Skip to main content

A Pet Tarantula

Christine Grant is my kind of knitter; she designed a pet tarantula.  This is what Christine has to say about it:   "It is an exact life size copy of the Mexican red-knee tarantula.  I designed him to get over my fear of spiders and despite finding out his sting is like a wasp sting I'm still absolutely TERRIFIED!!!!!  With the festive seasons approaching this would make a great gift for any spider lover."


A Pet Tarantula that looks so very real

Here's the real Mexican red-knee tarantula
I have to say I think Christine did a pretty fine job of duplicating this pet with yarn, even down to the beady little eyes.  And you have to give her credit for facing her fears with yarn.  I know that's how I'd approach it.


You should check out the wide range of things Christine makes at her website.  There are sea gulls, pigeons, doves, a Tasmania devil and  Movember mustaches as well as some really cute hats.  But getting back to the tarantula.  What a perfect use of fuzzy yarn and the toy eyes that are available at many craft stores.  This would be a case where I wouldn't want to shave the yarn;  it is just right as it is for this project.


Christine sells the pattern for those who might want to make a tarantula of their own; it's found at Ravelry .  I love the fact that this designer thinks a pet tarantula might make a great holiday gift for spider lovers (do they exist? maybe OK with spiders, but "love" spiders??) .  Oh, I might just have to make one.  Don't tell Paul but maybe some day there will be a knitted tarantula in the house.


Thanks Christine Grant for helping me rethink the quirkiness of my own knitting.  My stuff doesn't hold a candle to your handiwork.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

Gosling's Meme and Knitting

What is a meme, you may first ask? Well Dr. Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, came up with the idea in the late 1970's and stated something like: a meme is to a society what a gene is to a human. Both are an element or unit that can be replicated or passed from one individual to another. During the Internet age memes can be easily shared, replicated or otherwise passed on to another. Recent examples can be found on Gawker . Memes can include piano playing cats, a honey badger, the Call Me Maybe phenomenon and so on. The political campaign in the U.S. helped fuel memes using some of the most unusual statements like, "binders of women" and "you didn't build that." A few memes have staying power but most have a relatively short life span. Gosling's meme related to knitting has been around for some time; so when I again saw another post about him recently, it was time to figure out the origin. Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor born in Onta...

Yarn Usage II: Crochet vs. Knit

All four swatches were made.  Each is 6.25" or 15.875 cm square; each prepared with the same sized yarn and needles or hook.  It took 25 stitches to get the appropriate width for the knit swatches and only 20 stitches for both of the crocheted squares.  That already says something, but I'll get to it in a minute.  (Don't know what I'm talking about here?  Check out this post first.) Unfortunately, you'll just have to trust me that four swatches were prepared and that they were all the same size.  In the excitement to get to measuring and weighing of the swatches, no photographic evidence was taken.  Luckily for me the results of this research doesn't have to be reviewed by a jury of my peer.  This blog post will be the sum and total of where this information is published. The remains of my four swatches What can be shared, however, are the balls of yarn rewound after the weighing and measuring was completed.  You will note the size ...