Thursday, August 17, 2006

An Elephant and an Experiment

So I knitted up this Elephant for a little boy named Cooper who was born a few weeks ago. He's my best friend's first nephew and the whole family is so excited by his arrival! I hope to meet him this weekend. I'm thinking Elmer, but maybe that's a little hackneyed. Horton?

He's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, which is just about the only pattern book I ever make anything from. One strand Koigu KPPPM, one strand Dale of Norway Baby Ull and Koigu KPPM for his kerchief. Cute, isn't he?



Meanwhile, in a fit of boredom, I have embarked upon an experiment. I had occasion to search the internet for a specific pattern book recently. When I discovered that the shipping for the pattern would be more than for the actual pattern itself, I decided to throw in some yarn as well to make it worth my while. None of the yarns were jumping out at me, so I very foolishly decided to purchase the Grab Bag. Now, the Grab Bag was billed as "Over $30 worth of yarn, usually 3 to 4 balls, for the low price of $19.95." You could pick your color choices. I decided on green for some godawful reason now unknown to me. It'll be an experiment, I said to myself. I'll take what they give me and make something from it. I'll expand my creative horizons. I won't cheat. It'll be fun.

The package arrived. The grab bag was pretty.

The contents were not. Nellie is disgusted. (I did warn you about the cats, didn't I? They are frickin' hams.)

That's a sparkly Packer green and gold ribbon yarn, a not-so-bad-in-small doses squiggly yarn, and a truly horrible avocado-and-harvest-gold-straight-straight-from-the-seventies-appliance-color-scheme eyelashy yarn.

What in the name of all that is holy can I create with this stuff? Suggestions? Bonus points for tying in my beloved Packers. Help!