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Archive for the ‘Competition’ Category

WIP Wednesday

Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Competition, Knitting, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2012 | 12 Comments »

Happy WIP Wednesday.

Today I’m featuring the Work Sock. That’s what I’m calling this sock, because I’ve been working on on it bit by bit for more than a month during snatches of free time at work.

My Hermione sock, knitted in Cascade Heritage Paints. Can't remember the colorway off the top of my head, but it's something pretty, blue and subdued. It's just possible that I might actually wear this sock to work, instead of leaving it in the drawer at home.
And yes, that's a red stapler. More on that some other time.

I chose the Hermione’s Everyday Sock pattern by Erica Lueder. I thought it would be an easy pattern to pick up and put down: a necessary feature when knitting in the break room. You would think people would let you knit in peace, but they don’t. Not that I mind chatting; I’m social and I like chatting, but when I chat I drop stitches. Or I forget what I’m doing and knit an entire round of garter stitch. Sigh.

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3KCBWDAY7 Crafting Balance – Knitter Identified but Crochet Curious

Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Competition, Humor, Knitting, Life, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2012 | 15 Comments »

I’m taking part in 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Today’s task is to think about my yarn-based crafting balance.

Are you a knitter or a crocheter, or are you a bit of both?

At the moment, I’m a knitter, exclusively. I have never done any more with a crochet hook than what I need to start a pie shawl, fix a dropped stitch, or do a crochet bind off. I keep my crochet hooks in my notions bag, along with my markers, my scissors, and my measuring tape.

I guess this means I’m monogamous, but…

If you are monogamous in your yarn-based crafting, is it because you do not enjoy the other craft or have you simply never given yourself the push to learn it?

…but I’m crochet-curious.

I learned to knit when I was 8 and have remained attracted to it ever since. I started out with the vanilla stuff (dish cloths and ribbed scarfs), but later on I developed an interest in riskier business (lace, cables, and entrelac). I even dig a few of the more adventurous pursuits (amigurumi looks interesting) and don’t mind an unconventional approach (hello, blended intarsia, where have you been all my life?).

Crochet is interesting and very attractive in its own way. Very flexible. Very dynamic. And it can bend and twist in the most sultry ways. Ways I wish my knitting could do. I’m curious about it. Really curious. I mean, crochet can do this:

Elise Shawl by Evan Plevinski

And this:

#01 Afghan by Nicky Epstein from Vogue Knitting Crochet 2012.

Crochet is the one fiber art that can’t be fully duplicated by machines. It’s totally awesome.

But knitting is safe, and familiar. And it just has a way with me.

If I decided to take up with crochet, I would be starting over from square one. I don’t know if I want to go through all that.

And yet…

Sometimes I fantasize about knitting a lovely cashmere sweater. And then, picking up a crochet hook and whipping out a tantalizing trim of lace at the bosom. Knitting and crochet at the same time.

Eat Your Heart Out Willoughby by Melissa Horozewski, as seen on Ravelry. Eat your heart out, indeed. (Ok, technically this whole piece was designed in crochet, but you could easily do the body in knitting instead.)

Is it warm in here?

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3KCBWDAY5 Headline News

Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Competition, Humor, Knitting, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 26, 2012 | 28 Comments »

I’m participating in the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Today is Something A Bit Different challenge day. Enjoy.

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Click on the image to view it at full size.
I had fun with this one. It all started with imagining what a knitting/crochet themed version of The Onion would look like. It spiraled from there.
 
If you enjoy this post, please vote for it here.
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And just because I had so much fun making these, and because I promised the designers I would credit them and, while I was at it, link to their blogs, here you go:
All five of my Crasher Squirrel Ravelry images.

Color Affection by Veera Välimäki. Thank you for your kind permission to use this photo. Check out her blog: 100-rain.blogspot.com/

Tootsie socks by Lara Neel. Thank you for your kind permission to post this photo.
Check out her blog: http://www.journalgazette.net/craftyliving

Pirates by Elizabeth Phillips. Thank you for your kind permission to use this photo.

The pattern is by Gudrun Johnston but the photo is property of Jared Flood. Thanks for your kind permission to use this photo.
Check out Gudrun’s blog: theshetlandtrader.com/blog/
While you’re at it, check out Jared Flood’s blog too: http://brooklyntweed.net/blog/

Aranami by Olga Buraya-Kefelian. Thank you for your kind permission to use this photo. Check out her blog: olgajazzzy.blogspot.com/

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Incidentally, if you happen to spot Crasher Squirrel on one of your project pages, please pass along the image. His mate and 4 little kits miss him. Plus, he’s in breach of contract with National Geographic. (If this reference to Crasher Squirrel confuses you, read more about Crasher Squirrel here. He was kind of a “thing” a couple of years ago, but if you missed that thing, here you go.)
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3KCBWDAY3 My Knitting/Crochet Hero

Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Competition, History, Knitting, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2012 | 26 Comments »

I’m participating in the third annual knitting and crochet blog week. Today, I must blog about someone in the fiber crafts who truly inspires me.  It should have been a tough question: there are so many people whose patterns, yarn, tools or craft I admire. But one special lady floats to the top.

