My two latest knitting obsessions are purses and toys. These both present challenges. The first challenge is I hate to sew. Luckily, I have been able to work around this inconvenience by bringing the object that needs seamed or lined into work and sighing expressively a lot until my lab tech offers to do it for me. It’s worked out great so far, but I think she’s catching on. I may have to learn to sew one day soon.

The other problem is my eye complex. I prefer my toys to have shiny black beady eyes (which, incidentally, is why I love love love Jess Hutchison’s patterns. I love them and want them and covet them and if anybody has a copy of her toy booklet I will give you one mee-lion dollars for a copy. Must. Have.) I love the look of beady black eyes, and so I guiltily sneak home from craft stores with my bags of safety eyes. These days, you can buy eyes with large secure plastic backings that in theory prevents them being pried out by little fingers. If the fingers can’t pry, the eyes can’t be popped into little mouths and cause choking and death. This is good.

But me, I’ve got an eye complex. I have an eye complex, because sometime in the early seventies my own mother read an article about prying fingers and choking and death and subsequently removed the eyes from all of my stuffed creatures. At that time the eyes were little glued on nubs, and probably did lead to some choking and/or death. My mother was more than appropriately worried by whatever article drove her to remove all the plastic orbs and leave me in a childhood filled with empty staring polyester eye sockets.

I need to accept that I am someday soon going to do something that is going to scare the holy heck out of my daughter for the rest of her life. I will do it with the best of intentions, but one day she’ll see her own version of the empty (shudder) eye sockets, or Darth Vader (who may or may not still be living in my shower stall) or the headless horseman (who may or may not still want to kidnap me if I sleep in front of an open window.) I know in my heart that the new safety eyes are ok, and I don’t have to leave them off of Josie’s toys. I don’t want her to live in a childhood world of empty staring (shudder, shudder) polyester eye sockets, but my upbringing leaves me convinced I will kill the baby by leaving the eyes in place.

Eye. Complex.