Yarn blurb, knitting rant and eye candy

Sock Garden / Sock Memories yarn - Morning Glory, 2 skeins worth

I made this into balls the other night, as the skeins were very twisty and hard to work with. Since then, I've been trying to figure out what to do with it. It is a discontinued yarn and a fairly small quantity. When the yarn quantity is small, it is good to try to find another yarn the same fiber content (100% wool, in this case) and weight to 'extend' it with... like adding more flour to a cooking recipe. As I no longer had any of the packaging for the sock yarn, I found the information about it on yarndex. There are a few others out there of similar gauge, probably even one at Knitpicks... will look again now that I know the specifics. The sock yarn says it is 'Fingering' weight 28-32 stitches per inch on size 2 or 3 needles, while the Rythym calls itself worsted and 19 stitches per inch on size 7 needles (I have it on size 6 in my project and am getting 21.5 stitches per inch). They still make this 'Rhythm' yarn, and in a few good colors (this one is 'Winter Frost', shown on the needles), but it is more expensive now than it was when I bought it, which was in a bagged lot on Ebay 2 or 3 years ago. It is fairly unique among yarns I've worked with - smaller than regular worsted but not too small, changing color as it goes, slight change in size here and there and very soft wool.


the sweater project so far


A box of yarn candy in my workshop... things I've been working with recently whether balling up or knitting with


Esme striking a pose before she ran off to play with kittens
Elizabeth: you're right - that is the shirt you sent Esme way back when, 2 years ago!


from July, 2009

It was a bit big on her then, and it is getting almost too small now.. what a run!

catfish races and gardening

I was on the verge of a migraine all day since I woke up - about 7 am to nearly midnight here. But - we got a LOT done...anyway. We took Esme to see the catfish races this morning in Paris, and she loved seeing everybody clap and the occasional dropped fish in the grass. She ran around with several little girls there who were older than her, but had a hard time connecting with a girl her age that was smaller. The smaller girl was trying to be 'grown up' with her grandma and actually saw Esme as a baby... that was weird because Esme had a full head of height on her. The other girl said she went to 'school' and I think she thought Esme was a baby because she didn't go to school yet. Esme was in a VERY bad mood about everyone else going home and having to leave ourselves... such a bad mood we told her we would not stop for anything on the way home. She isn't used to that - and later when Grandpa was watching her she had a full diaper and wouldn't tell them - but did run off from them twice... so they brought her back home. As soon as she wouldn't listen to a word I said I checked and sure enough she needed a full-scale bath. I carried her in by force (very unhappy girl) and after a short bath and new clothes she was perky and played around the garden for me until Daddy came back home.

We gave away several of our baby kittens - including Milo - and Esme was sad about that. But, they needed homes, and not here.

Mark helped his parents put some stakes in the ground for their garden, and we put in four more rows of corn and other assorted things in our own garden. I don't think many of our seedlings (planted yesterday morning before I went to work) made it, but a few seem to be hanging in there. Then we jaunted to Rural King to pick up a new coffee pot, as mine had given up the ghost. I also bought more blue pumpkin seeds, as the ones I had bought from Etsy hadn't done anything. The orange stripey Turks Turban seeds from the same seller have come up, and what I replanted I did a foot to the left of the original blue seeds - to still give those a chance if they happen to be taking their time (but it HAS been a long time...they probably aren't coming). Esme had been being a very good girl sticking by the garden while I did work and Daddy came home - so after RK we got her a milkshake. I let her play outside in the bed of the truck and beside it until the storm was rolling in, then she had another bath and a round of cartoons before Mom insisted on bed because my head was still pounding. I won't take ibu until it is really necessary - but two ibu and three hours of sleep finally did put the headache in its place, at least temporarily?

It is supposed to storm more today, (Sunday) - so we will not be completing large circumventing the world plans today. That is why we pushed on yesterday to get those done ;) I have laundry in the dryer and Esme is asleep... I'm running hot water through the new coffee pot and enjoying not having a head full of ache before I turn off the dryer and go back to sleep myself. My largest plans for Sunday is to put away this laundry, maybe clean a few floors and/or make something at the sewing machine for Esme.

