(1) My mom wants red socks with either cables or lace or, even better, both. I don't have any ideas yet for yarn or pattern, but look forward to searching for both.
(2) My dad wants "manly" socks: plain old stockinette stitch in a dark color, with just a little something going on to keep his feet entertained. We bought him some Regia Galaxy sock yarn in dark blue with some yellow-green that will supposedly pool to evoke supernovae (!).
(3) My stepmom wants equally simple plain vanilla socks, but with stripes. Her color preference: many bold colors. Opal Hundertwasser ought to do the trick.
(4) My older brother doesn't want socks but a red scarf, preferably with semi-wide ribs. I don't know if he's serious. I remember my grandma asking every summer what we'd like her to knit for us for Christmas, and when my brother and I were teenagers we'd usually answer "black sweater" and "red scarf with ribs," knowing perfectly well that she hated knitting with black yarn and strongly disliked knitting ribs, and would therefore give us money instead of knits. Now, does my brother really want a scarf, or is he thinking the knit-gifts-avoidance-tactic works on grandmas and sisters alike?
(5) My younger brother's too cool for school to want any hand knits. But his girlfriend, like, really wants, like, a skinny summer scarf. (Like, you know, like!)
(6) My step-dad is too fashion-conscious to desire socks made of anything but the finest fibers, preferably designed in Italy. (I'm making this up. But he does wear very thin, very shiny, very glamorous socks.) But he asked me if I could knit him an alpaca-cashmere blend sport/DK-weight cabled sweater. I looked at him in shock, not necessarily because he can identify fibers and yarn weight (after all, he's been around my mom for 15+ years), but because he's giant (tall & wide), and knitting him a sport/DK Cashmere sweater would take a million years and cost a fortune. I shall not knit him anything!
That's a total of six socks and two scarves.
And here's the first Hundertwasser sock, made for my stepmom:
I must say, I like self-striping yarn. So far I had been suspicious of the whole self-striping idea, but knitting this was a lot of fun and very addictive ("just a few more rounds, just till the color changes again").
However, the yarn itself is very... firm and rough and not so wonderful. I wouldn't want to wear these socks, as pretty as they are. Maybe they will become softer with washing...?
Unfortunately, I messed up the Kitchener stitch this time and need to redo the toe. You can't tell from this picture, but blimme, it ain't pretty.
I knit this one top down, and while I had considered myself a toe-up true believer, I may just change my mind about this. I like top down!
Speaking of presents, I think I found a pattern for Sylvie's scarf that Monsieur and I both like: Cheryl Niamath's Wisp.
And now completely unrelated: I look forward to watching Julie & Julia this weekend! I've been a Julia Child admirer for years, and from what I hear, Meryl Streep makes for a great Child.
Y'all have a great weekend, and raise your glass to my mom, whose birthday it is today. Happy birthday, Mama!!! Knutschi!
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