Kiss My Knits!

Em’s been wanting the latest Barbie movie to come out – Barbie and the Diamond Castle. She had a tough day yesterday, so I rented it today. Later on I’ll be using my Women’s Studies certificate from UNC to paper a birdcage.

Em likes to watch these movies with someone – in this case, me. And as pointless as this emotion is, I get absurdly angry sometimes at all the BFF stuff in these movies because I worry about Emily’s social life. Maternal instincts aren’t rational.

A more reasonable objection: a plot point so far seems to be these heart-shaped necklaces that I know for a fact come packaged with the dolls. I guess that’s nothing new – I remember hearing that the Star Trek Vulcan IDIC symbol was introduced into original Trek as a way to sell merchandise. I guess if that tactic is good enough for Roddenberry, it’s good enough for Mattel.

So hey, let’s wash the taint of Barbie away with a site that comes by way of Cheryl. It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It! It’s “what were they thinking?” pictures of homes on actual real estate listings. Good for some belly laughs.

I spoke with Em’s speech therapist in the car line at school this morning (we opted to ride instead of walk).

It seems that yesterday Em sang a song from Enchanted for her speech therapist, Ms. Erickson. (I think it was probably this one.) Ms. Erickson liked it so much that they went to the music room and sang it for the music teacher. The music teacher liked it so much that she’s giving Em a solo in the fourth grade program. There are a lot of kids in the program, so mostly likely a solo is just one line, but still! Em’s been wanting a solo in the program every year so far. Last year she even sang along with the soloist on one line while standing in the chorus, to the titters of her nearby friends. This year she gets her own part. Yay!

You know, meeting her, you’d never think that she loved show biz. With the PDD-NOS, she doesn’t like to make eye contact, have conversations, or do other things that might make you think there’s an outgoing person in there. Yet last year she told jokes to the class while they would line up to go to lunch, apparently to good effect. It’s there, it just takes a little time for it to come out.

You know who she reminds me of?

Hee!

Em, going to bed tonight: I’m not really Giselle, I’m an evil queen in disguise! I have an evil plan! How can we break my spell?
Me: Maybe we can say some magic words! Like Alakazam! Or Bippity boppity…
Steve, suddenly entering the room: …BACON!
Em …
Me: …
Em: …
Me: Bippity boppity bacon?
Steve: Yes. Bippity boppity BACON!!
Em: (cracks up)
Me: That’s hilarious!
Em: (still cracking up, rolls backwards on her bed, throwing her legs up in the air) That’s hilarious!

Steve freely admits to lifting this from comedian Jim Gaffigan, who does a bit about bacon.

Who cares? It’s funny! And Em may have added “that’s hilarious” to her repertoire. It sounded like something she had latched onto. Fine by me. I’d rather have her cracking bacon jokes than hatching evil schemes.

Advice from Emily. Note rare use of color. She did this in art class yesterday after completing her assignment. Click picture for larger version.

“Don’t take a bath with your dog
You’d get dog fur all over you”

Em: There’s a potion you can drink that will make the whole world animated! Then it will turn back live action again. But they haven’t made it yet.

I’m pretty sure they have, honey. Fortunately, you’re too young to know about those kinds of “potions” yet. Ahem.

Above: the reason I don’t leave my hand-knitted socks on the floor. (Note: I know yarn is dangerous for cats to eat; that giant ball of wool behind her had just fallen off of a shelf prior to picture-taking.)

Right now Emily is busy writing a book called “Ruby the Copycat.” Hopefully she won’t be sued for copyright infingement.

I’m really proud of her for doing this. I’ve given her some of my Jayne hat pattern cardstock sheets and she’s folded them in half and is planning out her pages. Earlier she said that I could do the pictures while she did the words, then she said she’d prefer the other way around, and now she’s chosen to do it all herself. I can’t wait to see it.

Pattern: Zhenya’s MUMTU sock recipe
Yarn: 225 yds Louet Gems, handdyed by me with acid dyes
Needles: size 1 US
Comments: These had a 60 stitch foot to fit my 9 inch circumference, dropping to 56 for a standard 2×2 rib on the leg. I’m a loose knitter, so I never get a really tight gauge even on smaller needles than would normally be used.

The toe-up gusset method is my new favorite foot construction. These fit me SO much better than a standard short row heel. I’d recommend this pattern. Its ability to plug in whatever numbers you like would be especially helpful for those who don’t care to do sock math.


I dyed this yarn going for a random speckle effect. It was straight blue acid dye, blue mixed with black, and blue mixed with a little red, keeping the same base and varying the shade. I’m pleased with how this turned out.

