Hair, soup and knitting - not necessarily in the same bowl though.

My hair is occupying a lot of my time and thoughts at the moment. Ever since I went shorter with the cut, I've been really unsure as to what to do about my amazingly grey roots.

I've pretty much dyed the heck out of my hair since I was 13/14, and I have no idea what colour it would be naturally, other than a sneaking suspicion it would be grey.

Dad was grey very early on, and evil pus-drenched mother was also grey early on.

So I procrastinated.

I popped on some dark temporary colour when we went out for the iWeb Christmas do.

Then Aaron and I had a bit of a session chatting and brainstorming, and then I bleached the crap out of my hair!

So I went from pretty dark to eek blonde. There were some amazing red/orange/pink bits in my fringe where the years of dye had baulked at becoming blonde.

But after following this advice off this amazingly useful forum, I am almost at the 'pale yellow of the inside of a banana'. When that is achieved, I will be adding some white toner, and become a white haired woman!

Yay for persistance! And Directions hair dye!

Additionally, I am losing weight. Seriously, I am as amazed as you are!

I started Weight Watchers, as mentioned in earlier blog entries, and today, I have gone down to the next stone. This means I have lost over 2 stones since September/October. However, it also means that psychologically I have moved through 3 stones. The one I started at was shocking, and then I went down to the next and now I have breached that fatty floor and am at the top end of the next one.

Confused? Good.

Stop trying to guess my weight then!!

Funnily enough, I am losing weight by cooking more. I am making lots of food from scratch, especially soup, so we are all eating more healthily, the food is actually surprisingly good considering I made it, and we are saving money, not having takeaway 4 times a week!

Today is soup-making day, and I am making a large batch of curried parsnip soup up. I treated myself to a cast iron casserole pot/dish thing, and I am using it for everything!

I may have to buy more. Lots more!

Knittage

Apart from lots of baby-type knitting over Christmas, I decided to pick up and finish some of the UFO's I have sitting around.

The main one of these is my 'Hester' cardigan from my Rowan book.

I had the book off Amelia for my birthday in 2010 and started it almost immediately. Then other things happened, and I had to shelve it. For 18 months!

So I dug it out, and I had done 135 rows of the back. And I had forgotten what needles I had done the bottom rib in. And I had forgotten the pattern. And the decreases. Argh!

So I knitted up the left front on new needles. I guessed at the needle size for the rib - 4.5mm - and it was correct, then I changed to my 5.5mm. The pattern is far easier than I remember, and I quickly got to the length you see in the photo - armhole cast-off done and straight bit started.

Then I had to resume the back, as the instructions for the front mean you have to know how many rows in total there are for the back before you cast off for the shoulder shaping.

So there you go. I had to knit most of the left front so I could complete the back. And I had to complete the back so I can finish the left front.

Spooky!