Changes

Last weekend, at the age of 28, I bought my very first ballet shoes.

Last semester, I signed myself up for beginner ballet at campus rec. I have wanted to learn to dance since I was a very little girl, but when I was young, we could never afford it, and would have had to drive into the city for lessons, so I focused my energy on music and swimming, and later volunteering, and kind of gave up on it. My friend D took the beginner class a couple of years ago, and told me that it was really fun. Eventually I worked up the courage and signed up. Among a class of about twenty undergrads, many of whom had obviously danced before, I was definitely the oldest, and most un-ballerina-shaped of the group! We started from absolute scratch, learning turn-out of the legs and the basic positions. I found that I am still pretty flexible, if not particularly coordinated. I don't look very graceful, but I do enjoy the methodical nature of doing the same movements over and over, and constantly correcting yourself. There's so much history to the techniques, and I really had a lot of fun with it. So, this semester I have gradauted to a slightly more advanced class at a downtown studio (D is coming with me too!), which starts tomorrow. And I signed up for beginner Irish Dancing on campus - what the heck!

To celebrate my newly aquired shoes, I decided to make a little bag for them, since they are much too delicate to kick around in the bottom of my backpack squished amongst books and the laptop.

I'm completely winging this. It's 60 st in sport weight vintage wool (from that huge box I bought last fall) - basically a large sock in basketweave stitch so far. The yarn is really pretty, sort of a blue-green heather. I think I'll add some kind of drawstring when it's long enough, and maybe a frilly or lacey edge on the top.
Also on the theme of changes/new beginnings, we had our kitchen cabinets redone last week. Our landlord had been promising this for a while, since we were very frustrated with the old drawers that didn't really fit in their slots any more, and cupboard doors hanging off. A contractor showed up early one morning, and after a couple of inconvenient days of dishes piled up in the living room, we are loving our new little kitchen. What a difference!

Before

After