//LATER Esme will be 3.5 years old on the 4th of this month. A friend of mine told me online that other kids judge kids as 'their age' not by speech, but by physical size and speed. So, that explains why she does gravitate towards the older children, and has a harder time relating well with her own age - the last two her age have definitely been slower, more cautious and sometimes (but not always) intimidated by Esme's larger size and 'let's go' attitude. At both of the places we've taken her recently she has run and kept speed with older kids and her language identified her as younger, but both times the older children didn't care after they found a running game to play.

bits

Esme's language is taking another turn - an interesting one. I asked her where her nose was, then where Grandma's nose was last night. I was actually asking about the Playmobil doll, which has no nose, and has made her confused before. This time she had an answer. She said 'up there, in the white house.' Grandma's house is white compared to ours, and since the logging happened we can see it from our doorway. Esme often comments now on wanting to see Grandma in the 'white house.' She addded, 'we go in the green house.' So, she has been paying attention - because our house is green with a white roof ;) She will also say 'I like a THIS dog. Grandma, I like a THAT dog (points), THIS dog (grabs around neck and shows the dog).' As we were walking I mentioned the sky was pretty and I liked it - and she said 'Do like, I do like the blue and white, too.' And this morning when I asked her where Daddy was she told me 'he went back to work, outside.' He went outside to talk to the loggers.

We also had a discussion about her saying she was a 'boy'. She asked me if I was a boy - I told her no, I was a mom, and a girl. She said 'yea, that right, you're a mom. I'm a boy.' No, you're a girl. 'No a boy, boy, boy, boy.' I asked the little boy if it wanted it's hair washed right then - come here boy.' 'Nooooooo. I a little GIRL.' Oh. Alrighty then. She said she wasn't a baby - I was a baby, she was a little girl. I told her a baby had to have a mumum... mumums take care of the babies, whether they are puppies or little girls or little boys. I asked her where was my mumum? 'You the mumum. *thought* I the baby! Give hug (swan dive into arms).' We talked for a minute about Daddy being Grandma and Grandpa's baby, and they LOVE him. And that Daddy loves her because she is his baby, and Grandma and Grandpa LOVE her because she is Daddy's baby. She nodded wide-eyed about all of that and gave me hugs but she was getting giddy by that time over it all and just wanted to jump around. She can be such a silly little girl :)

Some of the things she says is her own decision what they mean - like 'let's go home' when she wants to go play in the yard and is INSIDE the house. She said that to Grandma the other day about going into a back room to play. 'Home' is wherever she wants to be at the moment... I've translated it as that and it seems to work. We work on telling her 'home' is in our house and trying to confirm that with her... There are a few other things, as well - will try to post them as I remember them.

When I ask her what color something is her response is always 'it's name is PINK' or whatever color it really is. But, she has no trouble identifying something in a sentence with the color. 'I want milk in the yellow drink cup.' 'How about the orange cup here, with milk in it?' 'Nooooo! in there. That the yellow drink cup.' I open the cupboard, sure enough, there is a yellow cup in there she has had before. 'Ahhh... that yellow cup. Yes, you can have milk in that cup.'' 'Oh thank you, so much!' *laugh*

I answered my phone the other day but there was no one on the other end, just a telemarketer. I didn't even say anything, just put the phone away in it's case. Esme pipes up from across the room (looking at my face and how the phone was put away with no talking) and says loudly to Daddy 'Nobody HOME at NANAS house!' That cracked me up.

'CANTOONS' is cartoons, unless she tries really hard. Cartoons means only Ren and Stimpy. We ask her to put on anything else animated and she says no - cartoons! I could verify this by singing the 'LOG' song from their fake commercial - and she says in a matter-of-fact voice 'yea, CARTOONS, put on!' When the credits roll or the frontispiece of the DVD is up (menu), she will say 'TAKE OFF, all done.' In the middle of one of the movies they started playing a song and showing just sky and Esme thought that was credits and told us to TAKE OFF.. and then doubletook and said 'wha what?' as the movie continued about a minute later. She gets 'take off' and 'put on' mixed up when it is about shoes or clothes. She wants us to put on shoes when she comes home I know she means 'take off'.

