sock porn for knitting voyeurs.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

me and mine and yeah.

One of the first things I ask people who meet my son is, "do you think he looks like me?" In my mind, the answer to this is a resounding yes-- that he is my clone and oh goodness I didn't know they'd gotten that whole asexual reproduction for humans thing down yet. Most people are honest with me and say no, or tell me something sweet like its obvious he is my son (because he's hanging off my breast or armpit, but whatever)... I think a lot of this stems from my mom, a taller than paul white woman with blonde hair and blue eyes (me: dark hair and eyes and undertones of yellow and not pink). She would be accosted approached in the malls of my first hometown, stopped by strangers asking "where she had adopted us from," which bothered her enough to tell these stories to me over and over; told strangers with a chuckle, "they look just like me right?!" when our "exotic" looks would garner comments from onlookers when I was old enough to remember.

So even though my son may not look like me (except maybe in disproportionate head diameter), he is MY SON in the little things. Like carsick things.

(Queasy readers can skip on down to past the photo of the wheel! Fair warning, but I won't be too graphic.)

See, I can't go on the rides at the county fair that spin you around and around, the apple core rides? Yeah. Sick all over, which totally sucks for the people inside with me cos its spinning. One of my very earliest memories was going to McDonalds with my daycare and noshing on chicken nuggets and orange soda, climbing in the "teacups" and... yeah. I *know* this stuff. A spontaneous cartrip north to see the redwoods when I was newly pregnant ("c'mon! we'll never get to do this stuff when the kid's here!") was sprinkled with about 7734 stops on the winding side roads to be sick-- at the time I blamed it on the pregnancy and not the cartrip.

I should have known better.

I took the same roads this past weekend to pick up my wheel (!!), to Mendocino; Highway 128 is my official inanimate nemesis (this week). It truly wouldn't be so bad except, you know that whole thing about my son being my son? He starts squirming and crying in his carseat, and I turn to comfort him... yeah. All over himself, and I'm heartbroken to have passed on this weak stomach gene-- moreso since he doesn't understand why he feels sick. We still have miles to go before we sleep are slated to hit Mendocino, and I sit in the back and comfort my son who is just beside himself (he's quite picky about being clean, and I'm sure this was just shocking to him). It starts to get to me too, and before you know it it's like the scene from Stand by Me, the freaking pie eating contest? Total domino effect.

Anyway :) I can laugh now but ugh. At least my kid got a brand spanking new "Mendocino Environmental Center" tshirt out of it, and we got to see the coast.

Oh yeah, and I got a wheel out of it, too! :)

wheelyme

I've been "spinning" up miles and miles of yarn barf (hah! you thought i was done!)... The guy (yeah, a guy! and he was wearing a mycology lovers' tshirt, yum! if only i were 21 again) gave me a white fleece, dirty but not badly (a little dirt, definite grease, but no sticks or poo or anything like that)-- I asked him if I had to clean it up (not wanting to take it, thinking it would be just a lot of work and not a lot of help for newbie me) and he grabbed a bit, started spinning it and said I could if I wanted, but I could spin in the grease and not to be afraid of it. So I have, and its pretty cool!

He sold me about a pound of another fleece, this one's straight off a jacketed sheep and very neat... ($15, not bad!) I haven't tried spinning it yet.

blackfleece

So of course there hasn't been too much in the way of knitting here. I'm up to the leg of my bright stripey sock...

stript

I hate k2p2 ribbing, it seems like it takes forever when its supposed to be "simple." My master plan is to use 1/2 of the yarn and start another, but I may get bored with it and cut off the cuff "early."

I also started a scarf; Midnight Purls posted a free pattern ("diagonal lace scarf") that really caught my eye and I knew I had the right yarn for and would be great car knitting (sans yeah yeah yeahs though!)...

wara1

I'd bought this beautiful merino/tussah silk handspun from Grace but had no idea what to do with it-- it had the most wonderful smell though, smelled like an old lost love (literally). It sat on my desk til the smell evaporated, then went into the stash for me to think about... seeing MP's pattern reminded me of it right away.

MPscarf2

This is just over 2 oz/half of the yarn, and about +30". I think I'll block it when done to help it lay flat, but otherwise I don't think I'll pin/stretch it, I like how it looks now.

MPscarf1

No progress on the thighhighs, I'll admit to yall I'm a little intimidated at placing the increases up the leg, so they've been languishing here on my desk. They'll definitely be done though, sometime.

Otherwise, a dear (non-knitting) friend is right... spinning is cutting into my knitting time, so there's likely going to be less to talk about here as I try to conquer this new (frustrating!) thing :)



...ps! to all users of blogger (like me!) who use blogger's image hosting (not me! i use flickr), fyi-- blogger is blocking all external referrers from posting their images. this means for those who use rss readers (like me-- bloglines fan here), we cannot see pictures you post anymore thru an aggregator. some bloggers may elect to publish only a partial feed which requires readers to click into the blog to view the whole post so that's not really a big deal to yall, but for those who want their readers to be able to read via rss and not have to necessarily click in (like me!) this is a major pita... just fyi and you may want to look at external image hosting if it bugs you/you didn't know. i emailed bloglines about this ages ago but they didn't respond past "we're looking into it," and when i saw the post at knittyboard (scroll down to last few entries) it jogged my memory and wanted to share :)

22 comments:

lexa said...

