A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join Indonesian, my nationality, dance group for Festival of Nations that’s happening every year in Summer. I thought why not it may be a good chance to see other Indonesian people and network. I’m generally a person who stays out of public gathering parties ie bar, night club, and parties. Those kind of gathering make me feel I don’t fit in.

However lately ever since I’ve joined a dance group, I feel more lively thanks to my friend Vita. I forgot how much enjoyable it is to spend time with friends who’s from back home and also compatible. All these years I’ve lived in US, the back home people I’ve meet usually end up not friendly or more like I don’t know how to interact with them.

We laugh, we dance, we talk. It’s the simple everyday life that makes life bearable. I do believe spending time with good friends is one of the key to happiness.

I’ve included a video where my dance group and me danced on stage for the first time at University of Minnesota where they have gamelan instruments. I didn’t think we did too bad for our first stage. We’ll be on stage again at the Festival of Nation May 1st at 7pm. If you are in the area, come and see us dance and also learn about other countries.

Indang Sumatran Dance from Bill Cunningham on Vimeo.

Knitting update:
Entrelac socks

yarn: KnitPicks Gloss sock yarn in Pumpkin and and Cocoa 2 skeins each color
needle: US 0 (2.00mm)
method: dpn for toe, and the rest of the body using magic loop
duration: 2 months 1 week 6 days

These socks had been my faithful companion at work breaks. Because it is in entrelac technique, each small square made it perfect to take away stress at work and break away from computer screen. Who knew, I was actually more productive if I knit during breaks. I do bring a couple of simple books to read during breaks, but seriously I look at documents and computer screen all day long, last thing I want to do during breaks is to read.

GAAA (Great Aran American Afghan) update

I started this project on April 19th, 2008 and about 2 years later this afghan is almost finished. Knitting each square of the afghan was stressful and educational at the same time. Because each square in the pattern was done with different people, so each square will have different gauge and needles called for. Theoretically each square is supposed to have 12 in square, but seriously as much as I tried to have each square to be 12 in square, it was not going to happen at all. On average each square differs about 1in to 0.5in in dimension. However, the beauty of this afghan which still fathoms me, once sewed up each square’s unevenness get canceled like a mathematical formula. None of the square looks so distorted once sewed up.

My cat already claimed this afghan even before the afghan is done. Heck even the fat-but cat claimed the blanket by kneading the blanket.

Katherine Hepburn Cardigan update

After knitting this cardigan on US 1 (2.5mm) and US 0 (2mm), it’s finally off the needles!!! The pattern calls for about US 4 and 5 and why did I knit this on US 1? Apparently each yarn reacts differently to one’s tension. Since the yarn content is 100% cotton, of course it’s not going to get same gauge as it is with wool.
Started this project at the beginning of the year and hopefully I can wear this for summer which I believe I should have time to wear this for spring and summer.