It takes balls (of yarn) to knit what one mother in Amsterdam did.
Marieke Voorsluijs has become Internet famous for knitting a life-size version of her son. People think she created it so she could continue to cuddle with the boy now that no longer wants to snuggle with her.
But that's not quite the case, she tells HuffPost Weird News.
The confusion began when she posted a self-submitted article to the viral site, Bored Panda, with the title “My Son Doesn’t Want To Cuddle Anymore So I Knit A Cuddly Version Of Him.” In the post, she wrote about her son going through puberty and how he is more interested in his friends, phone and iPod than Mommy hugs.
“We laugh a lot about the stretching gap between his needs and mine. Him needing more of his own space and my covert needs to keep on smothering him with maternal love,” Voorsluijs wrote on the site.
Thing is, although this seems pretty straight forward, according to Voorsluijs, she meant it as a sarcastic joke.
“If I knew so many people thought this was really about getting more cuddles by a love-sick mother by knitting my son, I would have posted something different,” Voorsluijs says.
Voorsluijus, a textile designer, has been knitting her entire life. She creates “weird things” out of yarn for her company, Club Geluk, a brand that boasts realistic knitted versions of everyday stuff like hams, TVs and plants with lots of detail. She wanted to test out her needle skills by creating a life-size version of her son.
But, to be clear, Voorsluijs, 37, has two boys, an 11- and a 12-year-old.
“The knitted son has characteristics of both my sons,” Voorsluijs explains. “The older one had just grown so much during the process that the smaller one was only able to wear it when it was finished.”
And wore it he did, because the final product ended up being a suit. A suit that included a knitted cap, sweater that says “Punk’s Not Dead,” sneakers and iPod that her 11-year-old willingly put on and modeled for pictures in.
In fact, her younger son liked the idea so much, he helped her with the project.
“We worked together on it. He co-produced it,” she said. “It was a fun family art project!”
So, why did she decide to post the images with the slightly snarky and self-depreicating article?
“The reactions during the process were so diverse, from creepy to beautiful, that we decided to make some photos in real life to place the weirdness in context,” she explained.
“When it was finished we thought it would be a great idea for mothers with too much love for their children and need to cuddle. So they could knit there own cuddly son!”
Whatever her reason, her creation is anything but a yarn.
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