A Charitable Kind Of Week

I finally decided to chop off all my hair!  And since I was going to do it anyway, I decided to really go for it and donate my hair to Locks of Love.  They require a minimum of 10 inches (they took 12 of mine!) of hair.  (More specific requirements on their website.)  If you’re considering cutting your hair short for the summer, it’s a great cause that creates real hair wigs for children who have lost their hair due to disease.  Bonus! if you find a salon that supports Locks of Love, your haircut is free!

Before…

After!

(Also a sneak peek of my “Baaad Sheep” mini shawl!)

Just before I left for my haircut, two other causes came to my attention.  Apparently this is “World Week for Animals in Laboratories.”  The Beagle Freedom Project has put out a picture to put up on Facebook pages in support of legislation to free these animals.  I fully support their mission, and have gone cruelty free myself, and I would invite all of you to do the same.

Via Beagle Freedom Project:  “The Face of Animal Testing
For the duration of this World Week for Animals in Laboratories we are asking all of our Beagle Freedom Project supporters to adopt THIS PHOTO as your Facebook picture. To recognize those 70,000 dogs still in laboratory cages we are asking you to symbolically take on their identity.”

WEBS is also in a charitable mood.  Now through April 27, 5% of sales will go to The One Fund Boston to help victims of the bombings.  I purchase all my blank yarn from them, and will be putting my next order in this week.  And you should buy some yarn too!  Come on, it’s for a good cause!  (Like any of us needed an excuse to buy more yarn haha.)

So, if you’re feeling charitable too, buy some yarn, hug your pets (and go cruelty free!), and chop off your hair!  It’s all for a good cause! 😀

Uugggg

I had planned on posting a bunch this week.  I had done stuff!  I had pictures!  I even had a finished object for crying out loud!!!  Sadly, I also had food poisoning.  Nothing stifles productivity like your insides trying to escape

We started out the week having some good, clean, family fun.  We keep alternating between winter (our version of winter any way. ” Ooo, it’s only 60 out, better bundle up!”) and summer here.  Apparently we don’t get spring this year.  Anyway, on one of the warmer evenings we decided to pack Little Sheep’s blanket and head to the park with the beagles.

H. G. Hankle, always on the look out over Little Sheep 🙂

We even decided to let Little Sheep check out the grass for the first time.

Not sure the grass was more interesting than her though.

Tuesday we had our good friend Liz come into town for a visit.  She’s a super awesome baby person and had fun with LS while I tried to finish up Josh’s “Christmas” scarf before he took off to the frozen north of Toronto for work.  I’m happy to say I was successful!  Although I am ashamed to say that I suck at blocking.  Example:

4am flash photo, not so good

I seriously need some blocking wires, and cats who are less interested in alpaca.  I had to pin it out in a separate room and close the door to keep the cats from rolling all over it.  Although maybe letting them once and letting them stick themselves with a stray pin might teach them a lesson… but I doubt it.  They are super stubborn.

Another lousy picture

I did really love how it blocked out, and you could finally see the single, manly, cable down the middle.  I was a little disappointed with how it tried to curl back up some once I repined it.  Is there a trick I’m missing?  It’s baby alpaca.  I soaked it in wool wash for a good hour before wringing it out and pinning it.  I had a fan on it to speed up the drying process, but I did let it dry completely before unpinning it and weaving in the ends.  (At 4am in order to send it with Josh on his 6:30am flight.  I must love him or something.)  I got to wrap it around his neck just in time to send him out the door 🙂

Since it’s just been LS and me the last few days, with not a whole lot to do other than work out the food poisoning, I finally got a little more knitting for myself done!  I’m plugging along on my “Baaad Sheep” mini shawl.

Slowly but surly

What started out as 10 stitches per row, is now over 150 stitches per row.  I’m hoping to use up the whole ball and get a nice scarf size.  I’m figuring I’m about half way there.  I am loving the make shift pattern it’s got going too.

Close up beauty shot

I can’t wait to wear it!  Hopefully it will be done before the weather warms up too much.  I’m thinking about adding some nice warm weather yarn to the shop.  I’m not a huge fan of cotton, so probably a silk blend of some sort.  I’m totally open for suggestions… hint, hint.

