I recently tried dry shampoo and I was so pleased that I thought I’d share the information. I used the recipe for dry shampoo found here.  I went to Target, Home Goods, and Walmart looking for a shaker like the one pictured. I did not find one. The closest I got was a parmesan cheese shaker that I found at Walmart for $1.97. The holes on this shaker are large enough to easily get the shampoo out and onto my hair. I used the recipe as it was written, but I doubled it. This gave enough to completely fill my little shaker.

Normally if I don’t wash my hair, it will be oily near the scalp, especially around my face. On day one after washing. So I was excited about an option that would possibly let me go longer without washing my hair. I have mixed feelings on shampoo products. They seem to be a necessary evil in my life.

I washed my hair normally on Friday morning. On Saturday morning I took my shaker of dry shampoo out onto our back deck. I figured that with my long locks, it was going to be messy.  After brushing my hair, I shook the shampoo on and worked it into the roots as directed. I made sure to get the areas close to my face and around my ears. I used a natural bristle brush to brush it out. It was indeed messy brushing the shampoo out. I don’t see myself ever doing this inside our house. I also had to frequently tap the brush or run my hand over the bristles to get the shampoo out of the brush. I brushed & brushed and I’m glad I did. I LOVE the results! I will be dry shampooing for many years to come I’m sure. It’s very cheap, it’s easy on the hair (as far as I can tell), and it gives great results!

I am so pleased with my dry shampooed hair! My hair is very thin and it’s committed to being straight as a board. This leads to rather boring hair dos in my humble opinion. I know it’s the style for some, but when it’s the only style you can mange, it gets old. The dry shampoo makes my hair behave as if it’s thicker. I can back comb it, I can muss it up…and it stays! I do use a little bit of freezing spray if I really want it to stay as I have it.  I’ve been having a lot of fun trying out styles from these pages on Cup Of Jo’s blog. I feel like I have new hair, hair that I love!

My freshly "washed" hair.

I just finished sewing up a few new cloth diapers for my daughter. They are quick & easy to make when you use the following tips…

• I use the pattern from Amber Perry Patterns on Etsy.
• Add a cute cotton flannel print to give your diapers a little extra personality. 1 1/2 yards of flannel will give you enough to get 2 body cuts plus a tri-fold soaker and some wipes. Remember that you must wash & dry any fabric you purchase before you cut it. Otherwise it will shrink after the diaper is sewn.
• When sewing diapers it is most efficient to sew them assembly line style. To do this, sew each step on all of the diapers before moving on to the next step. Example: sew the soaker pads into all of the diapers before moving on to sewing the body layers together. This helps to streamline the process. Sewing with this method I can make 4 diapers in just over an hour.

More about the diapers above…

• The All-In-One on the upper right (white PUL with a rose print inner) features a sewn in tri-fold or butterfly soaker. These are fantastic if you have a heavy wetter! You can add extra layers for absorption and they still wash & dry quickly and thoroughly. I love these! You can find my tutorial on making them here.
• The diaper on the bottom left is a fitted diaper – that is why it has the cotton flannel with the rose print on the inside & the outside.
• The diaper on the bottom right is an All-In-One diaper with white PUL that I painted to give it a beautiful pink tie dyed/brushed look. I also love this diaper ~ can’t wait to get it washed and on her little bum. Here is a tutorial on how to paint PUL to get any look you desire!

Really I should say my first Aeolian shawl (pattern here). I loved knitting every moment and every stitch of this shawl. My mistake was in using DK wt yarn instead of lace. I knew the yarn was larger than recommended. I am sure that I had a good reason at the time for choosing the yarn I used.  I used DK yarn from HandPaintedYarn.com. I love their yarns!

I began the shawl last summer while still pregnant with my fifth child. I started it and began loving it right away. The lace charts are easy to read and follow. Unfortunately before I  completed the Yucca chart repeats, I had a baby, and we moved! I was finally at a place in life this last month where I was ready to work on it again. I had no trouble figuring out where in the Yucca chart I was (what row), but I had lost my original print out of the pattern that had my hash marks keeping track of the number of repeats I had done.

