Various and Sundry Things About My Day Vol. 12,227
In no particular order, the things on my mind this evening are as follows...
Cameras
I managed borrow the old camera from the in-laws for the next week or so, and thankfully that means we have some halfway decent pictures to look at again. It does break up the monotony of my hot air. The in-laws are not very techno-savvy, and they gave us the camera with a full memory card from their somewhat recent trip up to the north shore of Lake Superior. Here's a lovely view. I got a notice from Canon saying that they're working on my camera and I should have it back some time next week maybe if I'm lucky. Darn it, I think they are going to fix it instead of sending me a shiny new one. I can live with that, especially since it's not costing me anything.
State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair started today, and although I didn't make it over there just yet. Believe me, I thought about it, but it was raining this morning and just not do-able with two tiny children in the rain. Luckily for us in this modern age, even a traditional event like the fair has gone online. I was able to look up the competition results this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised. It seems my little baby hat won a blue ribbon (first place) and Sophie's little sweater won a fourth place prize. Everything else was snubbed, but that is okay - it means that there was good competition in those categories, so I have lots of beautiful knits to look forward to visiting. Knowing what to expect ahead of time makes it much easier to be a good sport, I think. Somebody mentioned to me a couple of dresses created in a sock-monkey theme that are supposedly amazing, and I can't wait to get a look at those.
Sophie Barfing
Poor little Sophie was her usual happy self all day today. I even snapped a cute picture of her as she sat in her high chair during dinner. She is playing with her spoon after I fed her a few bites of smashed avocado mixed with rice cereal, which she seemed to enjoy. Unfortunately, she woke up from a little after-dinner nap in a barfing/diarreah sort of mood. The poor kid threw up about 8 times in the course of an hour, then filled her diaper with some fluorescent colors, barfed again, then went back to sleep. I held her tight for about an hour - there is nothing sweeter than holding a sleeping baby, feeling the squishy flesh against your body, watching their little relaxed faces and loving them so much it hurts. The pediatric nurse on call says there is a virus going around and blah blah blah she'll probably be okay. Exactly what I expected and hoped to hear, but I had to call just to be sure. I just hope Julie and I don't get it. And Joe, too of course.
Potty Training
Speaking of Julie, we are continuing with the potty training sort of - at least in the sense that she wore panties all day today. Too bad nothing made it into the potty, but we had a couple accidents and breezed right through them. I'm so glad we have a nice washer and drying in our very own basement. I'm also glad the accidents happened on the wood floors and not the carpet upstairs. Here's the little angel enjoying some one-on-one time during Sophie's nap. We got out the Playdough and I sat with her and knit on a pantleg while she made a mess.
Oh! About the Bob the Builder underwear. Yes, I am afraid that someone would probably see her in them - she's not yet three and hasn't quite learned that pulling up her dress in public is totally inappropriate. She would probably be showing them to anyone and anyone who would look. I just don't want to have to explain to anyone, but especially people like my MIL, why she is wearing little boy underwear. I also don't want to have to explain why she can't continue to wear little boy underwear as she grows older. Mostly because there are no really good reasons other than because the other little girls will laugh at you some day and we can't have that. Feminist that I like to believe I am, I can't believe I'm spewing this crap, but there it is. I love the idea of putting a transfer or a patch or something on some plain white girlie underwear, but that would require me to spend my precious free time on putzy stuff that I don't enjoy for my daughter. Not when I could be writing blog entries, experimenting with dyeing yarn, cuddling with the blankie, or any multitude of other things like folding laundry or writing out birthday party invitations. Lovely idea, though.
Yarn Dyeing
So last night at midnight I decided I should go ahead and get that first skein of yarn in the dye pot since it had been soaking in the sink for a couple of hours. I'm afraid I did a sloppy, half-assed job of it. Everything turned out - well, not at all like I expected, but acceptable at least. I used way more dye than necessary and managed to sploosh a bunch on the portion that was supposed to stay white. I cooked it all for 20 minutes (the yarn and the dye and vinegar-water in individual glass jars inside my canning pot filled with water) then left the whole mess to cool with the lid on overnight. This morning, I came down to find four jars of unexhausted dye and I spent a good portion of my day filling the sink with water so I could soak and resoak the excess dye out of the mess. This is what it looked like after about 10 soakings.
During this whole process, the "white" parts became a dirty brownish-grey color - see?
So I decided to overdye them with some burgundy. In the end I finally got most of the extra dye out, and the pile that's dyeing in the basement now is probably useable. Julie and I wound another skein this afternoon, and maybe tomorrow I'll give that one a try.
Package Received
Last but definitely not least, we got a package in the mail today! Joan from Landsdale, PA found some more in her stash for me, and it's all very nice stuff. Joan, I appreciate your note about your brother-in-law being a UPS driver and their days being tough. To be honest, I hadn't thought about that story since I wrote it, and it is good to be reminded that a kind word is so much better than a harsh one in almost every situation. Sometimes I need to remember that better even when I'm dealing with my own daughter. Thanks for package number 95!
Cameras
I managed borrow the old camera from the in-laws for the next week or so, and thankfully that means we have some halfway decent pictures to look at again. It does break up the monotony of my hot air. The in-laws are not very techno-savvy, and they gave us the camera with a full memory card from their somewhat recent trip up to the north shore of Lake Superior. Here's a lovely view. I got a notice from Canon saying that they're working on my camera and I should have it back some time next week maybe if I'm lucky. Darn it, I think they are going to fix it instead of sending me a shiny new one. I can live with that, especially since it's not costing me anything.
