Friday, January 12, 2007

Be the needle, not the yarn.

Last week was our first ballroom dance lesson with our new teacher. Our regular teacher moved to Atlanta and we miss him terribly, but we are happy to be taking lessons with our new teacher too. Pea sometimes would have lessons with her while I danced with our old teacher, and we both think she's great. Our old teacher used to work primarily on teaching us new steps, while our new teacher is putting the emphasis on improving our technique - which we really, really need!!

One of the first things she zeroed in on was my posture. I've always had terrible posture. She was trying to relate dancing to other activities, asking me what sports I played in high school. Sports - me?? That's just laughable - I barely have enough coordination to walk around the house without hurting myself. So she asked if I swam. Ummm, no. So she just settled by telling me the best place to start is to think about keeping my b00bs up. Yeah, Pea liked that advice.

Next we started to work on spins. Again, due to the lack of coordination, my spins are always wobbly and off balance. She pointed out that posture is very important here too. Her example was this: "Think about trying to spin a piece of string. Doesn't work, right? Now think about trying to spin a stick. Much easier, right? So don't hunch over, stand straight and it will be easier to spin." To which a huge light bulb went off in my head! I get it!! BE THE KNITTING NEEDLE, NOT THE YARN!!! This I can relate too! She loved the analogy too, and wrote it in our folder for inspiration!

Now that I've bonded with my knitting needles and gained some new found respect for them, they seem to be working extra hard for me. After finishing the Footies for Holiday Head-Start, we dove into projects for the Not A Gift KAL. The sock I started Christmas morning is coming along.



I'm not sure how long I'm going to make the cuff, but I have a lot of yarn left. I guess I'll just keep going until I'm tired of it.

Bejeweled has grown quite a bit since we last saw her also.



With her, though, I've hit the dreaded black hole where you knit, knit, knit, knit, knit and the darn thing doesn't grow. I did finish the first ball of yarn last night and start the second, so I must be making progress somewhere, right?

What you see out the window are the new spindles on our front porch (the picture would have worked better if it hadn't been so overcast all day). Lynne had just asked me today how our renovations are coming. I'm happy to say they are, at long last, DONE!! The crew just has to come back one more time for final clean-up, and then I'll snap some pictures to show you!!!

17 comments:

Jenn said...

Hubbo would have loved that advice as well! The sock looks great - and bejeweled is so pretty there in the window. Can't wait to see renovation pictures!

Sonya said...

BE the knitting needle, Karen!

Elizabeth said...

Use the knitting needles to keep the boobs up? No, that can't be right.

I love the porch spindles - just what I imagined as you described them last fall. I hope you're nice and cozy in your snug house - it's great that they finished before it got really cold.

~Kristie said...

Congrats on having your renos complete! That must be so wonderful! I'm looking forward to photos!

How cool is it that you & Pea dance? I'm soooo jealous. I wonder if I could convince DH to do something like that with me. I'm sure my instructor will have issues with my posture too though .. I'm kind of a slumper.

Your knitting is coming along BEAUTIFULLY!

Olga said...

LOL! That sounds like some kind of martial arts mantra...wax on, wax off, Karen!

Can't wait to see the renovations!

Martina said...

I love that analogy! It could be applied to so many things in life!

Ragan said...

Hurray for the house being done!!! You must be so happy about that. I love the sock...what kind of yarn is that...it kind of looks like Opal. I love bejeweled as well. Cute analogy!

Anonymous said...

Be the needle - great idea!

RR has promised dance lessons once we are officially engaged...maybe that's what's keeping him from proposing, hehehe

Love the sockage!

Zonda said...

I've always wanted to do ballroom! One day we will! Be the Needle Karen! The sock is looking good and Bejeweled will be lovely... :)

Anonymous said...

Now, that's it, absolutely! Karen, you just made a flashlight go on in my fogged, disturbed brain ;) "Be the knitting needle, not the yarn"!!! For heaven's sake, this might as well be the best advice that I've heard for ages - if not ever! Really! You know, I'm battling bad back pains since a while, something that's certainly the result of my horrible posture. And yeah, now with reading your blog entry I got what years of Yoga didn't manage: I realized what to do and what will help - definitely!
So, I'll be happily trying to be a knitting needle from now on ;) - at least having a posture like a needle, and I'm very positive that it'll do my back aches a world of good! Thank you!!!
Btw, your knitting is gorgeous as usual - I especially adore the sock!

Kirsten said...

Your post is quite timely for me. I leared to spin on Friday. My biggest problem in keeping my drop spindle spinning is "poor posture". I keep bending my wrist at an odd angle and pulling the whole works out of line and thus ending up with a wobbly spindle!

KeanaLee said...

Bejeweled was like that for me as well, it seemed to go on forever. I am finally at the part where you start to decrease. I hope to get it down this week, it was a x-mas gift, yikes!

Anonymous said...

I love it!

Both sock and scarf look great. I just started on my bejeweled scarf today. It's great for tv knitting!

MissyJoon said...

Love bjeweled, and wow--I love that sock yarn! The spindles are worthy of starting the spindle sock pattern in honor of them!

BE the NEEDLE===now that's what I love!!

Sourire11 said...

Loving the sock... and the scarf. LOL at the black hole! I'm at that point with the scarf i'm working on, too... and yeah for being done with renovations!

somebunnysloveDOTcom said...

2 pairs of socks already? WOW! My DH would love to hear that about my boobs too. Currently, my black hole is a secret pink Clapotis (shhhhh, the person getting it reads my blog). It feels like it will never end though I am on the last 2 balls!!
=:8

KT said...

Yay ballroom! I like that mantra, though. I have major issues with my spins, too. MAJOR issues. I have to remember that for the next time, though I suspect my partner might have a good laugh at my expense. But hey...if it works...

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