I have heard over the past year that bee populations all over the country have been in decline. I am here to report that on our property here in SE Iowa they seem to be thriving. This is the first time we’ve found a hive like this and are even a bit concerned that they will not be good neighbors. DH wanted to start up the mower and mow near the tree they’re in and has decided to ponder it a bit longer.
Picked up a floor loom this weekend. I woman in my knitting group was selling it. What a find! I took the photo after getting it into the house. I cleaned it up a bit and put it in my dining room. We have a decent sized house, but for some reason the dining room seems to be the best location for it right now. Hopefully we can finish a basement room for the kids’ play room and the current playroom on the main level can become my craft room!
I need to say that I know nothing about weaving, and until a year ago I hadn’t even any inclination. Now I have a floor loom, a mighty nice one I think. I feel as if my train as jumped the track a bit. Every time I pass by it I think, “Is that thing big or what?” And of course my family agrees that I have lost my mind. Husband thinks he’s going to learn to weave. I’d like the kids to learn also, I think that would be fun.
I know two women who have offered to come help me set up and get started. I might try to dress the loom myself with some help from some books and online instructions. I think I might be too chicken to try though. I don’t want to mess up and end up wasting my warp yarn. I priced it last night online and found it’s going to cost about $30 for the warp yarn and I think I’m using stash yarn for the weft. I would like the first project to be a wool hearth rug. I’ll keep you posted!
I made this little Hawkeye fan for a woman at work to give to her grandson. (Ruby, can you guess who?) I was stressing that she wouldn’t like it when it was done, but in fact she liked it so much she squealed. Go figure. That’s the second knitting gig for which I got paid real money. Cool, but I realized that when I’m knitting for others it takes time away from what I want to knit. I already feel like my knitting life is too short. Will I get to knit all I want to before I die? And you can’t take your stash with you when you go. Good thing I’ve this stash buster arriving soon:
Yes, I have lost my mind. I’ll let you know how it turns out. More photos coming soon.
Okay, I am taking a chance here. I’m about to admit something pretty incredibly stupid. You know when you buy a purse and it has all sorts of compartments and secret zippered places, and then several months after you began using it you discover a new compartment you never knew was there? (Even if this never happened to you, just say yes.) Well, this story is like that, only more so.
I bought my spinning wheel, who I affectionately refer to as Charlotte, about two years ago in January. All along I’ve been annoyed that the string gizmo hangs over the whorl when I’m spinning and sometimes gets in the way if the adjustment isn’t perfect. I just stop spinning to adjust it and move on. That is, until yesterday when I discovered THE HOLE. This entire time there has been a hole in the thing that holds the whorl, specifically for the purpose of letting me knit annoyance-free, and I never even knew it. I got so excited that I squealed, in front of my kids even. They, of course, rolled their eyes and assumed I’d lost my mind as usual.
So here is the wonderful hole:
Isn’t it just glorious? I’m so happy that I could bust. I think I’ll eat chocolate and go spin awhile to celebrate! Yea!!!
Lace Ribbon Scarf
I started this as a gift for our incoming pastor, but am stunned at how slow it is. I read the comments on ravelry about it, but I thought I would knit faster. HA!
I have a feeling that today’s purchase of Addi lace needles will speed things up a bit. They are amazing. I wish I’d had them for my first lace project.
The yarn is Cascade Heritage sock yarn. Very nice yarn. Pattern is called Ribbon Lace Scarf or Lace Ribbon, I forgot which. Free Ravelry pattern, yeah!!
Here’s the photo I promised.
The photo is supposed to illustrate that my hair is NOT dripping with oil, nor is it lacking body or looking disgusting. There is no smell. I am still happy with the results. My frizz problem is basically gone, and I am free of any oil issues. It feels very liberating. I will continue with the daily regime of what I’ve described in earlier posts: It takes maybe five minutes more than just using shampoo. I brush every evening and before I shower, and I dust cornstarch only around my hairline, rinse well, apply conditioner, done.