Queen Victoria. Take a gander at that lace decoration she's wearing.

Queen Victoria

The BF and I recently rented Young Victoria. I enjoyed the movie so much that I watched the extras too. In one of the making-of interviews, actress Emily Blunt, who plays Victoria, talks about the research she did to prepare for her role, and she revealed something very exciting: Queen Victoria was an avid knitter and crocheter. And she was unashamedly so at a time when fiber craft was still considered by many in England to be a “career of the working man” and not a refined art. She was a trend-setter.  She was a change agent.

This is the Queen spinning.

And here she is, crocheting.

During Victoria’s reign, knitting and crochet experienced a dramatic resurgence in popularity. Well-bred girls were expected to learn how to knit.

And here’s a really important development we can all thank her for: because middle and upper class people were interested in knitting, we began to see some of the first formal documentation of how things should be made. That’s patterns, ladies and gentlemen. The first printed patterns. 

Queen Victoria promoted the fiber arts throughout her life. Shetland knitted lace became extremely popular in England when Queen Victoria fell in love with it.

Late in life, Queen Victoria crocheted eight special “Scarves of Honor” to be presented as awards to British forces fighting in South Africa. Some believed this special honor to be the equal of, or even a rank above the Victoria Cross. This is not supported by research, which indicates that the scarves had no particular status as a decoration. Still, it would have been pretty darn cool to receive a scarf personally crocheted for you by the Queen.

Queen Victoria's Scarf of Honor. From Canadian War Museum.

Thank you, ma’am, for all you did to promote fiber crafts. You’re my knitting/crochet hero.

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3KCBWDAY2: In Which I Rub Catnip on a Ball of Yarn and Give it to My Cat to Play With

Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Competition, Humor, Knitting, tagged , , , , , , , on April 24, 2012 | 6 Comments »

I’m participating in the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Today is photography challenge day. The idea is to share an interesting photo about something related to knitting or crochet.

I thought long and hard about the best way to honor my craft in photography. Perhaps a dignified still life with balls of wool sitting in for the fruit. An photo of myself eating shrimp fried rice with knitting needles for chopsticks. The photo of my grandpa laughing and holding up my first dishcloth, which I gave him for Christmas in 1989 (it was full of holes).

In the end, I decided to rub a ball of yarn with catnip and give it to my cat to play with. Enjoy.

Hello, what is this?

Ooh, catnip. My favorite. If I nuzzle it maybe I can absorb it through my face.

Ooooh. Pretty, pretty yarn. I love you, yarn.

I've got you, yarn. You can't escape my clutches. I hold you fast in my mighty jaws.

Rowwwwrrrr!!

Did you like this post? Vote for it here. 

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Iveta and Nick – Quickstep

Posted in Competition, Dance, social media, TV, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The judges are right: Nick has great feet. I think picking a tap dancer to dance Quickstep with Iveta was an inspired choice.

I’d like to see the dancers dancing with five points of contact, the way they’re supposed to, but I’ll be happy if I see that later on in the show. It’s hard to get comfortable with dancing so closely when you have to worry about lots of other complex choreography.

Way to go, Iveta and Nick!

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Iveta Made It!

Posted in Competition, Dance, social media, Theater, YouTube, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2011 | 1 Comment »

The sad truth is that I never have time to watch So You Think You Can Dance live. I always have dance classes scheduled when the show is on. Thank heaven for the Interwebs.

I’d like to repent of my earlier bellyaching about the lack of good ballroom competitors on the show this season. I think the producers hide some of the top 20 from us during the auditions.

Iveta Lukosiute finally made it onto the show this season. *Happy dance.* This is a phenomenal representative from the ballroom world to have on the show. I’m so excited.

  • 2 times World Professional Ten Dance Champion
  • 4 times US National & North American Prof. Ten Dance Champion
  • 3 times US National Classical Showdance Champions
  • 2 times World Classical Showdance Finalist

The fact that she’s done so well in showdance gives me a lot of confidence that she’ll do well in contemporary, hip hop, and anything else the judges can throw at her.

Are you a Facebook fan yet?
https://www.facebook.com/D8Iveta?sk=wall
  She’s been posting regularly since making it onto the show. It’s a lot of fun to read her updates.

