Do I still get to have a Blogiversary if I haven't been blogging?

Yep, I started up my computer today and the back of my brain whispered "Blogiversary?".
And the front of my brain paused and mumbled "Uh oh. Isn't that at the beginning of July?"

This led to my logging into Blogger to marvel that folks still visit my blog occasionally.
{What's with the 50-some-odd-visitors on the 23rd?}

Anyway... I quickly found I'd blown past my July 6th blogiversary. "Sigh".
And then I wondered...do I still get to have a Blogiversary if I haven't been blogging?

Yeah, sorta.   Kinda, maybe.    Yes. I've decided "yes".

I'm going to skip the lack-of-blog-post reasons. I already started a blog on that topic over a month ago and it didn't make it to posting 'cause I thought it was boring.

Today I'm embracing the random aspects of my thought patterns (you already noticed that, I'm sure) and I'm just going to post for the sake of posting. What did I see on Twitter the other day...? Something about write every day. Even if it's crap. Even if you don't show it to anyone, still write.
I liked the idea and it sounded a bit like, if you practice something every day, you'll get better at it. {Hmmmm. Pondering the "every day" part of that theory.}

Anyway x 2... what have you been doing on your summer vacation?

Me?    I'm not really on vacation, per se. I'm not taking time off from work and not traveling anywhere. But I am out of school for the summer and I've been indulging my long-neglected organizational desires.
{i.e. "OMG, I can't stand it anymore!!!!!! I must put something away!!!!"}

There's been a fair bit of recycling, de-piling, donating, sorting (yarn into bins), dusting (wherever the cats don't dust with their lounging furry persons), consolidating to-do lists, and finding homes for paper, fiber, school projects, and personal knitting/weaving projects that have accumulated whilst I was dashing from one school deadline to the next.

And I've been...
Well, there were a lot of and, and, ands...in the paragraph I just deleted. It reminded me of when my youngling nieces/nephews would tell me about their day.

Anyway x 3... I'm going to get back to the reason I turned on the computer in the first place. In excavating my craft room, I became pretty sure that I gifted away a skein of yarn that I had plotted/promised to use in knitting a shawlette for a friend. So I've "shopped" through my stash for replacement options and I was going to e-mail her a oops-I-gave-it-away confession along with a  how-bout-one-of-these-yummy-replacement-yarns offer.

So, I'm off to confess.
I hope life is treating you well.
"Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" and CraftLit are helping me maintain my sanity during the home excavation and our country's embarrassing political upheaval. {gah/sigh}
Miss typing at you. I'll try to work on that.
Happy Belated Blogiversary {to me}! Thanks for visiting.

Ya know that "Easily entertained" thing about me? It's still true.

So I've been going through my, uh, substantial pile o'e-mails. It's one of my summer goals to reduce the pile in my inbox by over 400 e-mails. {Well, I can dream, can't I? Oh...well crimony! I've already reduced it by over 170! Guess I should keep dreaming. ;-}

So, during the e-mail perusal (excavation), I have come across a whole slew of "ya gotta see this" emails with charming, interesting, and fun links to a wide range of videos.

Yep, gonna share:

A very recent yarn-y video gift from a newish friend: "Film Muffler".

This is technically a public service announcement - but beautifully presented: "Embrace Life".

And the Louisville Leopard Percussionists kept me entertained for quite a while:
Steel Leopards: "Check Yes Juliet and Happy"

"Zeppelin!"

Simon's Cat always has something fun:
"Field Trip"

And has become something I like to check out daily:
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the day. Extremely spiffy!

Lastly, this is an old favorite: NASA/SDO's 2012 Transit of Venus
"NASA/SDO's Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit"

Enjoy!

My View of the Loft Yarn Storm

Greetings!
So, I paused in mid-post yesterday having realized I was about to commit spoilage. ;-)

So now I'll post the pictures I took during the Loft Yarn Storm installation. We "Yarn Stormers" started early in the day with some shade, but the Arizona sun warmed up and lit up the Loft courtyard pretty quickly.

(As always, please click on the pictures to enlarge.)

The fully "dressed" bicycle stands. 

I was a 2nd pair of hands to a variety of people and I stitched coverings measured/created by another talented soul onto two of the Bicycle rings. (I stitched a granny-square/lace crochet duo onto a stand somewhere in the center and the pet-able velour woven one in the picture below.)

  (Yep, the picture on the right was my view as I stitched on the velour strips.)

