Long Weekend Relaxation

I took advantage of our nice long weekend to finally do one of my favorite things, 'backyard knitting'. Here is the start of a shawl for me. I started it with one skein but soon realized I'd need another, thankfully that arrived in the mail yesterday from Eat Sleep Knit. I love the look of feather and fan and it's a very nice relaxing knit. Sometimes you just need that!

Life can be stressful and tough enough, knitting should be fun and relaxing.

I found these cute traveling mugs, change the wording to 'tea' and they are perfect. I created a 'wishlist' on Pinterest, maybe Santa will take note.

Out of Hiding

 Life has been busy, work is just starting to slow down now, but now my boss is away so there is a bit more responsibility. I've been knitting tea cozies for a local tea shop and I'm very pleased with the results. I thought I'd show you a few of the cozies and one of my other recent FO's.

I also decided to finish a couple of UFO's, the second picture of the Boneyard Shawl was on my needles since last August! Part way through I got really discouraged with the project and it was set aside. I've decided to try and get these out of the way before starting new projects. My DD saw this on the needles and really liked it so it was gifted to her for her 19th birthday.

On my needles now is a Lace 1, 2, 3, Andean Treasure Shawl. I'm using Dream in Color Starry in Black Pearl. I've wanted a nice black shawl as long as I can remember, but for some reason I always put it off. As soon as I saw the starry yarn I knew I had to knit a shawl for myself with it, I love the extra bling.

I'm still plugging away at my Sampler afghan for my queen size bed, at times wondering if I've lost my mind. I've got 15 out of 56 squares done now so about 1/4 of the way there. After I knit a couple more squares I can sew together the first two rows. I plan to do this as I go so that the end finishing isn't so tedious. I think it's looking good. It doesn't seem like too much work yet, it's just like knitting a lot of dishcloths. Switching colours and pattern stitches keeps me from getting bored. And of course I always switch out on to another project if I find any boredom creeping in.

Next week DH and I are off for a nice romantic weekend for out 23rd wedding anniversary. We went to this luxurious hotel/spa a few years back. Life got us good and we were both sick with H1N1 during our stay there. We stuck it out but this time I want to really enjoy it, this place is so gorgeous. It is a mineral spa and the waters are so healing and great for the skin. We are checking into the honeymoon suite with a giant hottub/fireplace in the room. The best part is it's only a 45 minute drive from home. The dogs are booked for their puppy vacation and I've got someone to watch my office this Friday so we get another long weekend next weekend to rejuvenate. It's been a tough year and we both need this time away. The only knitting I'm taking is my lovely shawl for me, aptly named 'One Starry Night'.

A Beauty Breakthrough

First Rinse

Second Rinse

For me this is a revolutionary breakthrough. I am 42 and about 50-60% grey. I happen to be one of the growing number who is allergic to one of the toxins in hair dye which is PPD. After doing research on PPD, I'm amazed it isn't a banned chemical. Considering my reaction is more on the tame side, it can cause death by anaphylaxis  shock. Some women experience their eye lids swelling shut and some get black circles around their eyes. Even if your reaction is serious itch, take it seriously as over time the reactions get worse. Initially I had a moderate itch and it got more and more serious. At the end I would get dry scaly patches on my head that itched and then flaked off and the cycle kept repeating to the point that even shampoo causes a reaction.

Aside from that the chemical is HARSH! The way hair dyes work is by first attacking the hair shaft to damage them so that the colour can penetrate inside. That is how permanent hair colour is achieved. This is such a harsh process that it causes hair follicle damage which results in hair loss. This is one of the leading causes of hair loss in women today.

Ok, off my bandwagon. I did discover something I can do to eliminate or reduce the look of my grey and it has been really successful for me. I discovered that if you rinse your hair with black caffeinated tea(the caffeine is to strengthen the hair and scalp and reduces hair loss) - that I can get some colour back in my grey hair naturally.

The first time I did the rinse I used what I had on hand at home I used 4 cups of water, placed in 3 chai tea bags and one herbal tea bag that had a red hue and 2 tsp of dried sage. I let it boil and then turned it off and let it steep for about an hour. After the the tea had cooled I wet my hair at the sink and then I began the process of pouring this over my head 15x in total. I had a bowl in the sink for the tea to go into and then my DH would pour it back into the pot and start again. After the fifteenth rinse I squeezed the excess water from my hair and put it up in a towel for 15 minutes, gave it a gentle rinse and let it dry naturally.

The following day I did not wash my hair, on the second day I washed and conditioned as normal. On the third day I did the process again but a bit differently. I brewed up 2 tsp of  the sage in a separate cup, I used a coffee filter to strain it and then I added this sage infused water to the pot, I added 4 cups of water and 5 black tea begs(Red Rose). I let it boil and let it simmer. Life got in the way and I wasn't able to rinse it that night. I put the mixture in the fridge and left it steep until the following evening. I warmed it up a bit on the stove before I began

I did the same amount of repeats of rinsing, although I put on MadMen and watched an entire episode before doing the final rinse and then I dried it with the blow dryer.

There is no doubt that there is a difference between the two rinses. I only wish I had taken a before picture of what it looked like before I did the first rinse. There was a big difference even with the first rinse, but now on the second one and I'm really liking the results. I find the rinse quite soothing, it is great for the scalp as it's an astringent. This keeps the excess oils off your head and prevents hair loss and dandruff. I have eczema on my scalp from reactions to hair dye and it is beginning to help me clear that up.

If you don't need colour, you can do the rinse but eliminate the extra repeats. Just pour the tea on and wait a few moments and rinse off and wash/dry as normal.