Knitters are such delightfully weird people
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: October 6, 2008 9:58 PM, by PZ Myers
Yeah, I'd hang one of these on my wall. Wouldn't you?
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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Comments
Posted by: Ouchimoo | October 6, 2008 10:01 PM
Actually . . .
t'yeah I would hang one of those up on my wall. But I'm weird like that.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | October 6, 2008 10:07 PM
Teach the controversy of whether or not rats are made of blood, guts, and other slimy bits, or are made out of colorful yarn.
And you know, any time any human makes something modeled on nature, it's an admission that nature was designed. Yes, there really is nothing too dumb for (un)intelligent design "theorists."
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: mikeg | October 6, 2008 10:09 PM
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/
Posted by: Rae | October 6, 2008 10:09 PM
That is so amazingly weird and unnecessary; I love it! I'm sending that link to my sister who knits obsessively.
Posted by: David | October 6, 2008 10:16 PM
Dissected mouse?
That's pretty cool, but I would have thought that a crocheted coral reef would have been more up your alley, Dr. Meyers.
http://theiff.org/reef/index.html
Posted by: Rev. bigDumbChimp, KoT, OM | October 6, 2008 10:16 PM
Yes. With out a doubt.
Posted by: Paul | October 6, 2008 10:18 PM
I see that often enough at work. Besides, the organs are all wrong!
Posted by: Carlie | October 6, 2008 10:18 PM
Damn it, I just got done with the squid hat, and how I have to go find out how to make this.
Posted by: cactusren | October 6, 2008 10:24 PM
That's freakin fantastic!
Posted by: Erica | October 6, 2008 10:28 PM
Some people collect butterflies, some set mouse traps, some people knit, and some combine things a little too much. :P
Posted by: llewelly | October 6, 2008 10:29 PM
Remember folks. This is what PZ wants religion to be like.
Posted by: Mozglubov | October 6, 2008 10:30 PM
I think it would be more precise to say "biologists who knit" rather than just knitters in general. I cannot imagine either of my grandparents making one of those. I mean, my grandmother did make me a wonderful dinosaur sweater when I was little, but it was the outside of the dinosaur...
Posted by: freelunch | October 6, 2008 10:31 PM
Perusing other items in the perfectly named Why Would You Knit That?!, I note a strong interest in biology. Some of it leaves me speechless. No doubt PZ could ask the art student who knitted a full size Ferrari to knit a giant squid for him.
Posted by: Patricia | October 6, 2008 10:31 PM
We tatters are far too french unmentionable trims obsessed to 'eveh consider such a grisly and dis'gustin thang.
Posted by: Lau | October 6, 2008 10:35 PM
Wow, I have knit a stuffed nautiloid for a friend, but never a post-dissection specimen. That is some serious dedication. (Particularly given the sewing that must be done after the fact, since I have never met a knitter who didn't *abhor* doing seams. Never. And my grandmother was such a dedicated knitter that she would simply knit garments her kids had left behind on family vacations.)
Posted by: Patricia | October 6, 2008 10:37 PM
F! French, dammit.
I stepped into something that Chimp left on the floor earlier today, and I just can't say out of it!
Posted by: Noadi | October 6, 2008 10:44 PM
For interested knitters the person who created that actually sells the pattern if you want to give it a shot (too bad she doesn't have a crochet version, I can't knit). The link where she sells the pattern and completeed ones is http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5197504
You can find the coolest stuff on Etsy, seriously.
Posted by: Kel | October 6, 2008 10:45 PM
Maybe not a biiological mouse, a dissected computer mouse on the other hand...
Posted by: cyan | October 6, 2008 10:47 PM
organ or piano? you can has both
http://www.freshmd.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/04/uterus.jpg
Posted by: Grimalkin | October 6, 2008 10:49 PM
That is officially the single most awesome knit-work I've ever seen. I want one!
Posted by: Another Primate | October 6, 2008 10:55 PM
I just added that to my list of must haves!!!!!
Posted by: bir rig | October 6, 2008 10:59 PM
One of these would be great for the occasional student who has conscientious objections to dissections. Oh the things that they would learn...The reproductive system may pose a problem though.
Posted by: elaine ellerton | October 6, 2008 11:06 PM
Perfect timing! I wasn't so sure the mohair scarf was right for my mother's Christmas present. Now I have the perfect gift to knit. I wonder if I could make it into a hat....
