Many Great Canadians in One Video

A link for those who haven’t already seen this, and to spread some of that Canadian culture around.  This video has not only my favorite Rick Mercer, but my absolutely super favorite Kurt Browning who is his charming self!  Listen closely to Rick’s Newfoundland accent, can’t beat it for being easy on your ear!!  I think he asked Tuffy for a date after this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-h5JYvgOVo

Enjoy!  I think it has become my new make a cloudy day sunny video!

FO: Undulating Rib Socks

I guess all the time in airports has paid off recently as I finished my undulating rib socks.  As I wandered around Denver airport (four times, two trips) I kept a sharp eye out for the Yarn Harlot, hoping to see her knitting away in a corner, enjoying some coffee, but no such luck.  As Canadians fly a lot on Air Canada/Unit, and Denver is a big hub we tend to end up there quite often, but it is a good airport so I don’t mind.  The terminals are long enough that you can get some good exercise by walking around, good bookstores, some pretty healthy food, a selection of coffee places. 

I even found some time to go to the mall and buy some shiny new shoes!  I think the dark red goes well with brown, grey, and perhaps black slacks in addition to dresses and skirts.  The pattern is Undulating Rib Socks by Ann Budd from the Favorite Sock book, and is a nice easy pattern.  The BFL from Wooly Wonka gives a nice crisp edge to the raised rib, yet retains a softness.  The colour is Desert Rocks, and is achieved using a blend of red, pink, browns, and perhaps some other colours to give a true depiction of the beautiful rocks in Southern Utah.  This is a true knitters yarn, other knitters that have seen me working on the sock have picked it up and held it up close to look at the colours.  They are amazed at how it all blends, and that there is absolutely no pooling, the dye job is downright perfect! 

 

As this is my first full week back in town after 5 weeks of traveling, I feel like I’m getting to do all my favorite things for the first time.  Knitting with friends again at last, getting caught up, and this morning back to skating!  The skating feels like it is starting off slow, which isn’t so atypical after not skating all summer.  Plus getting to the rink at 6:30 am, and a cold one at that makes for stiff knees, cold ears, and lots of warm up time needed.  Towards the end I was getting colder and needed a break so I took some photos of my spinning position, I was curious to see what I really looked like.  The answer: my sit spin is more like a slightly leaning over spin which must be worked on, but the camel spin is looking okay except for some weird arm position.  And in other exciting news only to me, my back spin is much better this year, actual circles are being turned on the ice!  Woohoo! 

So that is us on Tuesday mornings, two skaters, one coach who is now 5 months pregnant, and almost unable to put her skates on.  I have a mental note to make up a February baby jacket in the boy colour so that I’ll have a back up for the girl colour!  She’s due to have her baby during the Olympics which is exciting!

My new favorite thing…

is my newly assembled, finally out of the garage and in use composter:

I love it so much, and am so happy that it s finally assembled.  Have I mentioned I love assembling things like this from instructions?  If you ever want someone to assemble all your Ikea furniture, give me a call, its tons of fun.  It took me a long time to get it set up as I always thought I wanted it in the back corner of the yard, and that I needed the fence done first so the neighbours wouldn’t hate me.  I then realized that putting a lovely stepping stone against the fence for the cats wasn’t a good idea, plus the odds of me using in the winter go up immensely if it is just at the end of the deck.  Therefore I put it right beside where the garden will go (hopefully next spring!).  Right now we are hard at work getting the next important piece of composting tools ready:  the 4 L ice cream bucket to collect the compost before we take it outside in -40 oC to put it into the bin.  Although its a tough job, we’re working hard to finish all that ice cream off!

I have realized that figure skating season is almost upon me, its going to start sometime in September.  This year I have decided I’m going to compete in the freeskate competition, which means I need to land an axle and double soucow consistently!  It also means I need a sparkle dress, good thing my Mum has agreed to make me one.  I’m thinking it will be black, tank top, with maybe flowy cap sleeves and silver sequins.  I’m also thinking I’d like to skate to some tango music, any suggestions?  The tango from “Shall We Dance” is pretty high on the list at the moment. 

Have a good weekend everyone!

Look Mum! I Got A Spirit Award!

I got Spirit, oh yes I do, I got Spirit, how about you?

At the Ice Skating Gala last Saturday I was given the Spirit Award!  The program says its for “the skater who gets involved by volunteering, skating in the Gala, and showing team spirit”.  I was pretty darn shocked, that is for sure!  In honour of the Oscars last night, I now present my acceptance speech:

“I would like to thank my parents for driving me to the rink three or four times a week when I was growing up, and buying me skates and lessons.  I would also like to thank Mr. J for giving me an emergency ride to the arena when my car wouldn’t start on Saturday, you saved the day!”

