Thursday, April 9, 2015

Got Gecko?

I've mentioned that the recipient of the baby blanket lives in San Diego. And though we work over 4,000 km apart - we work quite closely together. We are in constant contact by email throughout the day.

A few weeks back, I got a frantic email from her. One of her cats had brought in a lizard. When she went to take it from him, she discovered it wasn't dead. It ran away and was now hiding under her furniture. We went back and forth in email, with her giving me a play-by-play of her plight to get it out from under the furniture, and get a hold of one of her friend's husbands to get it out of the house.

I mostly sat there and laughed - there's not much you can do to help when you're more than 4,000 km away. Eventually... once the lizard was corralled and safely out of the house, I asked her what kind of lizard it was. I'm completely fascinated... except for maybe an unlikely salamander - there's just not much of a chance of the cat's bringing in a lizard here...

My coworker replied... somewhat reluctantly... that it was just a harmless gecko. We had another good laugh over it, and I told her she should have kept it as a pet!

So, when I finished up the baby blanket, and decided I needed to send a little stuffie along with it (it looked so lonely there all by itself....), you know I just had to send a gecko!

I found a sweet little pattern on Ravelry, and had a few hours to spare on Sunday afternoon, so...
Instant Gecko! Okay, it wasn't quite instant, but it really only took two and a half hours. I used some scrap Big Cat.

The toughest part was his toes...
Fiddly - but well worth the effort. After all, toes are what make a gecko. The original pattern has just plain feet, but another Raveller had posted instructions on how to make gecko toes.
As you can see, he's just a wee little thing....
 But, the blankie no longer looks lonely!

6 comments:

Samantha said...

Great story! So funny. There are five lined skinks in Ontario. It's still pretty rare your kitty would bring one in, but we do have one lizard in Ontario.

kathy b said...

Well he is wonderful. I don't do fiddly so I don't do animals but I love to see what others create.

Araignee said...

The yarn makes a prefect lizard. He/she's so pretty!

Anonymous said...

I love his toes!!! Glad you went to the extra work of making them.

He's the perfect addition to the blanket. I bet he'll be well loved.

Knatolee said...

Adorable!! Love the colours, too.

Unknown said...

What a good story! You are so creative to get right on with knitting a lizard with such fun details!! Cute, cute, cute! He's a clever companion for the blanket.