Friday, January 26, 2007

This Week and the Hat Are Both Finally Finished!

Here it is Friday. Yippee! It's been one, hectic week and I'm glad it's coming to a close. Wednesday was the worst day, probably ... my Dad had some after effects from his recent surgery and, just when that was clearing, Amelia called to tell me that the curling-iron-brush thing was stuck in her hair! YIKES! Why had she tried out the curling iron for the first time when I was not home?? (OK, I know she's almost 17-years-old, and not like a little kid experimenting with something, but still!) AAACCKKKK! I hurried home from my parents' house to help. Fortunately, she was not burned! And, she had only tried to curl the sides, so it was far from her scalp.
She had the presence of mind to unplug the thing and put an ice bag on her head while she waited for me!
Unfortunately, her hair was wound around the brush in clockwise and counter-clockwise twists ... completely tangled. (As an aside, this is a very strange phenomenon that has, admittedly, happened to me with round brushes, as well. Although you may think you are wrapping your hair in the same direction, for some reason it wraps frontwards and backwards onto the brush. I have had my own scary moments with round brushes and now never use them.) After carefully trying to unwind the hair (and I was able to save some), getting the scissors was our only solution. Yes, I had to cut out a chunk of her hair. (Photo of offending curling iron with hair will follow shortly.)
Overall, the hair cut doesn't look too bad, actually, now that it's done. We both agreed that her hair is simply too long to curl with one of those things. She has vowed never to try one again!
We had good news yesterday at the doctor's office. My Dad's tumors were low grade and non-invasive. This is what we had all been hoping for! Thank God for that!
Maggie, the beardie, still needs another course of antibiotics for her infections on her stomach, but she's happy and doing well. And the vet said the eye that has scleritis looks very good. Phew. What a relief!
As for knitting, well, I finally finished the hat that was supposed to be for my Mom. I put it in the washer to felt. The directions said to keep checking every five minutes. After only about 10 minutes, I decided the band looked like it was small enough, so I removed the hat and rinsed it. The top part was still huge (and I had stopped increasing long before the pattern had so directed) ... it looked like one giant pancake! My Mom, needless to say, did not like it at all! She tried to tell me this in a very tactful way. (I must admit, she has a very small head and this really swallowed her up!) So, feeling I could experiment now that it was a lost cause (yarn and two months' work down the drain *sniff), I threw it back into the washer for more shrinkage. It came out great! I still don't think it's exactly the style she was looking for, as it's more of a fashion hat ... kind of like a beret with a brim ... rather than an over-the-ears warm hat, if you know what I mean. Well, I put it on a bowl to dry. You wouldn't believe how small the band became! I used Amelia's head to stretch it a bit ... then a bigger bowl. She's such a good sport! (Thanks, Amelia!)

Meanwhile, Randy has noticed that nobody actually uses anything that I make. It is a little discouraging, I must say. So, he has promised if I knit him a pair of BRIGHT GREEN socks, he will wear them (at home).

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