I have basically been ‘poo free for 21 days (not counting the hair coloring I did, which contained some sort of shampoo). I thought this whole thing would be harder. Suddenly, I think it was about four days ago, I had a magical hair moment. I realized that my hair was exactly as if I had washed it 8 hours before. It had body, no frizz, and was almost exactly what I want my hair to be. I think I’ve arrived. It was totally worth it. My family has long forgotten the experiment. My kids were a bit bothered by the whole thing and told me to wash my hair more than once. Funny. I didn’t listen. The oil is about 95% gone and the tiny bit that remains is completely manageable. I use the cornstarch just around the hairline before showering and then conditioner, and it’s just great. I’m calling this a success! I’ll post pics when my hormonal breakout clears up. Sorry! You have to wait. But here’s the clue: it looks exactly the same. **Shrugs**
I can’t explain it. Sometimes I am pleased as punch with my current project and am monogamous as the day is long. Then there are times like now when I can’t wait to get this sock off the needles so I can cast on four more projects. I have new favorite sock yarn calling my name daily. It sounds like, “Hey! It’s dark in here! I thought you loved me? Hello? Remember me, Trekking 126? Hurry and knit that ugly sock because I’m waiting, and I’m more fun than what you’re working on now!” That about sums it up. I can hardly think straight for all its griping. So there’s that. Then there’s a stack of patterns with corresponding yarns which have been in the queue for months. Apparently I don’t love them that much or I’d have knit them by now. So why am I shopping for more yarn online when I have all these projects just waiting to be knit? I have no idea. I blame it on spring fever. It’s all so exciting, new colors, new weather which requires lighter weight knits, new patterns just begging for my attention. It’s all just too much. I can’t take it. No wonder my stash is bursting out of the cabinets and I had to create a new stash area in the basement. I told myself it was temporary, just until I used up some of the active stash on the main floor. Yeah, right. Now the basement stash area is outgrowing its space as well. The lies we tell ourselves so we can buy more yarn. But I NEED it. That’s my most often used excuse. But honestly, isn’t it more fun to knit a project you’re really jazzed about than knit a project just to use yarn? ‘Nuff said. See, I need it!
These were knit with Opal Mississippi color 5082, #1 needles. Very happy with them. Okay, I lied, it’s an ‘it’. I’m still working on the second sock. Oh how I wish I could knit one sock and then POOF, the second one is magically done at the same time. I need to perfect that.
What I learned from these socks that is above all else: I can knit my hubby a pair of socks from one skein of Opal and have a smidge, and I do mean smidge, left for mending. That is so good to know. I always thought he’d take two skeins for his size 12 feet. Whew!!
Have fallen head over heel for the Nancy Bush Knitting Vintage Socks book. Had to order it. I really like how her patterns are written and of course, that I was able to knit it without making mistakes helps too. I know that the pattern got lost in the pattern, so to speak, but hey, it was an experiment with both the yarn and the pattern. Seems like I’m doing a lot of that lately. Oh, the hair…you want to know? I’m peachy. No oil, just dandy. I’m to the place I wanted to be, and the hair color setback really didn’t set me back at all.
But I did tell a woman at work about the experiment, big mistake. I’ll probably have to hear about it daily now. Why didn’t I keep my mouth shut? Some people just don’t get the natural thing. If using shampoo doesn’t hurt you, and it’s available, then why not do it, is their attitude. Why not find out what natural truly is, I say. Just because we live differently than our ancestors did, doesn’t mean we’re truly living better.
On day eight I caved in and colored my hair. Technically I have still not used shampoo, but there is a sort of shampoo in the color mix, so it did clean my hair. I did not shampoo after that, though. So I guess I’m on day two again. My hair isn’t oily at all, in fact, on day 8 when I woke I thought, “Wow, the oil seems to be nearly gone and I think I’m finally through the worst of it.” We’ll see how it goes from here. I’m thrilled with the texture of my hair right now, and even with shocking it with color, it’s very soft, not frizzy and seems to be great. Hope it continues.
after color
nice job, huh?
