Cloudy, with a chance of healing

Dr. Monchik eyeballed my x-rays today and, pointing to the break said,  "You see how cloudy it is there?  That's good.  It means the bone's filling in and it's healing well."

Three more weeks in the boot. On Saturday, when we fly to Rochester, NY, to attend the wedding of two wonderful people, I will be wheelchaired from ticket counter to boarding gate to plane. But I wouldn't miss this event for anything!

Meanwhile, I have had so much more time to knit, now that I can't walk Miss Lola or stomp around in the garden.  Gentle readers, I'm sure you recall the second mystery of July's "What IS it?" blog post, yes? Several of you hazarded guesses...but alas, you were wrong. So now for the revelation:

The off-white cup on dpns would eventually become Bunny's head. This charming pattern is from Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Toys (Artisan Press, 2009). I modified it a bit, mainly because I hadn't enough off-white yarn for the entire body, so I gave Bunny a permanent sweater with another ball of Blue Sky Alpaca's "Worsted Cotton." The book features many adorable patterns for toys, and I plan to try a few more of them. Perhaps I'm entering my second childhood--hurray!

Why do I knit? An Existential Inquiry

Lately I've been downloading patterns for knitted toys, most recently this, pictured above, last night: instructions from Bernat Yarns to make a "Topsy Turvy Doll, " which is somewhat like Siamese twins except usually only one is visible at a time. (For your very own copy, click on this link: http://knitandcrochetnow.com/fly.aspx?layout=patternsindex&taxid=163 )

Immediately I mentally started designing variations on Topsy-Turvy--e.g. Ego and Id dolls, Jane Eyre/Bertha Mason, Jekyll/Hyde, Estella/Miss Havisham, etc. The literary themes prompted by this contemplation reminded me that I own a book called Knitted Historical Figures by Jane Messent (Search Press, 1992), including patterns for biblical personages, Queen Elizabeth I, Mme. de Pompadour, and a Gibson Girl. I've never been tempted to make any of these because a lot of the highly labor-intensive knitting is done on scarily super-small needles, but the patterns are quite interesting to consider, as they include words like "oddments," "sprig," "waistcoat," "leg o' mutton," and "crochet hook."

But I digress.

The disturbing fact is that I have become somewhat obsessed with knitting patterns for non-wearable items. I just purchased Susan B. Anderson's book Itty-Bitty Toys (Artisan, 2009) which also features designs for a number of reversible toys à la the Topsy-Turvy doll, I follow the Fuzzy Mitten blog (http://blog.fuzzymitten.com/) filled with insanely cute knitted animals, and I recently downloaded patterns for knitting Percy the Pigeon, and a small acorn.

In my blissfully few idle moments, I wonder: what is going on? With me, I mean.

Frankly, I have no idea. If any one of my gentle readers has a theory, please suggest. My children are full-fledged adults, unmarried, with no families in the offing (that I know about), so I'm definitely not thinking about future grandchildren.

Meanwhile, I must draw your attention yet again to the extraordinary design work of Deborah Newton. Her pattern for an ingeniously-knitted "Tissue Cardigan" is in the just-released issue of Interweave Knits Magazine (Spring 2010, pp. 97-99), and the upcoming Vogue Knitting (Spring/Summer 2010) features her amazing back-buttoned sweater that is positively swoon-inducing!