Here’s one more thing that gives me a lot of confidence that she’ll do well on this show—I couldn’t distinguish her from the other dancers during the Sonya Tayeh number.

Watch the Top 10 girls video from last week. I scrutinized the video, watching it multiple times, trying to figure out which one was Iveta…and I couldn’t spot her, not until the very end, when all the girls were lined up for the judges’ comments. Costuming and makeup had a camouflaging effect, no doubt, but the fact that the quality of her movement did not stand out in any way from the other dancers around her was amazing.

Go Iveta! I’ll be rooting for you.

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SYTYCD Audition Music

Posted in Competition, Dance, TV, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 8, 2011 | 2 Comments »

The producers for So You Think You Can Dance consistently do a wonderful job picking interesting music. And they do their viewers the further courtesy of showing the name of the song and artist on-screen MTV-style at the beginning of each number. I always have a pen and paper at hand when watching the competition so that I can jot down the songs I like for later downloading.

The auditions portion of the show also features great music selections. Unfortunately, since the music is chosen by those auditioning, there’s no opportunity to communicate the song information to the TV audience. It’s a real bummer.  I’ve often wished that some SYTYCD superfan would take the trouble to record the music, track down each song, and blog about it.

Wish no more. The superfan and their blog have been found: Emilie at  Pure So You Think You Can Dance

Here are links to the song lists from each audition episode:

So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 Premiere – Atlanta/Oakland Auditions

Salt Lake City/NYC Audition Music – SYTYCD Season 8

Los Angeles Audition Music – SYTYCD Season 8

Thank you, Emilie!

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Volunteer at USA Dance Nationals, get free tickets and entries

Posted in Competition, Dance, tagged , , , , on April 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I’m sharing this message from USA Dance Nationals:

If you’re coming to Nationals…..We are still looking for some more volunteers, if you can help us out at all over the three days, can you send an email to volunteer@usadancenationals.org with your info and times available. You can get free tickets and entries for helping out!

Seriously, consider it. Not only will you be supporting a good cause…you’ll have a lot of fun too. And you’ll get the chance to meet participants and comp organizers from all over the U.S.

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Twitter Coverage From 2011 MIT Open

Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Competition, Dance, social media, tagged , , , , , , , on April 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

2011 MIT Open poster

The 2011 MIT Open Ballroom Dance Competition was held this last weekend. I was thrilled to find out that they were planning to offer live streaming of the competition on their Web site. There are so many competitions out on the East Coast. Those of us who live far away appreciate the courtesy of this access. I hope more competitions follow MIT’s lead. The Harvard Invitational is coming up later this month–another competition that would be wonderful to watch from afar.

Twitter Coverage

There were a few of us following the #MITOBDC hashtag on twitter over the weekend. Here are some of my favorite tweets:

Fri Ap 1 23:41

Professional #Latin dancers Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew, currently ranked 3rd in world to perform #MITOBDC http://bit.ly/fqATmZ #MIT

Sat Ap 2 04:49

Another masterpiece from the MIT Open Ballroom Dancing Competition of yesteryears @MITnews @mit150 #MITOBDC http://twitpic.com/4g0piu

Sat Ap 2 14:10

Don’t forget, you can watch live steaming of MIT ballroom competition here: http://bit.ly/gGalqj #MITOBDC #ballroomdancing

Sat Ap 2 14:12

Open American Rhythm finalists announced. A couple from Yale won. #MITOBDC

Sat Ap 2 14:13

Loving the college fashion yoga pants and sneakers underneath sparkly dresses #MITOBDC #ballroomdancing

Sat Ap 2 14:19

“Normally we clap when judges come on the floor. We have cameras to record your applause and that DOES influence your marks.” #MITOBDC

Sat Ap 2 17:32

Prechamp standard dancing now. Go Jason and Lena! You look amazing! #MITOBDC

Sat Ap 2 17:41

So inspiring to watch the V. Waltz. The prechamp dancers move so efficiently. They float. #MITOBDC #ballroomdancing

Sat Ap 2 17:55

Harvard Invitational Ballroom comp coming up later this month. $5K in prizes. #MITOBDC

Sun Ap 3 18:27

#MITOBDC 2011 comes to a conclusion. Hoping 2012 will be bigger and better. @MITNews @MIT_Ballroom @MITengineers @MIT_alumni @CaitlinRDoran

Gallery

Thanks to @jballabh for taking so many wonderful photos at the competition. Here’s a link to his photo gallery on Twitpic. Here is also a selection of my favorites.

Nice extension

Love the pose. And successful wearing of leopard print takes attitude.

Love the color of this dress. It's like water.

Now that's saucy


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