One of the core projects was to create "people" from the posts on the front of the Loft Building.

I thought the mirror-face was very clever and I love the "wooly" popcorn. Ah - and you see now why legs were knitted? Spiffy, yes?

For the post above, the hair is roving and {durn it!} I didn't get a side picture - there are tufts of colored roving in the hair to match the painted mask. The middle portion is woven neckties (very clever) and I'm smitten with the multiple technologies that go into the skirt. It was ?crocheted? from VHS tapes with CDs attached to the skirt with cassette tape.

This is the excellent felted face above was created by the ladies at Spirited Hands. The picture soooooo does not do it justice.

I should have taken a closer picture of the face on this one - the lips were hand made and the eyelashes were, well, eyelash yarn. Obviously some nifty weavings were included in this figure too.

The above figure has hair made of wool roving that was partially felted so the hair was a bit like dreadlocks (cool!). Obviously I was most intrigued by the top and bottom of this figure {wry grin}.

 The planters in the courtyard were also all yarn-ed up and looking spiffy. Several of these were "tagged" by Textile Tagger, Kristin Wolfe from Phoenix.
(She also covered the eastern-most bicycle loop in my first picture at the top of the blog.)

 I believe the above were covered by the Tucson Yarn Stormers.

 And I understand the three above were created/covered by Kristin Wolfe.

Remember the sheep with which I was so smitten at our Birdhouse Yarns meet up....yep, now you can see why I was so surprised at the size of his "fleece".

We had a couple of small scale visitors (pun intended) but I only got a picture of this one.

 For some reason, this above picture is one of my favorites - I LOVE that someone made a yarn-y string of lights. (There were tassels on the trees too but I missed getting a picture of them blowing in the wind.)

Folks stitched various bits together, wove strips through the fence (I helped some with that) and a particularly talented and zealous crafter Pre-Yarn-Stormed an entire bicycle:

As previously described, some shawls were donated along with some lovely felted bits and even the bench in front of the theater lobby was re-covered.

Lastly, the two sculptures in the area just east of the main theater took on a whole 'nother artistic vibe:

Remember the flowers from the Birdhouse Yarn meet up? 

 Beautiful, clever, web-weaving and ya gotta love a spider in gold high-heels!

The movie itself was fun, inspiring, artistic, whimsical, charming, and offered a perspective on small, subtle art and powerful grab-you-by-the-lapels installations.
My favorite would have to be the installation by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam. I want to go play!

My favorite Barbara Kingsolver "Where It Begins" quote from the movie would have to be:
"Drape is the child of loft and crimp; wool is a stalwart crone who remembers everything, while emptyhead white-haired cotton forgets. "

In typical Tucson Monsoon-ish fashion - it rained. {wry grin} Over an hour before the movie time, the rain poured down - right over the Loft Theater. The Yarn Storm held up very well in the Rain Storm. And people still came out to see the movie and the yarn graffiti that night!

All in all, the surprise, admiring looks, smiles, and general delight of the people who came to the Loft Cinema last night was charming, heart-warming, and such a gift. There were also quite a few non-guild members that joined the Yarn Stormers before the movie in knitting, spinning, etc. in the Loft courtyard. It is a truly lovely thing to be surrounded by people who share similar creative interests!

The Yarn Stormers met this morning to pull down all the fiber-y delights that adorned the Loft Cinema courtyard for just two days. It took about 20 minutes to remove whilst it took us nearly 3 hours to install.

More Yarn Storms are planned for later in the year and I think all the fiber folk that were involved in the Loft Cinema Yarn Storm are looking forward to our next Yarn Monsoon.

Already - an adventure for 2016

Greetings and Salutations!
How you be?

I am returning to a semblance of normalcy after collapsing over the Fall Semester "Finish Line" the week before Christmas.
No Holiday cards went out. I didn't get the Christmas lights on the house. {sad}
And no decorations inside the house to tempt the pica-cat palate. {not sad about that one}
Working 6 days a week for the Holidays, attending classes 2 days a week, spending time in the digital lab 2-3 days a week, and monitoring the weaving lab 3 days a week just about did me in!
{I must be getting old.}

It's the 5th day of the New Year and already we had an adventure! An adventure that is inspiring this blog post in more ways than one.

