Kiss My Knits!

Question about letter to send to art teacher. Very long.

Emily’s home sick from school today. She’s not contagious, but was right on the cusp of “too tired” so we let her stay home. This posed a little problem, since I needed to go downtown and pay for the expired tag I got a while back. I knew I needed to take care of it soon, but I had it in my head that it was around Oct 10th that it had to be done by. Nope. I checked over the weekend, and lucky that I did – the court date was Oct 1st. This meant I couldn’t just go down and pay for it, I had to actually go and sit around and wait for them to call my name.

I wasn’t aware of this but while you wait for them to call your name, YOU CAN’T KNIT. Or read. Or talk. As far as I’m concerned, after “no knitting and no reading” they might as well add “no breathing” to the list. I found this rule out when a bailiff approached me after I’d been waiting and knitting for 45 minutes, Boo beside me, all of us being very quiet and well-mannered. I asked if I could still talk to my daughter (as I’d occasionally been doing, quietly). The bailiff said no, and added that Emily really wasn’t allowed in the courtroom. D’oh!

This was a room with a bunch of people sitting quietly, not a courtroom where people were deciding custody or something. The worst that happened was that she found a wad of pre-chewed gum under the bench and I had to throw it away. Regardless, I’m not going to argue with the bailiff, since that’s a fight even I can’t win. I had to take her upstairs to a daycare with about four toddlers, all of whom were screaming their heads off. Greaaaaaat. Fortunately, it only took them about another 15 minutes to call my name, so I was able to get her out of there and back home pretty quickly. Up side: since I had my current auto registration, they dismissed the charges and I didn’t have to pay the $145. Still, it was definitely not the way I would have chosen to spend my morning – or my child’s morning.

Emily seems to be feeling somewhat better. She says her nose is still a little sniffly. She wants to go to Borders and get a new fairy book. I told her if she was too sick to go to school, she was too sick to go to Borders. Now she’s trying, “You know where I’m not too sick to go to? I’m not too sick to go to Starbucks. I feel much better!”

I’ll bet, kiddo, I’ll bet.

I couldn’t go running this morning since I was watching Emily, but I should have a post about how the couch to 5k is going this evening.

Emily’s under the weather, and has been for a few days. Mostly, she’s been staying quiet and playing on the computer, watching videos, reading and such. She doesn’t like being sick and wants to be better immediately. On Saturday, she told me, pointing at her face, “this hole in my nose is better.” So we learned the word for nostril. Hopefully she’ll be feeling better by tomorrow.

It’s interesting to see the ways in which the pink frilly princess desires butt up against the nerdy geeky desires. Last week, they read Beauty and the Beast. We talked about it some, and she asked, “How does the story end? They get married?” I said yes, and asked how she thought it ended. Her answer? “Beauty got abducted by aliens and was never seen again.”

Also, they saw a ballet based on Beauty and the Beast, which she didn’t like because Beauty’s sisters were mean to her and tore her dress. Instead, Emily says she wants to do a ballet based on the solar system. She will dance the part of the Earth. She has Elizabeth and Taylor act this out sometimes, with one playing the moon and one playing the sun.

I don’t know about you, but I’d pay money to see a ballet based on the solar system. Geeky and artistic, that’s my girl.

Sweater pic, finished Regia bamboo socks, and all-too-typical story that happened to me last night.

Emily’s flower sweater
Pattern: Modified Drop Shoulder from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns
Yarn: Encore worsted – 2 sk (plus about ten extra yards) blue, 1 sk green. Odds and ends of pinks and purples for flowers
Needles: Size 7. Size 6 for neck and waist ribbing.
Details under cut.

When we were deciding what Steve might like for his birthday, after much thought, Emily decided he should have a shirt. We went shopping, and this was the shirt. THE shirt. Nothing would bring her around to another shirt.

I think Emily probably went for it because it was a green polo, which Steve does wear, and because it had a horse on it, which she loves. But folks, if I were going to pick a shirt that was the exact opposite of anything my husband might wear, it would be this shirt. The bright orange, the big logo, the deliberately ragged sleeves, the 3 on the sleeve… if Steve had an evil, more preppy twin, this would be his uniform. AND it was originally $90! $90! For that! Thank God it was more than half off because it’s out of season. My girl has expensive tastes! Next time I’m taking her to Goodwill to shop.

However, I have no room to talk. I once got my father a neck chain made out of tiny golden naked ladies. I don’t think I realized they were naked. My mother gently tried to talk me out of it, but this was clearly the best present for him, at least in my eyes. And so, my mother paid for it and we gave it to Dad. He didn’t say a word, because like a good father, he knew it was the thought that counted. It’s like the circle of life, isn’t it?

