knitibranch  

Back from Pennsylvania, where my sweetie’s folks very much embraced the idea of adorning Penn State’s statues with whimsical knittany, if only briefly.  First up was what I initially heard as “the Joe Pistachio” but actually turned out to be “the Joe-Pa statue.” So sue me, I’m a new initiate to the strange world of college football.

At any rate, this also proved to be the first time since I started doing this stuff that my sweetie managed to overcome his deep-seated aversion to participating in anything even marginally subversive, when I discovered I wasn’t tall enough to deploy the finger cozy I’d whipped up for the Great Man himself:

Joe Paterno's Finger Cozy

Of course no statue at Penn State is more attractive to the guerilla knitter than the Knittany Nittany Lion Shrine, but I also knew that anything I put there would be a nuisance to the constant parade of people who want to be photographed with it.  My compromise: I staged the photo below, removed the knitting, and redeployed it nearby.

The Nittany Lion learns to knit

I even went so far as to paint the back ends of the needles, which were originally red, so they would match the school’s colors, and not those of arch-rival Ohio.  I’d have preferred to have posed the knitting as if there were a row in progress, but the needles just weren’t long enough.

At any rate, I made some more lion toes and an ankle, for a variation on the ever-popular monster foot, and placed it at the base of the sign near the statue that explains its history, and cast off the blue and white piece and wrapped the signpost with it:

Knittany Lion Paw/Nittany Lion Sign

Nittany Lion Sign

That was first thing Sunday morning (Father’s Day).  Then it was off to breakfast and church and all manner of other family activities.  It was still there at the end of the day, but the upper piece had slid down so it looked like a sock, which I actually liked better:

Nittany Lion Sign

Sadly, the campus maintenance personnel, ever diligent in their duties, removed it Monday morning, but it was fun while it lasted.

The other piece I did on campus was at the suggestion of my sweetie’s parents: a charming statue on the lawn of what used to be the President’s house and is now the Alumni Center.  I crocheted virtually non-stop from the moment they suggested the idea until I ran out of the yarn I’d purchased at the local yarn shop:

In general it’s my feeling that good statues need no enhancement from the likes of me, so I took the garland down after taking the photos, and am still trying to decide where to put it.  I had hoped to find a home for it somewhere in State College, but I slept too late Monday morning.  Rats!

More projects in the works, of course….  Top secret stuff with some of my new-found knitty friends, and new ideas brewing all the time.  Ciao for now.