These are a hoot!

I was looking at some new knitting websites I hadn't seen before, as I was looking for a specific yarn that's becoming difficult to find, and in one of the shopping sites, I found this:



Check out more details at this shopping site when you click here.

And why do I bring this up on a website that talks about both knitting and martial arts? Well, I'm glad you asked.

I know that in my form of martial arts, one of the midterms that you have to do as a second degree black belt is a creative form, in which you can use object other than traditional weapons or open hand techniques. I've seen people use golf clubs and a pool cues, but when I saw this, I thought, "A-HA!". I could see using these in place of a double short ecrimas/double bahng-mah-ee for a routine. Oh, that would be too rich!

(same info cross-posted in my martial arts blog.

When Knitting and Taekwondo don't mix...

As an (almost) Black Belt Knitter (less than one week away!), there is a hazard that you'd figure that at some point, one will affect the other in a negative way. You get Carpal Tunnel from the knitting, so you can't use your Bahng Mah Ee (I think it's also known as a short escrima, or something like that) or your Ssahng Jeh Bahng (numchakas). But no. That's not what happened to me.

I was doing something that I do often, which is help hold a plastic board for one of the guys. Now, when it comes to adults, usually two people always hold for the singular person doing the break, for stability purposes. Naturally, being a bigger girl, I'm often called upon to hold for the men, since I'm about as big as any of them (just with boobs). So, there I was, co-holding a board with another guy for the largest guy (at least 6'3" tall, stocky, but not fat) in our school. Now, I'm often partnered up with this guy, so I know he'd never hurt anyone on purpose. Well, he had to do some sort of jump kick (was it a butterfly kick? I'm not sure), and my hands were holding the top left corner of the board, and the bottom right corner, while the other guy held the opposite corners. Sure enough, BAM! Did the board breaker break the board? No. Did he miss? Absolutely. Care to guess where he missed? If you guessed the top left corner where my hand was, then DING DING DING! You would be correct. And as you can also probably guess, it was done with such force, that my hand was injured. Fortunately, no broken bones (although I wasn't sure last night if that was the case), but the pain radiated from the tip of my index finger (which was hit), down to the meat of my palm next to my thumb, to my thumb, and all the way to my elbow. I couldn't move my thumb much at all. It was all I could do to choke back the tears from pain. I got to step out and the instructor of the night took over, but I just could not use that hand or arm for the rest of class, and driving home was terrible. After some ice on the area, some painkillers, and wrapping loosely in an Ace bandage overnight, it did improve. It's still a little swollen, and I have some more use out of it now, but there's a huge bruise in that meaty part of my hand. I even showed it to my main instructor's business partner, a 5th degree, and he even said Yikes to it.

And considering that I knit in the Continental style, I think knitting is out of the question for a few days. With my black belt testing less than a week away, while I don't have to use that hand much for the things I have to do for testing, it'd be better to let it heal up and rest. Typing isn't to bad because you don't use you thumb too much, thankfully. Or at least I don't use the left one too much.

Oh, what's a girl to do?

See, I told you I'd finish!

I know, I'm updating so quickly after my last post, but I DID finish my sweater vest!

Here's a photos:

Dad's Sweater Vest

You can read more about it at my knitting website, Knitster.Org.

Enjoy!

~ Windsornot

Coming soon...

Hello Black Belt Crafters! (Maybe that's what we should make this, instead of just Knitters and Crocheters...)

Since there haven't been any posts here recently, I thought I'd just post a little something, just to keep things fresh.

This Black Belt recommended is almost at her first "black belt" midterm, which is in about 2 weeks or so. The only thing that really matters is my weapons, and I can do those with my eyes closed, as far as I know. My board breaks! Well, the foot/kick one is just a matter of getting my distance from the board figured out. It's supposed to be a jump front kick at face level, but it looks like I can do it at "fingertip" level! ;-) The back elbow still needs help, but then again, I've only had two classes whereby I worked on it just a little.

As far as knitting, I'm almost done a project, and I'll post it as soon as I get the photo and I'm done. I have been making a sweater vest for my dad since, I don't know...April or May (his birthday was in May, and it's his birthday present). I finally am working on the last parts, a little bit of ribbed armbands. I'm almost done the first armband, and have to do the second, then I'll be done! And it's about time! I want to work on other things for sure, like my Doctor's Bag purse. I made some alterations on the pattern, but they are minor. I think it will look good.

