Repetition

There's something very soothing about making the same pattern over and over, especially if it's something small that can be completed in a couple of hours. Then by the end of the day you've got three or four of the items. It makes you feel very productive!

There were the ruffley flowers that I wrote about last time, and I also discovered this other flower pattern: Spiral Flower Headband / Earwarmer by Shana Galbraith. I love this flower! I really like the spiralling effect of the petals. So I made 3 ;)









I think I like the orange one best, even though the purple one photographs best - I seem to be in an orange mood right now, which is strange since the colour isn't actually that flattering on me unless it's a very bright orange. Which this larger flower is, thankfully. ;)

I wanted to try the flower pattern in different colours to see what it looked like, and also because by the time the first flower was done, I felt like I was only just getting the hang of the pattern. I don't know what I'll use them for, maybe more tribal costuming. I'm still undecided on whether to make the headband as in the pattern, or to make a belt.

I also made this cute little bow!!



Actually, I made 2 of them in red, and I'm going to make many more in different colours!

I love it! It's so cute! I've been wandering around holding it up to everyone's head and giggling about how cute they look. (the bf looked surprisingly adorable, even with a grumpy, get-that-thing-away-from-me expression) In fact, I think I may have to photoshop a pic of Tupac with this bow on, Hello Kitty style ;D Stay tuned for that!

Oh, in all my raving, I almost forgot to say what pattern it is! It's the "Headband with Bow" pattern by creativeyarn . That one's a free download. It's actually super easy, and very quick to make. I used some random cotton from the stash for that, crocheting it very tightly. The yarn is a DK weight cotton, and I used a 2mm hook. Super tight!!

And, in the spirit of repetition, I cast on another Mariah cardi on Saturday. The first one, I wrote about here.



I've had this brown yarn for a while. It's an acrylic that my mum gave me, and I've been trying to figure out what it wanted to be for ages. I just couldn't think of the right pattern. I wanted something cabley, but not too cabley. I knew I wanted some sort of cardigan/jacket. And even though I've knit this pattern before, my brain just didn't register it till yesterday when I was thinking about all this repetition I've been doing recently. Suddenly it struck me that I could knit the same sweater pattern again!! Gasp!! (Seriously, it was a bit like that, strangely enough. It actually felt like a bit of a revelation that I could use this pattern instead of finding something new. Weird!)

I knit about 7" of the back on Saturday, and another 5 inches yesterday. I think I'm actually liking this yarn in the pattern a lot more than the red. This yarn's a little thicker, and it's showing off the cables beautifully. I decided to start with the back instead of the cabled sleeves as the pattern says because that felt just a little too involved last night. Ribbing and stocking stitch, I can just about handle that just now ;)

Little Ruffley Flower Obsession

I had another incident of seeing a pattern come up on ravelry's recently added pattern page, and having to make it right now. I seem to have a few of these incidents, that pattern page is quite addictive!





These were made using the pattern "Ruffled Crochet Flower" by Shala. It's a free ravelry download. I saw the pattern come up and just thought wow, tribal costume! (Probably because I was at a hafla the night before with lots of fabby dancing and costumes). So I downloaded and printed the pattern, and proceeded to make 3 of them in one day!

The pattern calls for thread and a 1.5mm hook - I used some random orange thread from my stash of crochet cotton, and a 2mm hook, cos that's what was nearby. It worked fine :) The pattern's written up well and easy to follow. The first one took about 3 hours, but I'm getting the time down now :)

I'm envisioning loads of tribal costume ideas using this pattern. I want to add them to a belt, I want to make hairfalls with them, and I want to just add them to everything in my wardrobe!! The original has a button in the middle, making it look more flowerlike, I think black buttons would look great in the middle of all that orange...

Sigh, if only when I thought of something, it would just appear! I'm too impatient, I want these costume pieces now!! But I think I'd be swamped with knitted and crocheted items if that happened, so it's probably best just to go through the process (I'm such a product knitter/crocheter!) I'm having lots of fun making these little flowers though.

And they're so scrunchy in the cotton thread! I keep squishing them in my hand just to feel the texture. I think I finally understand the appeal of tawashi, if not washcloths just yet.

