All quiet...

Swamped with work. I spend my free time at the gym. I haven't even knitted that much. Some progress on the capelet -- I ended up frogging it and going through the pattern. My suspicion is that it's missing some K2togs or K3togs in the middle section, because without the decreases there is nothing to balance out the YOs... which explains why my stitch count was about 40 stitches over what I should have had according to the pattern. So I rewrote it myself and knitted merrily away. I'm almost finished the leaf section and will soon start the "garter stitch to the end" stretch. The pattern is also missing the third buttonhole, but I don't want to rip back just to put it in. If I get desperate, I'll get creative with my scissors...

I know this post is a bit lean, but I wouldn't leave y'all without some sort of fiber- or textile-related goodness...

The Peculiar Aristocrat

I did this. It gave me wonderful aristocratic titles, but I thought I'd flesh 'em out a little bit with helpful character descriptions.

Countess-Palatine Courtney the Cosmopolitan of Bartonhurst in the River: hosts candlelight suppers with riparian entertainments that are so chic, it's almost painful.

Lady Madame Courtney the Weird of Much Madness upon Avon: runs the best bordello in town, whose motto is, “We do it all. And we mean all. No request too kinky. Do you like pancakes?”

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I cast on for the Hoja Otoñal (Autumn Leaf) Capelet from Kiparoo. I am in love with this yarn. It's the one I was gushing over in the last post. The capelet got wonky somewhere around Row 18, so when I have a minute I'm going to go through and count stitches on the needles and in the pattern and do a little problem-solving.

I worked on Bryan's Beanie during the Ravelry meet-up last Friday. I was having so much fun chatting that I sort of forgot that I had adapted the pattern for gauge... I was doing the decreases, and didn't allow for the fact that the pattern says: DO DECREASES EVERY THIRD ROW. No problem, chief! I did decreases every third row, plugging away through that 1x1 ribbing and running my mouth to anyone who would listen -- completely forgetting that where the gauge swatch in the pattern is 33 sts x 44 rows = 4", my gauge is 22 sts x 26 rows = 4". Yeah.

I also started working on a long-queued sweater for my nephew (Ravelry link). I'm going to try to finish it for his 1st birthday (end of March).

In general news, my workouts are kicking my ass -- in a good way. I do weightlifting two or three times a week, and have combat class once or twice a week. Bag work is hard on my wrists, even when I wrap them... so we'll see whether I continue that. I'd rather have less-effective punches and still be able to knit for an hour in the evening. :-) It's the busy season at work, which means less time for knitting and blogging. Hopefully that also means I'll try harder to sneak in more time for knitting and blogging. ;-) Until next time...

Lead me not into temptation....

I already know the way.

I slipped up on my yarn diet this weekend--not only slipped up, but fell on my ass. And I'm very pleased about it.

But first, quick recap and summary:
Saturday, I went to tea in Frederick with Anne and a bunch of her friends. I had a wonderful time meeting everyone. Afterwards, I was heading home to help take care of my baby nephew when I saw some cute things in the window of a boutique. I hemmed (want to go in; parking meter might expire). I hawed (really ought to be going home). I went in... and I emerged victorious. I bought two skirts on sale (woohoo!) and one cardigan that wasn't one sale, but went PERFECT with the brown wool skirt. I think I also liked it because it looks like something I would want to knit.
(tea image from here).

Sunday: two yarn sales. You already know what's going to happen.

1. Dancing Leaf Farm
Picked up another skein at Dancing Leaf Farm of Loopy Mohair in the Briar Patch colorway (the sample is a little bolder than most of the yarn in that colorway actually looks). I like to have it on hand for edging whatever I end up making out of the Salsa and/or Tango.

I also bought a copy of Knitting Loves Crochet -- partly because I do not love crochet and I'm hoping this book will give me a reason to use my multi-pack of hooks for something other than seaming (and fake-seaming à la Elizabeth Zimmerman) -- and partly because it was 50% off. If you didn't know already, I have a huge prejudice against crochet. I think it's usually ugly and screams, "OMG I'M HANDMADE BY A CRAFTING ROOKIE STUCK IN A 1970s TIME LOOP." I bet that there are more aesthetic offenses committed by crochet enthusiasts than any other fiber group.

knitting loves crochet, even if Courtney doesn't.

