I went looking for trio costumes for Hugs, Stumpy, and Cirrus, and this one leapt out to all of us. Hugs insisted on being bacon and Cirrus said it only made sense for her to be the tomato, which left Stumpy as lettuce. It might not have been his choice, but as they say, it’s not easy being green.

Only the Hug Monster can make a frying pan look like a hot tub.

On second thought, a ride in the salad spinner was not so good of an idea.

I thought this one was a bit morbid, but Cirrus insisted it was the only thing that made sense to do. She’s the artist!

The intersection of times with good natural light and times I had available for photos this week was just about empty, but (with an assist from my nice bright lights) I think we did okay. Happy Halloween!

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Once there were three little pigs whose mother could not afford their keep, so she sent them out into the world.

In looking for materials to build a home, the first pig met a man selling bales of straw. The second met a man selling bundles of sticks, and the third pig met a man selling loads of bricks. Each built a home and lived happily, for a time.

Eventually a wolf came to town and approached the first little pig’s house of straw. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he did. The pig ran off to the house of wood, but the next day the wolf came calling there. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he did. Both pigs ran off to the house of brick, where the wolf came calling the day after. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he huffed, and he puffed, but he could not blow the house in. He called out again, “Could I come in, little pigs? My allergies are killing me out here. I’ll order a pizza!”

That sounded good to the little pigs, so they let the wolf in. Indoors he soon stopped huffing and puffing, and they all ate pizza.

In brief, the credits from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice are to Stumpy and Cirrus Monster, D.L. Ashliman, CopyCatFilms, and Dieter Steffman.

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The sorcerer’s apprentice was left alone with instructions to have the floor clean before the sorcerer’s return.

The sorcerer’s apprentice felt rather put upon to constantly be mopping the floor, and although he’d been explicitly instructed not to try magic, he decided to use a spell he’d seen the sorcerer use, and bring the broom to life to mop for him.

It worked! The broom began industriously mopping the floor.

…too industriously. Water began to collect. “Stop! Stop!” cried the sorcerer’s apprentice. He racked his brain for the magic word to change the broom back to an inanimate object, but it would not come to him.

Finally he resorted to an axe. He chopped the broom in half and was relieved to see the pieces fall to the floor.

His relief lasted but a moment, however, as the broken pieces sprang to life as two full brooms and began again to mop.

The apprentice had decided to run away and hide forever when the sorcerer appeared at the door. With one word the brooms were stopped. The apprentice turned to the sorcerer. “About all that water….”

D.L. Ashliman is a professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh with an extensive index of folktales and mythology. It was very helpful in picking stories to retell, and I recommend the page for casual reading as well.

CopyCatFilms generously provided a blank intertitle card to the interwebs, which I’ve used to begin and end this story.

Dieter Steffman designed the font I used on the title cards, Chelsea, and many other wonderful fonts available without charge.

Edit: There’s more of this nonsense now.

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They were Ashur and Ishtar, important ancient Assyrian deities. Something I read said they were husband and wife, but I never found that piece of trivia again so I suspect it was suspect.

I got advice from my friend Eleanore (“Fringe. Lots of fringe.”) and a page on Assyrian costumes. Getting an appropriate geometric pattern with (relatively) accurate colors required dyeing fabric (before and after shown above, though unfortunately not in the same lighting – that’s the same fringed trim in each shot). I scaled the shawl measurements in the Fashion Era link by 1/9, cut them from muslin, and then adjusted the proportions, since after all monsters are not humans.

Fortunately, monsters are fairly patient and easy-going, because we had some long fitting sessions. The tunics I had to design from scratch and they are far from historically accurate, but I had to adjust for the fact that humans are proportionally smaller front to back and also have necks that are quite a bit smaller front to back than their chests. The tunics have a front and back panel (really two in the back), with insets along the shoulders and down the sides under the arms. I was glad I made a muslin first because it was a wee bit snug.

And let’s not forget their accessories! This is unlikely to be the last time you see them in wigs.

The picture up top was taken during a long outing by the river. When they got home and out of costume they needed a good brushing, both for fluffiness and for removal of bits of the great outdoors. More photos will shortly be posted on Stumpy’s Facebook page.

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This monster was supposed to have been completed for Halloween… of 2011. However, I made a monster and when I brushed her, she got all stretched and floppy, her toes like the flippers of a walrus. That version was a dark orange. This version was of yarn much more similar to Stumpy (Stumpy is Full O’ Sheep [Stitch Nation for Red Heart]; this is Sheep(ish) by Vickie Howell [Stitch.Rock.Love. for Caron]) and brushed up nicely. Like the Hug Monster did, she will spend some time anonymous, until her name is revealed to me.

Anonymous Light Blue Monster would like to announce the opening of the ReveDreams.com store! Several patterns you’ve seen the results of are there. We’ll survey them in tomorrow’s regular post. I aim to add more patterns steadily through the year, as well as continuing to tweak the look of the store pages.

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