Kiss My Knits!

I had an appointment to have my hair fixed at 10am this morning, but didn’t keep the appointment. Last night I was out and saw a woman my approximate age, build, and face shape. Difference? She had FANTASTIC HAIR. I asked her who did her hair, and she raved about her stylist and gave me her card. So rather than get the same cut I’ve had for the past 20 years, I’m going to this new woman and we’ll see what happens. If I have to live with crappy hair until Wednesday, then so be it. That’s the advantage of working from home, no co-workers to impress.

In talking with the hubby about MacGyvering a yarn counter out of a fishing line counter, I also ran across this woman’s homemade ball winder. I’ve seen ball winders made from hand mixers before, but the drill-mounted one looks like it would have the advantage of letting you vary the speed. It seems like such an easy solution that you’ve got to admire the ingenuity.

Got a shipment of 150 boxes – 100 for single hats, 50 larger ones for double orders. Going back through my records I realized I was ordering 50 boxes every month or so, so I bought in greater bulk this time. I was down to six boxes left when these came. It’s not a huge crisis, because I can run up to my local office supply store and get more, but I pay literally ten times as much if I buy them singly. The hats are zipping right along, I feel like I’m starting to get back ahead of the curve again. For the first time in a while, the line is back around 35.

I’m wanting to get more involved with Dragonrealms again, now that I’m starting to make some hat headway. I had scaled back my involvement (aside from the Merelew festival) to nurture the Jayne hat biz, but I miss DR. I’m going to start picking up weddings again, and see how much I can handle at the moment without giving short shrift to either my wedding clients or my knitting clients. I also placed a couple of real gems today, which is always fun. When I was a player, I never spotted one, but I see the behind-the-scenes numbers and people really do find them! Also updated some visions, and saw that the rumor system is nice and healthy. I like to add onto the atmospheric-type systems when I can. Also, updated records on the description of a DR-specific wood, and GMs Reexa, Ilanya, and myself discussed a new fabric. Looks pretty cool, I think fluffhounds will be pleased.

Now I’m off to snag a copy of TurboTax for the Mac. Last year’s fiasco of actually doing taxes ON THE DUE DATE and discovering a form was missing has scared me straight, so to speak. Later, taters!

As time went on last night, the hair got more and more rounded at the sides, until I resembled a Powerpuff Girl. Specifically Buttercup.

I showered and blew it dry today, and it just wasn’t getting any better, so I have an appointment tomorrow for them to fix it. I thought maybe I could salvage it, or learn to like it… but no. If I had to pick one word for this haircut, aside from “bad,” it would be “dowdy.” Yesterday’s decade-old picture aside, I currently have a round body and a round head, I do not need a round haircut to complete the set.

And speaking of hair, check out the stylin’ newly discovered lobster! People in various fiber communities were speculating as to whether you could spin up the fur. Me, I just think it’s cool.

And speaking of fiber… okay, that was a weak segue, but just go with it… a local yarn store just started carrying Rowan Calmer. Usually I’m a big snob when it comes to acrylic, but this is such a soft, springy cotton/acrylic blend that I couldn’t pass it up. I’ve been wanting to knit Knitty’s Shedir anyway, and it only takes one ball. So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m working on a khaki green cabled cap.

For some of it I’ve cabled without a cable needle, but those bits have tended to be sloppier-looking. I’m trying to decide whether to plow on through and potentially pick up a handy new technique, or to make it look nicer with a needle. In the long run, perfecting up a new technique would be good. We’ll see how it goes.

…for the worst haircut of my life.

Before ……………………………………… After

And that, my friends, is why you always bring a picture to the hair salon.

The weather’s beautiful, wish you were here!

The huge rosemary bush out back is blooming. It never puts out many flowers, but a few have made an appearance.

Went grocery shopping, and happily, most of the things that we needed were on sale. Saving $18 on a $100 order is one of life’s little victories.

Knitted a little on the crazy loopy scarf last night.

Just what every well-dressed circus clown needs!
Yes, I do like it. No, I don’t know why. And no, I don’t know what got into me. Blame it on Spring.

“Oh. My. God.

Keep up the great work! :D”

And THAT, my friends, is why I knit the same hat over and over.

http://www.gatewaygrizzlies.com/news/?id=2723

I imagine the Happy Meal version comes with a special toy surprise: a defibrillator.

Spring, Sims2, and, of course, knitting.

Knittin’ Blues

We went out of town this weekend for the kiddo’s birthday celebrations. After last year’s disaster, we opted to keep it low-key, so it was just grandparents and us.

Finished up a couple of Jayne hats, but there’s a hitch. I’ve only got enough orange on-hand to complete a few more, and the mill won’t be winding any more gigantic cones for another week and a half. So tomorrow I canvas the state for loose skeins. This shortage won’t put anybody off schedule, since I’ve got enough to go through Jan 24th or so, but I get antsy when I can see the end of the yarn in sight. Note that the pic below shows the yarn I got in February for Jayne hats. The orange cone had 2000 yards on it.

Consider that the UK release of Serenity debuted at number one on the bestseller charts there, and the resulting uptick in UK requests over the weekend, and you can see why I am antsy about needing more yarn.

, you’re at #6.

When travelling to the in-laws, I like to take a few other projects with me to work on. So ‘s scarf is about 3/4 of the way done. Old pic, sorry. Also, I was working on something with Berroco Chinchilla. It is soft and lovely, but I had forgotten how much the dark blue stains. If ever you want to realize just exactly how you hold your yarn when you knit, just work up a little bit of this stuff and all will become clear. Maybe I’ll just give the finished garment a little rinse before passing it along, lest the wearer turn Smurfy blue without realizing it.

Speaking of Berroco yarns, I got to go to a Berroco trunk show premiering their new yarns for Spring. A few were nice, but many were fugly with a capital F. I also got to see, in person, some of the horrific things from the Berroco site featured in You Knit What? Talk about abuse of granny squares. Also, this poor woman apparently has moths the size of Volkswagens.

And now, I’m totally beat, and will actually turn in at a semi-reasonable hour. Mark this day in the record books!

The reviews that said Masala Bhangra is not a low-impact workout were correct. This being Indian dance, there is also shoulder shrugging during all the moves, which is to be expected.

Put the bouncing and shrugging together, and I cannot stress enough the importance of a good sports bra while doing the workout. The twins were Bhangra-ing around a lot is all I’m sayin’.

Also, the workout needs a longer warm-up and especially cool-down, although of course you can do those on your own.

The instructor does not explain any moves, and only shows how to do them once at full speed before you are expected to do them in combination. It’s very dancey, which would be good for someone more coordinated in that way. For me, it was sink or swim. I swam for about 15 minutes, then fast forwarded to the cool-down. Then I rewound just a little bit to see what was near the end, and saw all the exercisers dancing in circles around an old guy in traditional dress banging a huge drum. I might have been hallucinating, but I don’t think so.

I’d do this workout again, but it’ll be a while before I’m up to doing the whole thing.

Also, I need a better sports bra. Possibly made of titanium.