It looks a lot more complete now and has more colors, but I am too lazy to pull out my camera, take a picture, upload it to the computer and then to the web site. So.. old picture it is! Even though I did get quite a bit farther in the 9 days since the picture was taken, for the past few days things have been a little too hectic for me to really make much more progress. So what do I do? Become inspired to start new knitting projects. I think my hobby is to start and never finish anything. I like beginning things and imagine what they will possibly (never) become. :o) So this time it is the kitty pi for the cats since they like to sleep on my clothes, bed, knitting, sewing.. pretty much anything soft that smells like me. I am hoping that when I make this and throw it on the floor they will instantly find it a more than perfect place to sleep/shed. ie, not my bed. I cast on for that at knit night after having a felting discussion with Papaya to make sure my chosen yarn will have a high tendancy to felt instead of... not. Hooray!
I also chose a substitute yarn for what was called for in a pattern for an item that I am making my mom. I *finally* found one I can succeed in even beginning!! And since she has decided that she wants it to be a surprise, the gift is now being referred to as "item". I bought Cascade 220 as the substitute yarn; I figured W wouldn't carry the yarn that the pattern called for, but was more looking for advice on what to use as a substitute; another something that would felt well. As soon as I finish and yes, I will finish!!) Kitty Pi, I can begin item. It doesn't look too complicated, and felting fixes everything, so I am confident in this one. I emailed mom to ask if she wanted to know what it was I was making for her, saying " And this is something that even if I didn't make it (because anything I make even if it is ass ugly you will like) you'd still get a kick out of and like. Do you want to know what it is, or do you want to just find out when you get it?" Her response (cut to the amusing part, of course) "The buttass-uglier, the more I'll love it. Of course, if it's breathtakingly beautiful I'll love it every bit as much." Awesome. Ass-ugly gift, here I come!
In other crafty-ish hobbiness, I managed to get myself quite sunburned this weekend despite my attempts to avoid such a fate. Bahh. Oh well. I had planned on going to dance as I usually do on Monday evenings, but seeing as how I had to wear a strapless bra to work all day because my shoulders couldn't handle thin straps with pressure, I decided that wearing normal dancing garb + fast movements and lots of crunches would not be too favorable that night. This is the beginning of the 10 week rotation schedule, so in Dance Movements we were scheduled to work on plies and in Belly Dance we were going to be working on Singles. Easy stuff, right? So I thought it would be a good idea to take it slow on Monday night and resorted to drilling by myself for about 30 minutes on Tuesday eveing, while doubling up on classes on Wednesday night. So, Dance Movements 7-8pm and Belly Dance 8-9:15pm. I can handle it! It's the easy stuff! ....except not when Tif teaches. And she taught both classes. Holy bajeesus! I have never been to the point of so much pain and strain and trying so hard that I was laughing and crying at the same time while trying not to do either. We had to do a set of passe, degage (or battement) front, back to passe while plieing and then back into ballet first position. Then doing the same thing while degageing to the side, then back, then the set of three repeats until Tif decided our torture session had been complete.
*Note: for those not familiar with the evil dance terms, we were supposed to stand with our heels touching, toes turned out. Then bring our right foot up, toes pointed so that the knee was bent and the heel was touching the side of left knee. Then we keep proper turn out in our leg while bringing the foot front (or left or back behind us) and about 6 inches or more off the floor, still keeping the toes pointed. Then we bring our foot back to touching our knee, turned out (the turn out is what makes it painful) while we are plieing (plee-ay) or.. bending our knees. Finally, we could bring out foot back down next to the left one before we started the whoel thing over. Sound fun?*
So, yes. While doing the last of many sets I was in such pain that I couldn't stop giggling. I was forcing my turn out with my hands, my foot was beginning to refuse to touch my knee, my degage was turning into a slighly elevated tendue, and tears were beginning to pour. This happened both with the right and left foot, but a little worse so on the left. Yep... supposed to be easy week. Ha! It was quite a work out, and it was only the first of the two classes! Belly dancing went decently. I didn't feel like a duck! I am debating on how much I have improved since entering level 2 .. 20 weeks ago. I am using my glutes better and am actually starting to see it visually. I am however still not as flexible as I would like to be and still can't flex and release at double time. I finally got a good handle on full time, and have *just* gotten 3/4 time as long as I slow it down to .. 3/4 of half time instead of 3/4 of full time, if that makes sense.
Today was planning on drilling again, but since it still hurts to even walk down stairs, I think I may save the drills for tomorrow.. or Saturday. It's a long weekend. I am planning on dedicating 2 hours on Tuesday for drills. Oof! And so begins my training in order to be good enough to take the Level 2 workshop where I'll actually be in a class with Suhaila!
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