Ten bucks was about as much as I was willing to invest in finding out if crochet had any redeeming qualities when paired with knitting... or whether it would be the fiber equivalent of Cooperative Learning, the great education debacle of my childhood (if you have questions about the efficacy of Cooperative Learning, ask me. I'll tell you how quickly I learned to hate the stupid kids, as well as anything that smelled of group work). I'm not planning on working any of the projects out of it in the near future, but I look forward to flipping through it.

Rounding up my random purchases at Dancing Leaf were:
- a purple shawl stick (could have also been a hair stick in my longer-haired days), which goes beautifully with my stashed Dancing Leaf Salsa and Tango yarns, in case I make that Ring Wrap thingy (whatever it's called, from Knitter's Winter 2005).
- two grab bags of yarn in random green colors. I know, green is not my thing, but I'm hoping that if I buy enough green yarn, I will make things for my two best friends because they look good in green and I want that green stuff OUT of my stash.
- three bars of Wooly Queen goatsmilk soap (two in Cucumber/Cantaloupe and one in Honeysuckle).

2. Kiparoo Farm
Then we did a quick shimmy over to Kiparoo Farm, where the wind was threatening to blow away everything in its path. Safe in the shop, I picked up a chocolate from one of the many heart-shaped boxes. Mmmmm, chocolate...

and then I saw some yarn tucked in the back corner of the shop. I wasn't planning on buying any yarn; in fact, I was planning on buying NO YARN WHATSOEVER. I picked it up. I held it up in the afternoon sunlight streaming in through the window. I admired the deep burgundies and dark chocolate browns with occasional hints of silver. I opened the big binder of patterns sitting next to the yarn; the very first one was for an Autumn Leaves Capelet in the colorway I was fondling. The model was hanging up on the wall just to the right. Well, who was I to argue with the conspiring forces of Fate?

Kiparoo Farm "Moonlight" (wool/nylon)

Normally, I advise against red+brown combinations -- even the thought sends shudders down my spine. But in this colorway, Annie got it right. The colors work. It reminds me of chocolate-dipped strawberries eaten on a warm summer moonlit night. Wanna see it again?


I also picked up a skein of brushed mohair/glitter yarn in deep, saturated overly-ripe-strawberry red. I figured I could always do a 1" or so border in it. The color in the photo below isn't exactly right... but trust me, it works with the yarn.

Kiparoo Farm "Glitter" (brushed mohair/sparkly stuff)

3. Miscellany
I take back what I said earlier about everything crochet being ugly. Here is the first cool thing I have seen come off a hook:

the Marcel Wanders Crochet Table.

4. Afterward: Remember the cute skirt and sweater I bought on Saturday? I bought these fairly sensible shoes at Nordstrom today to go with them (in brown, of course). I generally have a thing against sensible shoes, but these are actually cute on. Will post pics eventually.

I Has a New Blog

courtesy of lolinator. it is teh awesome:

http://lolinator.com/lol/courtneyknits.blogspot.com/


(real post soonish, maybe)

Long time, no blogging

It's been a busy couple weeks here in Knit Goddingdom.

1. BLOGOVERSARY NOTICE: Feb 16.
I'm thinking of running a content and giving away yarn. Anyone interested in free yarn? I have some nice stuff here to give away. It would involve a comment contest of some sort. Details to follow.

2. Ravelry meeting. I met up with some local Ravelers last Friday. It was fun. I finished...


You know what, I haven't had enough caffeine yet this morning to write a cogent post. Check back later... maybe I'll write something up after work.

Finishing Spree

I'm great at starting things -- not so great at finishing them. Lately, however, I've been on a finishing streak. Ever since I finished my fair isle/icelandic yoke cardigan sweater (I don't even know what I knit anymore), I've been on a tear getting UFOs wrapped up.


I tore through the Pratchgan letter square and will finish the Automatic Pasta Cooker square tonight or tomorrow (I also thought I could call it The B.S. Johnson Patent Automatic Window for Take-Away Ribs). Photos when I'm finished.

I pulled SotS out of hibernation and am almost finished Hint #7 (of 8). I'm knitting through it now a lot faster than I was before. I'm hoping to have it done within two weeks -- preferably in one week.

I also pulled out the Manly Mitts I'm making for my dad -- a pair of convertible gloves in Misty Mountain Farms Prime Alpaca (yummy!). I think I remember the modifications I'm making to adjust the men's XL to his Hagrid-sized hands.

chug! chug!

