Twin Ribs Complete!

Saturday was a very relaxing dayafter a very long week. I spent the majority of the day knitting my socks, the toes of which can be seen 3 posts ago (I need to update more regularly). I hadn't been knitting all week due to professional and personal stresses, and unfortunately, knitting couldn't be my cure. I turned the heels in the morning, and had both heels completed by noon. Mr A kept saying "Look! You can be done today!!" I told him that I was far from finished and expected that I'd be done next weekend, or depending on how much I dedicated, sometime this week. I guess at that time, I wasn't expecting to be able to just sit and knit all day. I ended up finishing them Sunday evening. I only used 50g total out of the ~100g of ChaCha that my SP sent me. I was so excited that they were completed, that I wore them all day yesterday before I had a chance to get in any pictures. I managed to get Mr A to help take pictures of my feet since I did not want purely arial views. Out comes the tripod (and Mr A's concentrating face which includes some lip pouting... hard to be still when laughing at the lip) and many pictures later I get the perfect one.

Hooray for new socks! They were made two at once on Addi Turbo US1, magic loop style, toe up. :o)

Delurk!

I just stole this from someone in SP9. :o)

Dance Movements

Monday night was my first night back to Dance Movements since before Christmas, and the first DM class altogether since the new schedule change. DM is now only offered once a week; Monday. As I expected since I saw the new schedule, it was crowded. Very crowded. It was very hard to have personal space and to be able to move and stretch in the ways that we really should have. When in dance class in general, it kinda bothers me when someone plops their mat down directly in front of me, and only giving me 4 inches from my toes to the back of the individual's mat. Oof. Bar work also quickly became non bar work since there were too many of us squished on the bar. There were a number of girls who don;t stand at the bar since they have been dancing longer and have better balance. T booted me off the bar, but evetually decided that since there was no one else that she could boot off that we would all be off the bar and do our focus work facing the mirror. This makes me wonder how things are going to work when we are focusing on something harder than tendues and plies. I'm hoping I'll be able to use the bar, or at least stand next to a cubby for support.
Although it was crowded, I was very pleased Monday night. In the middle of working, T walked up to me and told me how she was impressed with my strength. She told me that I had good balance and a strong form, and that she was impressed especially since I kept it together over the break. Woo! This may have been what prompted her kicking me off the bar. It was a very good workout, and always is when T is the instructor. My calves are still very sore. I have to walk slowly and pay attention to what I am doing. I am hoping that by tomorrow when my next class is that I will be back to some normalcy.

Anyone Can Knit

I know everyone has probably seen this by now, but it still tickles me to no end. I think it is very cute and thought I would share with those who had not yet seen it.

Socks!

On Sunday morning I finished Mr A's socks. I made them with short cuffs because I basically knew they weren't going to end up fitting Mr A after all. Of course I had him try them on one last time, and yeah. I just made myself a new pair of socks. On the plus side, my feet are small enough that only half of the skein of Trekking was used, so I still have enough to at least make a pair of short cuffed socks for Mr A. This time, I will have patience and turn the heels when I know they will fit him. I haven't taken recent pictures, but this is a picture of what they looked like only a few rows before finishing.




Last night I decided that I would crack into the skein of ChaCha that my Secret Pal sent me near the beginning of SP9. I spun off two small balls and cast on with the brand new Addi Turbos that I just got from my SP, and the magic loop is on its way! I have the toes done and will be starting the pattern soon. This yarn is very nice to work with already, and I can tell that the socks are going to be very comfy. I am also very happy that magic loop is so easy. I think starting with one sock one circ, going to two socks on two circs and then to two socks on one circ helped. Each prior step helped with each transition. And now I think I'll work more on those socks. This is my progress thus far. :o)

Secret Pal Package

I came home late from work tonight and was preparing for a nice Friday night of knitting when Mr A said "Did you see you had a box here?" Hmm? Box? For me? Oo. What could it be? On the return address, it said it was from "Santa Claus". And who might that be, but my Secret Pal! Inside was a nice little card, 2 pairs of Addi turbos that are long enough to learn magic loop on (size US 1 and 2), 2 skeins of Sisu Fantasy sock yarn, and 2 tins of Indian Masala spices! Woo hoo! The sock yarn is very soft and has wonderful colors. I am also very amazed at the spice tins. I absolutely love Indian food, and my biggest complaint is not knowing how to cook it. Having the spices with simple recipes on the can will make learning much easier. That was an excellent gift! Thank you so much, Secret Pal!