 

How I Get My Pretty On

Sorry for the radio silence, my sister’s wedding is this coming Friday and we’re all in last-minute freak out mode.  I’ve had this post nearly ready to go for a few days, so without further a due…

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In case some of you didn’t know, I am a big supporter of The Beagle Freedom Project.  They are an amazing group dedicated to rescuing “research” Beagles from labs around the world.  Some of these poor dogs have never even seen grass before.  They are used in all kinds of testing of cosmetics, cleaners, and pharmaceuticals.  Beagle Freedom Project rehabilitates these dogs and finds them loving homes, which is amazing!  It’s because of the awareness and outreach of this group that I am going cruelty free with my products.

BFP is currently celebrating their 11’th group of rescues!  In honor of the newly freed Beagles, I’m going to share with you my favorite new beauty supplies that are NOT tested on animals!  What’s even better, these are all readily available at your local Target store.  (I have not been paid by any of these companies, and I make these claims from my own research on the companies.  If I’m mistaken about any of these, please do let me know!)

For hair care, I love TRESemme.  They have all different kinds of products within their brand, I happen to use the moisturizing version.  They’re also super affordable at about $5 for the bulk bottles.

I also use the Organix Macadamia Oil to smooth out my frizzy.  They have a full line of all different organic hair products too!

Our Little Sheep is very happy with her California Baby, all natural and super sensitive head to toe body wash. 😉

As far as skin goes, I am super sensitive to I don’t even know what :P.  Some lotions just have me itching within an hour or two from applying it.  I haven’t narrowed it down to one specific thing, but I can say that the St. Ives Daily Hydrating Lotion works well for me, and isn’t tested on animals!  Unfortunately not all their products have the “not tested on animals” label on their bottles, and my online research has been a bit inconclusive.  So as far as St Ives goes, I only purchase the products that have the “not tested on animals” label directly on the bottle.   *Update* Sadly my St. Ives lotion no longer caries the “not tested on animals” label on any of their products, any new online research is pretty inconclusive.  I’ve opted for a lotion from Alba Botanica and will be writing an email to St. Ives to try and get the real scoop, and inform them that I will no longer be using their products until they officially stop all their animal testing.

My husband really likes his Every Man Jack body wash.  My dad and brother use it as well.  They also have great shaving products.

For my break out prone, and super sensitive, face, I’m totally in LOVE with Alba Botanica’s Acne-Dote line.  I use the face and body scrub every morning in my shower, put the lotion on under my make up every day, then use the astringent every evening to take off my make up.  My skin has seriously never looked better!

Tom’s of Maine has been a bit of a struggle for me.  Their toothpaste, while it seems to work great, does have a bit of an off taste compared to your usual science laced toothpaste.  Their deodorants haven’t always worked well for me, although I know some people who swear by them.  This new Naturally Dry version does work very well for wetness, which is my main concern, but a friend of mine who tried it said the scent wasn’t quite enough for her.  However, I defy you to find a cruelty free deodorant that works better than this one.

The Yes To Carrots/Blueberries/Cucumbers/… line has a lot of great cruelty free stuff.  Their berry lip balm is my go to.

I don’t use a whole lot of makeup, but I have found a few staples that I really love.  I’ve recently discovered E.L.F.  While I’ve only tried their eyeliner and shadow, I have to say, if the rest of their stuff is as good, consider me hooked!  They’re cruelty free, a really great quality, and super affordable!  That eye liner also has a shadow stick in the other end, and it was only $3!  As I run out of my old icky makeup, I’m mostly switching to them.

Almay is another affordable brand, who’s cover up has worked really nicely for me.

If you’re willing to spend a bit more about ($10-$12 a piece) Physician’s Formula has great mineral powders that I’ve been using for years.  They even have kits that include powder, blush, and a finishing powder.

Also, for my friends who occasionally like to get their hair did,  Paul Mitchell does not test on animals!  So you can easily find a salon or stylist that uses their products!

So that’s my new line up.  I’ll have to do another post on the cleaning products I’ve been using and even making, sometime soon.  Do any of you have awesome cruelty free products you’d like to share?  I’d love to hear about them.

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Also coming up, a FINISHED KNIT *GASP*, some more succulents via wedding pictures, and a new yarn in my shop dedicated to BFP!  A portion of the sale price for this new yarn will be donated to BFP so they can continue their amazing work, so keep an eye out for new colors soon!  Yay!

The Blankie is Nearly Complete!