So...be ready for some photos soon! :-)

--Windsornot

An introduction of a black belt knitter....almost.

Hello there! I go the blog name of Windsornot. Some think it's a play on the necktie knot, you know, the standard "Windsor Knot", but I'm "Windsornot". Some think it's a play on the idea that it has something to do with knitting, since that's something I do now. But no. This "handle" is something I've had for about the last, oh, 15 years or so (give or take a few years) since the early years of the internet. I happen to be a royalty fanatic, even majored in British History just because of it (can you tell which ones I tend to be experts on?), and since I hadn't married Prince Edward yet (he was the last one available at the time), I dubbed myself "Windsor....NOT!" and it got a bit altered to what you see today. Some even thing that since the two towns next to where I live are Windsors in opposite directions, and I'm not in either one, that is the reason for the name. But they are mistaken. You know the truth. Yep, now you know.

I'll tell you the truth...I'm not quite a black belt...YET. As of this writing, I just tested tonight in Songahm/ATA Taekwondo for my 1st degree black belt. It's kind of a limbo position. In many respects, especially in competition, you are still considered a color belt, but in other respects, you are a black belt, but just haven't earned the right to wear a full black belt yet. So they give us a half red, half black one to show that you've got one foot in each realm. (I just have this image of my legs stretching in a middle stance across two worlds, and man, my knees hurt! LOL)

OK, so we've gotten that out of the way. I am a martial artist, in training to earn my full 1st degree black belt. And the knitting part? Well, I actually started the knitting not too long before the TKD studies started, only by about 2-4 months by my estimations. So for me, they've always gone hand in hand. A friend of mine had started, and something inspired me to try it too. Shortly thereafter, I had started taking my son to preschool TKD classes, and while waiting for his little half hour class to finish up, between yelling at him to pay attention, to occupy the time, I'd be knitting something. Always had my knitting bag and some project with me, and the teen instructors, parents, and siblings of students would ooh and ahh and ask me what I'd be working on. About six months after my son started, I had this crazy notion of, "Hey, that looks like fun." There are times I still look back, even this close to getting my black belt, and say to myself, "What was I thinking?" But I have generally enjoyed working my way up, and while my son is taking a sabbatical until the fall with his TKD classes, under normal circumstances, when I could, would continue to bring my knitting with me to kill the time, since now he takes hour long classes.

It's harder to find time to knit these days, but I do like it. I'm currently working on a few things, although I have to get a move-on with them. First, I'm working on a sweater vest for my dad. I'd say it's a little more than halfway done, but not quite 3/4s of the way done. It's from a pattern that was in Creative Knitting magazine a year or two back. I'm also trying to venture into making my own patterns for things for myself. I started a shrug of sorts a while ago, but then came up with the vest idea for my dad. It's an overdue birthday present which he knows about, hence I have to hustle. The shrug has a "flying geese" pattern on it, so it takes a little bit of brainwork to do it, so I've put it aside for now. It's summer besides, and this is made with superchunky cashmerino, so it can wait a little bit. I'm also working on figuring out a shawl of some sort for myself out of this lovely colorway yarn I'd picked up at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival last month. That one has a truly brainless pattern, so if I need something to occupy my hands on a trip in the car, or the like, I work on that. I've also promised my 6 year old that I'd make a little bag-- haven't figured out if I'm going to make a felted bag yet or not-- for his new Nintendo DS Lite and the accoutrements that go with that. So I have several projects on deck, and hopefully I can finish one of them soon!

I hope to post on here now and then, and hopefully we can get some other knitters and crocheters...and I have a friend who's a quilter who's asking to come on board...to join us and share our common interests. :-)

Welcome!

Welcome to the Black Belt Knitters (and Crocheters, too) webring. This blog was created to be the home page for the ring. You can post here, also if you'd like. When you join the ring, I'll make you a team member of this blog, too. Or if you don't want to maintain an entire blog, you are welcome to post on this one. We're pretty laid back here. The only requirements to joining are that you are involved in the martial arts (any style) and you either knit or crochet.

I need someone who is capable of making us a nifty little blog ring banner/button thingy. If you know of anyone who can do this, feel free to let me know, or ask him yourself.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, I'll make one up!