Kung Fu Knitting

Yarn: Blue Skies Alpaca sport weight (2 skeins) Hook: L Pattern: Crochet a no-chain, single crochet base for desired length (I alway use my couch as a scarf length gauge) Here's a tutorial for making the chainless foundation stitch. You can also find excellent videos on Youtube. It's a wonderful skill to add to your crochet repertoire and makes that first row so much easier. R2: Increase row, single crochet (SC) into each stitch twice R3 SC across R4: Increase row, SC into each stitch twice R5 SC across Fasten off SC across caston edge (same number of stitches as in caston) Repeat rows 2-5 fasten off and weave in ends block if desired and twirl up both sides of scarf

I am giving this to my mom for Christmas. Isn't it cute? Beth, who made the knitted ammonite from the Ithaca Stitch'N Bitch makes them. I had no idea until I came upon them on her etsy site . I was just looking to what other cute little creatures she was knitting up and selling. I think my mom is really going to like it.

Vintage Bubble Bag for my gift elf, Cayli1 Another gift for Cayli1. My version of Flourish. Free Pattern Here > Holiday work party gift. Spiral scarf made out of Knit Pick's Suri Dream

No school Today! You know what that means? A day of glorious knitting.

A secretive one! I have been working on holiday knitting. Especially my KR gift elf package. I've had loads of trouble with one of the knitted gifts and decided to restart from scratch with a good dose of positive energy. And with that in mind it's turned out lovely if I do say so myself. In fact, maybe this was the design I was supposed to send in the first place but somewhere along the line I didn't listen to my inner voice? That sounds rather true. I feel very at peace now that everything is ready to go and headed in the mail today. Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum But the real inspiration for this post came from the quiz result below: You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell wh

And my official kung fu name is now Red Haired Dancing Crane . It's a nice name that happens to contain a good natured insult or two. Red heads -> temper -> dancing -> sometimes I look more like a dancer than a martial artist. The exam was 5 hours long! I won't go into particulars as I don't want to bore anyone, but it was physically demanding and I was so hungry by the end! Overall, I made some mistakes here and there, but I am particularly happy with the way I performed one of my sword forms. I think I did a pretty good job with technique for my level of swordsmanship. I haven't got any feedback yet about that. But I am pretty sure my spirit while doing the form was right on the mark. My fellow students said I looked nice and firey. That's means a lot to me as I tend to look like I am dancing and skipping a lot of the time. Someday I will get a picture of me and a sword.

I love it, Cayli1! Truly, I am so impressed. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I love how you said that you enjoyed the whole process, but in your case it really was the whole process: your own sheep, your own spun and dyed wool, hand knitting. Amazing! Really, it touched me. I am so glad that I participated in the exchange. It's a wonderful thing to wear something that someone knit for you. It's just infused with their energy or chi or something. Awesome! I was lucky that it is so sunny here today. It seems to me that the sun must have come out just for this, like a Thomas Hardy novel. First I would like to reveal the loveliness of Cayli's Yarn. She's gifted me with ~200 yards of rambouillet from one of her former sheep which she dyed and spun. When I look at this yarn crocuses popping up through the snow fill my mind. It's so soft, too. Unfortunately my pictures aren't capturing the subtle colors in the yarn. Imagine, if you will, the presence of light indig

I have a test coming up next Saturday. It's a big deal because it is the only one that will happen for a year. It's funny because my teacher feels that testing is not really important and that the class should know who is the best. Yet the examination will be hard, long and thorough. He thinks it will take something like 5 hours to complete. It won't all be physical though. There is a written portion. It's really unfortunate that I have had an injury. I was so strong just a couple of months ago. I could do more than 40 pushups at a time. I've had to give up training pull ups and pushups for my shoulder to heal better. Now I have a hard time doing 20. So there is part of the test that I will fail: push up hold. We have to hold a pushup in the down position for 30 seconds. There is no way I can do this. There are a couple of other shoulder intensive exercises, but I think I will be able to pull them off. My goal: All of this week I am going to practice my forms in the

I posted pictures of it blocking, but since sometimes it can take me months to seem, I thought I'd show the actual finished panta. This is the first time I have actually been happy with the way I sewed something together. The cables matched up nicely! Pattern: I adapted the Panta pattern from the craftster.org thread and mixed in an adapted version of Alice Starmore's cable pattern for her Kittiwake hat from Aran Knitting . Yarn: Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted 75% wool 25% alpaca 220 yards in a 100 gr ball Needles: US7 Gauge: 5st/inch and 6 rows/inch Comments: I really loved knitting with this yarn and I can see myself knitting a lot more with it in the future. I would use it just as I normally would use Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride. As for the pattern, I would leave out a couple of border stitches that I used in future ones.