I have finally bound off on the baby blanket!  It’s hanging out in the sink getting a good wash before I lay it out and
(once it’s dry) weave in all the ends.

Baby blanket taking a swim!

Other than that it’s been pretty quiet around here lately.  I caught a cold somewhere and decided to bring it home and share it with my lovely husband (oops!).  Now I’m just hoping that we can kick this thing in the butt before I go into labor.  To that effect, we’ve all been getting as much rest as possible the last few days.

Linus swears this is comfy

Ivy thinks the new rocking chair is just for her

Hank has a cushy retirement

Leah was a little miffed that I disturbed her nap

The hubby + beagle combo, always irresistible

Pictures of an actually finished blanket, and hopefully a free pattern for it should be up in the next day or two… you know… if baby doesn’t decided to interrupt things 😉

More Wedding Blanket

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I’m still sweat shopping away on the wedding blanket. It has to be done by Sunday, so I promise real updates and something new after that.

In the mean time, I think the beagle approves of my work so far. He’s going to have to wait for me to finish the baby blanket before he can get one of his own though…

Dying Fail

So I managed to spend some time dying my yarn for the little sheep’s baby blanket recently.  I used the same hot water dying method I showed off recently.  Apparently, not my best decision.

I loved the result from the first attempt with the sock yearn.  I knew that attempting to dye all 4 hanks of a much larger worsted weight yarn would never work in my little pot… but two at a time didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. Turns out that if I wanted the two hanks to be evenly dyed, this method was a fail…

Dying Fail

The hank on the right was apparently the yarn closest to the top of the pot (I did make an attempt and swirling the yarn so that no one hank would be more on top than the other), and the yarn on the left got only the left over dye that managed to seep down to the bottom of the pot.  *sigh*

I did still attempt dying the other two hanks together (more swirling this time!) and they did seem more even, but the pattern I’m hoping to go with would require all 4 hanks.

I’m going to try over dying the one oddly pastel version of this dye lot and we’ll see how that goes.

In the mean time, here’s a picture of 2 out of 4 of my critters…

Linus and Leah

Leah was not amused that Linus encroached on her snuggle spot.

Ouch

Knitting on a deadline stinks.  I have this tendency to get all wrapped up in the project, forsaking all others, working on it at every spare moment, until my wrist just can’t handle the repetitive movement any longer.  I’ve looked up some knitting wrist and hand stretches, and hopefully that will help out some.  

Today is day three with no knitting on the very large blanket which needs to be done by August 12.  Eek!

I have, however, been attempting to work on other things.  One of which does have, yet another, deadline, and the other, not so much.  The non deadline project, which I really shouldn’t even be thinking about right now, would be more spinning.  I have a full pound of that peacock roving, and I’ve barely even made a dent into the first half of it.  I’ve got about 2 “spools” (I use a drop spindle, and therefore have no spools, so I wrap the singles around TP tubes when I fill up the spindle), and just a tad more on the spindle itself.  Not the most exciting, but it is progress.

Deadline project numero dose would me my little one’s baby blanket.  I’m using Patons Classic Wool in Aran and over dying it in what I’ve dubbed my “Fuzzy Navel” colorway.  Tonight was full of such fun things as….  taking yarn out of skein and making it into dyeable hanks!  Woot!

As I still need to order a Niddy Noddy, and/or a Yarn Swift, my dining table became the next best thing.  I used my knitting supply box to make the hanks a little longer.  

Four hanks put together, 2 set to soak and dye.  I also apparently need a larger dye pot for these bigger yarns.  Hopefully some careful dye measuring will mean the 4 finished hanks will match… as much as hand dyed yarns ever match. 

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On a totally separate note, Linus and I made a trip out to the local farmers market tonight.  It’s also a sort of street fair with craft booths and live music.  Linus was busy Hoovering dropped popcorn and other snacks while I shopped for this week’s fruit and veggies.

My favorite thing of the summer finally showed up!  Heirloom tomatoes!!!  So tonight I took one of them and chopped it up with an avocado (another delicious market find!), cilantro, lime juice, and a little garlic and salt.  Mmmmm, not a bad late night snack if you ask me.

Now I just have to kill the heartburn (thanks baby) from all the acid in the tomato before I attempt to hit the sack.  We’ll see how that goes

 

 

Beagle Helper

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Linus is helping me with the wedding blanket while it’s cool enough to work on it. 🙂