Rasta Rhythms

The rasta blankie (its new official name) is still growing. Every so often I get worried about the colors, will it be too weird? It sometimes looks like some psycadelic escapee from the 70s. But then I figure, what if it is weird? Do I really want a boring neutral tone blanket? It might turn out to be nice to have a cheerful, (very) colorful blanket in the middle of winter. I'm just going to keep going and let the yarn turn out how it wants to be. If it's horrific then I can always rip it back and make something else. That's the beauty of knitting. It's permanent, in that you can make something and have a FO right there that you created, and yet if it's too horrible it's not like sewing, you can always rip it back and make something else.

Practiced some belly dance this morning. I think I'm getting better at putting moves together when improvising, I used to stop all the time, not knowing what to do next. But today I managed to keep going even though I didn't know the song. I think it helps that I've been learning the rhythms used in Egyptian music. This site is very useful for learning about the rhythms, what they are, what they sound like etc. I also got a couple of drum cds with different rhythms on them, to practice listening to. I used to think there was no point in learning about the drum rhythms, weren't they just the same as the drumming I hear all the time when listening to music? But as I've gone on, I've realised that no, they're not the same, that's why Middle Eastern music sounds so different. And as I've learned more about them, my dancing has definitely improved. I'm listening to the music differently now, and I kind of know what's going to come next, but don't ask me how I know this! And when I'm just listening to music, not dancing, I can pick out the names of some of the rhythms! Yay! I can pick out maqsoum, masmoudi and saaidi. Still a lot more to learn, but it's so exciting finding out more about the music and feeling like I might be 'getting' it.