Geet! Claude!

A few projects ago I knit what has become one of my favorite "toy" projects. It's a "Geet" monster from Rebecca Danger's awesome Big Book Of Knitted Monsters. Now granted, I am an adult man, almost forty years old, but I love this little guy! What can I say, he just has so much personality! He has gone on road trips and camping trips with us. Here you can see him on our last camping trip having breakfast...

 And later that night we snapped this shot of him warming himself by the fire...

He was such a big hit that I decided I better make one for Ron, as I think he was feeling a little left out as far as pet monsters went. So I had him look through the book and he picked "Claude." So I went to work and here's the final result...

The two of them get along well and recently went on a bike trip with us in Acadia National Park. Here they are on the way to the park in their cupholer/carseats...

And finally, here's a shot of Geet on the trail, safely strapped onto the back of the bike. He wasn't wearing a helmet, but the way he's sitting under the seat I guess that could work like a helmet?...

All in all, very fun little guys to knit. FYI, the only modification I made from the original patterns was to stitch the eyes on instead of using safety eyes...the eyes that I had would have looked too small on this size monster so I grabbed some black yarn and stitched these on in place of the plastic ones. But I think they came out quite nicely anyway!

Testing, testing...

In an effort to expand the ways in which I can post to my blog I am trying out the ability to post via email. The thought is that if this works, I will be able to post from anywhere, at any time, and hopefully that will encourage me to post more frequently! Let's see...

Sent from my Palm Pixi on AT&T

The finished shawl...

Well, the shawl has been done for a bit now, but I just haven't gotten around to posting the pictures, so here we go. This first shot is a mostly-over-all-view of the whole shawl.

This next one is a close-up of the top edge...

...and then the bottom "point."

This last one is a detail of the "lily of the valley" pattern.

I hope you enjoy seeing the pictures of the finished project and I hope it was worth the wait to see them! I have actually made 4 other items since then so I'll have lots of reasons to hop on here much sooner than later and get them posted!

LISTENING TO: 

VEDA HILLE - "This Riot Life"

This album is a real beauty by one of Canada's finest singer/songwriters. It came about after a year of personal tragedy, the details of which are left unidentified by Veda herself. However following the impact from that year, Veda found her attention turning to her grandmother's copy of The Hymnary, a collection of traditional hymns printed in the 1930s. Six of the final album's tracks are based on hymns from this book. Most of them as they are altered in some way, though some are almost verbatim. While she defines herself as non-Christian, she found a power and intensity in the way that these songs channel ecstatic feeling. This may all sound a bit heavy or artsy, however it is handled with such skill that there is a real sense of joy and wonderment about the whole affair. Well worth a listen...click the image below to check out "Book Of Saints."