Tuesday, June 09, 2009

*A rather weak, summer-school related joke: "It's only Wednesday and I feel like a whole week has gone by already!" (Regular semester is 16 weeks; summer semester is 8, and we cover the same amount of material. You do the math.

*I'm still trying to figure out the best time to do summer-postings. I don't like going online in the evenings; it eats too much into the limited free time I have (But I'm doing that tonight), also, because of the copious anti-bad-stuff software on my computer, it takes it longer to GET online. (McAfee, in particular, seems to always want to update itself JUST as I am getting ready to do something involving the Web. And because my computer's a bit older and a bit slower, that updating slows things way down.)

*I decided I wanted to start a toy this evening - specifically, Maddox the Mischievous Monster - I had the yarn out, I had the right sized double-pointed needles. And NO PATTERN. Could not find it anywhere. So I figured I'd get the pdf copy I had stashed on my hard drive. Which, of course, meant that McAfee cackled and decided it was time for an update - and then trying to open Acrobat reader while it was going crashed the whole mess. I decided it wasn't Maddox's time to be made yet.

Pity, really, as I had a name picked out for him already: He will be "The Honourable Tootles Ash," which I said a while back would make a rather nice grandiloquent name for a toy. (I did eventually retrieve the pdf file and print it out, which means I'll probably find the original copy tomorrow).

So instead, I decided to start another toy - a crocheted black and white cat out of that "Kyuuto" amigurumi book.

I had forgotten how much a pain it is to crochet with boucle yarn, and how black yarn is even worse. But I will persist, because this toy also has a name already. It will be Oliver Donald Piano, or O. Don Piano for short. (Do I need to spoil the joke by explaining it?).

You know, it's probably a good thing I don't have children, considering the names I give to the toys I make.

*And speaking of ridiculously-named toys - but this one has an "historical" precedent, of sorts, here's another little Hansigurumi toy:

(It was hard to photograph so it didn't look like, um, something I don't want it to look like. And even with this photograph, I'm a little squicked.).

It's the earthworm!

earthworm

And I named it Clementine the King's Daughter. That is an old family joke...I used to follow my mom around in the garden (and I was young enough at this time that I don't remember the actual event, just being told that it happened by my parents). When she'd turn up a particularly large earthworm, I'd exclaim "Oh, it's the King!" (or the Queen). One day, I declared that one of them was "Clementine, the King's Daughter."

I really don't know where that comes from - for years I wondered if it had been some kind of a bit on Sesame Street (not with worms, necessarily) or some book I had read, but a Google search only turned up one thing related to a French chateau that not only had I never been to, but I had never even heard of chateaux at this time. So I assume it was something out of my imagination.

I've gone back and forth about putting eyes on Clementine. (Real worms don't have eyes, but then again you'd have to name a real worm something like Pat or Chris because worms are actually hermaphrodites and Clementine the King's daughter would also be Clement the King's son, or perhaps the King's/Queen's daughter/son). I kind of like the idea of little embroidered eyes with long lashes (it might also cut down on the slight ickiness of the worm) but I just haven't gotten around to deciding yet.

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