Life on Laffer: Kissing Hand Hearts

Friday, August 13, 2010

Kissing Hand Hearts

Are these not just the cutest things ever?

My idea for these little hearts came from the book The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. In this story, Chester (the little raccoon) is about to start school and doesn't want to go. It isn't because the other raccoons are aggressive and could drown a dog. Or because they hadn't yet partook of the baiting done by the Ohio Rabies Task Force and are not yet vaccinated. Or maybe Chester thought these were the same raccoons who attacked a 3 year old on his tricycle in the middle of the day (see what amazing things you learn when you move to the Midwest?). No no, none of that. Chester doesn't want to go to school because it seems strange and scary. Mrs. Raccoon reassures Chester and tells him that she'll share with him a special secret:

Mrs. Raccoon took Chester's left hand and spread open his tiny fingers into a fan. Leaning forward, she kissed Chester right in the middle of his palm.

Chester felt his mother's kiss rush from his hand up his arm, and into his heart. Even his silky, black mask tingled with a special warmth.

"Whenever you feel lonely and need a little loving from home, just press your hand to your cheek and think, 'Mommy loves you.' And that very kiss will jump to your face and fill you with toasty warm thoughts."

And thus, the kissing hand. I hope my little friend is able to take some special love from home with her on her first day of school.

These were super easy to make. I used about 5 grams of yarn, in total. I weighed them last night before seaming and stuffing and it came to around 4 grams. I think I probably used about a yard or so of yarn to seam them up. I finished the knitting last night and blocked them so they would lay flat. Today, I spent a whole half hour seaming and stuffing. I'm sure these would make a great addition to any little gift package.