And yet more crocheting…

Last week after I’d used the yarn bought specifically for Share a Square I found some aran/worsted weight I’d been given by a neighbour.  The problem with it was that it didn’t tell me what it was made of – I asked but it was being coy.  I was pretty sure it was acrylic and indeed the cardigan I’d made myself from it didn’t bother me and I am wool phobic from a wearing point of view – I think this stems from a pair of tartan trousers my Mum made me when I was little they still itched after she’d lined them.  (I also had a matching cape!)

So I made a couple of squares anyway but since I wasn’t 100% sure (Share a Square squares need to be artificial to any allergies) I decided to make a blanket for the hospital/crèche in South Africa that one of the receptionists at our GPs has ties with and having bumped into her on Tuesday (not literally) she mentioned there was another container leaving in the next couple of weeks – so I timed that well.

I used the yarn I had left over from the Greenway blanket (presumably so called becasuse in the book it was done in shades of green but from here on in known as the Daisy Blanket because of the stitch) and I cannot tell you how gorgeous that cream yarn is even though it as 20% wool. It almost glows and it has to be fondled to fully appreciate its softness – as B was instructed on Sunday ‘Feel that.’ slight touch ‘No, fondle iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.’ (In my best Homer Simpson impersonation.)

The edging is also à la the Daisy Blanket.  I was going to leave it as three rows of double crochet (US single crochet) but then did a backwards row of double crochet and it just finishes it off nicely – well I think so.

I had my hair cut by a friend on Monday.  She used our clippers.  She regularly cuts her husband with their clippers – he has it very short and she consciously tired not to get mine the same.  Let’s read the reviews.

Friend who visited last night on being informed that I’d had it cut – ‘Yes I noticed it was shorter than last time.’  (That being two weeks ago.)  So noticed but hadn’t said anything – mmmmm.

Friend who cut it as she was leaving – ‘As I say to my husband, if you don’t like it it will grow back in a couple of weeks.’

My husband (who as we know says what he sees) – ‘It’s alright.’ Oh!  When asked a second time because I had the strange feeling he may have developed a dose of tact. ‘It’s a bit (sparse, say sparse) bald looking in places.’  Doh!

Me – ‘I look like a cancer patient.’

Other creative spaces are here.

Crochet Club Tuesday – March Madness

I was intending on posting a picture of my Crochet Club 2011 progress stating that I’d finished the March instructions and wasn’t I good for doing that, etc, etc and then I realised that although I have finished the crochet bit of March there’s some sewing together to do – DOH!  DOUBLE DOH as it means I HAVE to weave some of those 60,000 loose ends in.

So here’s the crochet bit, which was photographed with the aid of my trusty assistant…

Speaking, or even typing, of ends I had my hair cut today.  It stopped thinning after the second lot of Doxorubicin.  Fortunately it had come back thicker than before my SCT so I could afford to lose some.  Since we have a very, very important event to go next week I thought I’d get it cut by a professional in a salon rather than me in the garage with the clippers – uh, that sounds like a solution from Cluedo.  I’ll post a pic tomorrow if I can get B to take a half decent one, Bud’s finding it a bit tricky to hold the camera AND press the button at the same time.

Hairy Muffins

Following on from my first attempt in January to cut my own hair, disregarding the fringe incident at age 13ish, here’s the photographic evidence.

The before with out of control curliness and a colour that was never naturally mine…

The day after, not very clear but since in the other two I’m wearing my jim jams I just wanted to prove that I do get dressed sometimes…

And last night still sporting the cut from four weeks ago.

I would have expected it to need another trim by now but maybe it’s slowing down before it departs completely!  Typing of which I went for my blood taken this morning, but haven’t heard anything yet about the counts or cycle two staring on Friday.

I also baked today – Quinoa Muffins as per Martha Stewart.  They turned out not only edible but quite delicious.

I substituted dried cranberries for the currants as although I love Fly Pie (Chorley/Eccles Cake – which is not a cake but a pastry – don’t tell Brussels or the name will need to be changed) I’m not a big fan of currants in cake and don’t even get me started on sultanas – blah!

 

20th of the month photo – March

Well looky here it’s that time of the month again.  It was a bit of a glum day but fortunately after a wet start there was no rain.

