I heart the nineties

Lets take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

Remember when huge geometric buttons and bicycle shorts were all the rage? How about when you wore skintight jean shorts rolled up just over you knees and buttoned just under your breasts, with an awesomely huge magical hyper-color tee-shirt? High-topped white Reebok sneakers and leather fanny packs, anyone? During the eighties, people fried their brains on drugs, in the nineties,we fried our retinas with day-glo. It was nation-wide hysteria, of this, I'm sure. Fast forward to a much more fashionably sensible time, like yesterday. Here is what I bound off the needles:
What child of the nineties can look at that baby bootie and not immediately conjure up images of the oh-so-heinous AquaSock? I never had a pair, but I may have fantasized about them...

I made these little shoes for B's forth grade teacher who is about to burst forth with child. Please, don't misunderstand my intentions. I am not trying to have B flunked out of elementary school, nor am I trying to damage the delicate mechanisms of newborn eyes. I let B choose the colors, and seeing how he was born in the late nineties, after the day-glo craze had died down, how could he have known that such a color-combination would bring back some memories that are better left unremembered (is that a word, spellcheck says yes)? He loves them, and thinks they are perfect for her baby. I have my suspicions that they may be perfect for goodwill, but what the hey. He is happy. To make myself a little happier with them, and to make them look less like AquaSocks, I went ahead and slapped on a couple of little flowers. Cute(er), no?

I'm working on a hat to match. A girl can never have too much day-glo in her newborn layette...

My Hips Don't Lie...

Well, maybe they do a little bit. Or maybe my mom does. She said that people with hips look good belly dancing and that it is easier for them. I took a belly dancing class yesterday, and maybe my hips just don't know what is expected of them, perhaps they think it is funny to be so large and useless (except in childbirth, in which case, they have outlived their usefulness) but they simply refused to do anything right. I was really hoping that it would be something that would come easily and that I would surprise myself by being good naturally, that I would look like Shakira. Nope. But I did have fun. I didn't feel very feminine, actually I felt like an awkward teen aged boy, it was a little silly. And speaking of teen aged boys, I was at the gym the other day and didn't bring anything to read on the elliptical, so I grabbed a magazine from the rack. I find it somewhat annoying that the only magazines at the gym are Vogue and Popular Mechanics. I would sooner have bamboo shoved under my fingernails than read Popular Mechanics, so I grabbed Vogue. Does anyone else think that all those "super" models look like really awkward teenage boys? And what is up with they way they jut their heads out the way that they do? Is that supposed to be attractive? They all look like they are dead. Ga-ross. And the funny thing is, I found it at the gym, shouldn't they be promoting health and vitality there? Not a bunch of women who look like death sucking on a lifesaver. Let me tell you, it wasn't very motivating. I felt like having a nice burger and milk shake, just to affirm life.

Ok, enough of that. I have some knitting to show you...well, fifty percent of a finished object. And, AND it is sort of my own design. I give you the Surfing Glove!

These are from that Brown Sheep Hand Paint Original that I picked up a few months ago. I looked around for a pattern for it, but as I have mentioned before, the yarn contains mohair, and I can't even fathom putting that around my neck or on any other skin, except my hands which are dishpan hands anyway. Less sensitive...Anyway, I found a pattern for a fingerless glove called Jacoby from Berroco. I cast on the recommended 60 stitches and found that it was big, so big that I thought that my gauge was off, but no, I was right on. So I am not sure what is going on with the pattern. So, I cast on 45 and just winged it. And it worked. I used the thumb instructions for the House Mittens from Charmed Knits as a guide, isn't that so smart of me? I feel so accomplished. I almost had an original idea. Too bad that if you get on ravelry, there are a kajillion different patterns for fingerless gloves. I'd be willing to bet there is one that is the same as mine. So, why do I call them Surfing Gloves? Because I plan to use them while surfing the net, and on those rare occasions that I play games online. My hands, particularly my right hand, gets really cold when I spend a lot of time mousing. So, I am hoping that they will take care of that problem for me... That is my angry fist, for J. Not because I'm angry at him, but because he says it looks harmless. It isn't meant to look cute and harmless, it is meant to incite fear and obedience into the heart of those I shake it at...fear me. Stop that laughing...

And here is a birthday shot of Jack on his new bicycle. He could probably sleep on that thing if I let him. My baby boy is a big four year old now. Time flies when we're having fun!