She likes to sing almost all of the patty-cake song now, and has the hand signs down for the 'roll it, and pat it, and a put it in a pan.' She can sing a little bit of the LOG song and a few others suddenly that she didn't know before.

When I run 'screaming' that a dragon or a brown bear or something is after me she does this hand-swipe thing and puts it on her hip and says 'it be all right. MOMMMMM.. It be all right!' When she really wants to play or believes me she will say 'give hand - let's run!' She just got down from her chair and said 'I save you Mom! I gotta SAVE you!' I asked her what she was going to save me from. *thought* 'I gotta play. Please? I gotta play (points outside).' And now I have a lap full of Esme.

sniff a flower after the rainstorm

looking at a flower from honeysuckle vines

SNIFF!

growth chart: 40 inches tall and 34.5 lbs in weight. She is very tall and long and is denser with muscles than most children her age.

Esme and Milo play Starfall

We do not plan to keep this kitten, but he has earned the name 'Milo' and he has been spending a lot of time in laps. Compared to the others, he is the most people-oriented of the group. He licks toes, and is irrepressible when not wanted in a chair. He is playing 'Starfall' with Esme here, which distracted her enough for me to brush and braid her hair. That takes a lot of distraction! She hates her hair pulled on almost as much as she hates having it washed.

I bought Esme a 'Tangled' first-level reading book last night on the way home from work, even though she has been disinterested in reading or letters for several months. I believe it is mostly because it has become warm enough to play outside again and she loves outside even more. But, this morning it was raining severely and she asked for letters. I brought up Starfall again for her. She really enjoyed it. She has remembered a lot of it by heart! That doesn't surprise me much, because the other day she sang some semblance of the 'Clifford the Big Red Dog' theme to me in the bathtub and it was good enough for me to remember the real words to the entire thing. She loved that. We sang it a few times. Hearing her stumble over 'so they packed up the family car and left the city' in the first bit was what tuned me into what the song was... but it was not a part I would have remembered the words to otherwise. That did impress me :)

I have photos printed for Aunt Dot and my mom, now have to go through them, label them and make letters for each of them. I am hoping I will get either yarn or a pattern in the mail today. It would be better if the yarn came, because the pattern is a 'future snag' in size 6. But, I still do need to make shorts. It all depends on if Esme is happy watching Cinderella and something else for a little while!

41 month language spurt

Esme is having another noticeable language spurt - fuller sentences and descriptions again that is quantifiable from just a few months ago. 'It is morning time, sun bright mom! Look morningtime! I need new pants. My pants are wet. My shirt is all wet, too.', 'What is that word?' to something I wrote out on the fridge. 'Hi mom. Help me. What are you doing? I go see.' I get it, I find it, where is it, I got you now' to a washcloth in the water - and then 'I got you, I SQUEEZE, put water on the hand, you squeeze, good job!' Also I told her she was in a bad mood yesterday and she said no she was an Esme, a little girl. It is quite hard to explain to her what a bad mood or a grumpy pants or such is when she thinks I am telling her she IS something other than a little girl *haha*. But she did get that one - because when I yelled at her for something later in the day (tormenting a kitten) she told me 'mom you a bad mood, be better!'

