Pie, Pie, Me oh My!

... nothing tastes sweet, wet, salty and dry, all at once as well as pie.
Apple, pumpkin, minced and black bottom, I'll come to your place every day if you've got 'em.  Pie, me oh my... I love pie.

One of my favorite moments from the movie "Michael" is the pie song.  So simple, and yet so true.  My love affair with pie started when I set out to perfect the classic Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.  For years, I didn't think I liked pumpkin pie - until I figured out what I didn't like was other people's recipes!  Now, I am the pumpkin pie queen.  My nephew would rather have one of my pumpkin pies than anything else for christmas.  It's true.  One year I gave him my secret recipe and the ingredients to make his own pies.  I understand he warned the rest of his family to touch them at their own risk.

So, when Greta showed me these Pie-rets I just had to make them! 

We decided to make her family's favorite flavors... so here are chocolate cream, key lime, pumpkin and lemon meringue.  She sent photos of the kids in their pie-rets, and they were truly adorable.

I have to admit that the Dairy Queen style whipped cream on top of the cream/custard pies makes me smile. I like that they can be any flavor just by changing the yarn color.

I also made lattice pie-rets in Wild Berry and a  pinker version that looks a bit raspberry.  I couldn't resist a yarn actually named Wild Berry, and it is a gorgeous deep berry color... but I thought Greta's 7 yr old daughter might want something a little brighter for her pie.

The lattice pies are a bit softer though and are probably more wearable.  They are done with 'popcorn' stitches to look like lumpy fruit filling.  In the side view you can see the beret style pie crust 'hat' underneath the pie.

In working these pie-rets, all I could think about was the movie "Home for the Holidays".  It stars Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr and other familiar faces, and was directed by Jodie Foster.  I've joked for years that I was going to be like Aunt Gladys in my old age (I was a Latin teacher you know!).  She wears berets, and stylish Fruit Loops, says what she thinks - and stops in mid sentence... or song.  She falls asleep at the table, gives away lamps, and thinks it's magic when the boys change the bulb in her porch light.

I think the pie-rets may have pushed me over the Gladys edge before my time.  A Fruit Loop necklace (I made it myself!) will come with every pie-ret in her honor.

I made one special pie-ret that took some thinking.

Greta told me I could pick a color for her daughter... but her daughter's real favorite is 'rainbow'. Rainbow Pie? Not so much, but I just couldn't resist the idea of using her favorite color. I looked through my pattern books for inspiration and remembered the Pastel Carousel pattern. I used it as inspiration for my creation and dubbed it "Cutie Pie"!

I was so excited to give it to her, and she did not disappoint by being pleased about the rainbow colors.  We even talked about which flavors each color might represent.

Last but not least, Greta asked if I could try to make a Noodle Hat like Mr. Ping and Po wear in the movie Kung Fu Panda.  I tried a couple different designs for the hat itself, and for the noodles.  I finally decided the problem was having a real head instead of an animated one where they could change the scale every time they drew him!  I did come up with a version I think is as close as I can get with yarn... and it certainly has the Noodle Dream spirit.  Greta will add some chopsticks to finish the look. 

All in all... I had a blast making these pies.  You can expect to see me on Thanksgiving wearing my Pumpkin Pie-ret and my Fruit Loop necklace.  Just call me Gladys.