There be pirates!

This weekend was a busy one (as usual). The girls and I had belt testing for Tae Kwon Do. We all passed. Then we were off for a celebratory lunch. On the way, we heard about a pirate festival going on and decided to check that out. The ship in the photo above is the Lady Washington. Sadly, we missed the walk-on tours and we did not have advance reservations for the evening sailing (with mock battle), so this is as close as we got. One of these days I am determined to sail on this ship! She was in the first Pirates movie, btw, so my inner geek was very excited to see her. LOL

DH was in charge of the photos and did not take any of the actual pirates at the festival, he only took video. There were swordfights every hour and lots of games for the kids to play, complete with a treasure map & pirate booty at the end. All in all, a lovely impromptu excursion and the girls had a blast.


My little Cheetah belt above. She is surprisingly willing to wear the headband to class this time. She hated the one she had before (as a Tiger belt). She and I are working on the same forms, which is really interesting for us both.

A photo of my oldest in her sparring gear. She did a really great job sparring with a black belt candidate. I'm really proud of the little monkey, she had to work very hard for this (purple) belt. It was the longest form she's done and it was a real struggle at times. (No pictures of me in my gear. Sorry, but really, you'd thank me. Barring all of my insecurites of my appearance in general, I look really, really bad in white. My hair being so very white and my skin so fair, I look quite dreadful and washed out. I try to dodge all cameras when in class or testing.)


I was able to finish the shawl this weekend. Barely. The fringe didn't take as long as I thought it would. (a good thing) I'll post the picture and the other info on it tomorrow. (I need to take a picture first!) I also worked on a guage swatch for the first pair of slippers. It really is a boring process, isn't it? On the one hand, there's the excitment of starting something new, getting the feel of the yarn and enjoying the color change from the project that came before. On the other hand there is the tedium of postponing the actual start of the new project until you are sure the needles and yarn are a good match. Can you tell I'm trying to see the glass as half full?

I found that I had to go up a size on the needles to get guage. Usually I'm spot on for whatever the pattern says. This time, not so much. It isn't a big deal or anything, but it is unusual. Perhaps I'm just used to knitting things that don't require I make guage. Who knows. Still, the girls are excited that I'm going to start a project for them. I just hope they fit. Someone.