The Munster Mailbox

Courtesy of  munster.com

As summer comes around again(and I am very happy about that fact), there is green everywhere, and flowers blooming all over the place….Although, there is one thing that I really don’t enjoy about summer.  It’s a small thing, and there are probably a few (very few) other things that I don’t appreciate about summer…..but not much.  I am a big fan of warm weather.  This one thing I really don’t miss in the middle of winter though!  Anyway, here’s is something that you might like to know about our residence, should you ever be in the neighborhood. 😉

We do not live on Mockingbird Lane, have a vampire grandpa, or decorate with spiderwebs and dust.  However, I have noticed that my family has something in common with the Munsters from the TV show back in the 60’s.  It’s our mailbox.  Every time I go out to get the mail there are spider(s) and their webs, cockroaches, other insects (visiting, I suppose), and just general nastiness.  I have gone out one day with a resolution to clean it off, and succeeded with the help of a long stick.  I was NOT about to use my hand to evict all those bugs, particularly the spiders…. Anyway, I got it nice and clean- front, back, inside and out.  It looked like the lovely, rustic mailbox in the countryside, like it’s supposed to.  The next day I went out, and the unwelcome tenants were back.  Now, granted I hadn’t exactly gotten rid of the roaches because they run off whenever we open the mailbox.  But it was them AND  the spiders….again.

Honestly, I don’t know what the attraction is for these bugs!  Yes, it’s a nice mailbox, or at least I think so-  it’s old and the paint is fading, but it just adds to the rustic look. 😉  Never have I thought that any type of bugs had a taste for that though.  The cockroaches might like the darkness, but why our mailbox?  The neighbors is just as dark!  It’s not as big as ours, but I don’t exactly think roaches need space for their furniture, ya know?  I’ve thought about checking the neighbors’ mailbox, just to make myself feel better, but I think that it might be illegal to tamper with someone’s mailbox.  Don’t quote me on that though.

But just by looking at the outside, our mailbox looks much more like the Munsters’ than any other mailbox I have ever seen.  I also feel bad for the mailman/lady because it seems like on any given day there will almost inevitably be a spider making a new home on the handle.  It’s a good place to hang out I guess…. 🙂  Thankfully, there are other methods of opening a mailbox!  I have figured them out by necessity.   I have also formed the habit of shaking out the catalogs, when we get them, to make sure I am not bringing any of those little squatters into our house.  That would definitely be even worse than just seeing them once a day, maybe twice if I take out a letter to my pen-pal.  So I guess, in conclusion, there really isn’t that much about our mailbox that resembles the Munsters themselves, but I think our mailbox is the pretty close to the perfect mailbox for them.  I don’t recall ever having seen their mailbox in any of the episodes, but I’ve haven’t seen all of them, so maybe I ought to keep an eye out for it in the future! 🙂

I guess you could also call it the Addams Family mailbox…..Those TV shows were popular about the same time, I think.  IMDB says that they both aired from 1964-1966.  Apparently creepy, funny families were a topic of interest on TV in the mid-60s!

So, you now know not to tamper with our mailbox.  I’m not sure why you would want to anyway- we don’t get exciting mail very often.  But now you have extra incentive not to touch it. 🙂  Being that I’m working now, I don’t even have to touch it that much, because someone always brings in the mail before I get home!  No one else complains about it to my knowledge, but our mailbox has been like that for years!  Part of living out in the country, I guess. It’s not a bad price to pay for all the other things we get to enjoy out here though.

Have you ever owned something you thought would fit perfectly in a TV show?  Maybe you’ve thought that you should be in a TV show! 😉  What would the story of your TV show be?  If you’ve never wanted to be a TV star, maybe you can just tell me which TV show you like better- Addams Family or Munsters?  My favorite character in the Munsters is Herman, and Lurch is my favorite from the Addams Family.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely weekend!!!

What is THAT?!?

Did I get you to look?  No?  Oh….

Here is the long-promised bit on knitting. 🙂  The suspense is over everybody, you can chill now.

Now, being honest, that’s not exactly how most people respond to crafters doing their thing in public, but it’s come pretty close before.  When commencing this post, I started to go on a rantle(a rambling rant, but it was a polite rant), but I decided to delete it, and start over.  All you need to know is the #1 most asked question when knitting, knotting, or needling, in public is “Is that knitting or crocheting?”.  The second most asked question is “What are you making?”.  So, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and here are some helpful tips to tell what exactly that person is doing to pass time in the waiting room(or wherever you come across a crafter).  Normally it’s nice to ask instead of awkward silence, which is good, but here’s some information to help you have a little more knowledge about it.  And just a hint, if it looks like a sock….It’s probably a sock.  I promise there aren’t very many people who will bite you if asked what they are making. 😉 This is looking more and more like my previous rantle, so we’d better get started-

Without further ado, the differences between knitting and crocheting…..

1.  The tools.

Knitting is a craft that requires big needles(as opposed to sewing needles), crocheting requires a hook.  Another difference is how many of the tools they are using- crocheters always have one hook(as far as I know).  Knitters can have anywhere from 2 needles, up to 5.  You never know…..Unless they are using a circular needle- that’s a whole different subject….

If for some reason you can’t tell because someone is knitting with crochet hooks, or crocheting with a knitting needle, keep reading….

2. How it builds on itself.

That really isn’t the best description, but I can’t think of how to say “what you do to make your project bigger, and how the tools help”….That right there doesn’t even make sense.  Bear with me, please.  The difference I am trying to describe is how with knitting you actually have a whole bunch of “live” stitches, where if you take out the knitting needle that they are sitting on, your project will unravel.  Crocheting on the other hand(haha, can you knit with one hand and crochet with the other?  I would love to see you try….), is done where you only have one live stitch on your hook at a time.  So, it’s really easy to finish a crocheting project- cut the yarn, tie a knot through the loop, you’re done.  Knitting has a fancy technique called “casting off”, which isn’t a big deal at all once you get the hang of it, but the trick is getting the tension to match the cast on.  That’s a doosie.  Summary- crocheting looks like it’s hanging on by a thread(literally) to the crochet hook, and knitting has all the stitches on the needle and comes unraveled so easily it will appall you.  At least it has me.  It’s a sad day, but I’ve coped and learned how to fix it. 🙂

3. The appearance.

This one is tricky- knitting and crocheting look totally different.  There are some stitches done in one craft that sort of resemble the other, but for the most part there’s almost no similarity.  Other than the fact that they are both comprised of yarn.  Because this takes specific knowledge of at least one or the other, I’ll stop right there.  Just stick with the other two ways to tell, but know that there is a difference between the appearance of knitting and crocheting.  Try asking someone that, maybe instead of which they are doing.  It could lead to a much more interesting conversation!

So, now you know.  You can shock a yarn-loving person with your amazing knowledge of their work.  Or you can just ask them the regular questions, because that’s what they are accustomed to answering.  Either way, it’s fine.  But hopefully, you learned something today about knitting and crocheting!  I apologize if you were looking for a detailed history of both crafts- I recommend Wikipedia for that. I honestly don’t know a whole bunch about their history, but I do know that they’ve been around for a LONG time.

As always, thank you for reading!  I appreciate your time. And….if you have any more knowledge you can share on how to tell knitting apart from crocheting , there’s an empty little comment box below just waiting for you! 🙂  Or you can just tell me what your favorite craft is!  Or you can take a wild guess which my favorite is…. I’d love to hear it all.  Please enjoy the rest of your week, and  have a Happy Thursday!