Hair and two new hats

Yesterday, I went to the hairdresser. I had not gone to one since 2004 or thereabouts. Before that, very long stretches of time passed in between visits, too. Simply, it has been a very rare occasion that I have come out of one satisfied (and a few of those where happy freak accidents).

One such time is when I got a haircut in an Afro salon (to fix a disgraceful haircut I got talked into). This woman actually knew how to deal with curly hair! I have always wanted long hair anyway so I switched to cutting my hair myself every many months or years. It is actually very easy if you want a simple haircut (which is always advisable for curly hair anyway!). I follow this technique. If you Google that you will find more info, even some videos. I cut my boyfriend's hair this way as well. His is very loosely wavy which is less forgiving than mine (which curls up and you wouldn't see hem imperfections anyway), but this has always worked beautifully.

But I digress. Yes I went to the hairdresser to get my hair lightened. I have become quite bored with my appearance of late. I blame this on a recalcitrant eyelid eccema due to which I can't wear makeup, not in the way I like anyway! So hair it is, I decided to sacrifice my "virgin" (all of it was not chemically treated and only very seldom I briefly bring a hairdrier near it) hair in the altar of boredom.

Basically I wanted to lighten slightly all over, evenly, and gradually lighten more and more later on, then have a warm coppery tone all over. I did want lighter tips and darker roots to avoid high maintenance of roots, and because I just like lighter tips.
I chose a salon because they use Elumen hair dye which I wanted to try, and I am very happy with the actual colour. Not the bleaching though. I was advised against all over lightening since this supposedly damages the hair too much. I said I just wanted this effect, do it any way you like, but please no stripey highlights. Well, I got, you guessed it, nearly the opposite of what I asked for :D Got some stripey highlights on my crown, with to high a contrast with my very dark natural colour, and the tips of my hair look nearly the same, much darker. Sigh? I also don't understand why burning a few strands a lot is better than burning them all just a little, especially if this is not at all the effect I was looking after.

Quick phone snap my friend took

Again, I think this happened due to my hair structure. Even when dyeing, curly hair doesn't behave in the same way. I have a great taper from roots to tips (which resulted in a much smaller volume of actual hair being highlighted at the tips than the roots when done the usual way), and once it dries it behaves very differently from straight hair (the curls make deep shadows, but the crown lays flat). Will I ever learn?

I am left with two choices, throwing away more money to apparently not get what I want, or trying to do it myself. We'll see...

On to more positive things! I have published two hat patterns this month :) both match other patterns because I am perhaps a little bit obsessed with sets!

First came my Esporòfits Beret. I have mentioned it before. I had it tested by some great ladies and now it is published too!

It is now available in Etsy, Ravelry and Patternfish!

For this one I also took a video illustrating the cast on method (alternate Twisted German and Long Tail COs):

Next in line is the Chordata hat. This one was designed quite organically. I wanted the hat to cover my ears without coming down too low over my eyes, so I made a piece of ribbing for the back, and then two flaps picked up from there and joining at center front, from which stitches are (partially, since the ribbing is continued uninterruptedly) picked up for the body of the hat. Once finished I realised I could also wear it backwards in a similar manner. I went for a slouchy hat but the pattern includes directions for a more fitted one as well:

Already available in Ravelry, soon also in Etsy and Patternfish :)

As I was writing this entry, I received a wonderful package from the amazing artist János Gábor Varga: Etsy shop, Website, Flickr, Boticca interview. I love the clever ways in which he manipulates simple chunks of iron! His progress pictures are always fascinating. Finally I own one of his pieces :) I couldn't pass this beautiful one up, originally titled Medusa from Italian (such we call jellyfish in most latin languages), it does indeed look like one of these fascinating creatures, and my screen name being Medvssa in many places, I couldn't pass it up! 

Work in progress and finished piece, pictures by János

Together with this one, I received a collaboration piece he worked on as well. I sent him two enamels and he sent one of them back set in a beautiful riveted copper box (it was admittedly a rather big enamel for a pendant!) with cute matching spoon. His pictures are better than any I could take so here it goes:

I have to see what I use it for, I wouldn't be able to decide which enamel to place in it!

So that will be all for today. For the next day or two I want to work on an unfinished jersey dress I started long ago, hopefully so I can wear it to the Exhibition opening this Friday. I have opened a Pinterest account, and I have found myself pinning lots and lots of jersey dresses with details I like to one of my boards (aptly named "jersey"? haha). Those will be ideas for dresses to come since this one is already cut and partially assembled! lot of ideas though, but very difficult to find the right shades of fabric! There is only one local fabric store with limited choice. I have to find out which stores to visit in Brussels or Antwerp :)

Phew that was a long post :)

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