The fish that ate my child

When Aidan saw photos last winter of a hat that looks like a fish, he asked me to knit one for him. Make that BEGGED me to knit one for him. I finally got around to casting on the hat back in October. Then we moved and then it was the holidays and I was still knitting the hat. I finally finished the hat this past week - yay!

I went a little wild with the colors and Aidan asked that the fish be alive, not dead, so I used black buttons on top of the white felt circles for the eyes:


Although he is grimacing (he said it was too bright outside) in this photo, Aidan seems to be pleased with the hat:


I call this photo "fish on ice":


Both the fish hat and the boy said that this was their best side:

Safe knitting

My fingers have long suffered from extreme dryness, particularly in winter, to the point of developing cracks. At any given time, either one of my index fingers or thumbs has a painful crack in the tip and knitting only exacerbates the problem. I coat my hands with cream as often as possible during the day, and wear heavy duty hand treatments with cotton gloves at night. I have wondered if there were protective sleeves for fingers and today at the drugstore, I found such a product. The box says "finger protectors" and I won't disgust you with the examples of usage listed.

I knew what I was buying but I wasn't quite prepared to see a package of what appears to be little condoms. Yes, indeed, the finger protectors look like finger condoms.

No matter what they look like, I just hope they work. I unrolled one today on my right index finger and, although a bit awkward, it did keep the yarn from aggravating the crack on my finger any further.

Guess where I found the finger condoms? On the shelf next to the crack cream.