In need of Good Things
Nov. 30th, 2013 03:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
untonugganTomorrow the vet is scheduled for Rogue's Last Visit.
As I am randomly bursting into tears (Pandora, why are you playing James Taylor's Fire and Rain and Green Day's Time of Your Life?), I am making a good things list.
As I am randomly bursting into tears (Pandora, why are you playing James Taylor's Fire and Rain and Green Day's Time of Your Life?), I am making a good things list.
- I have achieved a Fair Isle Hat, as mentioned in my post earlier today. Too bad it's too big for me (but hopefully just right for the recipient).
- I baked bread earlier today using synecdochic 's basic yeast bread recipe and it's delish. I used molasses instead of regular sugar. Om nom nom.
- Some of the halls have been decked, which adds some mini-cheer.
- My grandmother will be visiting soon. (For six weeks eeeeeeeEeeeeee)
- I have a super good support system.
- I have super good coping skills.
- We are getting a bigger pantry, which means more storage space for, oh, bread baking supplies. And other things.
- Did I mention I like kneading bread? And also pounding the air out before proofing.
- Tea.
- My friend in NYC loved her hat, mitts, and cowl. She even squealed upon getting them. Win.
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Date: 2013-11-30 09:13 pm (UTC)4. SIX WEEKS! That's wonderful. :-)
5 & 6. *nods* Those will get you through whatever life throws at you. *hugs*
10. A very winny WIN!
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Date: 2013-12-02 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-30 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-11-30 09:51 pm (UTC)Also, storage space for bread baking wooo! I love baking bread.
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Date: 2013-12-02 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-30 10:03 pm (UTC)also I was sorting through my computer earlier and found a bunch of scans of bread recipes and got Very Excited about them. really wish I could find the actual book they came out of but alas, "Bread" is such an unhelpful title for the googling. I haven't made bread in a long time though so I am kind of jealous of your making, though it's 95% my own laziness that I haven't done it.
(i was thinking about hats this morning and have some Vague Questions that i will ask you but you don't have to reply if you don't know or don't feel like it)
so I have this hat with ear flaps that is currently too large for me (I lost some face-space recently and am trying to gain it back and hopefully that will fix the too-big, which is entirely in the ear-flap area). and thus my ears are cold. so I went digging in my Box Of Made Things and found several hats! (some were kid-sized and I did not even tryyyy to put those on because my head is not kid-sized, as one might expect.) All of these are hats I have crocheted myself, by the way. And one of them was too small, but it was warm because of being a rather tight knit. (a rather tight crochet?) also it was too short, but if I'm making a new one for myself that is super easy to avoid. but the main problem was that it had no stretch. so I have basically the same one in larger that is for my sister but I wore it this morning anyway because it's my sister so it doesn't matter. And it was a better fit, but the no-stretch aspect that seemed to make the warm so much better really made it not fit me well? And I do not have the detail-skills to actually keep a perfect tension throughout and make a hat the size it is intended. (This is why I mostly make things that aren't worn or things like scarves where it doesn't matter if it's a couple inches off goal.)
ANYWAY so the question is this: how do I make a hat both warm and stretchy (for more comfortable & secure fit), if stretchy makes it unwarm? I know I could go buy bulkier, warmer yarn, but I don't have any money right now, so I can't actually do that. I pretty much only have Red Heart and (more preferably) Caron SimplySoft yarn in my stash, aside from some stuff set aside or inappropriate for this project. I feel like there is some obvious secret that I am not seeing.
(and then I was like, I mostly wear my rainbow scarf. I have all the yarn left from that, which is a significant amount in each color, so do I make a hat from that to match? I cannot wear a rainbow hat (I do not wish to, I should say), but I could do one (or two) of the colors from it and then it would look coordinated. and then I wondered when I became a person who coordinated clothing, but then I realized that my clothing is finally morphing away from "stuff left from high school" so. anyway this is just a ramble really. I think actual final color questions I shall have to direct to a person who can see the yarns not via monitor that changes colors. not that I don't welcome anything you want to say!)
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Date: 2013-12-01 02:02 am (UTC)It's a terrible decision to have to make, and a(n awful) blessing to be able to make it. That doesn't make it any easier--and there's such a huge difference between a clear decision and an easy one. Glad you have a support network. All of you will almost certainly need it!
::sends more good, comforting thoughts::
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Date: 2013-12-01 02:34 am (UTC)Material matters in stretchiness. I recently crocheted a hat pattern that specified if you do this in acrylic it will not be as stretchy. Anyway, I had this hat that was not very stretchy and on the tight side because I made it with lion brand wool ease or something that is 80% acrylic and 20% wool. I washed the hat and borrowed an adult hat block from my neighbor and pulled the wet hat over the hat block which i had covered with saran wrap so as not to ruin her hat block and let it dry for days and days.
After it dried, it was a better fit. It was not super stretchy, but it did stretch out enough to fit on my head.
What I learned from doing this is that after you wash your crocheted item, you should towel dry it so it does not take days and days and days to dry.
Right now, I am making a very similar hat to the one I made before out of Merino wool, and it is much more stretchy and expensive.
Ok, so maybe you do not have a neighbor with a hat block, and you definitely do not have $200 burning a hole in your pocket. This vaguely tells you how not to make a hat block. But it seems like you can buy foam heads on amazon for $5-10. The one I used was a 21" circumference, foam hat block with some sort of polymer coating to make it longer lasting.
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Date: 2013-12-01 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-11-30 10:49 pm (UTC)♥
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Date: 2013-12-02 02:05 pm (UTC)<3
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Date: 2013-11-30 11:23 pm (UTC)I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.
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Date: 2013-12-01 01:03 am (UTC)That hat is amazing! Such a pretty pattern. And how good is it, when you punch down dough? The best feeling.
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Date: 2013-12-01 08:21 am (UTC)that's a fabulous hat! woohoo homemade bread! <3 yay for good things and coping skills and support and tea &etc.
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Date: 2013-12-02 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 01:28 pm (UTC)I have super good coping skills.
You are super good. In general.
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