Lightening Online

It’s true what they say - loom knitting is addictive!!! I bought a set of looms from the Fox Collection kind of hoping that I would make use of them. I’m supposed to be working on finding a hobby or two. Something to give me some relaxation and fun. When I saw these in the catalogue I figured if I didn’t enjoy using them, the kids possibly would. Not sure how much a of look-in the kids are going to get! LOL. Just kidding! The good thing is, there are 4 looms and I can only use 1 at a time (unless I want to have several projects on the go).

If you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, here is a picture of the looms:

I’m finding them so quick and easy to use. And it’s amazing the range of things that can be made on them. My first 2 projects were a hat and small scarf for myself using a cream yarn called Rustica.

It varies in thickness throughout the ball so I figured even if my stitches weren’t even, it wouldn’t show (I can blame it on the wool lol). Each of these took me about an hour to make and cost me $2.50 (the wool was $2.50 per ball and each took around a ball to knit). So I’m putting some of my spending from last month to good use and there is a potential there to save money as well. I was looking at buying a cream scarf from Kmart recently for around $7.

On Monday I began making myself a black shawl using 8 ply wool combined with feathers yarn. It’s almost finished and I’ll try and post a pic when it’s done. It’s taking me a little bit longer than an hour (so far maybe 5 hours?) but it is quite a bit bigger. It feels so soft and warm - I can’t wait to finish it so I can wear it!

I find it so exciting to wear something that I’ve actually made myself! I can’t believe I’m knitting! I was hopeless with needles so it’s not something I’d ever seen myself doing. Perhaps I should make it number 3 on my “101 things I thought I’d never do” list.

I have another item to add to my list of “101 things I thought I’d never do”. Cutting hair. I blame it all on DH really. He decided to buy himself a set of those hair clippers and then wanted ME to use them. I remember the first time I used them. I was literally shaking, wondering what kind of disaster I was going to make of his hair. LOL. Fortunately clippers are fairly foolproof. The biggest problem is making sure I don’t pull the hair.

What a buzz it gave me to look at his hair and know that I had done that! LOL. I was quite proud of myself. Then came the time in between cuts where just a little trimming was required around the ears and at the back of the head. I was amazed at myself when Í didn’t make a total hash of that either.

So I figured if I could trim DH’s hair okay, perhaps I’d try giving DD a trim. Worst case scenario I’d have to ship her off to the hairdresser to fix it up a bit. That didn’t turn out too badly either.

Next I decided that if I gave DS a little trim in between his hairdresser visits, I could save a few dollars by stretching out the time between visits. He likes his hair as short as possible so other than some straggly bits around the ears and back, his hair didn’t need cutting quite as often. When he got a little older, he decided he liked dad’s idea of a very short cut (then I won’t have to brush it mum). Fine with me - meant he didn’t need to go the hairdresser at all.

The great thing about DS liking his hair but with the clippers meant I had a guinea pig to practise on. With his permission I did an experimental cut on his hair which ended up turning out quite well. So I went ahead and used the same style to cut the younger DS’s hair.

Yesterday I gave my 9 year old DS the choice of me cutting his hair or going to the hairdresser. He decided he wanted me to do it. With school photo’s coming up I didn’t really want to clipper his hair (I prefer it a bit longer for school photo’s). I usually prefer to take the kids to the hairdresser if we have some kind of event coming up (like Christmas, school photo’s, a wedding etc) so I was a bit nervous about cutting his hair in case I made a mistake. Fortunately there’s still a few weeks until photo’s so I knew it would have time to grow between now and then (his hair grows pretty fast). I was still relieved when it turned out okay though.

My latest project is my own hair. I’ve read an idea where you can put your hair up in a ponytail on top of your head and give it a trim that way. You end up with a layered effect (my hair is already layered so that was fine with me). I gave it a bit of a try yesterday and it seems to have turned out okay. I wasn’t game to trim too much off though so some lengths haven’t been trimmed. If I get game I’ll give it another go but we’ll see.

So there you have it. From the odd clipper cut and trim to cutting the whole family’s hair. Definitely something I thought I would never do!

Now there’s something I never thought I would do. DH got his truck bogged in the paddock (nice and wet after nearly an inch of rain on Monday night - hooray!). At first he thought I’d just need to steer it for him but when that didn’t work he needed me to actually drive it. Driving it entailed the same process as moving forward in a manual vehicle (holding clutch in then accelerating as you let the clutch out). DH was able to start it and get it all in gear for me. So it wasn’t *really* driving it. LOL. And I only had to go all of 10-20 metres. But it sure gave me a buzz sitting way up there in the drivers seat feeling like I was driving the truck. I’m also glad I’ve been building up my leg muscles as holding the clutch took quite a bit of strength to push down and hold down!

So there’s number 1 for my “101 experiences in life I thought I’d never have”!