A Hair Raising Experience

circa early 1980's

For those of you that know me you also know that I hate my hair. When I was born I had bolt straight hair, but around 11 I asked my mom if I could get a perm, I really don't know what came over me or what possessed my mom to say yes to this horrible idea. It really didn't help that the Electric slide was the most popular song the year I got ridiculous frizz job. Oh, the shameless teasing of 5th graders. At the time I figured my hair would go back to normal, unfortunately it never did, it has remained wavy ever since. Not really curly, but just enough body and fly away pieces to make it totally unmanageable. So as soon as I had the opportunity I chopped it all off and for over a decade now have never let it get past my shoulders. I even lived with a hairdresser for a while which saved me a whole lotta money on haircuts. Since I've been back in school though, haircuts have fallen into the semi luxury item list, so in the past few years my hair has finally exceeded shoulder length. Any of you out there with curly hair will know that most hairdressers have no idea how to cut curly hair, not a clue. You go in to get your ends trimmed and come out with buzz cut. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea. So when I came into a little spending money last week I decided to treat myself to a good haircut that I can manage and doesn't bear any resemblance to me sticking my finger in an electrical outlet. I was doing a little curly hair care research when I came across the Ouidad system and found a certified stylist not to far from my home. I'm not one for random promotion, but this is the best haircut I have ever had in my life! The picture below was taken first thing in the morning without anything done to it! Seriously, it looks like I just left the salon and not the normal "just electrocuted" look I normally would have.
The process is a little time consuming in my book, a whopping half hour...longer if I blow dry with a diffuser, but the best part is there are no rollers or curling iron involved. This is my natural curl and i only have to do it twice a week and it stays like this for days. I can't recomend it enough. The additional bonus is I only have to get it cut every 3-5 months. So if curly hair has been the bain of your exsistence I really recommend giving this style a try.
Also on an extremely amusing note, while doing curly research on the internet I came across the Ombre look which is apparently very in right now and the shampoo girl at the salon even commented on how much she loved my color and how it was so hot right now, here I was just thinking that I had 5" roots, but unbenounsed to me I'm the hieght of hair fashion. I do my own thing though and it's merely an accident when I'm in style.

In wooly news, I finished another hat. This is the Serpentine hat from Fall 2012 KnitScene. It's designed with short rows and was really interesting to watch it come together. it turned out a little slouchier than I think it should have, but it's still cute and I will take some modeled shots later once it's dry (at least i know my hair will look good in the pictures :)

I also got a shot of me modeling the Zelda Cloche from the other day. I got the feathers attached and I can't wait for cold weather so I can wear it.

New Projects

Please ignore the ugly bearded head.

So in the wake of working on the massive shawl and wrapping up those long languishing socks I've been smacked in the face by a massive case of startitus. Since the games have ended (less than a week ago)  I have completed one birthday present (pics later since the recipient reads the blog), an adorable new cloche for yours truly. This knit up in like 3 hours, felted it with the laundry the next morning and walla! I love it, I just have to actually attach the feathers and it is ready for the first chilly evening of fall. Also on the needles are new birthday socks for Dan, he's finally getting his wish and getting plain old stokinette socks, my one concession is it's self striping yarn, so at least it has something to keep my interest. Last night I started the next birthday present in the cue, which will have to remain a mystery for now because I'm designing the pattern.

And even more exciting, my shawl was featured in Hand Spinning News! This totally made me do a little happy dance, which was amazingly hard since I spent 9 hours today staining my mom's back deck. Recognition is always nice to receive.

Fini- part 2

Finished my skull socks last night...finally.
So happy these are off the needles after 2 yrs.

Fini

Well, at least part way.
The shawl is done, this behemoth took almost my entire king size bed in the blocking process, but it is finished and medals have been posted. I still have enough yarn left over to likely make a scarf and another smaller shawl, so win win. Unfortunately I won't finish my WIP wrestling project in time. Though I made a marathon effort yesterday, I still have 1/2 a pattern repeat and the ribbing to do. In all honesty I'll probably finish them tonight, just not in time for a second medal. Oh, well. At least after 2 years on the needles they will be done. I've also developed a wicked case of startitis since I finished the shawl and have cast on one new project and pulled the yarns and patterns for 3 more. One will be a new pattern that I will probably offer up for free, but may have to wait to post since it will be a birthday present. I'm off to the store now since I have inevitably lost the battle with myself of my desire for Ben & Jerry's Half Baked vs. wanting to be thinner.

Going for the Gold

Day 11 of the Olympics and I'm still going strong on the shawl, although it's becoming a bit of an uphill climb. Currently it is taking about an hour to complete just 1 round, but I'm slogging through. I'm still debating whether I have enough yarn to complete another full repeat and still have enough to make the edging. I've never made a large circular shawl before, so I have very little frame of reference as to how much yarn the edge will use. I think I may just forgo the other repeat since it will probably end up taking 2 hours per round by the time I'm done. I just don't have that much time.

So since I've hit the land of slow I opted to put in some work in the WIP Wrestling category and wrap up these socks. They've been on the needles for 2 year and just need to be done already. The other night I got a full repeat of the patter done and am only half a repeat away from turning the heal.
The mohair that I washed last week is finally dry and I began carding and spinning this weekend. One ounce done, 239 more to go.

And overshadowing all this is my own personal goal of getting the entire house CLEAN during the Olympics. I say it with all caps because I'm talking spic and span all kinds of sparkley kinds of clean. My house usually does exist at a pretty reasonable level of tidiness, but things can only remain so clean when you have 3 dogs, a cat, and a house rabbit. I'm going room by room, purging, dusting, organizing, and pretty much everything (except the windows, no point in doing them until the ac's come out in the fall). So far this has been a room a day process and I've finished the bedroom, my studio, bathroom, and attic thus far. Only 5 more to go and blessedly 2 of those are really easy. Now I'm off to do my room of the day and get some mandolin practice in before class tonight (it's the second to last, so excited to have some time off before fall semester starts).

1oz of silver mohair