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

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing.  I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away.  Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close.  Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening.  As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend.  Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration.  I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

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.  (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while.  But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf .  I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you?  It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank.  (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls  If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo.  Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left.  Easy to find, right!  Sure but what about the remaining 4