Getting my hair did

I have LOTS of stick straight fine hair. It's a serious torture device in the summer. The one summer that I spend all day everyday outside, the summer I worked at a camp for the mentally and physically disabled, I actually went so far as to shave my head. Maybe not the smartest choice as I was a bit regretting it come fall and my freshman year of college, but, Man! It was awesome for the summer! No more sweat rolling down my forehead and no more heat rashes on my neck. Every summer, I wish I could do that again, but then I am reminded of the pain in the butt inbetween styles I had to put up with, and I just don't want to deal with that again.

(The Before)

Also, please add in the fact that I have 2 young children and nanny for an additonal 3 young children. I have no time (or will) to take a shower most days, much less spend 5 minutes drying my hair. I had one very awesome stylist that was able to thin my hair out enough that it was manageable for me, but then she went and got married and then moved away. Geez! Why wasn't she thinking about me! Since then, I have suffered through 9 stylists who much up my hair everytime. Seriously, I've paid anywhere from $7 to $45 for a haircut and spent anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours in a stylist's chair with no one being able to replicate the results of this favorite stylist. So, I've decided to stop hating my hair and to stop making these poor girls try to fit in someone else's shoes. I'm going to do something totally different.

My requirements:
1) My hair must not hang on my neck
2) My hair must look good after 3 days of no showers
3) My hair maintenance must take less than 5 minutes a day and preferrably not require product of any sort
4) My hair must be versatile and be both a "mommy cut" and "smoking hot wife cut"

Idea: A permed bob. A cut that will create some volume so that my unwashed hair is not limp on my scalp. A style that won't require me to do anything to it but tossle dry on days that I don't have time, but allows for some more detailed styling on days that I really want to play with my hair.

So I brought these four pictures to my new stylist. Yeah, a big leap to hand over a more delicate process to someone brand new to me, but I haven't fallen in love with any of the other ladies that I've visited, so why not? I'm aware that one of these is not actually a perm or naturally curly hair, but rather a curled style, but these pictures were brought as a "please don't make me curlier than this" guide.



Okay, my stylist turned out to be super awesome at my hair! He wasn't much of a talker...as in didn't say two words to me at all, other than, "So you want a perm?" And it was kind of nice to sit in peace and quiet for once! I love the final result, and I think it's a super easy style. I told him I wanted "beachy," and I think that just about describes the tightness of the curl! In fact, you can actually see my (months old) highlights much better now.

(The After)

Do you love it too?

Day 6, Tour de Fleece

Miriam had a hard time falling asleep tonight, so I only got my 15 minutes in. It seemed to take forever though!

Day 5, Tour de Fleece

Things are slowing down! I spun for an hour today, but it was broken up into lots of 5 minute chunks throughout the day.

Day 4, Tour de Fleece

Day 4 finds me back at work. I nanny for 3 small children, in addition to watching my 2 babies, so spinning during the day has become impossible. That is the reason I set my goal for spinning 15 minutes a day! Today was a lot more thick and thin spinning than yesterday, but I was sort of rushing my drafting because I'm exhausted!

I was able to finish up what I couldn't spin yesterday. I take my roving length and split it into 4 strands. I had been spinning from all four strands the first 2 days, but yesterday and today, I only spun from two of them.



And to give you an idea of how fine my thread is, I've included this picture. When plied (twisting 2 spun threads onto each other to create a stable yarn), I should have a fingering weight yarn.



I'm getting sick of looking at all this turquoise. Are you? I better start thinking about what I want to knit from this yarn so that I'm motivated to keep spinning from this roving!

Day 3, Tour de Fleece

Day 3! I only got 1/2 as much done as I had the past two days, but I did spin twice my goal time. (For a reminder, my goal time is 15 minutes a day.) I'm so excited that I'm feeling more in control of my drafting! I'm still doing "park and draft" but at least it's becoming a consistent amount of fiber in each draft. Now, I need to work on being consistent in the timing of my draft. That will allow me to let go of the "park" and spin on a spindle like the pros!

Day 2, Tour de Fleece

I actually got an hour to spin tonight! Well, I usually have that hour on a regular basis, it's just that I chose to use it for spinning instead of something else. I just about doubled the amount of fiber on the Trindle, and I am getting a more even and thin single. I bet by the end of this tour, my singles should look pretty passable!!

Tour de Fleece

Well, the Tour de France has started today! However, in even more exciting news, the Tour de Fleece has started as well!! What? You've never heard of the Tour de Fleece? But it's only the most grueling and demanding spinning competition ever!

Okay, it's not grueling or demanding, unless you want it to be. You set your own goal, be it yardage, finished product, or time invested. You join teams based on your personal interests, your talent level, or your spinning instrument of choice. There's a huge group of spinners on Ravelry who are participating in the Tour de Fleece, like over 4300 huge!

I've joined Team Rookie (because I've been actively spinning for less than 1 year) and Team Trindle (because that's the type of spindle I've chosen to spin on). My goal is to spin a minimum of 15 minutes a day, with letting go of my "park and draft" method when we get to the mountain stages (same day the Tour de France does!). I'm hoping that by the end of this TdF, I'll be a more confident and even spinner, perhaps enough to justify more fiber purchases at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September!



I am spinning from a turquoise 6oz Corriedale roving on a 13 gram Trindle.

The Ice Cream Incident

What do you do when it's 90 degrees outside? You eat ice cream, of course!!