Tuesday, January 17, 2006

In training...

I love the Olympics. It's like an excuse for me to watch as much sports as I can cram into 2 weeks. I don't know why I enjoy watching sports so much, maybe because I am so unathletic... During the Sydney Olympics I decided that I would be in the Olympics some day*. I told my friend Dawn this and she volunteered to be my trainer. I figured I had time to figure out what event, and decided on Diving. I figured, I like water, I can swim, Diving is largely gravity, right? This became a long running joke for us, with Dawn asking me how my training was going at random intervals.

Sadly, I didn't ever make it to the Olympics. I don't know what went wrong. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I don't really know anything about diving other than the basic dive. Or maybe I just didn't train hard enough at all. Or the fact that I was almost 30 when we had the plan to get to the Olympics.

So, imagine my delight when I saw that the Yarn Harlot was proposing a Knitting Olympics. (I learned how to put buttons over there on the right! Yay me!)(okay, so it's really simple, I just didn't figure it out before).

The rules/guidelines/challenge are all there at that link. Basically you have to cast on for a project during the Opening Ceremonies and be done it before the Closing Ceremonies. The project has to be a challenge for you, but other than that there are no restrictions on the type of project. Sign up by commenting or emailing (again, details at the link).

I plan to try Alice from MagKnits. I haven't done a whole garment with Fair Isle before and it looks sort of vaguely Winter Olympic-y. (Mine won't be red and black, I hope they don't revoke my Canadian Olympic Team watching rights).

I finished Knitty's Blackberry. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about it. It's really cozy but I think I maybe should have used a sturdier yarn. I knit it in Red Heart Cozy Wool (which lives up to it's name. The "Cozy" part. I'm not so sure about the Heart and how Red it might be).


See there at the bottoms, just above the ribbing? It seems a bit stretched out. It seems to be a bit fussy, which is not my favorite thing in my clothing. I love the color though...

I started the sleeves in the cable from the pattern, but I had big gaping spots on cable rows (it was a 6 stitch cable beside a 6 stitch cable). So I changed it to be 4 columns of 4 stitch cables going in opposite directions.


As for the haircut. Well... Let me tell you. (LONG STORY WARNING)

I went by the hair salon and asked if they had time for a walk-in. The woman at the counter hesitantly said "Well. Yes. Okay, come on back." Perhaps I should have left then. I didn't.

First the stylist (I am resisting the urge to put quotation marks around that word) picked up the bottom of my hair and said "It's really dry" with a sneer. (It wasn't, it was just the grown out lighter color hair). Then she said it again. Then she asked me what I wanted, so I said that I wanted the layers cleaned up, and I wanted to keep it fairly long but it could go a bit shorter. I asked her what she thought and she just blinked at me like I had asked her if she could do a quick nose job while she was at it. She said again that it was dry and then she said "Oh, it's really long. You LIKE it long?" (imagine a massive sneer there). I said "Well, yes. I like it long." So then I told her that a friend from work had told me to ask for "chunky layers" but I wasn't sure what she meant. The stylist (again with the not putting the quotations) picked up some of my hair again and finally said "Okay. We can do that."

So she put the gown thing on me and put my seat back to wash it. She turned the water on full blast, aimed it at something in the sink and turned to gossip with the guy cutting hair beside her. I was getting soaked and she didn't seem to notice. Finally she turned back to me and washed my hair. Then she put conditioner on and continued gossipping with the guy beside her (again soaking me). Then my hair got caught on something she had in the sink, so she just pulled it out of my hair.

Then we started the cut. It all started okay. She showed me how much she was going to take off (2 inches off the back at the bottom and about 1 1/2 throughout the layers), and started cutting. It was all going okay until I realized that what she was doing to cut the layers was lifting my hair up as high as her arms would go and then just cutting at whatever point her hands got to. (Did I mention that she was at most 5 feet tall. Did I mention that I am 5'9"?) So she was cutting at the point that she could reach to, which happened to be 3 (THREE) inches from the ends of my hair!!! I didn't realize she was doing this until she had already done this at least twice, so there was no point in saying anything.

When she finished, she asked me if I wanted her to style it. I declined, as it was late and she had been looking at her watch the entire time she was cutting my hair. So, instead of even drying it a little, she said "Okay. You're done." I was too stunned to say anything and figured I would just put it in a ponytail (if there was enough left). As I was putting on my jacket she said "And now you don't need to come back."

Huh? I have been trying to figure out what that meant for several days. I still have no idea.

So, my hair is alot shorter than I had thought it would be, but it isn't "short". I think it will be okay, it looks okay, I think the whole experience was just so startling that it took me a bit to process it.

Did I mention that she rang the charge up at the counter and hovered over me while I used the debit card pad (where it asks how much you want to tip)? Yeah. It was interesting.

*You know I was never serious about making it to the Olympics, right? I mean, if the Canadian Olympic team comes calling and offers me a spot, I'd totally go, but I just don't really know if I can find the discipline for the training...

6 comments:

  1. Oh no, another traumatic visit to the hair dresser... what's up with the 'you don't need to come back' crap?!?!
    The hair doesn't look that bad from what I can see in the picture, but it does help keeping it in a pony tail until you've recovered from the shock, doesn't it?
    Try to ignore it until it's grown out more... That's a good thing about having longer hair, you can always pull it back and hardly anyone notices a difference;-)
    As to the Blackberry, I think it looks fabulous and I love the cables on the sleeves! And check out the picture on knitty again, it does the same saggy thing there , too. Mmhh. Still a nice cardigan

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  2. What an awful experience. I can't see much from your picture, but what I can see looks good though, you've got that layered wavy thing going that other people spend hours to achieve ;-)

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  3. First, your sweater is super! It looks great on you.
    I also think, from what I can see, that your hair looks good, too. What a horrible experience. I hope you didn't give her much tip.
    About the Olympics, I've been trying to decide if I want to join or not. hmmm Now, seeing you in training and your discipline (project) I might just join up. I wonder if having two little kids to take care of could qualify for the chanllenge because any project is challenging to finish with two little kids.

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  4. I love hearing about haircut stories! After my last son was born I gave up on having mine styled because there just wasn't enough time to keep it up.

    My tale is the last two times I went in to have it trimmed (two different places too) I was drapped with the cape, spritzed with water -- never asked if I wanted it shampooed which is the real reason for going to a stylist -- and stood for a two inch trim. Never asked to sit down.

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  5. Egads!

    I think your Blackberry looks great!

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  6. I was scrolling through the long list of olympic knitters when I saw a Lori. I remembered meeting a Lori at Stephanie's talk in Calgary, and thought I'd take a look. I looked back to your August archives to see if there was mention of Stephanie's reading and then I was sure it was the same Lori. So hi! I sat beside you. Remember me?
    You asked about my teal wool in that post. It's from the mill in Carstairs (called Custom Woolen Mills 2-ply mule spun I think) that I got at the Knitting Room in Calgary. It's worn quite well (it only pills a little), feels pretty soft, and is quite cheap. I think my olympic knitting will be another sweater with the same wool (possibly rogue, but I can't help thinking a hood might be too ambitious).
    Sorry to be so long winded. It was nice to 'find' you. Your blackberry looks lovely.

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Hi! I'm so glad you stopped by. I'd love to hear from you.