I’m happy to say that my snake and mouse set is almost finished!
The mouse is done, so I thought I’d show a little sneak preview:
I think the toupee in particular turned out nicely. In fact, it closely resembles the hair of someone else in this household….
The snake is felted but still needs to be made up. Here’s hoping he also turns out well.
This past weekend, I took a trip to Washington, D.C. to visit some friends. It was great – the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the weather couldn’t have been better. Today, I took a trip to Whole Foods. That was a more miserable experience, so I’m choosing to write about getting groceries instead of our national capital.
What can I say about Whole Foods? At least in New York, it must be a love/hate relationship for most of us – go to Dagostino’s and get smelly, spoiled produce, or go to Whole Foods and get high prices and… where do the keep the mayonnaise? Near the adzuki beans, or is it the unrefined sea salt? Do they even carry mayonnaise? (For the record, yes, they do, but who’s brave enough to try organic mayonnaise? Not me.)
I think my husband really captured the feeling we both get as we descend the escalator to the Whole Foods in the Shops at Columbus Circle mall: “it’s like visiting your rich, hippie cousin,” he says, “Everything seems so nice and beautiful, until you ask to use the bathroom and they show you to their cold, smelly ‘natural’ outhouse.” This is the plight of those of us who enjoy both crisp apples and Lucky Charms – it’s one or the other, kiddo.
And then there’s the crowds. We thought we were really clever today for going to buy our groceries two hours ahead of the rush today, at 3:30 in the afternoon. But we quickly discovered that there is about the same number of people wandering around Whole Foods in the middle of the afternoon as in the evening hours – it’s just an older crowd. Older, and slower.
A great big thank-you to Joan, who has again tested one of my patterns, with fabulous results!
Joan tested the Sausage Dogs, whose pattern will soon be available in the Mochimochi Shop. She did such a great job, and took the cutest photos, I’m very happy to share some of them here.
Joan made hers into animal-friendly “tofu pups”!
They seem to enjoy one another’s company.
Their natural habitat is a frying pan that someone left sitting out.
You can see and purchase Joan’s own work at her website and Etsy shop. Thanks, Joan!
Tums wants to be your friend because he thinks you’ll give him candy. (But don’t do it! Candy makes his tummy ache.)
The finished toy stands (sits) on its own and measures about 8 inches tall. Download the pattern at the Mochimochi Shop!
This may be the cutest thing to ever drop from a crane game’s claw.
It was won for me by my husband (then fiance) in Tokyo in December 2005 – the day after we got engaged, in fact. It was unseasonably warm.
To this day, I don’t know how John was able to get that slippery claw to cling to that slick plastic container.
I love pretty much everything about this little captive creature – its sweet pose, biiig, relaxed smile, the little leaf on its head, and its fuzzy grass pillow (which is actually super soft).
I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to see what he wins me on our trip to Japan next month!! (No pressure, Sweetie.)
Compared to my idealized image of most New Yorkers, I’m not the best celebrity spotter.
My top three have been:
Al Sharpton (January 30, 2006) – This one doesn’t count, though, because he’s more political figure than celebrity, and I only saw him when somebody walking down the street in front of me literally pointed to a cafe window and exclaimed, “hey look – it’s Al Sharpton!”
Tim Robbins (January 14, 2006) – This one doesn’t count because it took me seeing his puppet caricature in Team America: World Police to put a name to a famous-looking face shopping on Fifth Avenue. I’m sorry, but if I don’t immediately know who you are when I see you, I really can’t in all honesty consider you a celebrity, no matter how many Oscars (one) or Oscar nominations (two) you might have.
Rachel Dratch (November 11, 2006) – Counts a little, but I just now had to google “Saturday Night Live Dartmouth grad Debbie Downer,” and it still took me a long three minutes to remember her name. So… doesn’t really count.
And that brings us to today, which was made different from other days by warm, breezy weather and a very weekday sighting of Ian Benardo – you know, that flamboyantly annoying kid from the American Idol New York auditions.
(Yes, I had to google “American Idol New York flamboyantly annoying” to learn his name.)
My husband also says that we passed Isiah Thomas on the street today, but I don’t really know who that is.
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.)
Mochimochi Land is happy to announce the arrival of the Gun Shy* pattern in the Mochimochi Shop!
He is an easy knit, and he promises not to cause any major damage.
*Just to clarify, Gun Shy is different from Luvgun. He still loves you; he’s just not so forward about it.