I was absolutely horrible for car sickness when I was a kid! My grandparents lived a 40 minute drive away. I always had to have a jug with me, and always puked on the roadside at least once. I'd just get used to Dad's car, then he'd get rid of it and get a truck. Then once I'd get used to the truck he'd go and get a car again. Vicious cycle, you get the idea. I can only do plain knitting in the vehicle, something I don't have to look at a lot. I can't go far in the Big Rig sitting on the bunk, either. It was a long drive to Quebec three years ago...

I like your stripey sock! Nice bright colors!

MissLucy said...

oh, poor little thing. My 2 yr old is just the same, sometimes she gets sick before ten minutes have passed . It's a nightmare.

Lori said...

You're spinning!!!! We're so proud of you!
You don't *have* to clean the grease out of a fleece to spin it, but it's a heck of a lot easier to draft if it's not sticky. When you get the $$$, treat yourself to a nice roving top, and don't think you can't spend some money because you're "just learning." A well prepared top nearly spins itself, and it'll boost your confidence and skills.
So glad I outgrew my carsickness...

Anonymous said...

I would be throwing up with you right there! Im not carsick, but if someone even gags I start to gag....yes I know you wanted to know this :D

that fleece scares me, its like for pros or something. yikes!

keep knitting those stripey socks, they look so cheery!

Liz K. said...

Thanks for the heads-up about the diagonal scarf. I just got a lovely skein of marigold alpaca that would be great for that!

Mary deB said...

My son's a barfer, too. We found these great tablets in England called Joy Rides, which worked pretty well. Not sure if they have them this side of the pond or not.
Nice stripey sock!

Heather said...

I am SO GLAD I'm not a barfer! I've got this thing against throwing up that's so severe, I only threw up once or twice through *both* pregnancies, and I really did have some nasty morning sickness. I just *hate* to throw up! Thank heavens my kids don't yarp much either...it's the one mess that I can't stand to clean up. Bleah!

Your scarf is gorgeous, though, and congrats on the spinning! I've got a beautiful spindle, but I'm not very good at drafting. The yarn I've made thus far is really skanky looking, and quite unpleasant. If you figure out any drafting tricks, please let me know!

Stacey said...

Ugh - no rides at the amusement parks for me either - sick all over! :) Poor little guy....

Ribbing - ick! :)

Thanks for the blogger image tip - I have a flickr account,but I was afraid I'd go over the limit every month. I may just have to start using it more and upload smaller pics....

hillary said...

I really like the scarf but I love that sock. I'm not usually big on striped socks but those colors are so fabulous and cheery together.

Thanks onthe Blogger tip too. I use flickr now but it's good to know just in case I'm tempted to go back to Blogger uploads.

Jennifer said...

Car sickness is horrible. Any bit of windy roads will start it with me.

I had the same experiences with looking/not looking like my parents. I think about it with my own children as well. My daughter is blonde. My father, who's Chinese, has pictures up of my daughter and son. My son looks a little Asian, but my daughter, so blonde. He got a lot of questions like, "Who's that blonde kid in that picture?"

Anonymous said...

I'm so greatful I'm not carsick. The only time I get a little queasy is when I read on the city busses.
Congrats on picking up your wheel. I love the colors on the stripy sock.

Knittypants said...

Sounds like an awful drive. Both my youngest daughter and I get horribly carsick, too, so I can relate. So cool that you bought a wheel, you are going to have so much fun.

Zonda said...

Ok, now thanks for the explaination of your last post...I think! ;) Nice looking stripey sock there and lovely scarf!

Karen said...

I have a very white mother, and I am more yellow with dark hair, as are my siblings. We also got the, "awwww, how sweet of you to adopt those Vietnamese kids". Mom was always upset that people a) thought we were adopted, and b) couldn't tell we were chinese. :)

I look forward to more spinning pics!!

Manda said...

The odd thing is I never used to get carsick. My family drove all over the place when I was young, but now I get a headache the instant I'm on a hilly and/or swervy road. And I live in Kentucky so there's no lack of those!

I noticed the Blogger images thing last month and started using Google Reader for the affected feeds. Since Blogger is part of the Google 'family', the images work... most of the time. Of course, I still use Bloglines for the rest. I'm on dial-up, so I'd really have to cut back on the blogs I follow if I had to fully load every one.

Jenn said...

Oh I love your blog...and you must be somewhat close to me! I am in the Sierra's now, but lived in Ukiah for many years.

I used to get carsick when we went to Mendocino also. The worst trip was when we thought we would go the Boonville way and not through Wilitts. Bad news, Bad news.

tatjana said...

Yay! Congrats on your wheel. Sorry you had such an ordeal picking it up (I get carsick too, and Germany roads are all swerving, all the time - yuck!) but I think your yarn barf looks great. Keep it up!

HPNY KNITS said...

I always get car sick as well, (when not driving)which is why I don't find it good time to knit or read.
the anguish was worth it- it seems, have you tried it yet???
BTW I LOVE the tussah silk handspun, and your scarf!

Karen said...

I still get car sick too. Not fun. Congratulations on your new wheel. Have fun with it!

Melissa said...

I skipped the car story since I was eating lunch while catching up on blogs.
Could that sock be any freakin' cuter???? I love it! :)

Rachel said...

Your first home town must have been St. Louis, MO. My mom got the same thing. Sometimes for good measure they would pat her on the arm and tell her what a good person she was for adopting us poor little Asian babies.

That grey fleece is gorgeous! Thanks for the heads up about blog pictures.

Eleni said...

thank God you said you hate the k2p2 ribbing. i thought it was just me. I actually shorten any ribbing on socks that is like that cause I can't take it and would skip the pattern all together otherwise.

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