Left

Middle

Right

In other news I’ve gotten rid of my rash but there was a noticeable amount of hair on my hands whilst showering last night (off my head, I haven’t got hairy palms) so it looks like I might be getting rid of that too.  So today I got B to take a picture of my current hair cut and I’ll post it tomorrow with the one from before I first cut it in January (if I can find it) when it was doing the curly thing.

 

It’s a bob – a woolly bob!

Let’s have a look at my new hair style…

Way back in September Sean Teirnan blogged about a knitted alternative to the traditional wig.  I fully intended to knit one in bright orange for Halloween, but could I get bright orange aran (worsted weight) wool locally – well, obviously not.

However having just finished something in some aran (worsted weight) wool I’d forgotten I had, and having some left over, I remembered this pattern last night and decided to give it a whirl.

I even learned a new technique for a three needle cast (bind) off – instead of using a third dpn use a crochet hook it really makes it so much easier.

Now as mentioned previously B is not exactly David Bailey add to that the new camera and the teething problems we seem to be having and well, unfortunately, the above was the best of a bad bunch, many of which the camera seemed to take itself.

And here is what Bud thought about my new style…

Guess what I did!

Guess what I did today, well this evening, within the last hour.  Go on guess, go on – no, not that, not that either, no, how dare you I’d never do that – well not twice!

Okay I’ll tell you – I cut my own hair!  This is pretty monumental because when it was long I practically needed a valium to get it trimmed.  Now, well I don’t really give a sod – it’s just hair – I have a hat!

However I have two things to say

1)  There’s a reason hairdressers TRAIN

2)  My mum was a hairdresser, even having her own shop up to me arriving – it’s not genetic!

There was however some very logical reasoning behind my decision to give it a whirl, or rather a trim, myself.

Do you know how much it costs to have your hair cut?  Well obviously some of your do – a number of the women in my life either lie or do their very best to avoid having the men in their lives find out how much they spend – and let’s not even get started on having it coloured.

After having it long for so long (boom, boom), I had gotten use to having it cut twice a year, whether it needed it or not!  A dry cut round here costs about £9.50.  The hair trimmers cost £19.99 so even if I thought if I only get two haircuts I’ve more or less broken even. Plus if it worked out all the money I’d saved* is extra money for wool!

(* I realise this is subjective – if I’d not decided to keep it short I wouldn’t have to spend the money and since this is a new expense I’m not really saving anything – more avoiding a new expense but as I said extra money for wool.)

A friend said it particularly suited me when it was at pixie cut length, this was before it went particularly curly and started growing OUT.  Before it was fine and straight – now it’s thick and curly.  So I decided to go with a pixie cut rather than the bob I’d originally thought.  Well, with the size of my backside at the moment not so much a pixie cut more a garden gnome cut.

So despite ordering the trimmers before B’s Christmas present of a garden vac/blower they only arrived yesterday.  I was beginning to think I’d have to use the garden vac.  They charged overnight and I just ventured into the garage to give them a whirl.  Well I thought it could get messy.

We (Bud supervised) narrowly avoided a bit, well HUGE boo boo because I hadn’t realised it had two length attachments and we nearly had 11mm instead of 21mm!

I could not believe the amount of hair on the floor and how much was still left on my head.  So I made it shorter and then some other bits a bit shorter!  The directions did happen to say keep a note of the settings so you can repeat the cut – I think I must have used about 25.

Lessons I learned…

1)  Stand closer to a mirror.  We do have a mirror in the garage, we don’t have one in the bathroom mind, but the one in the garage is the other side of the multi-gym so at least five feet away.

2)  Double check the length setting (I should have known this as one of the ladies at Armchair Yoga was scalped by her husband about a month ago).

3)  It looks better once it’s been washed.

As for pics well the camera is still busted!  Actually I took a before one on the webcam and I may take an after in the cold light of morning.

 

Buddy Two Poos

This is me and Bud on 10 September, the day after we got him…

this is also why I don’t put many photos on, B is not very good with the camera.  I never look like me, I AM a 5′ 8″ leggy blonde and yet in B’s pics I always look like a 5′ 1″ non leggy brunette, well brunette-ish I guess in that one!

