You can stop pinching yourself because it is not a dream! Don't worry, I thought the same thing when I discovered this pattern at an awesome blog called Made by K: copy and paste the links into your web browser (http://madebyk-tutorials.blogspot.com/2009/12/hello-kitty-granny-square-scarf-crochet.html) Miss K's blog is an outstanding source for this pattern; you will find a detailed instructions with pictures, abbreviation explanations and diagrams for the hardest part (in my opinion), the face. If you're even slightly off on the eyes and whiskers, you'll still have a cute square, but it will be lacking in authenticity.
The picture of the Hello Kitty Granny Square that I posted was taken shortly before I submitted the square to my Japanese Culture Arts 310 Professor, Christopher Daniels, at UNCA in Asheville, NC. We were all required to create a wikipage on Outsider Japan;copy and paste the following link into your web browser to view the page I created: http://outsiderjapan.pbworks.com/w/page/37892912/hello%20kitty%20granny%20square
The page contains nothing more regarding Hello Kitty Crochet than you will find right here on this blog. However, it does contain a great deal of awesome information regarding all things Japanese culture. There are other Hello Kitty topics posted on the site as well. However, you will have to sift through the student projects and course material posted by the professor. I can recall learning some very interested tidbits of the culture that is considered taboo in America. For example, the prevalence of teen, male, homosexual manga(japanese comics) specifically marketed to teenage girls, the Japanese Phallic Festival(appears to be a family affair),and I recently discovered the Hello Kitty Murder, which was an article done by the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A46307-2000Dec8¬Found=true
I won't go into the gruesome details, if you want the dirt, you can read the story for yourself. There's no doubt that Hello Kitty has had an interesting influence on asian culture for many years, but murder? As far as Hello Kitty is concerned, I think that's just blasphemous.
According to hellokittyuniverse.com, the kitty started out in England in 1974 (although she was introduced to Japan by a company known as Sanrio the same year). On a lighter note, I would like to crochet a Groovy Hello Kitty Coin purse as a tribute to Hello Kitty's debut in 1974 on a vinyl change purse. Maybe we can start a Groovy Hello Kitty Crocheted Coin Purse Competition!
*Please keep in mind that Hello Kitty is trademarked by Sanrio, and it would be criminal to produce this product for profit.*
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