dragon whisperer

warning: knitting content

back in may when the older nephew was visiting, i gave his mom some things i'd made for the newer nephew. a hat maybe. mostly pants. the older nephew liked the pants. they were baby alpaca and very soft. striped. "i sure would like to have some pants like this," he said, touching the fuzzy yarn. now, maybe he was being polite, but it's too late now. he's got pants. the last few years the kid has been getting the short end of the knitting stick. when he was three or so i made him a baby alpaca sweater. i knit it top down in seed stitch. to most of you this is meaningless. let me translate: i was in a constant state of fear about screwing up for about a month. big projects are awful. so he's been getting small things. hats. scarves. the poor child probably has fifty or so handknit hats he'll never need.

those of you who have been visiting for a while will remember that this child hoped i would knit him a something with dialga from pokemon on it. a sweater. a hat. intarsia (the magical knitting skill required to do such things) is not something i do well if it involves more than one contrast color so i explained how dialga wasn't going to happen. but striped pants are easy. there's no reason i couldn't just have someone measure a pair of the kid's pants and then add an inch or two everywhere and knit him some sassy lounging around pants. out of baby alpaca. but i forget from time to time why i don't make clothing for myself. it's not just about the time. it's about the yarn. baby alpaca yarn enough to make loose comfy pants for a child nearing eight would require its own security guard. no kidding. it's a house payment. and not a missouri house payment. so i started thinking about the silk/cotton stuff i use for devil pants. which no longer exists. what i settled on was a trio of synthetic yarns. i don't generally like synthetic yarns because they creep me out while i knit, but these felt soft. really soft. like wool. and the colors were insane. supersaturated.

i called, got measurements and started knitting. wait. let's talk about getting the measurements. first i looked up average measurements for children his age to have a reference point. because i'm clever. then i called his mom. all i needed to start was a waist size. "i don't know. sixteen inches," she said. now, i see him maybe once or twice a year and even i know he's bigger around than sixteen inches. there are days i can't remember if he's six, almost seven or seven, almost eight, and i know the kid is skinny, but come on. i have knees nearly sixteen inches around. so i called her parents. my parents. the grandparents. and the two of them together found and measured a pair of the child's pants. and i started knitting.

when i finished the first leg, i realized the math and i had somewhere had a communication problem. these were some long, skinny pants. fortunately, as i've mentioned before, the child himself is lean. and pretty tolerant of less than typical things. he will figure them out.

if you frequent yarn stores, you know they always harass you about whether you got enough yarn for your project, menacing you with threats about dye lots that won't match and how the yarn won't be there in that color if you have to come back or it won't exist anymore so you better get it now. so i bought six skeins of yarn. i did this because i didn't have a real pattern and had no idea how much yarn it would take to make pants for a skinny boy who might be six going on seven or seven going on eight but is more than sixteen inches around. so i pranced home with three fat skeins of teal, two of leaf and one of grass green. happy happy happy. and the first pair knit up quickly. and i had not used up a full skein of anything.

so i decided to make the new nephew a matching pair of pants. i figure they're both supernatural. the older one likes dragons. the younger one probably does, too. and they're dragon tending pants, really, anyway. besides, my own parents dressed the older child's mother like me although we were more than two years apart in age. matching raggedy ann jumpers. so i figure this will be fine. or only slightly scarring. and after i finish, i find there is still one skein i've not even touched of the teal and one nearly whole skein of each color left.

these are not meant to be worn in public. they're just for tending dragons, or for lounging afterward. tending dragons is difficult for the faint of heart but i'm sure both nephews will be up to the task. but just in case they have to go walk dragons in the evening just before bedtime and it's dark and maybe a little on the cool side and the wind is howling, i made the pants extra warm and extra stripey for courage.