And after slightly more than two months and…

3 walking harnesses

1 chewed door frame

3 poops in the house

3 puddles inside

1 vicious leap at Ben (my Auntie Ann’s dog)

numerous soft doggy toys

lots of chewing toys

1 wee in the garage – not 2′ from where I was sitting

chasing two pheasants across a field

several instances of vomiting (by Bud – just one by me)

an hysterical moment when I painted the bathroom ceiling when he got a piece of masking tape stuck on his paw

about 1,000 poop scoops (hence Bud’s nickname Buddy Two Poos because why do one when you can do two 100 years apart and thank goodness for frosty mornings in the garden! – If you don’t own a dog and need an explanation let me know – let’s just say I’m not looking forward to warmer weather)

an encounter with an Akita that confirmed that although my organisation skills are a bit shot I can still remain calm under pressure – stick hand out, grab harness extract Bud from Akita’s grip – I think it wanted to play but then again it was lunch time!

a little toy box for Bud – because there is no way I am going to end up in A&E explaining that I fractured the lytic lesion in my right femur by tripping over a blue goose on the landing in the dark!

several stones in the pads of his paws

one somersault onto his back on the lounge laminate flooring which he walked off but which nearly gave me and B a heart attack

one twisting somersault somersault on the kitchen lino for which he got 10.0 as he landing back on his feet, I mean paws

two grazes on his back legs from skidding to retrieve his ball

a boo boo that required a trip to the vet’s…

this is me and Bud on 17 November…

And strangely I have MORE hair!

Perfect Timing

Look what I got in the post…

Just as I’ve got enough hair to use shampoo again.  I had been using soap but my Auntie Ann said ‘Uncle Ray uses soap and look what’s happened to his hair!’ – he’s BALD!

The only thing is I won’t know whether to recommend this product or not as my hair is still to short to tell if it makes it ‘glossy’ and too long to tell if it gives my head a ‘botanical shine’.

More Dresses

I dropped on this material in my local fabric store, which I must take a photo of as it has to be seen to be believed, although I’d need some spy training first as some the staff would probably escort me from the premises if they caught me.

I particularly liked the way the flowers were denser at the edge of the fabric although the dress doesn’t show this off as well as it could because I was a little short of material and had to cut out what I could from where I could – grain be dammed.  I had intended for the band under the bodice to be smocked but that turned into a smocking mess and I took the scissors to it one night when I was a little over tired – as my Great Aunt used to describe it – I was nangy tired!  I ‘tidied’  the dress bits away (for tidied read stuffed in a drawer) but fortunately the following day after a good night’s sleep I tackled it again and used the waistband that went with the original pattern but altered the skirt.  Fortunately being short was advantageous and even with the three inches of smockiness cut off the dress was still long enough.

The zip I inserted by hand as per Couture Sewing Techniques.  I don’t think my running stitches are quite as small as they should be but so far the zip hasn’t burst free and I’ve worn it twice.  I had a zip in which matched perfectly the peachy colour in the material and decided rather than hide the zip I’d leave it on display as a contrast.

When I put it on to go out last week B had just woke up and said he liked it but enquired about my wig.  I tried it on and B didn’t think the wig went with the dress – thus proving my theory when you are folically challenged you don’t have to worry about your hair style matching your outfit.

The second dress was made from scrapes.  A dress I’d made but didn’t like in the blue gingham along with plain white cotton and three different lots of broderie anglaise* my Auntie En had given me.  I like it but… because I lined the broderie anglaise on the top two tiers it doesn’t hang like it should, being a little bit stiff.  I have a sneaky feeling it’s not going to get a lot of wear.  It took a lot more material than I had anticipated hence the patchwork bottom tier which got complemented by a fellow customer in the fabric shop.

*  I had to google this because spell check had no idea – I also had no idea – how hard is it to google something when you have no idea how it’s spelled – but I did find an online fabric shop so it worked out well!

Just What I Need…

I went out for the afternoon with a friend to Ikea, where after about three hours hard shopping we had purchased a late lunch and a packet of 200 drinking straws in funky grown-up colours!  Our husbands were really impressed. Chris’s on ringing to see when she would be home ‘You’re still at Ikea!’  B on finding out I’d splashed out on straws ‘Why, we have some?’  Funky grown-up colours, that’s why!

A trip to Boots was required on the way home where the sales lady was very pleasant and beamed (I have no idea why) when she gave me my receipt along with accompanying money off voucher…

Now all I need is hair by the 13th!