Juergen and Dan are working on developing a new class at Go Vertical, and luckily they asked me (and a few other people) to be guinea pigs. Last night was the 3rd class, and I'm already seeing improvements.

Its a tough class: I'm exhausted by the end and I hurt the next day (mostly my pecs and triceps), but its a great class. Its defintely the kind of workout where you (or at least I) need someone prompting me for the next thing to do and pushing me and encouraging me to do get through it. But, can I tell you how excited I am that I can already see improvements in my strength and endurance?? So damn cool.

The hardest part of the class for me, are these evil things called "Tabatas". We do 3 different sets of Tabatas, one set each of pull-ups, sit-ups and push-ups (those ones are the hardest for me). "What is a Tabata" you ask? Like I said, they are this evil thing whereby you *do as many pull-ups as you can in 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and then repeat from the "*", eight times. So at first, you may be doing 8 pull-ups unassisted, and by the end, you'll be struggling to even do 3 with one foot on the wall helping you to get up.

The one thing I really like about this class is that its not a competitive thing. You're just pushing to improve your previous count. We've got a whole range of guinea pigs taking the class, from guys like Juergen who are in great shape, to girls like me who are doing ok but have plenty to improve on.

So -- if you climb at Go Vertical, look out for the new class. (Until they officially start offering it, its an invitation-only guinea pig thing as they nail down the format of the class.) I definitely plan on continuing the class once they start charging me for it.

Oh! and don't forget that this Friday is Kathleen's Women's Climbing Clinic. This week we're doing Cross-Overs. It should be a great class.

In other news.... I got my first climbing rope yesterday!!!

Of course... as fate would have it, I got my pretty new rope on a day when I wouldn't be able to use it for 3 days: Last night was the Strength and Endurance class I mentioned above, tonight is Yoga at The Studio, and tomorrow is a cooking class at Kitchen Kapers....

So, on Thursday, I'll get to initiate my pretty new blue rope. I'm all excited! (yes, yes I realize I'm a geek... but that shouldn't be a suprise to anyone reading this).

(Oh, and thanks to Tim for flaking my rope for me, although at the time it looked more like you were having a convulsion....)

Patricia got me some GORGEOUS brown alpaca yarn for Christmas, and she sent it along with a pattern for a felted hat. After my little Christmas Eve incident, I had a lot of time to knit.

• the pattern: Helen's Fabulous Fulled Hat
• materials:
• 200 grams of feltable yarn like wool. I used a 2-ply brown alpaca yarn. Knit with two strands held together. *Make sure you don't use a super-wash wool, it won't felt*
• two size 11, 16"-20" circular needles (or one size 11 circular needle and a set of size 11 double pointed needles)
• one stitch marker
• the process: knit the hat according to the pattern listed above, felt the hat and dry it on a form.
• knitting: When you knit this hat its going to be absolutely HUGE. But don't worry, when you felt it, it'll shrink down just right.
• prepping: Before you actually start felting -- you've gotta do a bit of digging in your kitchen. You need to find a form of some kind to dry your hat on. Whatever form the hat dries on -- thats what shape it will take. As it turns out, I have a head the size of piece of tupperware, more specifically, a Rubbermaid 6 cup container with a #3 on the bottom.
• First, measure your head.
• Then, go through your kitchen and try to find a cylinder of some kind that has the same circumference.
• Try to find something that's at least 4 inches tall so you can stretch the hat over it pretty far.
• felting: There's lots of articles out there on how to felt (technically you're fulling rather than felting... this Knitty article explains the difference as well as a how-to). I recommend doing a google search on "How to Felt" so you can get an idea about how the techniques work and why. This is what I do:
  • I put the knit hat in a zippered pillow case.
  • Then I put a few pair of jeans in the washing machine along with the hat/pillow case.
  • Add a little bit of soap.
  • Set the washing machine on heavy agitation, "HOT/COLD" setting and "no spin" and turn it on
    (I've got a front-loading washing machine... which makes it kind of scary, because I can't stop the cycle half-way through... which is one of the nice advantages of top-loading washer).
  • After its done, take it out and check out the size -- if you need to shrink it further, run it through another cycle -- if its the right size -- then go onto the drying step (you can figure out if its the right size by testing it with the form you've chosen in the previous step).
  • Don't be gentle with it!!! its likely that while the hat was felting in the washing machine, it will have gotten itself stuck together -- grab it, pull it apart, shake it out, be mean to it. Try to uncurl the edges as best you can. You can't hurt the hat. Just do it.
• drying: So now you've got this soggy fuzzy mess that smells kinda like a wet dog... but nicer (maybe thats how alpacas smell like in the rain? I dunno). Whatever position your soggy felted thing dries in, is what position it'll stay in. So, in order to get it to actually look like a hat, you need to dry it on the form you chose before. Take the hat and stretch it over the form. You've got a couple choices when it comes to the brim. You can curl it up all around, you can curl it up in the back and leave it straight in the front... or you can leave it straight all around. Have fun!