Our adventure appears to have started sometime after midnight after I kissed the DH to welcome in the New Year and then promptly went to bed 'cause I'd been up for 20-mumble hours straight.
When I got up the next morning/the First Day of the New Year, the house was a brisk 57 degrees (14 C). Now we don't heat the house to a without-sweater temperature but 57 degrees clearly indicated the heater was not functioning correctly.

I played with the thermostat and got the heater to come on, but it didn't sound like the gas was running/igniting and there was only cold air coming from the vents. I considered the cost of calling a repair person on a major holiday {shudder/not just from the cold} and began to plot ways to be cold-comfortable so we could hold out until Monday. When the DH got up, I handed him the thick robe I'd made him years ago (that he never wears because he's a guy {which means his personal thermostat naturally runs warmer}) and explained my findings and hold-out plan.

He agreed and referred to our adventure as "camping" for the rest of the weekend.
So we called the repair guy to get into the queue for Monday, put another blanket on our bed (flannel sheets were already in place), broke out the space heaters (one had to be liberated from the shed where it had been stored in a garbage bag), brewed some coffee/hot chocolate, and opened the south-facing front window blinds as we usually do to bring in whatever winter-sun/heat we could.

Our high temperature in the house over the weekend was ... 65 degrees (18 C). The low was the 57 from New Year's Eve. Not bad…but we did get lucky with a sunny weekend. The clouds moved in Sunday night but the repair guy came Monday morning before the first real drop of precipitation or temperature and the house-dragon roared back to life and provided us with some heat for this wet, cold week.

I did a little baking to help warm the house and the cats….their routines didn't change much. At night, they slept on and around us as they usually do and during the day, they enjoyed the winter sunshine as they usually do:

Even Gryphon came to hang out with us (with the
sunshine) in the Living Room.

CooPurr

Brothers Nikoli and Mikale

Purrrrr.

So this blog post was inspired by the heater adventure and…. because I too tend to hang out in the warmest room in the house (the living room) during the winter. However, I'm writing this post where I usually do - in our cold dining room - with the shed-released space heater pointing right at me. ;-)

Happy New Year to you all. 

Let's enjoy what we can of the adventures life sends our way.

Blessings Be.  KiniaCat

Blogiversary #7 - My 7 Favorite Blog Posts

Yep, it's my 7th Blogiversary. And in honor of that event, I thought I'd present my 7 favorite blog posts.

Blogger has a widget to show which blog posts are viewed the most (it's on the left side of the blog - "Oddly Popular Posts"). But the blog posts folks view most often via the odd Google search (like "mini bamboo" or "Sock Summit") or from a Ravelry Yarn Bowl discussion are not necessarily my favorite blog posts.

So, here they be, in no particular order - My 7 Favorite Blog Posts from the last 7 years of blogging:

November 15, 2010 - "The Obnoxious Furry Quilt"

June 1, 2011 - "Godzilla!, Tiny Wildlife Rescue, and Australian Treasure!"

May 31, 2013 - "Sit Long and Prosper"

May 11, 2013 - "Drying feathers and a Loud Chirp!"

July 3, 2009 - "Look! Knitting Blog-stuff. Ok, and more kitten pictures."

June 29, 2010 - "Cat Burglar and Kitty drugs"

December 27, 2008 - "It's officially Winter in Arizona - and we have the Frost to prove it!"

It was rather fun and poignant to review all the blogs I'd written over the last 7 years. There have been a lot of life events, fun videos, paradigm shifts, and kitty pictures. We'll see what comes next, but I'm absolutely positive there will be more kitty pictures. {wry grin}
Thanks for visiting. Blessings Be.

The World Stands Still and Waits For Me

I have a recurring fantasy.
I find that a stray door in my home, when opened a certain way, leads not into the usual (messy) room or closet but into….a lovely, tidy cabin in the woods. (No, come on back. It's not a Joss Whedon reference).

The cabin has heating/cooling, running water, electricity, and a great view of the nearby lake and hills. It is late spring or early summer and there are hiking and swimming options but no bears or mosquitoes (!ha-ha!). Getting the picture? The cabin also has a great window seat/reading nook - well lit and with lots of pillows and a soft, woven throw for snuggling under. There is also a nifty screened-in porch ('cause there might be other bugs) with hanging chairs and a rocking chair. There is a computer built into the kitchen island that allows me to request food-n-such as needed and the shopping list is fulfilled that night. Poof - it's just there the next day just as the trash magically disappears overnight. {!Yes!} The best feature of the cabin is a roomy studio that supports all of my craft explorations in weaving, knitting, ceramics, sewing, tatting, needlework, etc.

