Penelope Joins the Family

It was several months before Christmas when the middle child asked if I would knit her another monster for Christmas.  She was the recipient of Sammy the Sock Monster a couple years ago and she has slept with Sock Monster by her side every night since.  I have to say he has held up quite well!  I of course couldn't refuse a specific knitting request from someone that I knew would really love the knitted item requested, so we pulled up Rebecca Danger's Etsy page and browsed the available patterns.  Penelope was chosen and then Penelope's status was inquired about every. single. day. for months.  She even pulled the Grammy card... "mom, Grammy says if you are going to get Penelope done by Christmas you need to start her now!" (this was around October and Penelope had secretly already been started).  I met her inquiries with feigned indifference until just a couple weeks before the holiday when her comments began to take on a certain frenzied tone, and then I assured her that Penelope was well on her way.

I had started the monster in plenty of time, and really started to relax about a week and a half before Christmas when all the parts were done and only the sewing-up remained.  I still needed to knit an entire monster for her older sister, but that sister was not nearly as obsessed and a week and a half at the end of the year when work would be slow and I was already way ahead on getting Christmas day stuff done seemed totally doable for cranking out a second monster.  So of course, that is when the flu hit.  A week and a half of complete misery.  I did manage to drag my carcass out of bed to see the middle child open Penelope, but she was also my flu buddy and really could only muster so much excitement.  However, this has all been made up for in the month since as Penelope and Sock Monster have become the very best of friends.

The only problem is that the third child seems to think SHE needs a monster too... or she could just have these two she found sitting on the stairs...