Aviator Cat

Very dear friends of mine left today for the great white north. He played a big role in helping me hold the fort that is the European Program in our dept, helping me steal beer and wine after dept events, and all around becoming one of my closest professional and personal friend in SC. She is a brilliant artist who can make old suits into beasties of the flying, swimming, and crawling varieties, and taught me that having to undo and re-do projects is not a failure on my part, but simply part of the process. Last spring they brought their genius (genes) together and produced one of the most adorable little girls I've ever had the pleasure to bounce up and down.

I have been commissioned to make a hat for Little C, and although I hoped to get it finished before they left I wasn't able to.  But I worked hard and even learned to crochet the finished edge (uh oh, I liked the crochet, as if I need another craft to get into...), and now the ends just need to be woven and blocked. The pattern is from Drops Design and was pretty easy to follow. The yarn is Misti Alpaca DK. But for an extra special bonus, here is our current baby clothes model giving the hat a spin:

What we do for fun here in S to the C

Isn't she lovely? Yeah, she tried to kill us in our beds after this one. (Don't worry B, I'll wash thoroughly before sending). Also in the pic is another of my department's partners-in-crime, ReallyTiny, who is back from Berlin in order to take her QE on Monday.

No 'Poo Update
I've now been 1.5 weeks w/o using commercial shampoo and conditioners. I love it. We have hard water here in SC which means you have to dissolve the baking soda in warm water before putting it on your head. What I do: 1Tbl of baking soda dissolved in 12-16 ounces of warm water. pour on scalp and massage in. You know you have the baking soda dissolved at the right temp if you hair feels slippery when rubbed with the baking soda solution. This slipper feeling is what cleans the hair/scalp. Let rest 1 min (in meanwhile measure 4:1 water:white vinegar. Rinse baking soda. Rinse hair with white vinegar (I start by dipping my ends in the solution and then pouring it over the rest of my hair. Let sit 1-3 min, and then rinse well.

When I didn't dissolve the baking soda enough my hair got very waxy w/in a few days. It wasn't oily, it felt more like I ran pomade through my hair. But now that I figured out how to dissolve the baking soda I haven't noticed any waxy feeling. I wash every other day to every third day. I think I might switch to vinegar or water rinses very 2-3 days and baking soda once a week - but we'll see.

Overall, my hair is really soft and seems to have less static. I'm really happy w/ this new routine and will start playing around with tea and rosemary rinses - or putting essential oils in with the vinegar rinse to make it smell nice.