Week 4: Spinning

This week I did some spinning, 100 grams of brown finnish from World of Wool.

It seems I need to do more spinning, I wasn't that happy with my results. It's more even in person than the photo makes it look, but I'm still disappointed with it.

 I also forgot to count the wraps while it was on my niddy noddy, so no idea how long it is. Since I've also forgotten to weigh last week's plant hanger I'm just going to assume that they're exactly the same yardage as each other because that's easier.

Week 3: Plant Hanger

I'm planning to start growing spider plants. This is going to end badly, because I'll forget to water them and they'll die horrible, horrible deaths. And if I bring them in the cats will eat them and they'll die a horrible, horrible death. The fact it is the worse idea I've ever had not withstanding, I've decided to grow spider plants.

To this end, this week's finished object is a crocheted plant hanger.

ETA: I used this pattern.

I've actually been crocheting a lot this week - there's been a horrible heatwave in South Eastern Australia (over 40 degrees Celcius for most of the week - it rarely gets to 35 in the region where I live, so the weather's been about the only topic of conversation. So I have started working on a throw rug - it's not as obviously horrible an idea as it sounds - since' it's only just started, it's essentially just a strip of coloured fabric at the moment, so it wasn't actually touching me much, and didn't require braining to work on.

Week 2: Miniatures

Just before Christmas I added miniature painting to my already ludicrously long list of hobbies. I have previously painted miniatures briefly a bit over a decade ago when the Lord of the Rings magazines were available. I painted a couple of the army groups, badly.

I've decided to try again since the Reapermini.com Bones minis are attractive and cheap. I currently have a box of Bones minis to paint, and Mr. Iddy has been going through his backlog of unpainted minis and throwing some armies my way for practice. The unicorn I purchased, the skeleton's from Mr. Iddy's collection. It was already primed from a practice run he'd done trying out spray primer on Bones.

Again, they look better in person than in my crappy iphone photo. Perhaps one week I'll round up my FOs and take decent photos of them.

First finished object for 2014

Pattern used: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sandoval-hat

A few days ago I randomly decided that my new years revolution would be to complete at least one project a week. Any craft, any size, just get some finished objects already.

Yesterday, 1000km from my craft supplies I only had on-hand accessories from a poorly researched project. Some time spent browsing ravelry, and no regard at all given to gauge or elasticity of the yarn on hand, I set to work on a baby hat using some green bella baby layette I'd purchased a bit over a week earlier in Albury.

It's a nice quick project, and looks better in person  (which honestly isn't hard. Dodgy iphone photo is dodgy). All up it used 43 grams of yarn, which is about 77 metres.

So, apparently being asked to shave my head is a trigger...

It's been forever since I've posted, but I figure, while lots of places on the Interwebs are not my blog, this IS my blog and I can put whatver I want whenever I want and be as self-indulgent as I want.

I got a hair cut today, I've been putting it off forever for no good reason, but got round to it today. This was also when I learnt about an insta-outrage button I didn't realise I had. I'm guessing because I've not encountered the level of presumptuousness that it took to press it.

My hair

I entered the budget hair cut place (I figure I want a trim, I don't need an ongoing relationship with a hairdresser for that, and if she messed up horribly I'd just get it trimmed again to be level). I enquired about the cut, got directed to a chair. I sat down, she walks over to me, picks up my hair and asks 'Have you considered getting it cut for World's Greatest Shave.'

I abruptly responded 'No'. In my opinion her question was rude and presumptuous. She looked at me as though I was the most selfish individual to ever wal gods green earth, so I followed it up with I had cancer when I was 21, and figure that's enough.' Afterwards I was overcharged for the cut so I can only assume I got charged a bitch tax. Whatever, I know where I'm not going again. 

I was outraged and it took me a few hours to work out why. It brought up memories of that time, and that time wasn't pleasent, and my biggest reminder that I've survived them and don't have to go back is my long hair. I posted my outrage on facebook, and was asked 'Did you really?' by a woman I went to school with and is now a hair dresser.

It's apparently my day to be asked rude and presumptuous questions by hairdressers. Who knew? Anyway I'm proud of my response and it was very difficult and led to tears to write out, so I wanted to spread it further. 

