Saturday, May 23, 2009

I'm sitting here surrounded by noxious fumes as I erradicate my grey hair for another three weeks and I thought I'd show you what I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. But, about the grey hair. I'm reaching the point where I'm seriously thinking that I'd like to stop the hair coloring and let my hair be it's own natural color which by the looks of the roots is an allover grey/silvery color. A woman I work with just recently did this and I was amazed at how beautiful she looks with her grey hair. I'm not sure where this is coming from. I'm going to talk to the hairdresser when I go to get it cut this weekend and see what she says. If I have to let it grow out, that'll be hard. I'm vain enough not to want to walk around with 4 inch roots. I'm hoping she can strip the color and then put a rinse on it or something.
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Here is a composition I call 'Purple trainwreck in the morning sun'. I'm supposed to be working on my alpaca/merino blend to keep up with my spin along group but I got tired of all the brown and black and white. The days were grey and rainy for over a week and I needed some color. This did the trick.
I have one full bobbin and am almost finished another. I have rather small bobbins for my wheel and while they hold a lot, it's not nearly as much as I would like. I tried to get a nice, clear shot of the bobbin but for some reason the camera didn't cooperate. I think it was dazzled by the colors. I want to finish the second bobbin and ply some of it this weekend. I tried to keep the color runs similar so I could have some stripes but we'll see how that goes. However it comes out, it'll be beautiful.
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And speaking of beautiful, here is Em's Playmate sweater in progress. I have just about finished the waist decreases and have just plain stockinette to go for a few inches and then the ribbing on the bottom. It's coming out better than I'd hoped. Stockinette is boring but soothing at the same time. My problem is that I'm using my Denise needles and they make it harder than it needs to be. I'm going to invest in a set of Options sometime soon because plastic needles are not for me. I like the feel of this sweater. It's a superwash blend (chosen for it's washability) and it's soft without being too soft. I think it'll hold up nicely. I have 3 weeks to get it done if I want to give it to Em to wear after the surgery. It's doable if I don't do much of anything else. I made Em a sweater (a cropped ribbed thing) out of some grey acrylic that I got on clearance somewhere several years ago when I was teaching myself to knit. It's all rectangular pieces that have mininal shaping and it was easy and a good pattern to learn on. It was long before I knew anything about yarn other than it was in skeins. Then I found the online knitting community and my knitting took leaps and bounds forward. She still wears that sweater and it's held up remarkably well but it looks like caca.
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We were saddened to find out that our favorite local gourmet store is closing. Pk and I went there to get some ingredients for some gift baskets that are going to be raffled off at Em's Beef 'n Beer next week. This is the place where you could find almost anything you were looking for. They sold high end cookwear and knives and had a huge selection of salsas and hot sauces and coffee and teas and too many other things to name. They have two other locations but neither is close to us. We'll miss it.
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Time to hit the shower. Lots to do today if I want some time to spin or knit or just relax. I hope you are all having a good weekend. As I sit her looking out my bedroom window, the sky is clear and blue, the trees are waving in the slight breeze and the birds are chirping away. If I start to see some deer and rabbits dancing together, I'll swear I've slipped into a Disney movie. It reminds me that life is good and I am a very lucky woman.
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PS. The ** between all the paragraphs are to make sure there are spaces there. For some reason, blogger puts the spaces in for the first paragraphs and then gets lazy at the end. I hate all those run-together paragraphs. This is my solution for now. And besides I like astericks.

12 comments:

amy said...

Send us those blue skies! It's all grey here at the moment. We were all cooped up for the beautiful weather.

I have a big patch of grey (most of that is due to Nicholas, I'm sure of it). I dyed for a bit but I won't do it while I'm trying to get pregnant/pregnant/nursing, and I'm wondering what it will look like when I'm done with all that. I started to go grey in my late 20s--it's hereditary. Anyway, I always look like I'm walking around with roots because that's where the grey is.

Julie said...

I've got streaks of white - bright, silver white - in my hair. It started turning white when I was 16. Personally I think I look like the love child of the Bride of Frankenstein and a skunk, but other people tell me it's cool, and so far I'm too lazy to color it. We'll see.

Glad I could provide some color. Haha. Also glad you're enjoying it. I can't wait to see what you do with it; I always feel like I had a hand in it, even when others do all the work. heehee.

teabird said...

Yes yes yes! Let your hair go grey. Mine began to grey - one white streak, actually - at 16. At 58, my hair is nearly waist-length, and streaky grey-white-a touch of brown. For the first time in my life, I really like the colour of my hair because it's mine, and because it ties me to all of the women on my mother's side of the family.
(Not to mention the benefit of less exposure to carcinogens)

The sweater is going to be seriously beautiful.

Bells said...

oh do let us know what the hair dresser says. My main reason for continuing to dye my own very grey hair is the fear of the growing out and i'm not sure yet what I'll do if I ever get pregnant as I worry about the fumes and pregnancy!

If you go into edit mode, you can remove all the < div > tags and have more control over the spacing. I do it all the time because blogger's approach to paragraphs is a little weird!

DrK said...

i would die without my options. literally. ok not literally, but they are the best investment ever. and stocking stitch is very soothing i think, and productive. as for the grey, im not ready for mine yet. i dont mind the colour but they are so bloody wiry! whats with that?? love the purple-trainwreck-in-the-morning sun xx

Rose Red said...

I don't dye my hair - which is brown turning silvery grey. Mainly because I never really have gotten into the habit of dyeing or highlighting, partly because I'd rather spend the money on shoes (or yarn) and finally because I don't want to have to keep doing it forever. It's funny, because people often compliment me on my hair colour (so I laugh inwardly when I think to myself I got it for free!).

A good tip for grey or silver hair - wear silver or white gold jewellery, rather than yellow gold - it really complements the silver hair!

Jeanne said...

I still dye my hair because I just have enough grey hair to look terrible - if mine was all over silver, I'd really consider letting it go. But I would be worried about work then - until the economy is a bit more stable, I don't want to highlight my age at work.

I use Options needles exclusively, and love them. I have both the metal and wood - I use the wood for lace, and they are perfect.

Have a great weekend!

roxie said...

Actually, the dark ends with light roots is very "Goth" and stylish and people pay lots of money to achieve that look in high fashion. If you don't feel like being quite so cutting edge, how do you feel about wearing hair accessories? A wide band covers a lot of grow out. Or, if Em gets chemo, you can shave your head in sympathy and there's your perfect chance to let it grow natural.

By the way, for the auction, I bid $25 for a nice picture of Em with her family.

Sheepish Annie said...

I'm still not ready to surrender to the grey. If I have to do early menopause, I'm going to focus on that and let everything else pretend to be 21. At least for a little while longer...

I love the Purple Trainwreck! It does nicely in the morning sun!

NeedleTart said...

The music teacher at my school decided to give up on dying her hair last fall and it is beautiful. My own hair is light brown and the grey looks like really expensive highlights. Lucky me. Mom didn't give up on dye and go totally grey until she was in her late sixties.Definately see what the hairdresser says. Good luck.

Amy Lane said...

The *** look VERY professional! And coloring my hair doesn't really seem to stick! I should probably just give it up, but, like you, I have a surprising streak of vanity about my streaks!

Dianne said...

Let us know what your hairdresser suggests. Mine didn't have any options for me, but she wasn't in favor of me stopping the dyeing, anyway. I've dyed my hair every three weeks since my 26th birthday - I started getting LOTS of gray in college. Now it's mostly gray, and I'm so very tired of dyeing it, not to mention the toxins...

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