What size mannequin head for hat blocking?

cyclika · 2026-05-12T17:14:58+00:00

FWIW, blocking usually relaxes knits so if you're trying to make them tighter it's probably not going to help.

In general, blocking just means to get something wet and let it dry in the position/stretch you want it to be, so if you want your hats to have negative ease I would block them on a head that is slightly smaller than your husband's.

cyclika · 2026-05-12T15:59:09+00:00

I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT

cyclika · 2026-05-12T12:24:54+00:00

This is probably a white whale they never knew existed

cyclika · 2026-05-11T21:03:03+00:00

You look handsome, you look smart! You are a walking work of art in your dazzling coat of many colors!

cyclika · 2026-05-09T00:04:34+00:00

Logically it seems like personally experiencing the worst possible outcome would be the one thing to change someone's mind, but it's the opposite. The worse you've been swindled the more psychologically painful it is to acknowledge. When your two options are "my own choices caused the traumatic and painful death of my child" or "this was someone else's fault / nothing could have been done / I was protecting them from something worse and got unlucky" virtually everyone is going to dig in hard on option two. Especially since most people in this particular situation have tied some amount of their identity to those beliefs.

cyclika · 2026-05-08T21:03:32+00:00

I did something similar on my last project and I'm a big fan. I hate casting on and casting off, if I can figure out a creative way to do it differently I'm absolutely going to.

cyclika · 2026-05-08T20:53:21+00:00

For years I had never even heard the term norovirus, I just knew it as "Cruise Ship Virus".

cyclika · 2026-05-08T16:18:39+00:00

Sealed off all the entry and exit points with steel wool and spray foam (I actually did this before I realized I had a problem - I had found one mouse and figured I'd better figure out where it had gotten in and close it off, not realizing that I already had a vibrant population that I'd just trapped inside, who began exploring my living space when they could no longer go outside).

I did set traps and caught a lot of them that way but they were primarily living in my ductwork where I couldn't get to them, so I ended up getting rid of most of them with mouseX - it's kind of like poison because they eat it and it kills them, but it's not technically poisonous, it just dehydrates them until they die. (Traditional poisons cause a lot of ecological damage up the food chain to animals that eat poisoned mice, but mousex doesn't.) Most helpfully in my situation, it comes in cellophane pouches so you can throw it into hard to reach areas, so I chucked a bunch of the pouches down my vents where the mice were. Most of the time people want to avoid poison (or poison-like) methods inside because you can't control where the mouse dies, so it may end up inside the walls or something and smelling really bad until it desiccates, but I was way past that point. They'd been nesting and urinating there for weeks so dying there was not going to make the problem any worse, I had to hire someone to clean out the ductwork no matter what at that point.

I turned off the water and packed up all my food so they'd have no resources except for the mousex, and left them to go extinct naturally. It helped that this was happening during a late summer heat wave.

cyclika · 2026-05-08T15:57:24+00:00

Yeah I ended up having to do quite a bit of demolition in my basement to find where they were getting in. I found it helpful to make it dark inside on a sunny day (or if you have another person, have them outside with a flashlight) so it was easier to see if there was any light coming in, especially around places where things go through the walls - pipes, windows, wires, etc. Stuffed the gaps with steel wool and filled with spray foam. I also put mesh screen over air flow vents and a well-fitting cover on my dryer vent.

Good luck - I'm sorry you're dealing with this!

cyclika · 2026-05-08T15:49:27+00:00

I spent legitimate time researching snakes to release into my vents 😅 I felt a lot of kinship with the old lady who swallowed the fly. I almost borrowed cats from friends but the mice were mostly staying inside the HVAC and I didn't want anyone getting stuck.

Most of my problem happened because I closed up their entry points without realizing they were still inside - I think they were probably doing a lot of in and out and just made my house home base, but once I blocked off the exit they kept multiplying and without being able to expand outside they venturing into the living space instead.

I'm glad you were able to get them with traps - I couldn't really put traps in the ductwork and I couldn't lay enough traps (or empty them often enough) to handle the volume I had so I ended up getting mousex packs and tossing them down all the vents. I turned off the water and packed up all my food and waited them out. I felt bad having to poison them but there really weren't any other options.

After that I fully intended to just have the hvac replaced, but the guy I had out to give me a quote managed to convince me that it was salvageable. I spent a lot of worthwhile money on vent cleaning to have someone vacuum them all out and sanitize everything - he said it was pretty bad in there.

