WIP... Thursday :/ - Mostly The Afterthought Heel Sock

This week I haven't had as much time to knit as I would have liked :( I've been busy with other things - some of which have been fun, like dancing at a hafla on Saturday night, and some of which have not been so much fun, so I won't mention them :) I did go to see my mum the past couple of days, which is why WIP Wednesday has to be WIP Thursday this week. But hey, at least I'm making myself write something, so I won't beat myself up too much :)

Because it's on youtube already, I'll link to the video of me on Saturday, but I think I'll try to write a more in-depth post for my dance blog, which has been sorely neglected as of late.



I was dancing to "Tribute to Um Koulthoum" by Ahmed Bergaoui.

Anyway, knitting!! I've been mostly knitting on my afterthought heel socks.



I've knit most of one sock. The heel will go where that yellow line is in the middle of the sock (in between two lines of grey.



It's so weird seeing just the tube of the sock without any heel. I measured the foot of the sock against one of my short-row-heel socks that I have. I figure they should be the same size since the afterthought heel is essentially the same shape, just constructed differently.



For the toe, I was doing the usual ssk, k2tog decreases, but it's been bugging me for some time that when I do these decreases, they don't look the same on either side. I started with the ssks on this sock toe, but it was annoying me how they looked different, so I started experimenting with the decreases as well.

I ended up using a different decrease for the majority of the decreases (you can see the ssks on the first few decrease rows and how it's different from the ones above). I ended up doing a slip one knitwise, knit a stitch then pass slipped stitch over decrease, and I think it looks far more like the k2togs on the left hand side. I think that will be my standard replacement for ssks from now on, because I was evidently doing something wrong with my ssks (either that or ssks are just not the same as k2togs, but everyone seems to think they are, so I figure it must be me) Anyway, that's what I'll be doing from now on.

So, I've still to put in the heel, I'll write about that next week.

I also did a repeat and a half on my willow scarf, but it's at the stage where it just doesn't seem to be growing. I think I've got about another 5 repeats or so till it's done. I'm just knitting a little on it at a time whenever my partner's mother comes to visit, so it'll get done eventually :) I figure it looks much the same as last time, so I didn't take another picture of it.

I'm hoping to get more knitting done this week, I've got a few things to finish for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup. I also have a bunch of FO posts to write at some point this week, yay!!

Another Video

I'm heading off to Jewel of Yorkshire tomorrow!!

I'm ridiculously excited about this year's JoY. I've been literally counting down the days for the past two weeks! I'm doing workshops with Razia about American Cabaret bellydance, and one called Flawless Floorwork Fundamentals :) I'm also doing workshops in Tribal/Goth make-up, and gothic style Isis Wings. I'm so exicted!!!

Speaking of Isis Wings, I performed at a hafla last Saturday, and have uploaded the video to YouTube. Here it is:



I was dancing to Aziza by Hossam Ramzy. I love dancing with wings to this song, lots of spinny bits :)

The hafla was raising money for Clic Sargent, which is a totally worthy cause. We raised £302, yay!

I've been getting way back into dancing recently. I've been doing it for the past 6/7 years, and I feel right now like I did when I first started. I've got that excitement and enthusiasm about it back! I'll need to write a blog post about that soon. I'll try write some things while I'm at JoY on bits of paper, then post it properly when I get back!

A Video!!

I finally worked up the courage to put a video of me dancing onto the internet (eep!).



I was dancing to Yasmina by Guy Manoukian. This was half choreographed/half improvised. By the second half of the dance I was getting more into the music, which I think helped my dancing a lot.

This was at a local hafla I helped organise - I was in charge of the running order/getting music together etc, as well as helping with general organisation. Tip to myself for next year - start getting info in June (the hafla's in August, I'll need at least that long!!)

It turned out to be a really good night, lots of fantastic dancers, including a couple of people soloing for the first time (I wish I had been that good in my first solo!!!), and we raised £400 for a local charity. :) We're already making plans for next years hafla!