Scaley Boy with Gauntlet

Okay, so maybe "wrist warmer" is more accurate, but gauntlet sounds more manly, and my boy is nothing if not, well, lizardmanly.

Mike, like most tamed (not to speak of highly socialized) iguanas, loves getting petted. They relax into a sort of nirvana state, eyes closed, breathing slowed, some leaning so far over towards the petter that, if not supported, they will just fall right over. Here's Mike getting petted by my gauntleted hand:



A close-up of the pattern stitch (my version of a twisted rib) looks rather scaley, but stretches out into a more distincte columnar pattern when on the hand.




I drew a rough outline of a hand on a small piece of paper, and roughly noted the various dimensions of my hand. I then pretty much cast on and knit a swatch to figure out how many sts I needed, and then cast on for real started knitting.

I faked my way through the thumb gussett on the first one, and replicated the faking in the second one. Now that I am trying to write the pattern down for others to knit from, I find I am going to have to knit another pair in the same gauge and document it row by row for the gussett, thumb and fingers. Ah, well, not a bad thing to be forced to knit, all things considered!

Here's a parting shot of Mikey. If you look at the skin around his eye, you'll see that he is just starting to shed there. Which explains why he's been in such a weird mood the last couple of days. Of course, I probably didn't help matters much when I took a shower with him this morning.

Hey! I was doing my bit for energy conservation! It has been so frickin' cold here, and since I do not heat my house (my PG&E bill being high enough just heating the damn reptiles and Mikey's daily bath water), so it has been hovering around 44 degrees here during the daytime hours. That's not so bad when I'm all bundled up but it does make it extremely difficult to even consider taking a shower, no matter how hot the water. So, since Mike's bathroom gets heated up to 70 F every morning he's in there soaking, I decided it would take far less energy and time to just take my shower and wash my hair in his tub/shower enclosure.

I drained out his bath water, and, uhm, sorta straddled him and did my thing. Since he's so long, his body was pretty much out of the way of my feet and shampoo and such. I was the only one at risk, taking care not to step on his knife-edged dorsal crest that runs down the length of his tail.

Once I was done, I got out and ran him another bath. A small price to pay for my not ending up with frostbite. Brrrrrrr!

The Scaley Boy

I know it is difficult to get an accurate idea of just how big Mikey is from looking at photos of him with scarves and socks and things. I took a few photos of him recently for Mike's friend, Ed. Ed is Polly's husband, and is Mike's biggest fan. Ed doesn't remember my name, so when Polly is talking about me or I call and leave a message for Polly, we have learned to identify me as "Mikey's mom". Hey! whatever works, eh? Anyway, I took the following photos for Ed, so he can gaze upon the boy's countenance whenever he wants during the day.

Without further ado, here are some photos of Mikey, with a library book, and with my cordless phone. As of the last measuring and weighing, Mike is:

21 inches (53.34 cm) snout-vent length (SVL)
50 inches (127 cm) snout-tail length (STL)
23 inches (58.4 cm) girth (around widest part of body)
21.4 pounds (9.7 kg)

You can click on these and other photos in my blogs to see larger versions of the photos.

Here's a couple of Mike with the phone handset:




Here's Mike next to a "standard" hardcover book:



And just a nice head shot of Mikey. Note the whitening of the skin around his "lips" as he gets ready to shed that area: