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New hairdresser, new hair! I really like her and the color looks great - still a lot of warmth, since I wear so little makeup, and nice highlights just at the crown of my head. I do have some grey to cover, but it's really more that I find the natural medium-dark brown color of my hair a little flat, a little uninteresting. I just feel like I look better in general with really good depth of color, and when the color looks great I feel great wearing no makeup. I have a complicated relationship with makeup, actually - I love to play with it but I really get irritated with it for everyday. I don't have the patience to keep fiddling with it, I don't like the way it feels on my skin, etc. It's much easier for me to just keep my skin in reasonably good shape (sunscreen & moisturizer & good hydration) with well-groomed brows and a great cut and color combination.

Anyway.

Also, why the hell can't I knit? Actually, I know why - every time I fool around with it I get really frustrated and put it down and don't pick it up again for months. The big problem is that I stitch too tight - I am a freaking PRO at casting on now because I've done it so many times, but the stitches are too tight and then the knitting is tough because I have a hard time getting back into the stitches to knit them. *throws the whole mess across the room* I read somewhere that I could cast on over two needles together - doesn't that leave them TOO loose? Anybody have any other tips for me?

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it is possible to cast using two needles.. but i have no idea how to. however i do know that you must hold the wool loosley(sp?)so that it slids through your fingers, or it will get to tight. it took me a while to learn this and i used to end up with to tight stiches and loosing sitches meep. and if you come to wellington nz i can show you or get my mum to teach you cause she rocks at knitting.. *grins*

sorry i couldn't be of more help

*smiles*

You treat the two needles as one really BIG needle. It's no different from casting on with one needle. Once the stitches are all on, you pull the extra needle out, leaving the stitches on the one remaining needle, as usual. And no, as long as you're casting on pretty tightly anyway, it doesn't make things look funny or cause any problems - I do it all the time. Another option is to cast on with two slightly smaller needles, ie if your pattern asks for size 6 needles, cast on with two size 4-5s, pulling out the extra needle afterwards, as above, but use the regular size 6s for the actual knitting from that point on.

It worked really well, casting over two! My stitches are still on the tight side, but the real trouble is always getting into the cast stitches, so this helps a lot. Thanks!

So I also dye my hair because my natural color is pretty boring (well, it didn't used to be, but I did the whole puberty-turns-your-hair-mouse-brown thing), but I still don't feel comfortable without makeup. I hate wearing it too, but it's my armor -- you can take the girl out of Dallas, but you can't take the Dallas out of the girl. ;) I would totally tease my hair if I could do it right.

I bought a knit a sweater thing and totally gave up. But TIME just had an article about sewing, and one of the places they talked about was in Austin, so I'm going to sign up for classes, I think, to get back into the swing of sewing.

There's a place in South Austin, and REALLY south, not SoCo, and this might be it. My friend Mia used to go all the time and loved it. Austin's the right kind of town for this sort of thing!

And my hairdresser and I were talking about Dallas today and its perfectly coiffed and made up women. :P

Alas, for my mom is from Brooklyn and never wears makeup and cuts her own hair, and thus was useless in teaching me the ways of big hair and artful-yet-trashy makeup, leading to a bit of time looking like a raccoon there while I learned. :p

If you tend to cast on really tightly, then casting on over two needles leaves it only a little loose. You could try casting on over a pair of needles a size or two down from the ones you're using--the needles should give their diameter in mm along with the US size number, if you need to be sure.

Loosen up, baby! Stop holding the yarn inna death grip. Leave slack for every stitch you cast, and if there's not enough slack at first, pull at the yarn and make some. Yooou can doooo eeeeet.

I read somewhere that I could cast on over two needles together - doesn't that leave them TOO loose? Anybody have any other tips for me?

Actually, no. The slack will give you a flexible edge. I'd suggest we meet up sometime, so I can see you knit. It really helps to work around others when you're starting.

Can I ask for the name of your hairdresser? I have to get mine done, and the idea of just going to someone I don't know is a bit daunting.

As for knitting, it's been my experience that it's only the first row that's so tight; once you start knitting, things loosen up a fair amount. So if you don't want to try the double-needle thing, there's that.

Though, here's a question—do you knit English or Continental style? I.e. do you hold your yarn in your right or your left hand? I do it with the yarn in my left, moving the needle (as opposed to moving the yarn itself, which is how I've seen most people in this country do it) and it ends up with much looser stitches, in general—and it's much quicker. So if you're finding yarn tension to be problematic, you could try teaching yourself that way.

I CAN'T KNIT EITHER.

Okay, I'm done yelling. Sorry. I can cast on beautifully, I just can't follow a pattern and after a while my purl stitches look creepy.

Cast on using bigger needles, carefully slide stitches off onto a smaller needle, then knit? When I crochet, I switch to a bigger hook if my tension is too tight, so this would seem to be the equivalent.

I would love to be able to knit. I even took a class. No dice.

Are you, by any chance, twisting your stitches? I had that problem when I first started. My hands were killing me so bad from trying to get into the super tight stitches that I thought I was going to have to just give up. It turned out that I was just twisting my knit stitches. Once I stopped doing that my knitting loosened waaaay up and I have never had a problem with my hands hurting again.