Will write more later -- I have to go finish things!

one day I'll have a little program written that knitters can put on their desktop;
when they finish a project, they'll have this lovely little validation screen.

Third Time's the Charm...

for this sweater neck, I hope. I took Jean's suggestion and included some decreases in the neck ribbing. They worked beautifully. The only problem is that I decreased a little too vigorously, and the tight bind-off I used is--well, tight. This means that the sweater will just barely fit over my big fat head; taking the sweater off again threatens acute loss of ears and/or nose and requires Level 8 Dressing Gymnastics to avoid facial/cranial injury (Level 9 Dressing Gymnastics is getting one's butt and thighs into designer jeans without cutting off circulation to one's lower legs -- my signature trick is a half-speed side kick, followed by a roundhouse, one knee, one back kick and a couple power squats).

The other thing is that the neck comes right up to my throat and I have übersensitive skin (it turns red at the suggestion that it might have something it thinks it might not like in its vicinity... how I managed to even knit the sweater is one of the world's great psychosomatic mysteries) -- I'd prefer to have the neck not be so cozy and wear a scarf as necessary. So, it looks like tomorrow I'll rip out one or two rows and bind off. The underarms are grafted and, while they may not be a master work of Kitchener, they don't look half bad. Most importantly, it fits.

Next step is to order some soak and block this baby.

==========

Next order of business: the Pratchgan (see Ravelry). I finished my letter E block and am brainstorming for my original block. I'm going to do some swatching and test runs later and will post pics of the progress. I'm sticking with my plan to do a Bloody Stupid Johnson invention -- btw, did you see the Bloody Stupid Johnson hat on knitty?

I Can Has Fare Ayul Yok?

It's, ah, very warm. And the good news is that it fits well. All is well, in fact, until we consider the collar. I'm not sure what went wrong at the neck, but it went VERY wrong. My solution is to rip out down to the point where I think the neck ought to be (conveniently located on the top row of a pattern), forgo the ribbed collar and simply bind off. Then all I have to do is weave in the underarms and -- voila! A sweater!

with stylish birch underarm sticks by Brittany (US8)

I can't believe how quickly this knitted up. There are some slight issues with puckering, due to the quick and brutal K1 K2tog decrease row. Next sweater I'd like to have a smoother inter-yoke transition. The good news is that all is smooth between sweater body and yoke.

Proposed neck line:

I was going to make a joke about a standing collar,
but I've got nothin'.

Now that you've finished reading about how mad my knitting skillz are, check out:

the chicken hat story

[via Lime & Violet].

Sweaters and Snow

I've started on the fair isle part of the sweater, and guess who didn't do a gauge swatch. The gauge is actually fine, because I'm pretty conscientious about not pulling it too tight -- the problem was the composition. I decided, after I knitting a couple rounds, that I didn't like the blue next to the charcoal... there was change in color, but not much difference in value.

The blue is a bit darker -- this is in direct sunlight

So I pulled out the needles, surgically inserted them a couple rows back, then ripped out the blue. I started re-knitting the formerly-blue section with light grey, which was going to be reserved to replace the white highlights. I'm not sure exactly how this is going to all play out, but the good thing is that if it's terrible, I can always rip it out and re-knit it, and all I will have lost is the time I spent knitting it while watching Project Runway (I have cable TV for the first time in my life -- while most of it is crap, there are a few interesting things on).

It snowed yesterday -- all day there were these HUGE snowflakes falling gently down in the first real snowfall of the winter. Since it's now in the low 40s, most of it is melting away, but I managed to take a couple pictures when I woke up this morning.

view from my bedroom window

view from the kitchen window

view from the back porch,
overlooking part of the pond

The snow turned out to be a good thing -- not just because it's beautiful and I had a wonderful time just sitting on the sofa, drinking my tea and watching it fall; and not just because I had the day off work -- because I was home all day, and around lunchtime the Verizon man came by. That's right -- I have internet at home now! Which means eye candy for you guys! Yay!

I No Can Has Interwebs at Home?

So I woke up this morning and switched on the wireless router and the little DSL light was all blinky-blinky and teh Intarwebnets lights wasn't lit at all and I was like WTF, mate? So I called Verizon and they were like, "haha, we were just kidding. No home interwebs for you until end of month, maybe." and then I was sad, 'cause I have these awesome pictures to share and I can't. Boo hiss.