She often says 'What are you doing?' and 'What happened/is happening' and 'What is the big idea?' to us. She is saying 'I did it, what did you do, look what I did' etc which she never used to say all those variations. Also she saw a squirrel that had died in the forest and was VERY upset about it. 'The squirrel he is DEAD, oh NO, gotta put him in a hole, he DEAD (boo hoo hooo),' Even hours later she was crying for the 'poor squirrel he dead it so sad, boo hoo hoo'. She was telling our dogs to run away from a piece of big machinery and that 'oh no run dogs run it make you dead you gotta run! *ahh screaming cry as if running away from something* Later she was watching a movie and the characters unearthed a skeleton (Indiana Jones) and she cried 'oh no he DEAD! What happened?' She apparently has picked up much more about that from movies lately than I thought she was paying attention to. She does not care about dead bugs though. She comes running to point them out to us saying you WASH mom, it a bug, you WASH. She was also very interested in the green tape we were putting on trees in the woods, and that it had something to do with the trees the 'monster trucks' did not 'eat'. She saw tigers in a movie the other day and has been telling the cats they are tigers, they go meow. I have understood her better when she asks for a 'straw' when before she was very hard to understand on that word. She also sometimes gets 'two' right now when noting two cats or dogs or babies in the store.. when she used to always say three, 'one, two... THREE BABIES!' for twins in the store just a month ago. This morning she counted our orange cats and said 'two cats' properly.. which did impress me.

She has also picked up a few things she should NOT say... but she thinks it is funny and she does use them 'correctly' ("WTF" for something is messed up/bad and she wants to know why and 'Oh s*t' in similar circumstances when she drops or breaks something or someone else does and she knows exactly what happened and that it is bad). She said one of those in front of people we were visiting the other day and it was funny, but awful at the same time.

MORE: Esme also will tell 'monster trucks' in the valley or the dogs 'no turn a purple' meaning do not be mad. I think she gets this from Cinderella and other cartoon movies where the screen zooms in and the background 'turns purple' around the character that is planning an evil thing. When the stepmother locks Cinderella in the tower room her eyes glow and the background gets dark purple and Esme has stood up and waggled her finger at her 'no turn a purple!' She tells the dogs sometimes 'no turn a purple' when they growl or fight. She also still uses the 'too ball' comment for things she does not want to do or thinks is a bad idea. I'm still not sure what/where it comes from but she has used it often enough to be counted as a word, now.

sewing and growth blurb

Esme's robin dress from February is already shorter on her than it was then. I don't think IT shrunk. I think she grew! The skirt falls an inch or two shorter than it did back then, as well.


Today, in April 2011

Part of this picture is her positioning, but the sleeves are still much shorter than they were when it was made. When she stands up and the sleeve hangs normally it is still about an inch off her wristbone - where I had measured to place it when it was made.


In February, 2011

Her new measurements are:
Arm length: 12.25 inches from shoulder to wrist
Chest measurement: 22 inches
Leg measurement from waist to ankle : 20 inches
Waist measurement: (to be gotten later - she is watching Electric Company)

I did not remember her arm length last time - but the other two are definitely more than her measurements last time.

She needs more shorts for the summer and by this observation I will need to make some more dresses. However - sleeve length does not matter as much in the summer as it does in the winter! A further note - she is just about to grow out of the size 10 leather maryjanes she has been wearing so long again. I put thicker socks on her the other day at her request and the shoes barely fit!


Simplicity 5937

Another pattern I have picked up in size 5. It is a pattern for a jumper dress or tunic (with gathered waist) and bell bottom pants. The only thing it lacks terribly is a sleeve - but that can be easily made up from another pattern or done without.


No I no sleep I go see Grandma

Also, caught this picture of Esme falling asleep while eating yesterday. It had been a long hard day of her running around while we tilled the garden up. When I tried to get her to wake up she said 'No camera not funny - I go see Grandma' and then fell back asleep to the point where she was about to fall backwards off of the table and caught herself. Then Daddy and I picked her up and tucked her into her bed to the tune of more protests of 'No I go see Grandma no rabbit no blanket no.. *crash*' In about five minutes she was back up and playing and we got no rest until much later in the night. But, it was a nice thought that we might all get to bed early.



Pay attention to the bottom left corner of this picture. She was entirely asleep and Nova was certain she could steal the pizza crusts and run off.

//
The measurement of the Swiffer head is about 10 by 5 inches.