Kung Fu Knitting

Ah poor blog. I haven't been keeping up very well. It's not because I have been too busy. I just haven't had the heart to write. I don't want to TMI anyone, but my personal life (read 9 year relationship) is falling apart. I have been very upset and haven't had the heart to really knit either. Sometimes when I am unhappy I turn to knitting. Sometimes I feel paralyzed. This has been about paralysis. Not only has my knitting suffered, but the other half of my blog, Kung Fu, has been kaput lately, too. I love kung fu. I love learning it, practicing, sparring, weapons. It rocks. And the people at my school are awesome. I really don't think I could meet funnier, more interesting people with fantabulous personalities in Ithaca. But things have been happening that have upset the equanimity of the kwoon. There was a couple that both attended, but their relationship is now over. During the time that the gal was thinking about breaking up with her other half, she spent mo

I would just like to say that if I rated all the items that I have knit with regards to usefulness, then I think the clapotis comes in on top, even above socks. I've been wearing it all the time around the house to keep my shoulders warm. And now I know why people wear shawls. It totally works. My whole body feels a bunch warmer with it on. Then of course, I like to wear it out, too. So it's getting it's worth of wear there as well. And I need to catch up on some knitting pictures. I forgot to post these after the holidays. I made this set of fingerless mitts to go with the panta for my sister for Christmas. I finished them really quickly but let them languish for a month in need-to-seam-land. I just kind of winged the pattern and it truned out pretty well I think.

On Saturday I finally finished my January knitting project: A Clapotis in Noro Silkgarden #84 (6.5 skeins). I increased to 95 stitches, did 17 straight repeats and used US9 needles. The finished dimensions (unblocked) are ~6/1/4 feet by 1.5 feet. If I stretched it out flat the width would be greater. This was a great pattern for mindless or easy social knitting. It was entertaining to watch the color story unfold using the Noro yarn. I don't know if it would have been as satisfying a knit if I had used a solid colored yarn. In gerneral, I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. In the picture it's purl side up, like on Knitty. And One of the best things about knitting this pattern is that once it got pretty long, I could wear and knit it at the same time. So I had such lovely warm shoulders while knitting. My BF came back from Italy last week and brought me a few knitting suprises. The first is the yarn in the picture to the right. He was in Venice part of the time

I haven't had a lot to say this week because it's been rather tumultuous and I tend to get pretty tight when I am upset. Things in my personal life have been topsy turvy and my man, mr. fortran, has been living it up in a different country. So I haven't had any support on the homefront. But there have been a few bright spots. First, you know you're having a good Tuesday when someone comes up to you and says, "Hey I haven't seen you in a while. Your butt has gotten a lot smaller!" Now that just makes you go woohoo! inside. Since starting kung fu I have gained 20 pounds. Now of course it's muscle, but I still haven't lost a lot of the fat I had on top of the muscle. So all in all I have gotten bigger and very frustrated. But I think I am finally at the point where the body fat I am losing is beginning to show. Yeehaaw! Second, I went to the local boxing gym this week to check it out. For a while now I have been wanting to go because I feel like I n