And while I'm on the "angry wet cat" theme, here's a brief rant:
In addition to my full-time job, I volunteer part-time as the assistant Director of Development for a nonprofit (basically, it's my job to write letters that will persuade large corporations and philanthropic individuals to make significant cash donations). I'm the Director's right hand/admin, so I also field/screen her phone calls and take messages. The past week has been nutso with board meetings and traveling and meet-and-greets and such, so she's been out of the office a lot.

Today, she went home sick (mostly exhaustion, I think). One of her contacts called, and after I explained that she had gone home for the day, the caller said, "Oh, I'll try her cell phone." On Monday, when I said "She's in a board meeting," another caller said, "Oh, I'll call her cell, then." This is not the first time this has happened.

It annoys me that people assume that when they are told someone is unavailable, they have carte blanche to call them on their cell phone. Just because you have someone's cell phone number doesn't mean you have 24/7 rights to them. It's the same as you saying (to someone you wouldn't want in your bathroom with you), "I'm in the shower," and they respond, "Well, then I'll just stand here on the other side of the curtain and talk to you!" It's on my pet-peeve level with people talking on cell phones in restaurants.

I think there are a lot of people who confuse the accessibility that technology makes possible with accessibility to a person -- thinking that since you can reach someone wherever and whenever, you have an intrinsic right to do so. I was raised with the "10 to 10" rule of phone calls: don't call people before 10AM or after 10PM (of course, a good way to circumvent rudeness on the part of others is to turn your phone off when you go to bed and turn it on when you wake up, hoping that no emergency will happen in the meantime). Certainly there are jobs and situations where a person needs to be in constant contact with others... but for most things in life, constant contact is not necessary.

Sorry, I'm Allergic to Humble Pie.

Fair Isle/Icelandic Yoke/Variously-Named Sweater coming right along. I was almost finished the second sleeve last night when I tried it on and was puzzled that the upper arm was so baggy. Turns out while I was mindlessly knitting last night, I also neglected to count my stitches and just kept merrily increasing every 5 or 6 rows... so instead of 48 sts from the elbow up, I had 54... which, at 4 sts to the inch, makes a good bit of difference (1 1/2", to be exact). So I had the fun fun task of ripping back a good 7" of sleeve last night and starting to re-knit -- with no increases whatsoever.

Problem
As I get closer to finishing sleeve #2 and the point where I join it all together and start the yoke, I'm a bit nervous. I've been perusing the collection of EZ-based Fair Isle/Icelandic Yoke sweaters on ravelry. The examples with pictures break down as follows: a few are excellent, the vast majority are fine and a couple are downright awful in terms of fit. I won't call anyone out on that -- in case they read this and cry all night -- specifically on here.

Results
The good examples are similar to each other in that they have smooth transitions from plain sweater to patterned yoke. The yokes lie flat and beautiful on the shoulders and are worked up in proportion to the wearer. The sweaters are also the proper size and fit for the models.

Similarly, the bad examples have common characteristics: noticeable, distracting puckering at the bottom of the yoke; a yoke that bunches up on the shoulders or leaves a weird puffy-sleeve effect where it joints the sweater (puckering again); and overall neglect to fit the sweater to the body of the wearer. The last bit is negotiable, since people have different preferences on how to wear their clothes, but there are some basic ground rules (i.e. if you don't have a body like Nicolette Sheridan, you probably shouldn't try to dress like Edy Britt. Similarly, wearing gigantic bags does not flatter any body size -- unless that's the only thing that fits).

Conclusion
A few people noted that they went up in needles size when working the Fair Isle section -- my guess is that this is to makes sure they work it loose enough that it does not pucker. As much as I hate to say it, it appears our friends the GAUGE SWATCH is going to make a repeat appearance. That's the only way to know whether I knit differently in this Fair Isle pattern.


Unrelated
There's a reason why people wrap/wear protective gloves with wrist support when training with a punching pad. My skinned knuckles and bitching wrists attest to this.

U Mayd Me LOL!

I lieu of a real post, here are some things I've posted to the lolravelers group on Ravelry. Pls do not be snorting teh kofee on teh monitrs. kthxbai.