Show Me Your Knits

A Smelly Family

I knit this adorable pointed gnome "tomten" baby hat yesterday using a pattern on Ravelry that had been translated from Swedish.  It turned out so cute that I promptly cast on another hat today.  It's the kind of adorable, but utterly ridiculous sort of baby hat that I especially love, since I am a fervent believer that you should always dress a baby in goofy silly hats when they are too young to verbally complain and at best will only look disgruntled.  What?  You'd like to see photos of these cute gnome baby hats?  Be patient, Grasshopper.  I haven't taken pictures of them yet.  I will now distract you with a scene from my family this afternoon.  I'd just gotten home from working out and I was  "glistening", (i.e. sweating like a stuck hog.)  The kid gave me a hug, which is something he will still do on occasion, if he's certain that no one is watching.  As he hugged me, I got a noseful of nasty, stinky teenage boy body odor.  Our conversation pretty much followed like this:

Kid:  "Gross.  You're all sweaty."

Me:  "Me, gross?  You smell rank."

Kid:  "Me?  It's probably you.  Wait a minute."  At this point, he lifts up his arm and takes a deep, powerful, almost thoughtful sniff of his own armpit and says, "Nope, you're right.  It's me."

Sigh.  My life is all about the glamour moments.

Looking Good

Years ago, when I was in pharmacy school, I was doing an internship at the Kansas City Veteran's Hospital.  I was working in the hospital's outpatient pharmacy and I think we were supposed to be handing medications out and working on our pharmacy counseling skills.  There was this really old guy who kept saying, loudly and repeatedly, to me, "Ooh, you're looking good."    Now, yes, I was younger, a bit slimmer, and had perkier body parts, but it still irks me that some old geezer can verbally harass you like that, even though you know he thought he was complimenting you somehow.  Although, this was pre-Viagra days, so I suppose that I should give him props for having the interest in looking.  Anyway, after seven or eight times of hearing "Looking good!"  and "That girl is looking good!" and other derivatives, I probably rolled my eyes at the ickiness of the old man and went and got his medicine.  At this point I realized that his medicines included about eight different eye drops for glaucoma and assorted eye problems.  The man was probably blind as a bat, yet he said I was "looking good."  The whole thing struck me as hysterical and now, years later, I still like to use this guys catch phrase, with his same intonation, whenever the situation warrants.  If I'm dressed up to go out, I'm "looking good".  The kid has a fedora on to go to the 7th grade dance?  He's "looking good".  My husband is strolling around in his tighty whities?  He's "looking good".  So, it is with great pride that I show you this bit of knitted lace, which when blocked, I can sincerely say, is "looking good".  This pattern is called "Gothik Scarf" and it is knit out of Malabrigo sock yarn, which is not only looking good, but feeling good.  That yarn is snuggly soft.  The actual color is a much deeper red.  I don't know why reds are so difficult to photograph and get a true color.  This scarf was knit and mailed as part of a swap to a knitter in Australia, and now that it has arrived "down under", I can blog the finished product.  Because the Malabrigo sock has such great yardage, I widened the pattern by an extra repeat, in hopes of making it a generous scarf.  It blocked unexpectedly, though, much more lengthwise than widthwise, so it is very long and more scarf-like than shawl-like widthwise. I wasn't quite expecting it to block that way, but no matter.  I think this scarf is "looking good".

Gray and Cold, Meet Pink and Orange

Yesterday was gorgeous and sunny and unseasonably warm.   Today started out with cold rain that later turned to big flakes of snow, alternating with more rain.  I fretted because the kid refused to wear a coat, not even a hoodie, and I'm worried that he's freezing.  My husband is more practical and tough love-ish.  He figures that at age 13, the kid should be smart enough to know when he needs a coat and should pay the consequences when he makes dumb choices.  Anyway, as an antidote to the cold, gray weather, I give you pink and orange socks.  This first pair is knit out of Sundara sock yarn and I love them.  They are girlie and feminine and I want to wear a tiara and sparkly pink lipgloss and twirl while I wear these socks.  I knit this pair of socks in just four days, which kind of makes me want to strut around, or at the very least, I feel like some sort of knitting rock star.  I think that I was spurred on to knit lightening fast on these socks because I really wanted to get to some gorgeous orange yarn.  This yarn is also Sundara sock yarn, in a colorway called "Orange over Pistachio".  It is my current favorite color of sock yarn and it has been for over a week, which is really amazing, as I'm quite fickle where sock yarn is concerned.  I'm further along in knitting the orange sock than the photo shows.  I wish you could see the depth of the color.  Either it is my camera, or more likely, my mediocre photography skills, but I can't quite capture the underlying green tints beneath the orange.  It's really spectacular yarn.  Take my word for it.

Girly Socks

Happy Groundhog's Day!  In honor of Groundhog's Day, I will be cleaning our bathrooms today.  Granted, I would be doing this today regardless of Groundhog's or any other minor holiday.  There were teenage boys in my house yesterday for the Superbowl and the house is looking a bit worse for the wear today.  As always, I'm astounded by how much food these gangly, big-footed 13 year old boys can eat.  Mostly, I just told boys to get their feet off my furniture and threw napkins and coasters around.  At one point, I heard the kid say, "Dude, don't touch my mom's knitting!" followed quickly by, "Mom, it's okay.  Don't freak."  I watched the game sporadically.  My husband was really into it, which is unusual for him, sometimes yelling at the tv screen, sometimes yelling at wrestling boys that he couldn't hear the game.  It was a house divided around here, with the results leaving my husband disgruntled and the kid happy.  Me, I was tired of all the testosterone and knit girly pink socks in my defense.  These are the same chevron rib pattern that I knit my last pair of socks out of, but the stitch pattern shows up much better in this sort-of-solid yarn.  This is Sundara sock yarn, in a colorway called First Blush, from her December Artist's Choice yarn.  I am quickly becoming a huge fan of this sock yarn.  I liked it well enough in the skein, but knit up, I've fallen in love with it.  It feels wonderful to knit with and almost has a sheen, like from tencel in the knitted fabric, but it's merino wool.  Anyway, I think these pretty pink socks are a great way to get ready for Valentine's Day.