Interview: WTF Knits author Gabrielle Grillo

What first inspired you to start collecting images of weird knitting?

I started to notice that some people liked knitting and crocheting things like vegetables and ice cream – both useless and funny! One day, a girl on Twitter called Claire posted a picture of a giant well-endowed sock monkey and a cute blonde girl standing next to him, dressed like a cheerleader. Why would someone do that? I found it absurd but also hilarious and I decided there and then that I would start a Tumblr blog about weird knitting and crochet.

What do you love about the knitting projects now?

I love that people are doing very strange things like yarn bombing and mug cosies shaped like three-headed unicorns – crazy creative things. They’re doing it just for fun, and I really like this idea of crafting something for no rational purpose. There are also a lot of beautiful clothing designs out there, which are a lot more fashionable than the ones my grandmother knitted!

What was the response to the Tumblr like?

The Tumblr gained followers through the months, and now has quite a large audience. From what I can see, people have the same reaction as me when seeing the pictures, which is a mix of amusement, confusion and admiration.

Do you have a favourite?

I’d say that my favourite picture is that very first one of the giant monkey and the cheerleader, because apart from the fact that it perfectly represents the blend of humour and absurdity that I wanted to show, it also reminds me of the story behind the website. I got to know Claire, the girl who originally posted the image, who was hilarious and clever but at the time was fighting cystic fibrosis. It eventually took her, and that’s why I chose to give any royalties from the book to a charity that helps research the disease.

How did you go from the running the Tumblr to writing the book?

I didn’t think of anything else apart from gathering funny pictures and entertaining people with them, but one day, the literary agent Susan Smith contacted me to tell me she loved the website and that she would love to turn the images into a book. She also asked an author she worked with, Lucy Sweet, to write the captions for each picture. I thought it would be lots of fun to have my favourite pictures in one book, and to be able to share them with people who don’t know anything about blogs!

How did it feel to have the book in your hands when it was finished?

Strange! And very exciting. I think the whole team has done a beautiful job and the images look great in the book, not to mention Lucy’s hilarious captions. I hope people will like it as much as I do!

Have you done any weird knitting yourself, or are you more conventional?

Apart from a few bizarre creatures I created for children, I haven’t done much weird knitting, But I intend to knit something really ugly for a friend who’s having a baby soon: she thinks that every house should have its own “faute de goût”: something of bad taste to counterbalance a very tasteful interior. I would be very proud to craft the first “faute de goût” that will go into her child’s bedroom… I just haven’t figured out what it will be yet!

If you could knit anything in the world, what would you knit?

Cakes… that you can eat!

WTF Knits will be published by Bantam Press on 23rd October. Get your copy from www.randomhouse.co.uk