It's a slightly boring fantasy where there is no strife, no angst, no heroics, no depressing world news or distracting cable TV, and no romantic interest. There are cats. The cats get to come with me through the door from home. There is also a fair amount of solitude, because once I discover the abilities of this stray door, time suspends for, say 6 months, and I can't leave my house.
This is the true core of the fantasy. I can move back and forth between my house and the cabin at will. Food, cat and general/craft needs are addressed by the shopping list. And the world stands still and waits for me.

Waits for me to do what? What do I do with the 6 months of no phones, no errands, and not going to work or school?
No worries. I sleep. I craft. I organize. And I clean.

At home, I read all those Oprah magazines that I haven't finished. And I read more of my many, many books (and I get actually read some of my craft books instead of just using them for reference material!). I explore movies and TV series I haven't seen like "Call the Midwife" and "Outlander". I bundle up stuff to be recycled and donated. At the cabin, I hike and swim and eat ice cream (and don't gain weight!). I go through ALLLLLLL my e-mails and start/finish Christmas Cards. I knit gifts for the holidays and birthdays for the next year. I go through all the published Interweave, Knitty and Twist Collectives and I add the patterns that make my heart sing to my Ravelry queue/favorites list. I water my plants regularly and scrape and paint the back porch. I blog (well, pre-blog because time is suspended for the rest of the world) and I set up projects and knit sweaters/hats/socks. I weave and explore techniques I've only seen in books. I throw pots and yarn bowls and mugs (in a side-room of the cabin studio. Gotta keep the ceramic dust off the yarn-y crafts, y'know). The wish-list of to-do's to accomplish could fill up a week of long blog posts.

Yeah, I know. There is no way I could get the above list done in 6 months. {grin} But, it's a fantasy. The 6 month time limit acknowledges that I'd achieve a whole 'nother level of "odd" if I only had the cats for company for longer than 6 months. Ha - would I even last 6 months?
I must also giggle at the fantastical idea that I would diligently work daily to accomplishing the things on my loooong to-do list and not get distracted with knitting a shawl or something (which is pretty much what happens in reality).

The Spring Semester ended a couple of weeks ago and I've begun to step past the initial panting rest from the hyper-focused work/school world I occupied for the past 4 months. I'm also consolidating long-neglected to-do lists and plotting both necessary and fun projects for my "Summer vacation". I've actually crossed a few small ones off the list, but there is so much to do.

So, as I was gathering those to-do lists, I was a'wish'n that I had some additional funds and {greedy me} more time to work on the many to-do's. Then... I realized…that while I can't escape to the quiet and safe cabin in the woods to craft in an already clean-n-tidy environment whilst I slip back to methodically work my way through cleaning and organizing my neglected home…my current reality is actually a modified version of my fantasy.

I'm still working part time but I'm usually home before mid-morning. The cats are with me for company when the DH heads off to work. And with school out for the summer, I'm not in class or monitoring the weaving lab 5 or 6 days a week then getting home an hour before bedtime.

I don't have 6 months before the Fall Semester begins, but for the summer I can read books and magazines, visit Ravelry, clean and craft. I've queued up "Outlander" to come from Netflix. I can work on clearing my e-mail and haul things off to GoodWill.
And look {wry grin} - here's a blog post!

But best of all, in this reality, the world doesn't have to stand still and wait for me. I can meet up with friends and spend time with my DH (Dear Husband - who makes my current fantastical reality possible with his patience, humor, insurance and willingness to treat me to dinner and a movie 'cause I'm still living the financial diet).

It's kind of weird to realize that a bit of a fantasy has come true. Surreal and smile-worthy but a little embarrassing that it took me so long to catch on. Blessings actually be. Huh.

I Am Acclimating

Life happens. Change happens. Life changes.
My life is changing - again.
I think the changes are an improvement, however, they are requiring some profound modifications in my physical energy, sleep patterns, and lab time for school.
I am acclimating.

Over the summer, I ramped up my search for a part-time job. The plan being to find a part-time job that would allow me to finish my Fiber Arts degree and offer me some financial respite (i.e. funds coming in instead of just going out). Sadly, since most folks weren't hiring over the summer, the job-search continued into late summer and early fall.
However, I am pleased to report that I found a rather excellent part-time job!