Must go make more...

Jewel of Yorkshire, April 2009

Time for my long belated post about Jewel of Yorkshire spring 2009 (it was April 4 and 5, so yeah, more than a little belated), but I've gotten round to it finally!

It was fab! I did 4 workshops, and bought some things. I bought the Sharon Kihara DVD, a DVD with Joe Jakes teaching a tribal drum solo choreography with Issam Houshan (which is fantastic!!!! New favourite dance DVD!), Beats Antique's new cd Collide, Hossam Ramzy cd Sabla Tolo 3, "Pure Punjaabi" cd, and another tabla songs cd. I also got a pair of black dance trousers which have dangly bits at the top with beads on, since I was looking for a pair of black dance pants last October but couldn't find any that I liked. This time I found some, about ten minutes after going into the souk! And five minutes after going into the souk, at the first stall I went to, I was looking through the stall and found a top and skirt costumey thing. (I'll have to get photos). The woman told me it was the sale area and it was £15 less, so I got it. I was her first customer of the day, that's how early I went! And that's it for the buying stuff. :D I swore when I went down I wasn't going to spend much, but I always end up buying tons!

I did 2 workshops with Meissoun, a swiss dancer who taught us Lebanese style dancing in high heels, and a bhangra workshop. She's very exuberant and energetic!!!! I was knackered at the end of both (luckily they were both on different days!). She's funny, and explains everything well, and brings swiss chocolate to her workshops! I hope she comes back next year!!! Lebanese dancing is really interesting (BIIIIG movements, very dramatic, and of course on high heels, which makes level changing easier) She had us doing turns and spins on heels too, which is a big part of Lebanese dance (very dramatic!) Luckily I didn't fall over! I'd seen some Lebanese videos on Youtube, so I knew it was a style I liked, and she taught it really well.

I also did Golden Oldies with Lorna Gow, where she explained the differences and surprising similarities between "vintage" style and "modern" style egyptian and showed us how each style would do different moves. She was fab, as always! She danced really well at the hafla, she was my favourite that night, I think!

And I did Tribe Electronica with Wendy Marlett. She was great too! We did slow spooky combos, and I had to take notes of all of them, cos I iz hopeles at remembering tribal combos!

The hafla where the teachers performed was fantastic. There was Lorna (awesomely inspiring! Every time I watch her dance I have a new apprciation for dancing, and feel totally inspired to improve myself!)

I can't remember her name now, but there was a woman who owns a costume store, and she did a sort of trance style dance with a red veil, which was cool and spooky and fun. Meissoun did a dance which had some of the Lebanese movements and styles in it, and she also did a bollywood dance which was really good. I thought she interpreted it well, it was like I could understand the words, even though they were in another language! Fereshteh did a stick dance, and was really good. Khaled also was really good, he's great at getting the audience going! 400 Roses did a medieval inspired tribal group dance - I loved the costuming, and it was a fun routine to watch. Lulu Sabongi came on at the end and must have gone on for about fifteen minutes! She was so energetic and really good.

It was a fantastic weekend, and I had lots of fun. I've already picked out the classes I want to go to in October, just need to save enough money and send a cheque off! I love going there, I always meet new people, and get inspired in so many different ways. I'm practicing a lot of the technique and moves I learned while I was there in April, that should definitely keep me going till the next one, lol!!

Sword Practice In Progress!

And boy, is it needed! Thanks to Natalia's kind advice, I tied my hair back, tried to relax and practiced. I can balance it pretty much all the time now, and can even walk forward with it on my head, do vertical hip figure 8s, and sometimes even shimmy when I'm feeling confident! I'm still finding it hard to relax enough to allow my chest to move independantly of my head. It's really annoying! I can do it fine without the sword, my isolations are pretty good if I do say so myself, but I just go too rigid! :) Oh well, more practice. I think it'll just take some time before I'm confident enough with it.

