Weekend Warrior

Edit: Tonight at 6 PM PST is the Paralympic Opening Ceremony...the beginning of another chance to get our cheer on! And check out our goalie, the defending gold medallist from Turin - he seems pretty driven, if highly unlikeable...apparently he doesn't care if he's remembered as the 'biggest prick in the world'. To which I say, "get us another hockey gold, you can call yourself whatever you like.

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Here I am back at Friday, March 12th of all things, and the last time I posted was March 1...the time does fly.

I had a great time last weekend - it was International Women's Day and we danced at a benefit for a local Women's Centre, to a wonderfully responsive crowd. Dancing for women has such a positive energy: so friendly, and very different from a mixed crowd. The presence of men adds a bit of tension and judgment that I've never felt from an all-female audience. - it's interesting. And it reminded me that historically, Middle-Eastern gender segregation being what it was, belly dance was by women, for women - not for men. Belly dancers did entertain men, but the dancers were male. Male belly dancers are hard to come by in North America - and their figures make the dance look quite different - but their abilities can be just as dazzling, as you'll see if you check out that link.

So that was Saturday. Sunday was awesome too...I got up early and went to a neighbouring island to take a workshop with Cat Bordhi who, I can tell you, is a very intelligent and free-thinking woman. I liked her a lot. It was a fun day full of yarn and needles, plus anytime I get to take an island-hopper ferry, I'm a happy girl.



View towards Vesuvius, from the car deck.


We were all knitting swatches and making up our own stitch patterns. I cast about in my head for a clever and original idea (Cat Bordhi's in the room - no pressure or anything) and decided on a "*yo, SSK, rpt * to end" on every row. I knocked off a couple of inches of that, then changed which stitch began the SSK and did an inch or so more. I was quite happy with the result, and was considering whether I could use it for the bottom of a summer tank top for my daughter, when Cat came around. She took the swatch from me and looked at it, then said "Oh, nice...it's like a market bag stitch."



(Hear that noise? That's the wind leaving my sails.)

My other swatch was a little more original, thankfully.

You'd write it like this, I guess:
Row 1: *k3, (knit 3 as follows: k third st tbl, then k second st tbl, then k first st tbl, then slip all 3 off together). Rpt from * to last 3, k 3.
Row 2: p
Row 3: *(knit 3 as follows: k third st tbl, then k second st tbl, then k first st tbl, then slip all 3 off together), k3. Rpt from * to last 6, k 6.

In the middle section I stacked the patterns instead of staggering them, and added a pattern row on every other WS row (p3, p3rd tfl, then 2nd tfl, then 1st tfl, slip off together). On the top section, I dropped the RS row pattern stitch, so it slants the other way.

Anyhow, much fun was had, and if you get a chance to take a workshop with Cat, you definitely should. She has quite a few good tools for encouraging your originality.

Now I'm off to add the fourth experimental incarnation of a closure for my Uncle's slippers. I've knit him three pairs now, but the first two apparently don't stay on very well...I am working the problem, but the solutions keep winding up somewhere between an outsized bootee, and a crazy Brobdingnagian Mary-Jane.

But I figure, 'if at first you don't succeed'. Don't worry Dave, this time I'm sure to get it right.