I joined the Aeolian KAL group on Ravelry. I looked closely at several pictures of finished shawls and realized that I could count the leaf motifs to figure out my repeats. Which I did. I thought I had an even number and began the transition chart. Things weren’t lining up right though. Ugh! I realized that I had forgotten to count the leaf motif created by the original set up chart. Woops! Thankfully I had only knit the first half of the first row, which I quickly un-knit. After finishing one more repeat of the Yucca chart; all was ell.

During the process of knitting this shawl I realized that my only real times of tension were when I changed to a new chart. I was unsure of how the lace patterns were supposed to line up. I finally discovered that folding the charts and matching up the rows really helped A LOT. This way I could see as I went if the pattern was lining up as it should. This was especially helpful as I began the alternative narrow edging rather than the original edging.  Matching up the charts was a tremendous help to me and I had no more false starts when changing charts.

The details…

• 10 Yucca repeats
• no Agave repeats
• no beads
• 5 strand nupps
• the center measures 50 1/2″ from top to bottom

Will I knit it again? Absolutely! As I said, the pattern is great, there is plenty of help on the Ravelry group, and it’s a joy to work. I will of course, use lace wt yarn next time!

I finished the shawl last night and being desperate to block it so that I could really “see” the lace, I came up with a plan. I washed the shawl in Eucalan, gently squeezed out as much water as I could and wrapped the shawl in a towel hoping that in the morning it would be damp enough to block but not still so wet that it would take forever to dry. It worked perfectly! I blocked the shawl on my bed this morning and placed a fan nearby to blow on it. Even with our cool morning, the shawl was dry within about 30 minutes!

Right now I’m trying desperately to decide which shawl to knit next. I love Bitterroot and my Knit Picks Telemark in Bayberry should arrive any day. I also want to try Laminaria,  North Roe, and Troll Forest. I really am torn. Lace wt yarn is calling to me. It’s begging to be worked with! But, I do really love the look of the Bitterroot. Hmmm…what to do? Though I have no qualms at all about having several pair of socks on the needles, I think I have three pair on the needles right now, or two or three pair of longies, it just seems wrong to have more than one large lace project going at a time. Perhaps I fear that if I begin more than one, I may lose interest and not finish either.

When I started out working on the Balloon Buddies pattern, the only DPNs I had that were US 5 were my Knit Picks Harmony needles. And though I do love them, the length of 8″ was a bit fiddly.  By the end of balloon #2 I was beginning to feel a little annoyed with the long needles. Knit Picks only offers their Harmony DPNs in the 5″ length up to US 3.

I started searching online for some good wood, short, DPNs. I found a few but budget was a major factor in the end. I chose to try out the 5″ Rosewood DPNs from YarnsAndThreads.com.  I’m not sure why they have that particular picture up for the product (it looks like turned handle crochet hooks). You can see my needles in the picture here though.

The needles are very nice to use. They have enough drag to hold the yarn nicely and I wasn’t worried about any stitches slipping off the needles. They are however, also slick enough that the stitches move nicely along the needles. The tips are very pointy (similar to Knit Picks if you’ve used any of their needles). I like the pointy tips for amigurumi projects like the Balloon Buddies because they make it easy to get into stitches for increases.

Over all, for the total price (with shipping) of $13.10, I am very happy. The order arrived quickly and the needles are great.

I have finally finished my socks knit from Conjoined Creations Flat Feet sock yarn. I say finally because I started them in July of 2008.

When I first saw this sock yarn I just had to have it. I was intrigued by the idea of knitting from flats. I was also interested in seeing how the designs on the flats translated onto the sock. I cast on using the stitch pattern from the Swirl Sock pattern. I worked them two at once, toe up, using the magic loop (my standard method for socks).

It didn’t take me long before I decided I did not like the colors of the yarn. Then I decided I didn’t like the patterning of the sock pattern with the yarn. And it was clear from the beginning that I did not like knitting with the yarn. I just never got to a point where I liked the yarn. The kinkiness was too much for me. I also noticed that the stitches seemed distorted on the socks as I knit them (due to the kink of the yarn).

With all this negativity why did I go on? I wanted to give the yarn and the pattern combo a good chance. I wanted to love them. Then, at some point, I began to feel that I was too far into the project to stop. I’d just finish them and wear them whether I loved them or not.

