For the glove of it

Why do I keep feeling compelled to make weird animal dolls for children? When my sister told me my niece and nephew were going through a stuffed-animal-loving phase, I grabbed this book, a couple pairs of gloves, and before I'd even really given it much thought, these two weirdos were having a chat on my couch.



I kept thinking of the Bolivian women who hand-knit these alpaca gloves for a living wage as I snipped off the fingers and turned them into legs, arms, and ears.



I think the buttons for eyes are the clincher here. It's interesting how important eyes are, on dolls, illustrations, humans, etc. A thing really comes to life with the right kind of eyeball.



It was kind of hard to pack them up and ship them off. But I knew if they stuck around Beatrix would eventually find and eat them one night while I was sleeping.


Spared!

The story doesn't end here. P is going on a trip this week to see this little devil:



Whom you may remember from one of several posts like this. Once again, the book came out, the gloves came off.



And turned into him. I like his stretchy pants.



So, in other words, if you have a pair of gloves, especially ones you like very much, you might not want to wave them around when you see me. Or, conversely, if you want one of these, hand 'em over.