Earlier today I was catching up on some saved video of the So You Think You Can Dance Los Angeles and Atlanta Auditions. And knitting, of course.

I’ve assigned myself a rather large project to start off this Yarn Along that I hope will last me at least part way through the season. It’s the Rocky Coast Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I seem to know scads of people who are salivating over this cardigan right now. Mom knew exactly which pattern I was talking about when I mentioned it to her yesterday.

My version of the cardigan doesn’t look like this. At least not yet. It looks more like this:

I’m knitting Rocky Coast in a different yarn than was called for in the pattern. I was visiting Borealis in the Twin Cities and one of the yarn shop ladies talked me into trying this Shetland Aran weight yarn. I had to go down a couple of needle sizes to get gauge, as this yarn is a bit heavier than the yarn that the pattern calls for. Still, I like the way it’s turning out. This heathered gray wool really makes the cables pop. It will be a sturdier, thicker cardigan than the orignal Rocky Coast, but I think I will still like it a lot.

The hills and dales popping out in the cables of this cardigan remind me just a little bit of the gorgeous landscape shots at the beginning of Prometheus, which we went to see last night. The whole movie was breathtaking and very detailed. I would expect nothing less from Ridley Scott.

So anyway, back to So You Think You Can Dance.

My favorite moments from the LA and Atlanta tryouts were the following:

One thing that struck me as I watched the tryouts was how often the dancers looked to their families as their major influence and inspiration. It made me think back to the “My Knitting/Crochet Hero” blog topic during the recent Third Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week. Many of us crafty types also chose to honor parents or grandparents. And it makes sense. A famous knitwear designer, yarn maker, or LYS owner may inspire you every once in a while. But for pure emotional impact and influence, you just can’t match the patient family member who:

• Teaches you how to cast on for the first time. Then teaches you seven or eight more times until you get it down.
• Gives you your first set of needles and a ball of yarn. Or even (gasp) give you permission to knit with yarn from their own stash.
• Advises you to put your yarn away so that cats won’t drag it around the house. Then laughs at you when you forget and helps you clean up the mess.
• Appreciates you first creations and wears them with pride, even they are full of holes or knitted from ugly scratchy yarn.
• Demonstrates their own joy with fiber craft.
• Gracefully points out your fiber craft blind spots (we’ve all got them)

The same sorts of things can be said about dance parents. I danced all the way through high school and I feel I should now thank my parents for:

• Spending your week day evenings chauffeuring me to dance class.
• Buying scads of new dance shoes, tights and leotards for a growing child.
• Plunking down cash for recital costumes with a minimum amount of grumbling.
• Faithfully laundering the above mentioned tights and leotards each week so that I would always have clean things to wear to class.
• Saving dinner for me when I could not be home to eat with the family.
• Tolerating and ignoring my requests to build a ballet barre in the basement. You and I both knew I would never really use it.
• Being my biggest fans, even though I was honestly never going to be SYTYCD material.