I finished them yesterday. Soaked them in cool water with Eucalan. Blocked them on sock blockers. I am wearing them today. They’re comfortable. I have decided that I do like the parts with more pink in them. I think what throws of my color love is the orange parts. I think I would have liked them more without the orange part.Overall, even a less loved pair of hand knit wool socks is far better than a pair of store bought socks.

Have you used this yarn? Love it? Hate it?

*This post taken from my old blog. Original writing December 2008.

I have to say, I really like them. I used the size US1 circulars to knit up some mini mittens for my kids. We’re having a very low key Christmas this year since we’re in tiny temporary housing still. Rather than a big tree, each child has a small tree to decorate.

Back to the needles.  My only complaint is about the cable. Even after hanging the cable so that it was straight, the cable still curls right back up into a tight set of circles. I was using a 40″ cable in order to work the mittens on the magic loop. I also chose to use fixed circulars as I have had the cable separate from the options needle base twice now. I don’t really know why I thought maybe the fixed needles were a safer bet, but I thought I’d give them a try. All in all, I would (and probably will) order more of them.

I also used the US7 straight Harmony Wood needles to make up the free holiday dishcloth I have on Butt Knits.

I REALLY like the straights. I have never been a fan of wooden knitting needles. I will admit though that the only other wooden needles I have tried are bamboo. Takumi and also Crystal Palace. I don’t like either one of those. I find the drag on the yarn to be bothersome as I like to knit as quickly as possible. I’ve been an Addi Turbo circular user because of my dislike of bamboo needles.

The Harmony Wood needles really have little to no drag on them. I felt that I was knitting at an acceptable speed without having to adjust the stitches often. The yarn moves along nicely. Having both the KP nickle plated and wood needles now, I can safely say that I would and will use either with no real preference. I suppose the nickel plated do move the yarn more smoothly, but there joins on the KP circulars are often (at least on the many pair I have) not as smooth as they should be. I have lately been getting out my old Addis more and more. This Christmas knitting has me in such a hurry that even the smallest issues (like the rough joins) have me frustrated and reaching for my reliable Addis. Can’t beat the KP price though can you! Even with shipping their needles are less than Addis at the LYS.

Happy knitting!

*This post taken from my old blog. Original writing date of Nov.11, 2009

Kollage square crochet hooks. Hands down these are absolutely my favorite crochet hooks. I have others. I have aluminum and I have bamboo. I even have one with a light that is supposed to allow you crochet in the dark (which I did not like because a) the light is so bright I can’t actually see the stitches it’s near and b) the hook is plastic and makes this squeaking noise when you work with it).

Aluminum is alright, but when you get down below say an H hook, they begin to get a little small for my carpel tunnel suffering hands. And they’re cold. Which I didn’t really appreciate until I used bamboo.

Bamboo hooks are fine for me for looser work. As long as there is gentle tension, they work out great. I tried to use an E hook for amigurumi and it broke in the first stitch. Which makes sense. Ami is generally worked fairly tightly and a lot of strain is thus put onto the neck of the hook.

And then I met Kollage. I ordered my hooks (and received great customer service with fast shipping) on eBay from Yarn Bazaar. I ordered US sizes C, and E. Just to see how they felt. I soon ordered US D as well. The hook is nice and deep so it really holds onto the yarn well – so slipping out. The hook handle is so nicely designed that it works well for both “knife” and “pencil” style crocheters. I happen to be a “knife” hold person myself. I find that when I’m working amigurumi I usually hold the hold near the top. Where it is rounded. This makes it very comfy for my hands and wrists. When working with looser gauge projects I tend to hold it lower on the handle. Either way it’s great.

I find that I can work for much longer time periods without my hands beginning to buzz or hurt. This is especially wonderful since my current favorite effort is amigurumi crochet patterns and the gauge is tighter than an “average” project. The tighter gauge can cause a tighter grip on the hook – but only if the hook is not as well designed as the Kollage square hooks!

Do you have a favorite hook? Is there something even better out there?

You can shop my amigurumi patterns at Amber Perry Patterns on Etsy.