Dollybird

At last the painting is finished in my sewing/music/reading room and it's time to move in. In a way, I'm kind of dreading the unpacking and organising of many many boxes of fabric, trim, tools and unfinished projects more than I was the actual renovating!

I love this room so much it's insane. I know that to some wood floors and plain white walls are unspeakably dull, but to me it all seems so peaceful and calm that I love spending time in there already. It's all very Zen without the furniture - if I had a big enough house I think I'd have a space just like it with nothing in it but a couple of plants and a comfy place to sit. It almost seems a shame to clutter it up with all of our stuff, but sadly our house is small and we have to make the best use of the space we have available. I'll be sharing the space with Miss B - she needs a desk of her own and space for all of her books as well as a nice calm environment for violin practice. Her bedroom is very small - I don't know how she's been managing to practice in there for so long.

Pre-Blythe I was a quilter and I have an astonishing amount of bits and pieces and works in progress that I've collected over time. I feel kind of guilty looking at them, so now that the weather is cold and I at last have room again, I think I may have to get stuck in and finish a project or two. I'm feeling frustrated that I have so little time for creativity right now. Work, study and housework are consuming most of my time and energy when all I want to do is sew! I have something new that I want to add to the shop and it's killing me not being able to transform my idea into reality.

Today we are off to Movie World again as we got a season pass the last time we where there and Miss B is dying to try out the rides she missed last time. In the evening I have to work on this cursed "group" assignment. It's a group assignment in name only, as to be honest the "group" is comprised of a pack of losers who all seem to have various personal issues that prevent them from doing any actual work. From a group of 5, only 2 of us do anything and the other woman only seems to be focused on working on things that directly give her credit, not the team parts of the project which seem to have fallen to me. I am heartily sick of it and them. 'Nuff said.

Last night I spent a little while playing around with the Wensleydale locks. I've heard a few horror stories from people who have painstakingly rerooted their Blythes and then happily washed the scalp when they've finished only to have it turn into a ruined felted clump. I combed out a little piece, washed, conditioned and straightened it with a hair straightener while it was still wet to see how it would handle it. It handled it all very well and there were no problems at all. I love the way it looks straight.



Feeling a bit more confident that my lovely wool could handle a bit of abuse, I made up a few plugs. OMG it's slow. Even though the wool looks relatively tangle free it's not. Combing it out is slow. Separating the lock into plugs is slow. Tying the knot at the end is slow, and even more worryingly, the knots kind of undo themselves. I think I'll have to put a little bit of glue on the ends, you know, just to make the process EVEN SLOWER! I can tell already that this method of reroting is going to be very untidy on the reverse of the scalp and I'm not entirely comfortable with it. I'm wondering if I would be better off to do a lock and loop only instead of doubling the hair over in half, to do it about an inch or so from the cut end if you know what I mean. On the other hand, I don't want it to be super poofy, and wouldn't the short end kind of give the roots even more bulk? I'm just a bit nervous that if I use the traditional knot method all the cut ends will be so bulky on the inside that I won't be able to fit the scalp back on!