It’s nice to have a new pair of socks, since Em’s really taken to walking to school. We went up again today, and saw two gray and white housecats, a flock of geese, and a dead Junebug. Also, from Em: “I stepped on an ant. The other ants are going to come and take it back and bury it.” Aw.

Em wants to walk home, too, so I’ll be hoofing it back up to the school this afternoon. It’s about 7/8 of a mile from the house to the school, so it looks like I’ve got a new form of daily exercise.

Something other than fingering weight! This is Knitpicks Bare DK weight 100% superwash merino. It was crockpot dyed, then I decided I wanted to add something to the chartreuse, so I overdyed it with black and a bit of midnight blue. I was concerned about how the blue would play off of the yellow tones, but it works. It’s actually more striking in person. I’m pleased with this.

This morning, it had finally stopped raining, so Em and I walked to school. It turned out to be a good thing, since she had had a bit of a fragile morning. Walking up seemed to give her an opportunity to regroup. She told me a story about her dolls coming to life, and about a guinea pig magically turning into a white duck. She’s big on magic wands and transformation right now.

Em felt she was running a little late, so she said, “We’ll walk quickly.” She did. I had to stretch my legs a bit to keep her pace, and she was shorter than me by a foot and was wearing a pack. That’s my girl. She comes by her speed and walking determination honestly. It’s a trait from my mother’s side of the family. Soon she, too, will be alarming tour guides by rushing to the front of the group, rest of the tourists be damned.

It was also good to walk her to school, since I’m not running this morning. Instead, I have an optometrist’s appointment. For quite a while now, I’ve been having difficulty focusing on things. If I look at something close up for more than a minute, then look up at something far away, it will sometimes take a good 20 seconds for my eyes to refocus on it. And I’m squinting a lot, even this morning when I should still be fresh. I’ve increased the size of the type on my computer, and that’s helped, but clearly I need to get this looked at.

I have a feeling my optometrist is probably going to tell me I need bifocals. At right: artist’s rendition of me in new eyewear.

Emily likes playing The Sims 2, enjoying the virtual dollhouse aspect of it. We don’t forbid it entirely, but we do encourage her in other directions, since it’s rated T for Teen. She hasn’t played it in a while, which is probably for the best. She likes to make up imaginary expansion packs for the games that she plays (most of which actually are age-appropriate) and imagine upcoming DVD movies, like Enchanted 2 where everybody goes back to the animated world to visit.

We’ve had vague discussions about pregnancy and babies before. Last month, Emily finally asked about how a baby actually gets OUT of a woman’s body when it’s born. We had that discussion in the parking lot of a Target – you take your opportunities where you get them. Upon learning where the baby comes out, the smart and surprising question from her was, “What if a woman has to pee while she’s pregnant?” Believe me, honey, the baby won’t fall out. A woman has to pee a LOT while she’s pregnant.

These two things led to this little tidbit from my daughter in Starbucks today:

Her: “There’s a new thing in Sims coming. It’s an animation where when a woman has a baby, the movie shows the baby coming out of the woman’s genitals.”

Yet in her imaginary expansion pack “Sims Doctors”, also upcoming in Emilyland, there is pixelation over any bits of blood so you don’t have to see them. Shows where her priorities are. Blood? Horrifying and gross. Nudity? A-OK! Such is the world of a 9-year-old.

Second skein of the day. Similar color palette to the first one. Tangles and Mud commented that if the first skein was Westley, then this one must be Westley by night. I can see that!

Mmmm… Westley by night.

Wait, what was I saying? Right, yarn! The methods were similar to the other, but the colors were mixed stronger but were laid down in larger swaths. There were also sky blue and richer black tones. I’m partial to this yarn, but then, blues and grays are the colors I’m naturally drawn to.



One more, spread out so you can see the lengths of the color sections, which are variable throughout the skein. The yarn is Knitpicks Bare 75% wool 25% nylon fingering weight sock yarn, dyed with acid dyes then steamed to set. After this batch, I’m really thinking that next time, I need to buy my yarn in bulk.

Rain today, and probably all week, so no walking to school this morning. Em had a good first day yesterday. I was very excited when she told me she wanted something different in her lunchbox and she selected an apple. I thought it meant she might actually eat what I sent with her. No dice. The apple came home uneaten (“Oh, I forgot about that.”) and she told me she had a berry-flavored Capri-Sun for lunch. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than the ice cream sandwich she chose to have every day yesterday. On the up side, at least she wants something different in her lunch now. For a long time, she wanted the exact same thing every day, even though she knew she wasn’t going to eat it. She actually asked to change – that’s progress!

I can’t go running this morning, so we’ll devote that extra time to boxing up more hats and knitting like the wind! Today, hats are ready to go out to Canada and Louisiana. Next up: ID, ID, and MA.