We tried using them in the class yesterday, which was interesting. We balanced and moved around the room, and did some basic moves, then the teacher through this move in where we balanced on one foot, and sort of slid out to the side. Not sideways walking, just a sort of pose, but there was no way I could do that! I just concentrated on standing still! It's harder to do it with the distraction of other people in the class as well, so I just did what I could do. That's what I love about my tribal class. Our teacher lets us go at our own speed, and doesn't mind if we do basic moves if that's all we can remember. She just takes it on board and remembers to drill some of the other moves with us, without pointing out why! It's so different from when I learned things when I was younger, when the teacher would point out (very loudly) that you were making a mistake, and everyone would look at you (usually laughing) while the teacher explained (equally loudly) how to do it right, whether it was maths, dancing (I did tap when I was little), or anything else. My teachers always seemed to do this, but I love it now I have nice teachers!

New Dance Sword! Yay!!!

Yay!!! Dance classes started back up again last week! (That's probably why I haven't updated the blog much during the past week - sorry!) They all started in the same week, Thursday night, then all day Saturday! I was bouncing around all the end of last week, so excited to be going back - I really miss it when I don't have class. I miss the learning, and the people in my class, which is really weird for me since I'm usually terrified of social situations, and don't like people in general much, but the women in my class are so nice!

The classes were just as good as I'd hoped they'd be too. We're starting new routines, which is good - it felt like we'd been doing the last ones for ages, going over and over and over. It's good to learn routines, but I get a bit bored if we go over them for too long - more than a term and I get bored. I don't mind doing it every now and then to get the practice, and to keep it in the memory, but seriously, we went over one routine every week for a year last time. We're also learning new moves in my Saturday class, cos we've got a teacher we don't normally have. It's good to learn new stuff. :) And I discovered that all of my tribal moves have disappeared from my head. Gone. Nothing there. So I'll be practicing them again this year, well, learning them again to be honest.

And . . . we got swords!



A close up of the handle:



I've been looking forward to dancing with swords since like, forever! And now I have one, yay!! It's so hard to balance it though! :) I thought I had pretty good balance, but I get it on my head, and just go absolutely rigid, terrified to move. I don't know why, it's not even sharp at all - I guess I just haven't got used to the feeling of it. It's a lot heavier than I expected, but it seems easier to balance it with a scarf on my head. But somehow that feels like cheating! :) I just want to stick it on my head and dance away! I guess it's just one of those things that I'll need to practice until I get comfortable with it.

Sore

Oh, I am sore today! I had my last dance classes of this year yesterday, and boy, did our teacher work us hard! In my belly dance class we were doing undulations (camels, body rolls, or whatever else you call them) going up and down, and my back is paying for it today. Also, in my tribal style class, we were drilling some moves, and we've also been doing arm work to strengthen our muscles. The arm work is also very tiring on the back, but I'm noticing an improvement in how long I can hold my arms up while doing tribal. That was a big problem when I started - you have to keep your arms up for a long time, and most people haven't developed the muscles required for that, myself included. I do have the Arms and Posture DVD by Rachel Brice, but I need to use it more. I end up just standing watching her, she's so beautiful and inspiring and such a good dancer. It's a really good DVD, even when I skipped through it the first day I got it, I got loads of helpful tips. The work is very muscle intensive, so needs lots of practice lol!

So I was going to practice more today, but I think I should leave it till tomorrow. I think today I'm just going to lie around and complain about being stiff!

I Have A Question . . .

Do other bloggers out there find that some days they have nothing to write about, then suddenly there's like 3 different subjects vying for attention, wanting to be written about? I've noticed I have that problem a few times, and either have to drop a subject or end up with a very confused post. Today, I'm just going to have to drop a subject or two, and concentrate on the one thing, I think. I'll post either later or tomorrow, or another day with the other topics. If they're that important, they will appear.

I think the problem is that I'm writing about my two loves - knitting and dancing. I don't like to mix them in a post though - I'm going to have to try to keep them seperate, at least that far. I'll just have to get better at tagging posts - I've been a bit lax about that recently.

Anyway, I've had a few interesting dance experiences recently. I danced at the show for the place where I dance on a Saturday. I did a Tribal routine, and a Belly Dance routine, with the other women in my classes. They put the wrong music on for the Belly Dance routine - I didn't know what to do! It was just as well our teacher was dancing with us - she just stayed put and signalled that it wasn't the right music. I think if I'd been dancing alone, I'd have totally paniced. I'd either have had to make something up on the spot, or just run off stage!

