up) and this year it bloomed and it turns out to be "Galway Bay" - not deep red but coral. Love the socks anyway.
Hello, I'm here from the Yarn Harlot and after seeing the wonder that is the olympic squirrel sweater I have to ask: What is that called and where can I but the pattern? Considering your experience, this is probably suicide... But squirrels.... ..Are squirrels. Thank you.
K.Z.
It was lovely to see both you and TMK on Friday and then again Saturday! :)
Hope to run into you more often. I'll be posting the pic of TMK and MHP later today or tomorrow morning. Feel free to steal it if you'd like.
Happy Monday!
Posted by: Libby on September 17, 2007 10:21 AM