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Alison Hawke

Sparring

The karate I learn comes in three parts: self defence techniques, kata (display forms), and sparring. I've been back in sparring class since January, and doing sparring lessons with my instructor before then to get me back up to speed after six months away. It's an

Coping mechanisms

I rarely write about personal stuff here. This week has been trying, and it's only Tuesday. Hubby flew out on Sunday for a week in San Francisco, and at 7:30pm the water was cut off at home. I was told it would be back on at 8:

Tweets for February 16th to February 28th

* Scheduling application performance test, AKA "when can I kill the server and how long will it take to die?" Sometimes I love my job. * Work PC is bricked, reduced to pen & paper. Never needs rebooting, runs silently, UI needs some gloss but basically sound. * Note to self:

Design process

I'm making a pair of socks for a friend, and I wanted her to have a say in the design. The yarn had to be wool-free, which means Crystal Palace Panda Cotton or Panda Soy. The design came down to picking between various components. Cuff There are

Tweets for February 1st to February 15th

* Why do Addi needles come in non-standard sizes for the US1 & US2? "Standard" means everyone, including you. * People on Etsy: If it has SIX sides, it's not an octagon, it's a HEXAGON. Seen this on 2 pieces already and it's

FO: Lilac Bladderwrack socks

Bladderwrack is a variety of seaweed, and the reverse seaweed rib in Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns reminded me of seeing it on beaches in Suffolk as a child. I got this yarn when Chris' Needlecraft closed down in 2009. Pattern: My own design Yarn:

Knitting with silk hankies

I saw the Yarn Harlot's silk mittens knitted with an unspun silk hankie, and I wanted to try making a small silk scarf. I've made the Koigu neck cozy before and liked the pattern, it's a small tuck-in scarf with minimal patterning and

FO: Kumite Mouth Guard bag

When you're sparring in the karate studio, you wear protective gear: foam padded "boots", shin guards, gloves, helmet, and a mouth guard. My mouth guard lived in a plastic case clipped on to my gear bag, until the mouth guard fell out and vanished. I got

Knitting with Wollmeise

One of my 2011 Resolutions was to knit something with Wollmeise. I wanted to see if the yarn is worth the hype. I have 5 skeins, two of the same colour, collected over 2 years and never touched. I picked a skein of Wollmeise 100% merino superwash in Spina di

Snowpocalypse II: Icecapades

This poor ice-glazed tree is in my front yard: We're still under a blizzard warning. Ice pellets have been falling all day. This is more scary to me than the foot of snow we had a couple of weeks ago.

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