Tuesday, October 18, 2005

got a girl named daisy

Inspired by acornbud at our last SnB meeting, I made a trip to Yarn and Friends this weekend to pick up some Patons Kroy sock yarn. I normally gravitate toward solid muted earth tones, but I was determined to find something festive and fun with true Socktoberfest spirit this time. And what could be more fun than Tutti Frutti??!! A wop boppa loobop a womp bam boom! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
This knit up in about a night and a half on size 3 dpns, top-down. Although I'm tempted to keep this (soon-to-be) pair for myself, Tutti Frutti is destined to be a gift for a friend. This was my first time working with self-patterning sock yarn- what a revelation! Sure, all-stockinette- all-the-time can be boring, but you can't beat it for a quick and gratifying knit. I just cast-on for the second sock, so I'm curious to see whether they will be identical or fraternal twins. On a serious sock-knitting side-note, I'm very interested in giving the toe-up method a try again...I've used Wendy's Toe-Up pattern, and I must have done something wrong, because instead of getting a beautiful seamless toe, I wound up with an ugly wonky ridge down the center of the back and front. If anyone can offer some insight as to what I might be doing wrong, I'd be very grateful.

By now you all know what deprived souls my poor kids are. No Tutti Frutti ice cream, no additives, no preservatives, no fun. In spite of my last post alluding to my sadistic tendencies, even their Blueberry Waffles are of the distinctly weird variety. No wheat, no gluten, no eggs. I'm not sure they even really qualify as waffles, honestly. It's not like I set out looking for weird food. As a concerned consumer, all I ask for is a non-processed, mostly-organic, low-sugar, low-salt, non-peanut/peanut related product. How weird is that, really? (Just so you know, I can see all the head-shaking.) I'm nervous that they're going to wind up being the ostracized freaky kids at school, raving about their tofu burger and soy milk lunches.

In light of their freaky upbringing, they go bonkers at the prospect of a birthday party. Bossy Boots will dance around in a little circle, singing, "cake and ice cream, cake and ice cream!" at the top of his zebra lungs. Lately, even Sister Stinky, all of 19 months old, has been chiming in. At the birthday party we attended recently, one of the moms asked the kids if they were ready for cake and ice cream and a very jubilant Stinky screamed, "Yay!!!" This from a little girl who has about ten words in her vocabulary. Of course this garnered an immediate raised-eyebrow see -what- happens- when- you -deprive -your -kids look from the other moms. I smiled sweetly and re-directed their attention to the birthday boy's older sister, who was gleefully gorging herself on half the frosting from the full sheet birthday cake. I'm betting the soy burger path didn't seem like such a bad idea at the moment.

12 comments:

Karen said...

You are just too funny!!!! I think all kids go nuts for cake and ice cream, regardless of if they've been denied them at home or not. No way they'll be the freaky kids.

Tutti Fruiti socks are great! Isn't it funny how becoming a knitter makes you stop gravitating towards neutrals and earth tones? So many fun yarns out there!!

knittinmom said...

I swear you are my twin. I feed my kids bizarro crunchy stuff, too, although Sydney pretty much refuses to eat anything but Cheerios (at least they're whole grain and preservative-free, right?) and Annie's whole-wheat bunny crackers. One funny thing is that since I've raised her on whole-wheat bread, she won't touch the white stuff. And everyone thinks that all kids love white bread...not mine!

Acornbud said...

Aah, such great socks and what a great story. Maybe I need to give my Kroy of the the Minutia Socks a second try.
Those kids are so cute and are so loved, no doubt they'll survive their healthy diet!

Jillio said...

wow. i never gave that much thought to food. half the time, i'm thinking if it tastes really good, it's probably bad for you. the other half, i'm thinking i should probably eat food you can either grow or catch yourself--though that's time and effort consuming, and i wouldn't want to compromise my knitting.
your tutti frutti sock is soooo fun! and you're really jamming on socktoberfest! those are some fun colors! i remember seeing that yarn at Yarn and Friends, but starfish was with me and kept me from buying it. :( yarn stash regulator...boo!
they match the party zebras :) your kids are so cute...

Unknown said...

Great socks!

I am right there with you on the kid diet. My thing is high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils...so hard to find stuff without it.

We are the weirdoes at various playgroups eating homemade sandwiches (on whole wheat) at McDonalds. The other moms think I’m nuts, but then the girls don’t seem to mind.

Besides, every kid is going to get teased for SOMETHING, it is better than being the stinky kid.

Anonymous said...

Hi! Thanks for the comment on my blog... though I'd come check you out! My daughter has that same Tutti Frutti sock yarn! Very good and funny blog you've got going on here... I'm bookmarking you and will be back to see what you're up to!

PS - love that pink and red hoodie!

Zarzuela said...

The tutti-fruity sock is cute! :) And horray for a Mom who doesn't feed her kids junk and sticks by it. Good for you!

Mamma said...

My kids get plenty of sugar. I admit it. They do. I like to bake cookies, and brownies, and cake. They like to eat said food. And they still go crazy at birthday parties over cake and ice cream. It's a kid thing. I personally don't have the will power to eat a natural all organic sugar free diet. But I think it's great that you do. What's wrong with the world when a Mother is judged for feeding her child healthy things?

Do you have pictures of your toe up sock? I've done that pattern. Maybe, and this is just a thought without seeing it, the wrapped and then picked-up stitches are supposed to be on the sides of the toe, are you putting them in the middle thus creating the ridge? Just a thought without seeing it.

Allison said...

Congrats on some fun socks! How do you like the Kroy yarn? It's a kind I haven't tried yet.
Your kids are so cute :) I think a healthy love of cake and ice cream is definitely something to cultivate heehee

Alison said...

Great sock! I have got to try self-patterning yarn one of these days! Thanks for the comments on my blog. We try to eat a somewhat healthy diet (my kids prefer whole grain bread to white), but don't even think about trying to make me give up my chocolate (which is actually thought to be healthy for you now:).

Anonymous said...

I love the socks! Yummy enough to eat.

I really try to restrict the amount of sugar and processed food my son eats too. Which is funny because I grew up eating so much sweets and I still am a sugar junkie. He definately has a sweet tooth too, but nothing makes me happier than when given the choice between a cookie or fruit for a snack, he chooses the fruit (of course this doesn't happen that often).

Laura said...

Nice socks! Plain stockinette socks can be boring but something about watching the stripes appear makes it go faster. Also, you can make really cute ankle socks with these yarns.