Unfortunately there weren’t many audience members for the Gala, which was a bit disappointing at first.  Then I realized that there weren’t many people there, and it was really just like we were skating for fun and each other, not an audience.  I participated (badly) in the opening number, and the Skills Demonstration, doing some simple jumps and spins.  The big part of the day was when it was time to demonstrate the axle, which I was pretty sure I couldn’t do without a lot of practice first, and would most likely mess it up, so I had decided not to do it.  However when Pamela pointed at me and said “axle” I threw caution to the wind, and went out and threw it.  It was one of the best of the year!  It was clean, landed well, and even almost on my toe, not the flat of my foot.  What a great way to celebrate what is almost the end of the skating year. 

Also, I leave you with an excerpt from the program, another example of me thinking I”m hilarious, and most other people not really getting it, but me sitting there giggling away. 

Years of Skating:32

Skating Highlights: Learning axle at age 10, learning axle at age 35

What Motivates me to Skate Today: The joy of skating, and the tiny skirts I get to wear!

That was then, This is now.

This photo was taken when I was nine or ten, which is also the time when I was learning to do an axle for the first time:

There I am, all gangly, long, in my first real skating dress, holding my good luck flying horse Peggy, extremely uncomfortable in my skin.  (Mal dans ma peau as the french say).  Now 25 years later I’m learning to do an axle again.   I can’t really remember learning it the first time, other than it took a long time, was frustrating, and was hard.  Take off on the left foot, 1.5 revolutions, land on the right foot (toe).  Arms in, legs crossed, jump from the legs.  Sounds easy doesn’t it?  The axle was such a milestone for us all, the first real jump, every parent promised an extra treat when it was finally mastered.  What were those treats, a candy bar, a doll, a pop?  I really can’t remember now.  I haven’t promised myself anything this time around, as I don’t really want any of those things anymore, the sad thing is that as an adult the satisfaction of mastering something is enough.  Weren’t our parents trying to tell us that 25 years ago when we were angling for candy bars? 

On Sunday I had another scary deja vu of those days long ago; skating cliques.  Believe it or not a group of women gathered at the side of the boards, chatted, and watched each other do jumps for about 1 hour or so.  I could just hear their parents “stop standing and get skating”.  Now, like then, I wasn’t in the clique, I’ve never been someone on the inside, always on the outside, mal dans ma peau.  But the difference is the wisdom from 25 years of living, of not wanting to be in the clique, but to enjoy giggling at them, and skating, skating skating, jumping, jumping, jumping.  25 years of living gives one the confidence to go our own road, to not worry anymore about fitting in, or being in the group.  My skin may be much further around then when I was 10, but it sure fits better now.  AND I landed a number of axles, all the way around (just on the flat of my foot, not on the toe like it should be.  BUT its getting better, and much higher.)

Meet Mrs. J: Age 76, Figure Skater

That’s right, Joan is 76, and she got 3 medals on Saturday at the Adult Figure Skating competition.  When she was a girl her Mum used to take her and her brother skating a few times a week, as she played hockey.  Again, her Mum played hockey back in the 20’s.  Joan has been skating her whole life, and started taking lessons and now competes in dance, interpretive routine, and the team skills competition.  She is an inspiration for us all to engage in lifelong fitness, as who would not want to look that great in their 70’s?  Her interpretive routine “Condescending Duchess” brought the house down, she placed third out of a field of six:

As I was in charge of giving away medals on Saturday (which came as a surprise to me, but we all rolled with the punches and I ended up having a great time.)  I made everyone get up on the podium, receive their medal properly, and made sure they all got a big round of applause, even those who protested the loudest had the biggest smiles on their face cause we made a fuss of them all.  The skaters ages ranged from 25-76, and the skills were people barely able to push around the ice and perform their routine, to a lady trying a double axle.  At the end of the day they had a team competition where everyone did one element, from a spiral, spin, to simple jumps.  It was a great way for people to participate, here are the winners of the CanSkate team competition:

The team on top, with Ron in his tuxedo, was called “007 and his girls”.  Ron learned to do forward cross cuts just for the competition.  Two hours later he still had his medal on (his first) and showed it to me with a HUGE smile on his face.  I got to meet other skaters just coming back to skating, including a man who used to skate at the National level who just purchased his first pair of skates since ‘92, and plans to get his double jumps back this year (you and me both!).  The competition went from 8 am to 9 pm, and I was exhausted by the end.  I did get a few chances here and there to work on my new sock however, which is growing nicely.  I also decided to enter the freeskate competition next year!  What a good day!

