It has taken a little while for my dear parents to “get” the whole knitted toys thing. I have even recently been on the receiving end of the phrase “have you considered taking the civil service exam?” which I believe are the very words that Mrs. Costanza shrieks at her jobless son George in around the 5th season of Seinfeld.
But this past weekend, I caught my parents on the phone at a good time – somehow, they were quite tickled to hear that I’m knitting a snake that eats things, and they even came back to me a day later with an email that detailed a high-concept knitted snake suggestion of their own:
We (Mom and I) talked it over and this is what we’d like to suggest:
A basket with a sort-of rigid lid (perhaps containing an old CD) . When you lift the lid a few inches, a string connected to the lid pulls a very pretty cobra out of the basket. She has long eyebrows and red lips. If you pull her out further, a string connected to the bottom of the basket and to her lower jaw pulls her mouth open. You can take it from there. I think if it has an Egyptian or Cleopatra theme it could be not too scary.
Isn’t that just the sweetest thing? Mom, Dad, I hope to someday make you proud with a Cleopatra cobra.
(I just found this image – they did not include a visual reference in the email.)
oh, that is so sweet and adorable, Anna… maybe there is a gene for “cute and clever toy construction”? :)
Ha! Maybe you’re right – who knows what would happen if I taught them how to knit….
anna,
of course they’d come up with helpful ideas like that…they collect pop-up books! maybe they just needed time to get used to the idea. look forward to seeing the movable snake in a basket in the future.
–christi