Posted by: BMS | October 6, 2008 11:15 PM
That is awesome.
Posted by: Jared | October 6, 2008 11:16 PM
Hey, that's pretty awesome, I might do a frog...
Posted by: Carlie | October 6, 2008 11:36 PM
freelunch, I hate you. I am now losing huge amounts of time to that blog.
Posted by: Robin Zebrowski | October 6, 2008 11:40 PM
Not only WOULD I hang one of those on my wall, I bought the pattern for that and her frog one as well several months ago. She has an etsy.com store and I highly recommend everyone go and buy either her pattern or one of the finished products! (The pattern is only like 4 bucks, and you can also buy a finished version, framed on cork like the one PZ displays).
Us weird knitters like to support our fellow knitterly science nerds.
Posted by: Robin Zebrowski | October 6, 2008 11:42 PM
Whoops, beat by #17! We're weird and absent-minded, apparently.
Posted by: shonny | October 6, 2008 11:42 PM
Interesting, but . . . just received The Jehol Fossils, so will be incommunicado for a while.
That is one awesome book!
At $55 from Amazon, - best bargain of the year.
And no, I am just an ordinary customer, no promotion.
Just get it, and see for yourself.
And if you disagree, go and see an optician!
Posted by: fierce-rabbit | October 6, 2008 11:51 PM
Speaking as a knitter, I can proudly say, yes, we are.
Posted by: Hehe | October 6, 2008 11:52 PM
Poor Stewart, attempts were made to save him, they were too little, too late
Posted by: sara | October 6, 2008 11:54 PM
Guys, the top one on this post looks like it would be rather too itchy, right?
Posted by: sara | October 6, 2008 11:55 PM
Guys, the top one on this post looks like it would be rather too itchy, right?
Posted by: CanadianChick | October 6, 2008 11:59 PM
I thought the frog was rather cool too - I wish I could knit worth a damn. I can sew quite well, but knitting? Not a chance.
*sigh*
Posted by: Laura | October 7, 2008 12:15 AM
That is so cool! I want one!
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead | October 7, 2008 12:25 AM
The Redhead is quite the knitster, but other that the technical work to make the mouse I don't think she would be interested. She likes to wear her projects.
Posted by: John Scanlon FCD | October 7, 2008 12:36 AM
But that IS what a certain major religion is like... using tasteful artistic recreations of nailed-up dead mammals for wall decoration.Does Etsy have a wearable version?
Posted by: Patricia | October 7, 2008 2:02 AM
Ha!
Posted by: Jeanette Garcia | October 7, 2008 3:55 AM
Oh, I love these little knitted dissected animals. It takes me back to when I was a kid, 11 or 12. I had a old barrel full of 'swamp' water. I would catch tadpoles and put them into their new home. Then I would select one to operate on. I would first put the tad-pole to sleep with an alcohol soaked cloth. Then, very carefully, I would slice them open, skin deep, so I could see how their innards looked and how their little hearts beat. Afterwards, I would just as carefully sew them up and hope they would survive my intrusions to become frogs. - I did not grow up to become a serial killer.
Posted by: maureen | October 7, 2008 4:10 AM
Or you can knit your own DNA.
Posted by: Muffin | October 7, 2008 5:55 AM
...no. No, I wouldn't (it's interesting, but not appealing).
Posted by: L2B | October 7, 2008 7:38 AM
I have a new knitting hero. Here's someone with a fun, creative idea who just went with it. Good for her.
More people should take up knitting. I firmly believe, from witnessing it happen, that knitting together with others makes you a more accepting, curious, caring and interesting person.
Posted by: craig | October 7, 2008 8:00 AM
Where are the worms in the frog? All the times I dissected frogs in school, there were worms swimming around inside them.
Posted by: LisaJ | October 7, 2008 8:22 AM
Where are the babies inside? That's how a cut open mouse usually looks to me.
Seriously awesome though - I'd put that up on my lab bench.
Posted by: Annapolitan | October 7, 2008 8:41 AM
Number 11 won the comment contest I was running in my mind.
To think I have been wasting all my time knitting SOCKS. I must buy this pattern. I already have the perfect yarn for it, and in all the right colors.
Anybody for a lab rat in cashmere?
