Zero, Italian-style

I've spent the weekend being a glamour- puss. Got my hair cut for the first time in nearly a year and a half, and Richard (stylist extraordinaire and martinet rolled into one) declared he was going to take a straightening iron to my curly locks just for fun. It looked pretty darn fascinating, if I do say so me'sel, but it'll never happen on a regular basis. I'm a roll-out-of-bed-at-the-last-minute-and-go kinda girl, so me and electric hair implements aren't even remotely acquainted. Add in the length, and there's no banana in hell that I could ever do this myself. A flock of hair gnomes would be required to pull it off. Or one Richard.

One of the major bonuses of getting Richard to cut my hair is that he's the owner of my favourite living canine, Cirro. 'Cirro' means 'zero' in Italian, though R pronounces it 'Sih-row'. Cirro's an Italian Greyhound, and he's the closest you can get to a cat in dog form. He's litter-trained, he loves sitting in your lap and having his head stroked, and he likes sleeping. He's also very affectionate, and gives people hugs. I am so charmed by this little guy. He makes it hard to get any knitting done, and my black velvet jeans are liberally coated in short, tan doggy hairs, but how can you hold a grudge against this face?
T got shorn as well, and looks well handsome, I think. Of course, I was more interested in capturing the interaction between him and Cirro, so his hair has taken a back seat here. :)

And in knitting news, I'm all over the Tropicana sock pattern from the latest issue of Magknits. I started one in Socks that Rock 'seastone', then realised I needed to knit some sox for T's niece Laura, who's turning 12 next month and who's all over the idea of hand-knit socks. So I tried a pair using Opal's Chameleon, since said niece is also all over the idea of chameleon sock yarn. Alas, the composition of the yarn is too stretchy to do a nice job on it - looks cool, but the yarn ends up pulled too thin and the sock seems too tight. So I gave up on it and started on a pair using Fleece Artist's Basic Merino Sock yarn in rainforest, and it's looking pretty sweetie-o so far, don't'cha' think?