I love my little cat Gunter, but sometimes I feel like he puts too much pressure on me. You see he's not an ordinary cat, but I suppose most people might say that about their pets. The thing that sets him apart from other cats is his utter devotion to me. He's really quite more like a dog: he follows me around, waits for me by the door, sits by my feet, etc. The thing that has really been getting to me lately is that almost no matter what I am doing he always there just staring at me waiting for me to look at him. It's kind of creepy and it's a heavy burden know that his world really revolves around me. That he's just there waiting. Like right now if I look down he's going to be there looking at me. Yep. It's lovely that we've bonded so, but, correct me if I am wrong, don't cats normally have a lot more going on in their inner lives? They're investigating, hiding, lording around the house. My other baby cat, Teeny seems to keep herself more tha

It's for my sister-in-law. I hope it sews up nicely.

Yesterday my mother's christmas gift arrived. I wanted to get some fiber for her to spin. She recently bought a drop spindle and has been itching to get started. Teyani at Crown Mountain Farms suggested pencil rovings as an easy starter fiber. So I chose a nice colorway that she dyed herself. It's called autumn and as you can see it's aptly named not to mention gorgeous. What amazing service - they shipped it the day I ordered it and it came right away even with the Thanksgiving holiday. It's really soft and light, not scratchy at all. The thing that I really like about this gift is that if my mom decides that spinning is not for her, she can use the roving to knit with. There are some great felted items on the Crown Maountain site made from this roving. There hasn't been much kung fu this week as my teacher has been out of town and classes have been cancelled for the holiday. It's a good thing since I have been sick and my body needed some recovery time. Tomo

I was picking a couple of things up in Wegmans yesterday. It was packed with people doing holiday shopping. I think it could have been a little bit stressful, but I was walking around smiling because of all the beautiful handmade scarves people were wearing. Some were simple. Some very well worn. But they all were quite lovely. It's nice to see such a local display of skill. I had been working all day with a plugged up head and scratchy throat, but by the time I got home I realized that I was really going to get sick. So eventhough I was feeling like crap I went to the Ithaca St'n Bitch. There was one other person there already. We knitted the night away. I was working on Christmas scarves and my KR gift elf present. By the time I got home I rally needed some nyquil, but opened a bottle of wine instead. I had to prepare stuffing for today. Anyway, I feel terrible today. By the time I got the turkey in the oven and the stuffing in pans, I couldn't really taste anything and

Wow it's hard to put in a "life line" for frogging on short rows.

I finished the collar for Eris a couple of days ago. I would be excited, but I am seriously contemplating frogging the left side of the collar again. The row gauge is fine for both sides. It's the knitting that's bothering me still.The first side I knit is a lot looser and rowed-out looking. I think I am going to contemplate this over the coming weekend and see how I feel.

There are some really great people coming to the S'n B lately. One of them likes to 3-d knit. She's made some cool things, and about the coolest so far was her ammonite. Actually, I think she has a sea creature collection. I hope she submits them to Knitty because there is no way the patterns for these creatures wouldn't be just snapped up.

I went to my LYS the other day looking for instant gratification. I wanted a nice skein of yarn that I could knit into a panta and wrist warmers that would look good on me. I did find that skein, but I found something else as well. Somehow I managed to walk out of the store with a $20 hank of sock yarn. Not that I don't have 3 unused skeins already. See the thing is that My LYSO had talked up Mountain Colors Bearfoot to me before: It's the softest, it's got the best colorways, it's just plain fabulous, your fingers are not going to believe it. Blah, blah, blah. And back in June she told me that she sent in an order and that she should have it soon. I kept on checking and checking, but it never showed up. Well she finally got that order. The UPS man delivered it right when I got into the shop and she opened the box for another customer that was sock yarn shopping. That was my downfall. All the beautiful yarn! OMG! It is the softest sock yarn evah. It's got 15% moha

I have been sucked big time into martial arts lately. So much so that I have kind of ignored this blog and I even haven't been reading KR (that's saying something). It's all the fault of the UFC and the reality tv show The Ulitmate Fighter . (also here ). The guys on this show and in the UFC have so much skill and talent. They train in so many different martial arts that it's amazing. I never used to like boxing or fighting. In fact, I thought it was rather barbaric. I think part of my thinking was due to how my body reacted to this kind of stimulus. My pulse would rise and I could feel the adrenalin start to flow. It's a primal reaction beyond your control. I didn't really like that. I enjoy that now. By doing so much kung fu I have slowly acclimated myself to the idea of fighting. At first I didn't understand how much was involved with mixed martial arts (mma): how difficult it is, how demanding on the body and mind. I didn't get it until I tried it.