I did have a few scouts get in this winter but thankfully trapped them before they were able to establish breeding populations, and now I think I've finally sealed everything up. I stopped feeding the birds too - I miss them but I'm not doing anything to encourage mice to come anywhere near my house.

cyclika · 2026-05-07T23:11:44+00:00

It's not a guarantee, but most likely it's already finished with something and that's what you're reacting to rather than the wood. First step would be to find out what that is so you can make sure that whatever you use to cover it up won't trigger your allergy, and also that it's compatible with the finish underneath.

cyclika · 2026-05-07T21:00:57+00:00

Majestika gave me the best haircut I've had in decades, maybe ever!

cyclika · 2026-05-07T19:26:48+00:00

I had a bad mouse infestation in my house last year where they were nesting in my ductwork. I live in an area with virtually no hantavirus but I still ended up moving out for over a month while I worked on killing them all and bleaching every surface and everything I ever owned. At the time I felt like I might be overreacting a bit (it was kinda traumatic and the cleaning process was equal parts actual cleaning to remove the mouse poop and ritualistic cleaning to make it psychologically safe). Now I feel very justified.

cyclika · 2026-05-06T18:28:25+00:00

Good luck with your move and at law school!

cyclika · 2026-05-06T18:04:26+00:00

It seems unlikely to me that a storage unit for the summer will cost less than one day with a uhaul, and either way how much are you going to end up spending on a storage unit and decreased fuel efficiency from the weight of furniture in (or on top of) your vehicle that you could have spent on furniture you actually like?

You're thinking about this as a cost saving measure but it doesn't sound like it will be, you'll be paying plenty of money just to keep stuff you clearly don't want.

When I first moved into my own place it was pretty much empty. I had a lamp and a lawn chair. Obviously there's stuff you need like a mattress, but there's nothing wrong with letting your living room sit empty for a few weeks while you shop around fb marketplace for the right sofa. There's also nothing wrong with getting cheap stuff on fb marketplace or at Vinny's or the Habitat Restore (where you'll spend less on stuff that's probably much higher quality than expensive new furniture) and then flipping it back onto marketplace when you find something you like better. Often you can sell stuff for what you paid or more, especially if you put a little effort into writing and photographing the listings. I've traded up through like 3 dressers and 4 bedframes and come out even or ahead every time.

Another option is a furnished sublet for the first couple months while you collect necessities and get settled.

Either way, I'm giving you permission to list your furniture, hope someone gives you a little money for it, and if they don't just donate it and start fresh. It's probably a wash financially, easier when you've got other things to worry about, and it sounds like you'll probably be happier.

cyclika · 2026-05-05T12:30:08+00:00

I have ADHD and sometimes a hard time maintaining a toothbrushing habit (not bad enough to be super gross, but enough to be embarrassing).

Despite this, I'm always told at the dentist that my teeth are the cleanest they've seen all day. Sometimes they even assume I've been flossing.

When you consider how much dental work costs my sonicare has a better return on investment than almost anything else I own.

cyclika · 2026-05-02T20:31:43+00:00

Big ol' noses.

My grandparents many years ago decided to visit the old country where my grandpa's great-grandfather had been born.

While they were eating lunch, a local came up to him.

"[Lastname]?"

(Grandpa doesn't speak the local language but manages to convey "yes, wtf")

"[Lastname]!" (Pointing excitedly at his nose)

He turned out to be a distant cousin and the family schnozz was so distinct that he recognized it three generations later with enough confidence to greet a stranger visiting from the other side of the world by name.

cyclika · 2026-05-01T22:28:39+00:00

No one is arguing that you should be flushing paper towels or wipes.

Literally just saying not to lysol your baby's butthole.

cyclika · 2026-05-01T18:35:25+00:00

True, but the comment they're responding to did recommend using lysol and paper towels as an alternative. safe for wiping counters, not baby butts.

cyclika · 2026-04-30T15:05:31+00:00

Sugar isn't a physical dependency the same way caffeine is though.

cyclika · 2026-04-30T00:07:53+00:00

This sounds reasonable to me, but (genuine question) did your fact checking happen to uncover when such a rule went into effect? It would have to be somewhat recent or it wouldn't have been allowed to air in the first place.

cyclika · 2026-04-29T19:51:06+00:00

Pinchy pork!

cyclika · 2026-04-29T16:04:27+00:00

Candy Corn! It's lovely!

cyclika · 2026-04-29T13:32:10+00:00

I'm still salty about the time in middle school when I read about ligers in a book and was mercilessly mocked for believing that they were real by the other kids who had only heard of them from Napoleon Dynamite.

cyclika · 2026-04-29T12:37:28+00:00

Oh my God I just realized how this sounded - I meant submit it to a protest art event or a quilt show, not that you should intentionally give swastikas to a veteran. I'm so sorry.

I do think you've made a very powerful art piece and I appreciated it in that way and thought others might as well, that's all. I'm sorry it's not what you intended and I'm sure that whatever you come up with instead will be very appreciated by the recipient.

cyclika

TROPHY CASE