I'm not sure of the question. Did I really say what I claim to? or did I really have cancer?

Did I really say what I claim to? Yes, the question was rude and presumptuous and deserved to be treated as such.

Did I really have cancer? Also yes. 

I was diagnosed with Stage IIA Hodgkins Lymphoma early January 2003. Stage IIA means that I was mostly asymptomatic (if you can call sleeping for 14 hours a day asymptomatic), and the cancer had spread to two different areas, both on the same side of the diaphragm. In my case that was my neck and near my heart.

I underwent 4 months of fortnightly chemotherapy that damaged my lungs and was all round not fun at all. After that finished I had to stay in Sydney for three weeks to get daily (business days) radiotherapy to my throat and chest which combined had the outcome of making me unable to swallow without pain at the time (The inside of my throat essentially felt sunburnt), and has left me with a legacy of three tattooed dots across the top of my chest. 

Not to mention the legacy of a 1 in 4 chance of getting breast cancer before the age of 50. That's twelve times higher than the risk level of the general female population.

Out of all the unpleasant experiences that year, there are two that really stick out in my memory. The unquestionable single most horrible experience was a bone marrow biopsy taken. The second was losing my hair. 

While there's nothing like school for pointing out ones flaws and letting them know they're not beautiful, I felt then, and I still feel now, that my one beautiful feature is my hair and I cried when I lost it at the time, and grew it out again as soon as possible.

(badly pixilated image of me with short hair)

And anyone who wants to make me feel bad for not wanting to go through that again can go to hell.

Rose Soap

I've made some shampoo bars recently. Because I'm impatient I'm already using it. My hair looks great, and has adjusted nicely. It tangles a little more overnight and as a result takes a bit longer to brush, but we're talking seconds here, and it's well and truly worth it. It stays in place better now, so that's a fair trade off.

Today I made rose scented soap (fragrance, not essential oil). I used my basic rice bran / tallow / coconut oil base. I added red oxides for colouring - half a teaspoon, and 10 ml of rose scent. I'm not too happy with the colour, but most bizarre of all - it started gelling before I'd finished putting it into the mould. I'm trying to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I keep checking it every 10 minutes or so to see what's happening.

It's the weirdest thing though - the soap isn't insulated. Only thing I can think is I didn't wait until the oil returned to room temperature - and didn't cool the lye off. I'll just have to wait til tomorrow to unmould it and see how it went.

In other news, I've joined the Hexapuff craze that's taken over Ravelry. I'm not stuffing them, so I guess I'm making Hexaflats?

Victorian Prude Cat

RIP Victorian Prude Cat.

Back in May we were woken in the middle of the night by one of our three cats pulling herself up onto the bed - her hind quarters were paralysed. We took her to the vet, she was given a pain killer, put on cage rest and we took her back in the morning. She walked out of the cage, it seemed like a miracle.

Then on Thursday, 28 July 2011, Mr. Iddy called me at work - the same thing had happened. He took her to the vet, got her pain killers. Friday morning, she seemed to be on the mend. She was walking around, she didn't seem to be in much pain, and she was enjoying rare sunbeams.

On Saturday she was upside down on the spare bed and seemed to be raising her front paws with each breath. She then flipped over and seemed fine. Yesterday I was walking out to meet Mr. Iddy for a meeting, and checked on her as I stepped out the front door (she was laying in a sunbeam). I called Mr. Iddy, and he came home and checked her - we'd forgotten to give her pain killers at breakfast, so we gave her some, and went to the movie.

We got home and she still had laboured breathing, so we took her to the vet. Unfortunately it was heart failure, and she didn't come home with us. We miss you Victorian Prude Cat, and will always love you.

On the soap front, I made another batch - 650 grams this time, pre melted the oils - it went better this time. I recommend pre melting them and then letting them cool. It's really worth the extra effort. Meanwhile, I'm having mould issues - I can't seem to pour into the mould evenly, I'm wondering if I'm letting trace go on for too long. Maybe I'll just overfill the damn things and cut the tops off when I unmould. This batch I didn't bother gelling.

I've finished a new jumper for Mr. Iddy (first one I've finished for him), and have cast on a Citron shawl. It's a fun little knit, and just what I needed to get my mojo back!