Posted by: Liesele | October 7, 2008 8:47 AM
Yes, but if you go to The Anticraft! you can crochet Cthulhu or knit a Snatchel. And there's more.
http://www.theanticraft.com/index.htm
Posted by: JB | October 7, 2008 9:11 AM
The knitter also has a knitted Octopus on her Etsy site! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11479012
Posted by: becominginvisible | October 7, 2008 9:29 AM
the Anti Craft does have fun stuff, thanks for reminding me I hadn't checked for a while. The stuffed pasta doesn't have to be shaped as skulls.
Noadi, check etsy and ravelry if your a member, do they have a forum? Start asking for the patterns for crochet, they are around.
Relax Glen, knitting can cause variation in the evolution of the project. A lot of variables involved. Yarn, tension both real and imagined, knitter's skill, expectations.
Posted by: Monado in Toronto | October 7, 2008 10:09 AM
I'd TOADALLY get that for my stepdaughter the biologist. But it wasn't a biologist who designed that pattern: the liver's in the wrong place and the "lights" are missing. Or maybe the cats got ahold of the mouse first.
In an interesting convergence of memes, my cats bring in small stuffed toys....
Posted by: AmandaM | October 7, 2008 11:56 AM
Did someone already post the link for the knit uterus?
Seriously, if you enjoy knitting but live in a warmer climate, this is only to be expected. I was ever so proud of my first knit penis.
Posted by: Ericka | October 7, 2008 1:04 PM
And of course, the first thing I think is, "Ah! Awesome...I could totally knit that..."
Yea for nerdy knitters. Oh, and randomly to any crafters here on Pharyngula in the Pacific Northwest, the Urban Craft Uprising is coming soon in early December in Seattle. (http://www.urbancraftuprising.com/)
Posted by: Ericka | October 7, 2008 1:06 PM
And of course, the first thing I think is, "Ah! Awesome...I could totally knit that..."
Yea for nerdy knitters. Oh, and randomly to any crafters here on Pharyngula in the Pacific Northwest, the Urban Craft Uprising is coming soon in early December in Seattle. (http://www.urbancraftuprising.com/)
Posted by: Ericka | October 7, 2008 1:12 PM
And of course, the first thing I think is, "Ah! Awesome...I could totally knit that..."
Yea for nerdy knitters. Oh, and randomly to any crafters here on Pharyngula in the Pacific Northwest, the Urban Craft Uprising is coming soon in early December in Seattle. (http://www.urbancraftuprising.com/)
Posted by: Ericka | October 7, 2008 1:24 PM
And of course, the first thing I think is, "Ah! Awesome...I could totally knit that..."
Yea for nerdy knitters. Oh, and randomly to any crafters here on Pharyngula in the Pacific Northwest, the Urban Craft Uprising is coming soon in early December in Seattle. (http://www.urbancraftuprising.com/)
Posted by: Godless Woman | October 7, 2008 1:36 PM
Oh I love it! I just started learning to knit and want the pattern for that.
Posted by: Donnie B. | October 7, 2008 1:41 PM
Hey, wait a second... was that a consecrated mouse?
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 7, 2008 1:54 PM
I am deeply impressed by comment 39. That is awesome. What was the survival rate like...?
It's not a mouse, it's a lab rat. Biological Introductory Lab Work, spring/summer of 2001.
That was originally intended to become a sock, right? :->
Posted by: Trish | October 7, 2008 2:37 PM
Absolutely awesome! I would most definitely hang it. No doubt. Probably right next to my replica of a homo erectus skull that people get queesy about.
Posted by: christine | October 8, 2008 12:13 AM
I'd hang it in a closet.
Posted by: Patricia | October 8, 2008 12:46 AM
Ericka - So is there going to be some crafting open to us Pacific Northwest tatters? I live about 75 miles from Portland, but I might be open to supporting a group effort.
How about hairpin lacers, lucet corders, and bobbin lacers?
I'd trade an equal amount of time teaching tatting for heel turning. I'll bet I can out darn anyone under 75 years old. That would be a fun contest at any knitting based get together. ;o)
Posted by: gunofsod | October 8, 2008 10:54 AM
Ha, reminds me of a game I play with the kids where I make up a model of a body (complete with different coloured internal organs) out of play dohh, and help them dissect it, naming each organ as we carefully extract it!
Is this ok for kids?