gleek [to spend time idly]

popknits and the lido west wrap

gleek — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:02:05 -0500

hi everyone! been a while, no? first thing's first, if you haven't already seen it, the summer issue of popknits is online and available now! definitely check it out when you get a chance.

i know that there's been a lack of knitting on the blog lately and a lot of hooping. well, i'm glad that there's been hooping because i had been doing a lot of secret knitting. i spent most of my time working on my first real design for popknits and now it's available and i can finally talk about it! i present, the lido west wrap!

i had this fabulous yarn, blue heron rayon metallic, that i bought at the point several years ago and really wanted to use. for a while, that yarn was in the slinky garter stitch wrap but i frogged that because it was always getting snagged on stuff. so it sat around and i looked at patterns on ravelry but nothing really clicked so i decided to design something to accommodate it.

i fished around in my 1960s vogue knitting magazines for some inspiration and came across a really sweet, little cardigan that used a columnar lace pattern that really appealed to me. after futzing with the numbers for the stitch pattern, i found a complimenting lace pattern in one of my stitch dictionaries to use on the ends. i sandwiched it all between garter stitch and started knitting!

this yarn is so nice! i love slinkyness of the rayon and the subtle sparkle from the metallic thread. it's really affordable too if you buy just the one skein. it makes a light and cool wrap perfect for the summer.

so that's what i've been up to! i also cast-on and finished an ishbel too which i'll update you on early this coming week.

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3 days of hooping!

gleek — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:21:06 -0500

it's been how long now since i started hooping? let's check flickr... ok, i got my hoop on march 5 so that means i've been hooping for less than 3 months now. this weekend was the first time that i got more than 2 days in a row to go outside and hoop on grass and not worry about breaking anything.

here's a video of my 3 days work condensed into a 5 min music video (i love imovie!) music is "my girls" by animal collective which i listened to a lot on my trusty shuffle.

3 days of hooping from gleek on Vimeo.

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hooping in central park

gleek — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:17:15 -0500

maybe you're sick of hooping, but i'm not :) i actually have very little knitting content to show you right now because i just finished a secret popknits project (not so secret anymore) and just started knitting on ishbel. in the meantime, let me expound on my trip to central park to hoop with some girl friends.

i joined the hoopnotica meetup.com group a while back and i heard that there would be a meeting in central park on the first really HOT day of the "summer". i packed up a bag, my travel hoop and an extra hoop for tina and set off.

photo courtesy of ms. m

i arrived at the sheep's meadow in central park to find 1 billion people sunning themselves and a group of people hooping away. my new friend, lindsay, was already in the middle of a lesson so i joined her as quickly as i could. i seemed to be one of the more advanced people in the group so i just hooped along as best i could.

photo courtesy of misplacedpom

then tina arrived and i passed off a hoop to her so that she could join in the fun!

at first, things did not go so well, but then she got right back in the groove of things!

so i gave her the hoop to take home as a gift. there was even a camera crew there from GMTV (britain) to do a segment on hooping's growing popularity!

eventually, our other friend julie showed up and we all took some time to take silly pictures of ourselves.

photo courtesy of susiejulie

all in all, a spectacularly fun day! i hope we can all do it again soon!

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field trip to BBG

gleek — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:52:54 -0500

i love new york in spring time. the trees and flowers bloom. everyone seems to have a spring in their step!

field trips are mandatory when new york awakens from winter slumber. a few weeks ago, peanut, erin, lindsay, and i went to BBG.

we even got out my hoop and hooped under the trees near the conservatory.

this photo courtesy of mintyfreshflavor

when our trip was done, we sat down to take a portrait together. what a fabulous way to commemorate the day!

this photo also courtesy of mintyfreshflavor

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corkscrews are fun but make me dizzy

gleek — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:55:44 -0500

continuing on with my hooping, once i learned to move around and turn, i really wanted to learn corkscrews. this is the move of going from your waist up to halo and then back down again. it's really fun and fun to watch. the only problem was trying to do halos indoors. the play area (which is supposed to be the dining room but we will never use it for that) has a ceiling fan and the pull chains were always getting in the way. so i got on a ladder and flipped them up on top! i guess this will only work until summertime :)

my first time doing this trick, i did it outside because i was worried about the hoop flying across the room and breaking something. but i worked and worked on it and now i almost never drop it. i tried watching as many online video tutorials as i could but i really understood it best by watching the hoopnotica vol 1 video. i can't recommend their DVD series enough!

over easter, i hooped a lot in my parents' garage. even though it was SO COLD, i loved having all that space to move around in.

so here i am putting together all the tricks that i know so far (and even today, i just learned some more!)

hooping - working on tricks from gleek on Vimeo.

can you believe that i've started making my own hoops? yeah, you probably can. i'll talk about that more later.

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hooping resources

gleek — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:30:00 -0500

before i get to corkscrews, i thought that i would list out some resources in case you want to try hooping too. first, if you're thinking about buying a hoop, check out all the comments on flickr from my friends who have also picked up hooping. there are lots of great indie sellers online and on etsy that sell hoops, too, so do all the research before you plunk down the cash. thankfully, hooping is not as expensive as buying a set of weights or a treadmill but can give you a low-impact workout just the same.

i also have been bookmarking hooping links online in my delicious account. if you have hooping links that you'd like to share with me through delicious, send them my way! i'd love to see them.

one of the most helpful resources so far for hooping has been youtube! over the past few weeks, i've been favoriting videos on youtube that inspire or teach me about hooping. here are a few of my all-time favorites:

alaskanamy has a couple of hooping tutorials worth watching including just videos of her having a great time while hooping.

if you're just getting started, be sure to check out the hooping tutorials from expertvillage. here's the very first lesson on keeping the hoop up:

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