You know how rabbits multiply...




I prefer my way for the ears - it is quicker and they can be bent in any shape.

Here are the pithy instructions for the rabbit finger puppets. Knit in the round with size 0 dpns and fingering weight yarn. Cast on 24 sts, join. Start with two rows of purl then knit until desired length. K2TOG across row. Repeat. Draw yarn through stitches. For ears cast on 10 or 12 stitches. Bind off knitwise. For carrots - do 4 stitch I-cord until desired length and top with some green yarn that has been frayed. Use the fraying technique also for the whiskers.

Here's a quickie hat done in Cascade 220 (on sale now at Webs) from Nicky Epstein's hat book. It has those fun curlicues on top.




Speaking of great sales, Gaiam appears to have all their yoga videos on sale for between $1.99 and $4. I ordered almost 20 - every one I didn't already own. That will effectively double the amount of yoga videos I have and I can't wait until they arrive. I usually do between 1 and 2 yoga videos a day.

My favorite yoga video of all time is Ali McGraw's Yoga Mind and Body. It really has little to do with Ali McGraw - the talented instructor is Erich Schiffman. This video for intermediate yogis was filmed here in NM and is beautiful to look at. I love this music more than any other video and it is perfectly coordinated with the energy of the poses. It includes my 2 favorite poses - the bow pose and the bridge pose.

Rodney Yee's AM yoga is a really nice and simple little 20 minute practice when I can't manage a longer routine or I'm feeling under the weather. It includes lots of good hip openers. He manages to include a breathing segment and a relaxation segment.

Yoga for Relaxation has two routines - a restorative practice with Patricia Walden and a practice using forward bends and a chair with Rodney Yee. If you're not terribly flexible, are a beginner, have any health issues or just really need to relax, this video will help. You'll need a variety of pillows and blankets to do the first routine but the results are just as good as a day at the spa.

Crunch Candlelight Yoga with Sara Ivanhoe is perfect if you can't sleep. This video has lots of twists and forward bends to help you relax. The instructor emphasizes being gentle with yourself and not pushing yourself into poses. After the Ali McGraw video, this is my second most used yoga video.

Sacred Yoga Practice with Rainbeau Mars - this is a 4 volume set. I can't stand the Beginners routine - it doesn't even strike me as yoga. The other three are worth the money though - Pure Tranquility (also good for before sleep), Pure Power and Pure Sweat. Pure Power and Pure Sweat always get my muscles shaking. I love that she holds the poses longer than most yoga videos.

Total Yoga with Tracey Rich and Ganga Lee is perfect for when I have 70 minutes to spend on myself. This video is for intermediate and advanced students and Ganga shows variations of poses which are only for advanced students or human pretzels. I know some people find her strong southern accent distracting but it works for me. On the other hand, those fingernails... :) I've always thought if I could ever go to a yoga retreat I'd choose one at their studio, White Lotus.

A new video which is growing on me is Rod Stryker's PM Peak Performance Video. The music doesn't really work for me but it is a nice well-rounded routine for evening. I ordered the AM one to go with it from the Gaiam sale.

(Off Topic) What makes a blog popular

As Wajcman (p.11) notes, “qualities associated with manliness are almost everywhere more highly regarded than those thought of as womanly.” In this case, discourse practices that construct weblogs as externally-focused, substantive, intellectual, authoritative, and potent (in the sense of both “influential” and “socially transformative”) map readily on to Western cultural notions of white collar masculinity (Connell, 1995), in contrast to the personal, trivial, emotional, and ultimately less important communicative activities associated with women (cf. “gossip”). Such practices work to relegate the participation of women and other groups to a lower status in the technologically-mediated communication environment that is the blogosphere, and more generally, to reinforce the societal status quo.

- Susan C. Herring, Inna Kouper, Lois Ann Scheidt, and Elijah L. Wright, Women and Children Last: the Discursive Construction of Weblogs

Breathing

I have just discovered a musical piece called Vvoi, by someone (person? group?) called meta. I'm happy about the coincidence (I had nothing to do with it), since I like the piece. I might even use it in a (durational) performance I'm preparing (providing the author permits it).

Sculpting your way out of sculpture?

"It is clear that I often craved to bring sculpture into a more direct involvement with the common experience of living.

At such times I felt there must be a more direct way of contact than the rather remote one of art.

Initially this may have been no more than an attempt to move beyond the narrowing horizons of artistic sensibility.

It bothered me that art so soon became a style with little creation added to its production.

Why should the artistic imagination be so contained, or be unequal to the broadening scope of our world awareness?"

- Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), A Sculptor's World (1968)



All the pictures are of works by Isamu Noguchi. In order of appearance:
Lunar Infant (1944)
Artist's studio, New York City(1945)
Detail of Playscapes, Atlanta, Georgia (1975-76)
Energy Void (1971)
Large Walking Box (1952)
The Garden of Peace, UNESCO, Paris