There was also the added bonus that the box and packing peanuts doubled as cat entertainment, as exhibited by one of the cats in the process of attempting to taste one of the peanuts. :p

New class and lots of knitting!

Today I had to miss out on going to my knit night because my dance school's schedule has changed. I am now going to dance class in some combination of Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays. The new schedule began on January 2nd. Of course, on that day I was flying back to CA, so if I wanted to make it to dance at all this week, I had to show up tonight. I didn't realize that the schedule wasn't the only thing changing; the format has also. BD2 used to be more endurance in the drills around the room while Dance Movements was more of the sit-ups and work out before dancing. Tonight, we did our usual push-ups but we also had sit-ups, which I was somewhat unprepared for, being my first class back and all. Also, in addition to having to concentrate on our foot work and hip work, we are now supposed to bring our zills (finger cymbals) to class. Yeah, I was not prepared for that. I had just bought my first pair about 2 months ago and have not had time yet to learn how to use them (or what 7's or 3-1's mean) so that was... interesting. Needless to say, I was so focused on my feet and hips that I drilled with my finger cymbals clasped together, not clicking and chiming like (almost) everyone else. I was also very out of sync with dance (hooray for vacations, huh?) and for some reason couldn't handle my feet and hips at once. We were also supposed to line up for our drills by our lkevel; those in front are level 2 certified, next is level 1, and last are uncertified. It was an interesting class. My schedule and rut has completely changed. I like habit and I like things being stable. This is.. interesting. New days, new subjects. It makes me very curious as to what I am going to be doing in Dance Movements. One good thing is that now I don't have to long for taking the Fusion class. The only reason I had wanted to take that class was to learn zills and using them while doing other movements. That now seems to become satisfied in this class.

In other news, Mr A and I had our 3rd.. no 4th Christmas? We received a box from his parents that had a bunch of gifts in it. Yai! There were quite a few knitting things in it. I did not realize this until after i opened them, of course. In the middle of tearing tape off of one gift, I realized that the big soft wrapped thing was a sweater that Mr A's mom has been working on for me for a year! I shreiked as I realized this instantly losing (momentarily) interest in the still unopened gift, with "It's my sweater!!" Mr A was startled since it was quiet up until that point. I told him I was going to be somewhat disappointed if it wasn't since i just got myself worked up about it. And it was! It was finished! Hooray!! I threw it on to see how it fit. Now remember, this was knit while she was in Boston and I was out in California, so it was a lot of size guessing. It *almost* worked. The shoulders are a teeny bit poofy and the waist is a little thick, especially where the sleeves meet the body. But I love it! I am so excited! This is the first thing that anyone has knit for me!!
I am really excited to get to wear it.

From Mr A's mom I also received the cables Stitchionary, which I am also excited about because I can learn more about cables with it. Yai! And there are some sneaky sneaky people out there. I also got a gift certificate to where? Marin Fiber Arts! And each gift certificate is signed by Warren, so sooooomeooooone knew that I was getting this. ;o)

As for Mr A's socks that I wrote about last time... well. Things seemed to have changed. on the airplane, I was so excited about them that I turned the heel ever so slightly too soon. Of course I didn't think to stick a life line in before turning the heel, and I'll be damned if I try frogging the heel only to ruin the whole sock thus far. So, I seem to have accidentally made myself a pair of socks. I am hoping that maybe some luck will make it to that they fit him, butif they don't, I guess Iam lucky that they fit me. Darn! I really wanted to use some of the other yarn I have to make myself some other pair of socks. I'll just have to buy more and make him a pair.. that actually fits. Seeing as how this is my first "pair" of socks, we can call it practice, right? Yeah. I was only pretending. It was all planned from the beginning. Poor Mr A. Although I don't think he was nearly as excited about getting these socks as I was about him getting them. Oh well.