It dawned on me the other day that I have been utterly neglecting my blog, and that I do enjoy writing.
What brought this realization about is that this Friday evening, April 1 at 7 pm, I will be taking my test for a Second Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo. While this may seem like a string of randomness, the two are in fact connected. One of the required tasks for the test is to put together a book about various aspects of your life. While not a full-on autobiography, an essay about the student's life since passing the First Degree Test is required. Once I had finished the essay is when I realized that I missed the writing, and that led to remembering that I have an outlet for it, which had not been attended to in some time. So, here I am.
These last few weeks leading up to the test have been rather stressful for me, and an odd tightrope act of balancing the need to improve my strength and endurance while not getting hurt so I can't take the test. It has been tricky, let me tell you.
So, like any good knitter, I have turned to my craft as a way to take my mind off of the test. The problem is that I may have turned to it a little too much...
Here is a pair of socks that I started for a dear friend's birthday (already passed). They are the "Split Reed" socks from Think Outside the Sox. I was going gangbusters on them until I realized that they were sized for Sasquatch and so out they came. The intended recipient is physically quite the opposite of Sasquatch. A quick adjustment of the number of pattern repeats & off again, making up for lost time, until the heel had to be redone three times. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, I think I was in a frenzy of Test Stress, but in any case, here I am 3 days after the birthday with less than one finished sock. They are, however, very pretty. They're in Mountain Colors Bearfoot, in semi-solid red whose name I don't recall and for which I have lost the ball band.
I also started an THE entrelac shawl, which is worthy of several posts all on it's own; I'll save that saga for another time. It is, however, gorgeous, for me, and I have been having a very hard time not working on it 24/7. The yarn is Gedifra's Fashion Trend Stripe in color 4616.
Finally, another belated birthday present. This is the Astaire Vest is from "Sculptured Knits" by Jean Moss. My revised version of the pattern is being made in Rowan's Felted Tweed, color170. I had to re-draft the pattern in order to use this yarn, which is a bit finer than what was called for. The pattern is fun and surprisingly quick to knit, and results in a nicely masculine herringbone type texture. It's quite subtle, especially in this rather dark blue, but I am quite pleased with the results.
Once finished with the test on Friday, I may have to find a way of coping with the stress of getting the two birthday gifts done before the next birthday rolls around, and finishing the shawl before it's too hot to have it in my lap. I suppose I could always take extra TaeKwonDo classes...
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