Earthwhisper Fiber Arts

From the garden…. Sierra and Tony picked two more zucchini today. One was huge! The funny thing is these weren’t really there the other day. Zucchini grow fast! This might get old showing pics, but I can’t help it. We are happy about our garden!

Ignore my cluttered shelves, I do…

On knitting news…I started the back of Boobalicious but then realized I made a mistake. I was suppose to work seed stitch on the first 10 rows. I wasn’t doing that, only in the middle section. So I need to restart….sigh. It isn’t much lost as I was only about 8 rows up. I just hate casting on 170 stitches. Maybe I can rip without having to recast?

I do have a sock I can work on and need to get focused on my Sockapalooza socks. I need to decide on the yarn and then start on it. I have been sort of indecisive as my partner didn’t really tell me a favorite color or what she wants. So I will just make what I like and hope she likes it too. She did say she didn’t want bright pink. So, the Cascade cotton fixation is out.

I need to reorganize my works in progress, my stash, and my desk. It is becoming an unorganized mess. I know I have a lot in progress and not worried about them because this is my style and it makes me happy. The ones I like the most will get finished first.

Crochet…I am thinking of working on some more grannies over the holiday weekend too.

Madeleine…is potty training (learning) herself. I am so proud of her. I struggled for almost a year to potty train Sierra and in the end she did it herself at 3 1/2. With Madeleine I didn’t push and it is much easier for both of us. Madeleine is very independent.

She is brushing her hair with two brushes, ha ha. Don’t try to take those away from her.

It is summer here (90’s today) and the kids played in the pool today. They came in the house with teeth chattering.

Happy Birthday, Sierra!

Sierra has been having a great time checking out books at her school library.  While she can’t quite read the ones she checks out, she loves the stories and memorizes them quite quickly.  I am realizing there is a trend with some of the books she loves.  She really loves Dr. Seuss.  She has a collection in her room.   She can read a lot of those books.

She also has been loving the Robert Munsch stories.  Purple, Green, and Yellow was one of the first books we read together.   The story really reminded me of Sierra.  She loves to draw and always promises to keep it on the paper, but you know how that goes.  Recently, we read Something Good.  It is really funny.  I got Tony to read it also and it was fun to see how we read books differently.  Sierra thought the father in the book was just like her dad.

I am going to look into starting a mini library of these books from Munsch.  I love the types of books that get the whole family reading, laughing, and spending time together.  I highly suggest these books for those who have pre-K to 1st grade kids in the house.

“Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails…”  You have heard of the saying, that is what little boys are made of.

Apparently, my girls didn’t get the memo.  They are creating a snail habitat.

It was their idea to create the snail area.  However, it was my idea that they needed to look for snails and what is a better way then to pull weeds?  They only bad thing is that Sierra tried to pull a Stinging Nettle.

When I was a kid, we had these in patches all over the yard.  If you touch them, they sting and hurt for hours.  I was actually surprised to see it in the yard.

Apparently, cutting her sister’s hair out of jealousy only led to more jealousy.  The baby sister with all of the curls was now the baby sister with the cute short hair cut and the story of “where did all the curls go?”

To create her own story, Sierra cut her own hair, which Tony took her to Supercuts yesterday before school to get evened up.  It was picture day yesterday, too.

We talked a lot about how hair dressers go to school to cut hair, so hopefully this will be the last of the hair cutting for awhile.   She likes it, and the best part is that she says she looks like her cousin and that makes her happy.

Some people have said to me that I need to put the scissors up in the house.  They are put up.  I don’t have them locked in a safe, but they are put away.  This is a lesson that if an almost 6 year old wants something, she will get it.

I have seen her cut her hair with toenail clippers.

I know that my method of parenting is different then other people’s.  I want Sierra to learn that she has to live with her actions.  I want her to learn that some actions you can’t take back.  I want her to be self reliant and responsible.

One of the reasons why I haven’t had many playgroups at my house lately is my feeling that my house is no longer baby safe.  How did that happen?

For example, if you have one child and it is a baby, you can lock the doors and know that the baby isn’t going to crawl outside.  However, if you have a 6 year old who can unlock the doors and even use the child safety door knob (which we don’t have) the outside is now suddenly accessible.

Another example…and this happened two days ago…

Someone gives your older daughter a beaded bracelet at a birthday party.  The beads are big, but still a hazard to a baby.  Madeleine is almost 3, so you think that you are “safe”  and you don’t think twice about Sierra having the bracelet.  The bracelet breaks.  Beads end up on the floor and Sierra cleans up all the beads, except for that one, that nobody sees… except for Madeleine.  Madeleine picks it up and knows not to eat it.

However, she decides that it looks like an earring and shoves the bead into her ear.  My cousin extracted the bead, so we didn’t have to take Madeleine to the ER.  I will easily admit that I was about 2 seconds away from driving there.  It just goes to show you how easily an older child can un-baby proof your house and why sometimes I am feeling more and more uneasy about having other people’s kids over.