State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair started today, and although I didn't make it over there just yet. Believe me, I thought about it, but it was raining this morning and just not do-able with two tiny children in the rain. Luckily for us in this modern age, even a traditional event like the fair has gone online. I was able to look up the competition results this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised. It seems my little baby hat won a blue ribbon (first place) and Sophie's little sweater won a fourth place prize. Everything else was snubbed, but that is okay - it means that there was good competition in those categories, so I have lots of beautiful knits to look forward to visiting. Knowing what to expect ahead of time makes it much easier to be a good sport, I think. Somebody mentioned to me a couple of dresses created in a sock-monkey theme that are supposedly amazing, and I can't wait to get a look at those.
Sophie Barfing
Poor little Sophie was her usual happy self all day today. I even snapped a cute picture of her as she sat in her high chair during dinner. She is playing with her spoon after I fed her a few bites of smashed avocado mixed with rice cereal, which she seemed to enjoy. Unfortunately, she woke up from a little after-dinner nap in a barfing/diarreah sort of mood. The poor kid threw up about 8 times in the course of an hour, then filled her diaper with some fluorescent colors, barfed again, then went back to sleep. I held her tight for about an hour - there is nothing sweeter than holding a sleeping baby, feeling the squishy flesh against your body, watching their little relaxed faces and loving them so much it hurts. The pediatric nurse on call says there is a virus going around and blah blah blah she'll probably be okay. Exactly what I expected and hoped to hear, but I had to call just to be sure. I just hope Julie and I don't get it. And Joe, too of course.
Potty Training
Speaking of Julie, we are continuing with the potty training sort of - at least in the sense that she wore panties all day today. Too bad nothing made it into the potty, but we had a couple accidents and breezed right through them. I'm so glad we have a nice washer and drying in our very own basement. I'm also glad the accidents happened on the wood floors and not the carpet upstairs. Here's the little angel enjoying some one-on-one time during Sophie's nap. We got out the Playdough and I sat with her and knit on a pantleg while she made a mess.
Oh! About the Bob the Builder underwear. Yes, I am afraid that someone would probably see her in them - she's not yet three and hasn't quite learned that pulling up her dress in public is totally inappropriate. She would probably be showing them to anyone and anyone who would look. I just don't want to have to explain to anyone, but especially people like my MIL, why she is wearing little boy underwear. I also don't want to have to explain why she can't continue to wear little boy underwear as she grows older. Mostly because there are no really good reasons other than because the other little girls will laugh at you some day and we can't have that. Feminist that I like to believe I am, I can't believe I'm spewing this crap, but there it is. I love the idea of putting a transfer or a patch or something on some plain white girlie underwear, but that would require me to spend my precious free time on putzy stuff that I don't enjoy for my daughter. Not when I could be writing blog entries, experimenting with dyeing yarn, cuddling with the blankie, or any multitude of other things like folding laundry or writing out birthday party invitations. Lovely idea, though.
Yarn Dyeing
So last night at midnight I decided I should go ahead and get that first skein of yarn in the dye pot since it had been soaking in the sink for a couple of hours. I'm afraid I did a sloppy, half-assed job of it. Everything turned out - well, not at all like I expected, but acceptable at least. I used way more dye than necessary and managed to sploosh a bunch on the portion that was supposed to stay white. I cooked it all for 20 minutes (the yarn and the dye and vinegar-water in individual glass jars inside my canning pot filled with water) then left the whole mess to cool with the lid on overnight. This morning, I came down to find four jars of unexhausted dye and I spent a good portion of my day filling the sink with water so I could soak and resoak the excess dye out of the mess. This is what it looked like after about 10 soakings.
During this whole process, the "white" parts became a dirty brownish-grey color - see?
So I decided to overdye them with some burgundy. In the end I finally got most of the extra dye out, and the pile that's dyeing in the basement now is probably useable. Julie and I wound another skein this afternoon, and maybe tomorrow I'll give that one a try.
Package Received
Last but definitely not least, we got a package in the mail today! Joan from Landsdale, PA found some more in her stash for me, and it's all very nice stuff. Joan, I appreciate your note about your brother-in-law being a UPS driver and their days being tough. To be honest, I hadn't thought about that story since I wrote it, and it is good to be reminded that a kind word is so much better than a harsh one in almost every situation. Sometimes I need to remember that better even when I'm dealing with my own daughter. Thanks for package number 95!
posted by Shelly Kang at 11:29 PM
5 Comments:
Hi Shelly,
Just wanted you to know I got your package today, and man was it one of those days where I really needed a package. =)
All the yarns are so lovely! I am excited to start this new project! Thank you and all the people who donated the yarn.
Don't worry too much about your little one wearing Bob the Builder underwear. When my daughter was 3, we were just happy to keep clothing on her. Before you know it, she'll be hunting out the silk panties in the little girl department and will refuse to wear anything that isn't covered in flowers.
The skein of yarn you dyed looks nice now that you added the burgandy. I have a weakness for deep, rich colors.
Congratulations on your winnings! Can't wait to see the pictures.
It was so good to see you and your little ones at SrB this past week.
Congrats on your first and fourth place.
BTW, I saw the monkey dress on Chris' blog....and OMG...There are no words to describe it.
My daughter solved the dress over head problem by taking her cue from her school uniform -- she wears shorts or leggings under any dress or skirt she wears. This would solve the Bob the Builder problem also. DD also wore handed down boys training pants with trucks and trains on them for the first year, without any untowards remarks from the kids in preschool.
I'd ask for a yarn package, but the only project I can think of involves teaching the children at Friends Meeting to make baby blankets for charity, and I think that sock yarn is probably too fine for beginners. I love what you are doing with it though.
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