I still think it's inappropriate for me to comment too directly on the folks that employ me. I do think they're brilliant for hiring me {grin} and they have a very good reputation as an employer - which is why I looked into getting a job there. They are very safety-oriented and they do a pretty fair job helping their employees acclimate to the job's physical requirements and to avoid injury. I like that!

I am considered permanent part-time and am currently only working two to three hours a day. The time goes VERY quickly and I'm learning a lot. The new work that I do is an excellent physical workout and I get out of work in plenty of time to attend my classes.
Bonus!! They offer Tuition Reimbursement so I'll be receiving some financial assistance for my current educational pursuits! {Happy dance!!}

The challenge with the new job ... I need to get to bed in the early evening to achieve 8 hours of sleep. Yep, I get up in the wee hours of the morning to go to work.

On my first early morning to-work exit, I looked up in the sky and was delighted to find the constellation Orion right above me.

Photo is borrowed from the spiffy AstroSociety.Org. webpage.

It is my favorite constellation and I'm used to seeing it in the Winter sky. But there it was to greet me on my first "day" {pre-day} of work. I took it as a good sign.

The sleep patterns are requiring the most acclimation. But I enjoy the lack of traffic as I go to work, the view of the sunrise as I leave work, and the endorphins generated by my work "work-out". Oh - my meal schedule is also migrating and I seem to be hungry most of the time. ;-)

As I said, I'm new and I am learning a lot but some days I'm embarrassed to say that I feel a little like I'm in an "I Love Lucy" episode. This one, in particular:

There's no chocolate involved in my new job (more's the pity) but there are conveyor belts and moving items to sort through/move that I'm still learning how to manage. I'm not the only one performing these tasks so I'm perversely pleased to report that on occasion I'm not "Lucy". {wry grin}

I feel a nap coming on. I'll try to check back in sooner over later. ;-)

Blogiversary #6 - Unprepared Blessings

A reminder popped up late Thursday that my 6th Blogiversary was coming up on Sunday. 

My response was general surprise and a sudden urge to post a blog entry. {wry grin}

That response was quickly lost as I went to bed and then became entirely distracted the next day with the DH suddenly being off work for the 4th of July (after he worked a double shift with the holiday off  as incentive). 

{The Tucson "A" Mountain Fireworks were grand and lovely by the way.}

The reminder popped up again on Saturday, still trying to get my attention and blogging time. 

Yep, by now I expect you totally understand the "Unprepared" portion of the blog title. {sigh/grin}

Lacking anything profound to say, I'll say this:

Life is pretty darn good and I feel rather blessed. 

….And I'm going to try to leave it at that.

 

I have started dozens of sentences to flesh out this post and I keep discarding those sentences for a variety of reasons. 

It comes down to this for me - today, at this point in my life, and at this point in our world: 

Yes, life is hard and confounding. It can be frightening and overwhelming and generally Not Fair.

But life is filled with many blessings: 

Love, laughter, kindness, yarn, books, sunshine, rain, wonder, education, friendship, and silly cats being just a few. 

{sigh} What you can't see here is that I just expended more time typing stuff and then deleting it. 

I wish us all many blessings and the ability to see and treasure 

those blessings every day, at every point in our lives, 

and especially at this point in our world. 

Blessings Be. 

KiniaCat

Tea Fob Wisdom and Tonight's Soundtrack

I know I'm waaaay overdue for some blog posts. I've been dashing from one thing to the next so I thought I'd dash off a blog post.

I've been enjoying tea in the mornings before school and have saved some of the Tea Fob Wisdom gracing the Good Earth Original Sweet & Spicy tea bags to share with you:

• "To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am."
  Bernard M. Baruch, 1870-1965
• "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
  Kids
• "Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it."
  Unknown

And Tonight's Soundtrack {caution, ear worm alert!} is…

"Happy" by Pharrell Williams.   "Clap along if you feel…"

Oh - and there's a "longer" ;-) version at  24HoursOfHappy.com. 

Yep, I'm smitten again. Happy-chair-dance. Night!

#SharedJoy

A Few Clever Pre- and Post-Holiday Ideas

Greetings and Salutations! How you be?
Oh - Merry Christmas, Happy New Year…Happy Holidays in general!

