I might not have made it to the March Monster Madness party… but May was certainly full of monster fun! When I started spinning with my drop spindle at the beginning of the year, I knew I wanted to knit toys for M, or myself, using my first handspun as I thought it would be pretty forgiving and I wouldn’t have to have a consistent gauge. Though the first monster I started with my first handspun is still languishing, as I started it before actually finishing spinning all the fiber, I made two monsters as birthday presents.
The first present I chose, easily, the more challenging project out of Rebecca Danger’s Big Book of Knitted Monsters: Leila, Lydia, and Lucas the Momma and Baby Monsters. To date, only the Momma has been completed… but at least in time of the party! This monster is the size of a small pillow… and it was a miracle I finished it as I panicked about what else I could get for a five year old girl’s birthday! M is only two and a half, and most of the time I don’t know what to get her either… that is, until I step into a toy store and want to get her everything.
The Momma (without babies) monster from Rebecca Danger’s The Big Book of Knitted Monsters
The second monster, I chose carefully. It was a present for a close friend’s two year old son and I wanted it to be nice enough to grow with him, and be boyish enough. So it had to be Gort the Gym Bag Monster, also from the Rebecca Danger book. I had half a skein of beautiful Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Sport in the Eastern Market colorway left after making another friend’s son a hat. I knew that the yarn would knit up well, creating interesting pooling and almost subtle striping throughout the monster, but that the orange color would be… manly enough.
Gort from Rebecca Danger’s The Big Book of Knitted Monsters
Though M repeatidly asked when she would finally get her monster, she was so excited to gift both of these monsters! I tried to include her as much as I could in the process, so she could feel like she helped and she was proud of the monsters when she gave them to her friends! Since then, I have spun up new yarn to make her another monster… so I guess should actually finish the first one….
a singular knitter 