Tuesday, August 01, 2006

When Girlchild Leaves

When my daughter finds a job and gets some money together and finds a place to live and moves out, I'm really going to miss her the dog. Because while the dog does shed like crazy, the dog never does a huge load of small items he has been saving for about two months, puts them in the dryer, turns it on, and leaves them to dry, then sit. So when Mother comes home and has to do laundry so I have clean clothes to wear to a meeting tomorrow, Mother looks in the dryer and screams Bad Words. And then spends 20 minutes in the over 100 degree garage, folding about 60 small things so the machine is empty and I have something clean to wear to a meeting at City Hall. Okay, so it's a city hall in a really small town and khakis are the dress code, but they still should be clean.

I know we both leave clothes in the dryer at times, I am guilty too, and she is very courteous and hangs/folds mine appropriately, but my leavings usually consist of some yoga pants and t-shirts, maybe 8 items at the most. I do laundry regularly, she waits until she's desperate, so her loads are far, far larger than mine and take forever to fold. So I do not feel the slightest bit sorry that while I folded that mountain of clothes I was sweating like a ditch digger and probably dripped sweat on them.

I have called and left a couple of mildly pissy messages for her, and she hasn't picked up or called me back.

I am hooked on tiny hats in jellybean colors, and I am still cursing Lion Brand for doing away with Cotton-ease. It's so nice, really really nice. If Rowan had produced it the yarn snobs would have embraced it like manna from heaven, but it was Lion Brand so it bore a stigma. And Lion Brand stupidly produced it in jellybean colors plus black and white, which is why they are possibly the lamest yarn manufacturer on the planet. The texture is so soft, it's almost like suede. It has just enough acrylic with the cotton to make it easy on the hands. It would have been so incredibly versatile if they added neutrals and grownup colors. The more tiny hats I make the more I love this yarn, the stitch definition, the softness, it's so damn nice. But noooo, they opted for pastels and jellybean colors in a yarn weight that was heavier than many baby patterns, and colors too juvenile for older kids and adults, and then discontinued it entirely. Yes, I am holding a grudge.

11 comments:

  1. Cotton Ease was so nice, wasn't it? I loved it. But you're right, the colors were pretty bright. I am sorry they discontinued it as well.

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  2. Anonymous11:42 PM

    Why didn't you put Girlchild's laundry on her bed for her to fold? If you were determined to fold it, why didn't you take it in the house in the air conditioning to do it?

    Smiley's has a sale on Cotton-Ease this week. Not sure where they got the stock but I ordered a boatload of it.

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  3. Geez, Anonymous, because 1) she'd folded my (considerably smaller load; and 2) it would have been more bother (but cooler) to haul it inside.

    And I still think if they'd switched Cotton-ease to "grownup" colors, they'd have had a huge it.

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  4. And leaving it in a basket in the garage wasn't an option?

    You're a way better mom than either of my parents!

    :D

    And her dog really is cute.

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  5. Why not leave it? Because it's in the garage, and there are:
    1) cats
    2) spiders.

    We practice the golden rule of laundry - do unto others' clothes as you would like to have done unto yours. It was just the SIZE of the load that got me!

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  6. Anonymous12:55 PM

    My dd isn't yet old enough to do her own laundry, but judging by her current messiness, I think she'll be just like Girlchild. ;-) I'll miss her when she leaves the roost...I think.

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  7. I actually like the colours of Cotton-Ease, but I can see them not appealing to most adults. What I don't like as much is the weight. I'm not a huge fan of worsted weight cotton anyway, and I find that down here anything heavier than sport or DK is too heavy to be worn much of the year.

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  8. I didn't like the colors because I couldn't use them, but I did like the weight - it would have been wonderful for practical washable grownup clothes in navy, brown, ecru, olive - any number of colors. I don't have a lot of use in my wardrobe for bubblegum pink. But I did stash enough red for a sweater.

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  9. Oh, BTW, after posting I learned that the Girl abandoned the clothes because a friend called. She was babysitting, though I guess at this stage it is Nanny-ing, kids while their parents are out of town and one of the little yard apes fell off a swingset and busted her arm, and Girl went to help ride herd on the kids while the arm was patched up. 10 hours in the emergency room (not unusual around here). So I don't feel like I'm indulging her by folding her clothes, she would have done it for me.

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  10. Anonymous2:47 AM

    I aDORE cotton-ease. I wish it was staying available in all colors -- I swear I'd use nothing else. Wool is always too hot for me to wear anyway....

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  11. Anonymous5:14 PM

    Ah, daughters and laundry...
    My daughter moved moved out some months ago. She left the dog but she took her laundry. She lived by the rule that you don't need to wash anything as long as there's still something left to wear. And although we also lived by the Golden Rule of laundry, it wasn't until after she left that I realised I'd always done a lot more unto hers than she ever did unto mine :)

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