School finished a little over a week ago and then I dove into finishing knitted gifts, wrapping stuff, doing some baking (cardamom cookies {from a 2004 Sunset Magazine) and real pound cake (from my German Godmother, Elsie)}, delivering the baking and wrapped stuff, exercising to offset the baking-sampling, cat-sitting, and {grin} I'm still writing/mailing my Christmas Cards. Ah, well.
Whilst I am seriously enamoured of the Yarn Harlot's "End As You Mean To Go On"/everything-clean-tidy-caught-up for the new year concept, the actual implementation of such order in the week following Christmas is pretty much beyond my comprehension.

I aim to do better next year! {Oh, that's tomorrow. {grin}}

Inspired by my own challenges, ideas from friends, and bolstered by the recycle flyers from the city,
here are a few clever pre- and post-holiday ideas:
Do you-all have any to add? Please do share!

Holiday Cards - Gift Tags

• I'd like to resurrect something a friend and I used to do. We would meet the first Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving and get our Christmas Cards started. {I'm sure you understand my current interest in resurrecting this tradition…{wry grin}} We'd have lunch and hot chocolate and enjoy each other's company!
• I liked the clever suggestion from FizBirch Crafts that the Cards could be trimmed down post-Christmas to be used for gift-tags next year! 

Christmas Tree - Trimming & Recycling

• A friend of mine recently commented that she may not put up a Christmas tree next year. Although she loves having the tree up and seeing all the ornaments and visiting the memories they represent, with the kids out of the house, it's just her doing the trimming/enjoying. I offered a suggestion based on something another friend of mine used to do - have a tree-trimming party. Enjoy friends, sharing stories and memories and the trimming of the tree. Pot Luck, brunch or dinner - it would be an excellent way to kick off the season. 
• TreeCycle! The City of Tucson has had a Christmas Tree recycling program for 15 years! {I'm a little proud of our Recycling pursuits.} There are 9 locations that will accept Christmas trees through January 12, 2014. Is there a TreeCycle program in your area? 
• And just a few more Holiday Recycling options courtesy of the City of Tucson. Essentially it's a Holiday-perspective on our regular City recycling.
  My favorite tips are:
  #2.   We can recycle "Wrapping paper with non-metallic finish or glitter".
  #11. "New Electronics? Then recycle or donate the old. Visit KnowWhereToThrow.com to find the recycler closest to you".
   (World Care also does electronics recycling events occasionally.)

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year! 

Please have fun and be safe!

{See you "next year". I have to go write up some more Christmas Cards.} ;-)

Sock Club and a Local Yarn Bombing Favorite

Earlier this month, I stopped in at Kiwi Knitting to visit Lynn {owner of Kiwi and purveyor of fine yarns and good company}, inhale some yarn fumes, and attend the monthly Sock Club meeting. It was pretty much a stellar day.

We had an unusually large group attending the informal knitting time that is Kiwi's Sock Club.
{wry grin - we do not police projects to ensure socks are being knit or that only sock yarn is being knit upon}.
We were joined by a few spinners and a ?sweater? class of some sort. T'was a fun and fascinating gathering of personalities, yarn, and talent.

I always meet interesting folks in our local yarn shops. A few Sock Club meetings ago, I met a nifty non-knitter who came in - with her 2 dogs - to have them measured for sweaters. ;-) And then it turned out we share Ceramics Lab at college and now we see each other often. {Typical of Tucson's 2-degrees of separation...)

The day of the October Sock Club meeting, a young lady/school teacher stopped by Kiwi to pick up some more yarn - having just come from a "Hooping" class. Of course, we asked what Hooping was - "Hooping? Is that the dance/gymnastics stuff I've seen in the Olympics?". She explained it was for fitness and dance and her passion was evident.  Not only did she bring in her adult-sized, colorful and perfectly-balanced-with-weights Hula Hoops to show to us, she did a Hooping routine for us outside in Kiwi's front parking lot! I think she was rather good and very graceful. It seems the routine she showed us is being developed to go with her Halloween costume and she will be preforming it for her students!

Whilst researching links for this post, I came across this charming and graceful video (Sapir is Hooping 2) that reminded me a bit of the live Hooping demonstration we were gifted with that day:

{I actually got pretty well distracted with quite a few videos on the Hooping.Org Blog.}

On Kiwi Sock Club day, I also took the opportunity to snap some pictures of my favorite local Yarn Bombing installation - The Kiwi Bicycle. It can usually be found near the front door unless it's raining and then it can be found in the classroom/kitchen area. I understand a variety of knitters contributed to it's creation and that new pieces are still occasionally added.
{As always, please click on the photos to enlarge.}