The truth about figure skating…

Is that I look better in my mind’s eye than I really do on ice!  Perhaps that is for the best.  On Sunday the whole family came out, well at least my parents, to the Olympic Oval for my skating, and it was a great day as we were the only people there.  Instead of 400.5 people skating around us and staring, women hockey players on the other rink, it was nice and quiet.  My Dad had me spin with my arms in the air just THERE which isn’t as easy as it sounds.  I got real dizzy with that, doing it over and over.  But he is the artist, and you don’t argue with whatever inspires the artist.  For most of the day I was doing really well on axles, and practicing my new techniques on sowcows (which I’m sure is spelled differently) and double toes.  As I’m mostly thinking about the entrances to jumps, I’m not landing them very well.  But its GETTING BETTER!  And as Mr. J. learned, no laughing allowed!  Its better!!!  And since we had all the cameras out, here is my rather stiff sit spin, that is also getting better, and well you should have seen the one before this one, and the one after.  Much better!

I’ve been working on the first real jump that you learn which is an axle.  Its 1.5 rotations, and is a bit more difficult than others to learn (or relearn in my case) as you take off on your left foot, and land with your right.  I do think that when I get through this learning phase, which should end, oh sometime before my 40th birthday I hope, my axle and other jumps will be better than they ever were as a kid.  The attempt at a video didn’t quite turn out as hoped (i.e. perfectly landed) but it is still highly amusing anyhoo!

The time is almost here…

Let the winter fun begin!  The average temperature is going down, down, down, its snowed a few inches, and it is staying.  The ice isn’t melting, but forming thicker and thicker layers.  The ski resorts are getting deeper and deeper bases.  And I’m getting very, very excited, because soon, I can do this again:

Ice Skating!  Cross Country Skiing!  Snowshoeing!  Snow ball fights!  Tobogganing!  Woohoo! 

Of course the plunging temperatures are an unfortunate necessity for all this fun.  Yesterday it was -8 oC (17 oF) when I went off to the bus stop, and when the wind blows its like a knife finding every little gap in your clothing.  So far I’m wearing the level 2 parka (short one, not the long one, that will come with another 10 degree drop) and my thin Noro hat has been replaced with a thicker toque, level 3.  I will upgrade to level 2 when I need full ear coverage (I think my ears freeze easily due to frostbite as a child.  I remember skin peeling off, and I’m not kidding).  Level 1 is my felted toque with built in ear flaps and a string to pull them tight!  That is warm!  Of course in a few months I shall declare -8 oC to be “not that bad, pleasant in fact” when we get out of our first -30 oC cold snap.  But until then, brrrrr! 

I think I need to make a thermos holder so that I can bring my hot chocolate with me when I go skating outdoors! 

Have a great weekend everyone, get your skates sharpened, your skis waxed, and knit a warm pair of MITTENS!!!!

A Different Type of Spinning…

Just a quick note before heading off to British Columbia!  My Mum was kind enough to make me a ballet wrap sweater to skate in, just like I had when I was a kid.  It turned out really well, made from cream Patons Classic Wool.  I wore it to skating this morning (6:30 am!!) and boy did I need it.  It had rained and snowed overnight apparantly, and was chilly/freezing.  Here I am modeling the new sweater, and my cute new little velvet skirt!

And then I took it for a spin:

Posture isn’t too bad on that spin!  Note my feet are nice and close together!  As for the hair do, it was really early!  Thanks Mum!  Oh, my new skating coach may want one as well! 

Fall is Here, Skating Has Started!

 

That’s right, its time to get out the tiny skirts, squeeze your feet back into your tight skates, and work on your finger calluses!  Every year I develop calluses on my baby fingers, and various other ones as I struggle to get the skates done up tight enough.  The skates squeeze my leg muscles back up from my ankles, and various other strange things happen to my feet.  As my new skates still are not broken in very well, there is still pain involved in this process, but the invention of new gel pads I can put around my ankles helps immensely. 

This year I plan on going twice a week to two different arenas, so I hope to make more progress.  I was however very pleased yesterday that I don’t seem to have gone too far backwards in my skating from last year.  There is a huge difference to overcome 3 months off, as opposed to 15 years!!  A lot of skating is about developing muscle memory, training your arms, legs, hips, shoulders, and hands to do the correct thing all together in a split second.  I did some spins, a lot of skating around to try and regain flexibility, and even a few little jumps to try out my legs.  Not bad!  I need to reinstate the axle dry land training however, and scare my neighbours (even more) by jumping around in the back yard.  Less chance of cracking my head open out there (I hope). 

But it is wonderful to go back to the ice.  The crispness in the air, combined with the smell of the ice brings back tendrils of memories going waaaay back into my childhood.  The sound of my blades purring across the ice, and then snicking away as I do cross cuts across the end of the rink.  The rasp of a spin, the dizziness that comes afterwards (getting better, but its a hard skill to regain, the not getting dizzy in a spin).  Expect some more videos this year of skating, some outdoor skating once the weather gets cold enough (nieces be prepared!) and even some skating knits!  I’m ready for the cold (almost).