This is the card that Emily made for Steve. Clicking on it will bring up a larger version, which I have labeled. I particularly like the way she included comic book elements to the “pop” graphic.

Emily was really, really anxious about the flame on the candle and told us she wanted to lock herself in the bedroom while we lit it and blew it out. She hasn’t been this nervous in years gone by, but the last few birthdays she’s been more and more concerned about fire. She thinks we’re going to have an accident and burn the house down. Alternately, we might burn ourselves down, and she wants well away from that. We’re not taking her with us in our madness, thank you!

In the end, we forewent the candle and each had a cupcake. Steve’s a good sport, and a good dad.

I’m postponing my morning walk a bit. When we woke up this morning at 6:15, weather.com said it was 57 degrees. An hour later, it was 55 degrees. I turned on the attic fan to bring in some of that cool air, but I kept it on too long and now it’s downright nippy in here. Fall is definitely in the air!

Since the weather’s turned, I’m glad Emily’s sweater is making progress. Yesterday I blocked the individual pieces. Last night, I seamed one shoulder and added the crewneck collar. You can’t tell, but it’s not the prettiest seam ever. I need to figure out what the best bind-off to use is when you’re going to be joining two pieces at the bind-off edge. It’s fine for this sweater, but this is a learning experience, so I’m taking notes on what to do better next time.

I added ribbing for the collar, but I’m a little concerned it might be too much ribbing. It’s an inch high, and the pattern called for 3/4″. It’s not a huge difference, but I’m trying to decide if I should go back a couple of rows or keep it as-is. I’m open to suggestion.

In other non-Jayne projects, the second Regia bamboo sock is about three quarters done. She and I had great fun at Starbucks yesterday, sitting outside in the cooler weather. I put the unfinished sock on my hand and pretended it was drinking her water and eating her food. Then I pulled out the finished sock I carry with me to check length and she put it on her own hand. We had sock fights, and after several epic battles, her sock puppet was victorious. Good times.

Emily’s continuing to enjoy Dan Gutman’s “Weird School” series. (I like the author’s rejection letters page. Persistence paid off for this guy.) We read these in bed, and she says she’ll be done reading at night when we’re doing with these books. There are, however, about 20 of these books. I want to check and be sure she’s not feeling like she has to get through them all, just for completeness’ sake. She does seem to be enjoying them, though, so I think it’s okay.

The other books she’s enjoying right now are the “Rainbow Fairy” books. There are seven, one for each color of the rainbow, so I think the series appealed to the collector in her. She’s warmed to the idea that yes, she can be reading more than one book at once. This is good, because otherwise I think she felt like she’d have to wait until we’d read all 20 of the Weird School books. We read the first chapter of Ruby, the Red Fairy yesterday, and I’m sure we’ll read another today. She’s really warmed to reading chapter books. It’s been very good for her.

In DR, I ran a merchant not long ago, and there are still a few vouchers floating around, so I need to track those down. I don’t like to leave those things hanging too long. Also, there are a couple of QCs that need my attention.

All right, I have to stop now. I’m making a crazy number of typos because my hands are cold. Must be time for cocoa! Yay!

But on Friday! Er… good things come to those who wait?

Anyway, here’s this week’s almost all-Emily awesomeness report.

Sometimes I have moments with Emily that remind me that I have to be careful not to view everything through the lens of her problems. Today, for instance, we were behind a car with a bumper sticker on the back that said “You’re behind a GIRL SCOUT, leading the way!”

Me: Look at that bumper sticker, Emily!
Her: (looking out her window)
Me: It says, “You’re behind a GIRL SCOUT!” Do you see it?
Her: (glancing around)
Me: It’s on the car in front of us. A girl scout must be in front of us!
Her: (looking out her window with apparent disinterest)
Me: Do you see the bumper sticker? Look, it’s right there, on the black car in front of us.

At this point, I’m getting frustrated, assuming she can’t focus, it’s too much, I’m hectoring her, etc.

Her: (looks at the black car) “You’re behind a GIRL SCOUT!”
Me: Yes!
Her: What’s a bumper sticker?
Me: …

It never occurred to me that she didn’t know what a bumper sticker was, so she didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking for. So then she learned what a bumper sticker was, what a bumper was (she didn’t know), what I meant by “front bumper” and “rear bumper,” why we call them bumpers, and so on.

Sometimes it’s good to just remember that she’s eight years old. She doesn’t know from bumpers. I’m glad she learned something new.

Will this become a regular feature? We’ll see! I suppose it depends on whether I’m too lazy to make regular entries, but still energetic enough to make one actual post with content.

Anywho, click to see the week in pictures.