I was very nervous about the tribal dance. I've only really performed tribal with my group once before, and it was all choreographed (even though it's not supposed to be, we cheated! It was our first time!). So in this one, the first half was choreographed, and the second half was improvised. I hid at the back for the second half. :) I had a place in the front group for the first half though, so I felt like I did something. But I seriously need more practice making up tribal dances on the spot. I'm just not comfortable with it at all.

Then yesterday, my other class went to perform for the WI, in a nearby village. That was great fun. The women there were fantastic - mostly older ladies, as is often the case in the WI, but they were really up for having a go along with us after we'd performed our routines. Our teacher lent them coin belts, and they really went for it! It was amazing, and great fun. I've danced for the WI before, in a different area, with a smaller group, and they were a bit more reserved. This group seemed really into it. Maybe some of them will come to the class next term - I hope so! And they served a brilliant tea afterwards! Tons of sandwiches, cakes, tarts, and as much tea as we could drink. They were soooo nice!

But that's it for classes for the summer, unfortunately :( We're going to try to keep the hall on a Thursday, but there will be no Saturday classes, no belly, bolly or tribal. And I'm not even sure if there will be a bollywood class when I go back! My teacher was training to be a doctor as well, and now she's got a job, so she'll be too busy to teach dance. I hope they get someone else to do the class! I'll really miss it if it stops!

EDIT: Oops! Got the wrong link for the WI, that's for the English one. The Scottish one is the Scottish Women's Rural Institutes. Just as well I actually read the WI page after I linked to it!

A bit about dance . . .

I thought I'd write a little about my dancing today, as my camera has run out of battery power and I can't take any pictures of knitting. I wish I could, I just learned how to crochet and am making a crochet wave blanket, inspired by yarnstorm's blankets. In fact, it's the same pattern, but I'll write about it tomorrow. I'll have to get some batteries!

I've been belly dancing now for 2 1/2 years. I go to a class on Thursdays, and another on Saturday. On Saturday I also go to American Tribal Style and Bollywood classes. I've totally got the dancing bug, I'm obsessed with it! My teachers are really good, and the classes are always interesting and fun. I go to workshops when I can, I've been to workshops by Lorna Gow (I also went to one of her classes before she went to Cairo, and she's amazing! I learned so much from just one term with her!), Fareshteh (not sure if I've spelled that right), and Khaled.

What I love about belly dance is that it's so suited for the female form. Any woman can do it, you don't have to be stick thin like a ballerina, and it really shows off the curves and attitude of a woman. Every woman dances differently, I've seen this in my classes, and their personality really comes through in the dance. We're all doing the same moves, but it can look so different. It's great for body image, because it is so suited for the female form. I've heard people saying it helped with recovery from eating disorders, and I know it's definitely increased my own confidence! Also, I love performing, and the belly dance 'scene' gives plenty of opportunity to do that, with lots of haflas where people get together and dance. The other dancers are so supportive and accepting as well. I never realised really how much I love performing (I always just thought of it as showing off before), but it's such a great feeling dancing for (and with!) other people. It's really opened up a whole other side to my personality that was hidden before!

Tribal is more about dancing in a group. It's mostly improvised on the night, one dancer leads and the others follow by reading her signals. This is definitely a dance for improving confidence! It's nerve-racking dancing in front of the group, having to remember moves, and signals, and make up the moves that are coming up next, all in the same moment! But it's great fun, and the people who do tribal are REALLY friendly and supportive. It seems to attract the type of person who works well in a group. I suppose in order to dance it, you have to be that type of person really. It's good practice for me, I'm quite shy and am not usually good in groups!

Bollywood! That class is sooo energetic and exciting. Lots of jumping, moving, and hand movements! Our teacher teaches us a dance every term, and it's so fast-paced, and fun!

I think I'm improving in my dancing. I still have a hell of a lot to learn, and much confidence to build up before I'll be anywhere near good, but it's very inspiring going to classes and workshops and learning new things. This is really just an overview about my dancing, there's so much more I could say, and I'm sure I will as this blog goes on.