I have made another felted scrap bag. This time I crocheted it and I really like the results. The cost was nothing as I just used left over yarn from other projects. Mostly I remembered what kind of yarn it was, but I spit spliced the yarns together for color changes just to make sure they would felt. I wanted to make a Lucy-type bag from Two Old Bags . So after I had crocheted up the height of the bag, I winged the straps. I edges the entire top of the bag and that stopped it from flaring. I also edged the straps and that added extra stength to them (they are not going to stretch as much). I would definitey do this to my knitted bags in the future. As with knitted straps, the crocheted straps are felting more slowly. I've put it through a hot wash and cold rinse two times, but I think I will give it another go for the straps and the bottom needs a little extra felting as well. Overall I am very pleased at how it turned out. I think it took me about 7 hours to crochet and I am quit

November is Crazy Birthday month for me. My Kung Fu teacher, my BF, my sister, my mom, my dad's partner. And last year was the last time for my grandmother. I miss her. So I am knitting up a storm before I can even get to xmas gifts. :sigh: Last year I made a hat for my dad's partner. Unfortunately, it got back to me that it didn't fit. I wasn't aware that he has an unusually large head. This year I am making a big-head proof hat and I bought the yarn for it today. All I can say is that I am in knitting heaven. This Baby Alpaca Grande by Plymouth Yarns is heavenly, so soft, omg good to the fingers. Not only that but I had forgotten how much I like knitting with my big Britanny DPN's. The yarn glides across them just right. Plus with US11's I am almost done in a couple of hours. Can I say that I love making bulky hats? Such satisfaction! Can you see an Addi US2 40 inch circular needle peeking out in the picture? I have a 29 inch, too. Now I can try sock knitting

This is the Farrow Rib scarf that I am making as a xmas gift for my father. I decided on US8 needles and doubling up. It was going to take forever on the US2s I started out with. Eris I am still working on the collar for Eris. Every weekend I sit down a plow through a chart. It's really almost done. The right side is looking so much better than the left that I am thinking of frogging it again. Andean Silk really doesn't frog well though. Felting This is a bag that I am crocheting for felting. I am really excited to see how it will felt down. I am trying to do the straps like the lucy bag from two old bags. I just have a little bit to finish up. It's a nice weekend project. New Yarn So an order arrived from Knit Picks (0ne that I was only supposed to make when I finished the collar for Eris, whoops!). I can now start on my KR gift elf present and my mosaic socks for the 6soxKAL. I am to be using the varigated yarn and the color your own for the socks. Ella I restarted Ella u

I need to study for the written portion of my upcoming Kung Fu test. One aspect about Buddhism that we need to know about are the 4 Noble Truths: There is suffering There is a cause to all suffering There is an end to all suffering There is a path to end the suffering What is suffering? According to Buddhism there are three main types. Suffering can simply be part of the normal phases one passes through in life: aging, death in the family, youthful angst. There is suffering in our lives because they change and change can bring loss of good things in our lives. Suffering can also be from ourselves, our innate vulnerablity for suffering. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The last bit on suffering reminds me of a poem by Robert Frost. This poem seemed to capture the aloness I felt as a teen, the bleekness and sadness that one can feel inside. I think this must relate to the third type of suffering. Desert Places Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fas

This is my finished Panta. I don't really think it suits me, so good thing it's a gift! I made it out of some Berroco Foliage that I bought at my LYS. I love self striping yarns. It's tried to be a scarf two times already. I am glad that it's finally happy to be a head band. Maybe it will like being fingerless mitts as well. Off to cast on!

Yesterday my program took a trip to the Cayuga Nature Center . I love this place. The treetops tower is the coolest. Anyway I had stream duty, so I hung out in a shady stream and looked for salamanders with the kids. Yesterday I started knitting a Panta . It's already done and will make a nice gift with a pair of mitts.

There is this very cute kindergartener at work. She's about the smallest thing that you have ever seen with really large blue eyes. She's a very dreamy child and I think that she's got a lot going on internally that she doesn't share with the world. The other day she was carrying around a little teddy bear. I had noticed that it had accompanied her everywhere for a couple of days. It's yellow and the fur is sparkly and it's been well used. This was our conversation: Me: "Well how is Mr. Sparkles bear doing today?" She cups the bear in her hands and looks down at it tenderly. Her: "She's my only hope," a large pause as she looks into the distance, "for the final battle." And walks away. Do you think her parents are LOTR fans? On another front I am having a personality conflict with the person I am teaching kung fu with right now. We've hung out for extended periods of time and had some really great moments together so I know

I wanted to post some progress pictures the other day, but the batteries in my camera went kaput. And I keep for getting to buy some more. So here's my update: It's taking a really long to time to finish the flourish look a like because the second to last row is a killer. I have been working on Eris and the Farrow Rib scarf as well. I didn't work on Ella this week or cast on for a new pair of socks. I had been waiting for the new pattern in the 6 sox knit along, but had gotten busy since then. I really need to put in an order to Knit Picks for my holiday gift elf present (from KR ). I aM going to knit some thing really special for Cayli1, but I promised myself that I can't do it until I finish the collar portion of Eris. One of the reasons I am so busy right now is that I am teaching My Kung Fu and Tai Chi classes with J. AND teaching the kids class with A because My teacher is out of town for a couple of weeks. He left us with a list of requirements for testing in Dec