I started to write about parenting and how it changes from when you are parenting a baby or toddler to parenting an actual child.  I know that sounds silly, but as Sierra is transitioning into a kid so is my parenting.  I am learning that some of my methods aren’t working like they use to.  I am learning that training a dog is way easier than training a child, ha ha.  I am learning that kids can start developing these traits that if you don’t stop the behavior while they are this age that it could continue when they are older and get them into trouble.  Also, it isn’t easy to change a kid’s behavior.

What translates on book and online is so different when it is your own child.

I am getting the idea that if Sierra is busy in positive activities all of the time, then she won’t have time to be sneaky and do things she shouldn’t be doing.  I look forward to when she goes to school full time in the fall.

First, I am madly knitting the Prosperous Plum tank.  It is knitted in cotton-ease in violet.  I am knitting a small as it will be the sample that I will be teaching in my classes.  It has a provisional cast on, picot hem, lace and cable knitting, shaping…basically lots of things I can teach on.  I rarely actually get to teach the projects that I plan out, so hopefully this will be one of those times as this is really one of the funnest projects I have done in a long, long time.

Seriously, the chart is really interesting.  It is easy to remember and is really working up fast.  Of course, I am knitting the small (rarely get to do that) but it is still a fun knit.

I casted on for this on Saturday.  As of tonight, this is where I am at.

Front:

Back:

There is this cool asymmetrical-ness, yet oddly symmetrical that this top has.

I need to be finished with it before Saturday and at my current pace I think that is possible.

I started out using size 5 needles for the picot hem, then switched to size 7.  However, as I got a few inches up, I realized my gauge was off and so I dropped down to a size 6 and am getting the 19 st/4 inch gauge.  It actually worked out good doing it this way since the hip part is a little bit wider than when it decreases into the waist, so the change in gauge isn’t noticeable in a bad way.

Once I get my class knitting out of the way, I hopefully will have more knit/crochet time for myself again for the next few months.  I love my classes, but the prep for them is very time consuming.

I did do a little bit more knitting on my sock (not shown.)  I am almost at the toe decreases.

Here is a picture of my dad’s sweater:

Sorry dad…it is hard to wear this way, I know.  I don’t have the back to block this as I would have to pin it to my floor.  I am sort of waiting for Tony to help me.  I swear I will finish this soon…luckily it is still cold and rainy where you live even in the summer.

Speaking of rain.  This was Saturday:

And lastly, as if there are not enough pictures on this post, a picture Sierra drew.  Her teacher suggested in a report card that Sierra needed to color better within the lines.  Seriously…something is wrong with her teacher.  Isn’t coloring outside of the lines better?

She has Tony’s artistic ability.  I NEVER colored like this in kindergarten.

before:

after:

Thanks to my hairdresser, it is cute. It just isn’t as long or curly as it use to be. Madeleine had fun getting her hair cut this morning at the salon. I never did take a picture of Sierra’s version.

The funny thing is with the really short bangs, she reminds me of a picture of my mom when she was that age.

Oh…I came across this picture looking for the picture of my mom…

This is a picture of my sister…I always thought Madeleine looked like her.

We are all in shock.  Tonight the girls were playing upstairs in their room.  I usually let them do this a bit before bed.  Then, they clean it, put pj’s on and go to bed.  Tonight, Sierra got scissors and cut off all of Madeleine’s curls.

I cried.  Sierra cried.  Madeleine didn’t really understand what happened, but when she did, she cried.  Tony wanted to cry.  He is very mad.  He can’t understand why Sierra would do this to her sister.  He only ever remembers being a good kid, one that didn’t cause trouble, sneak or steal things.  Daily, Sierra has been sneaky and getting into trouble.

Sierra told me she did it because she is jealous.  She wanted Madeleine’s curls.  Unfortunately, I knew that this was only a matter of time.  Madeleine gets compliments on her hair daily.

The scissors were put away, but an (almost) 6 year old can stand on chairs and sneak and get up where she shouldn’t…

Tomorrow I will be taking Madeleine to my hair dresser to see if she can fix it…which I am not really sure what that means, since there are spots that are almost down to the scalp.

I am sad for Madeleine, she wants her curls back.

I am also sad because I have been wondering if Madeleine will always have curly hair.  I don’t know how her hair will grow back in.

I guess this is one of these things that we are all upset about now, but years from now we will look back on as a memory.  The day Sierra cut off all of Madeleine’s hair will be burned in all of our memory banks.

We had a nice weekend!  I hope you all did, too.

I am crocheting my way on the LB top.  I think I have about 9 or 10 more rows on the skirt part of the top.  Though I am not counting, I know where I am at (I know that doesn’t make sense, but it does to me and I guess that is all that matters when you are crocheting…)  Round and round I go…sure seems like it is taking forever.

I want to finish this by Friday, so I am trying to work on this as fast as I can.   Maybe I will take a progress pic tomorrow so I don’t completely bore you.

I did knit a little bit on my sock and it is almost to the toe.  Again, I will take a picture tomorrow.  I have been lazy about that.

She got the bug, too…poor thing.  And, ironically I will be having to reshampoo-ing the carpets…

I thought it was food poisoning that I got since it came on so violently, but now I think it is just a really bad virus.

I had more energy yesterday than today.  I am tired and have a bad headache.  I was suppose to get my hair done today, but didn’t go.

Tony bought me roses.  They are pretty.  I haven’t done any knitting or anything.