Craft Monkey

92

2 weeks without a computer led to loads of knitting time. I cast on for the Sunrise Circle Jacket after looking at a bazillion versions on Ravelry. I'm using Noro Silk Garden. I've seen loads of this design around the internet in solid or tweedy colors, but when I saw the handful of Noro versions on Ravelry it become one of those I-need-to-make-it-NOW-please projects.  The curved radiating stripes were what did it.

Between the color changes in the yarn and the increasing semicircle, this has been flying by. Thats all of a sleeve and part of a front, knit in one piece. The novelty is starting to wear off now that the rows are getting so long (150+ stitches?). I doubt I'll finish this while it's still cold enough to wear it...

finished sweater

Pattern: Honey, by Kim Hargreaves, from the Rowan Summer Tweed booklet

Needles: US 9 for the reverse stockinette and US 8 for the garter edging and bands. Addi Turbos

Yarn: Rowan Summer Tweed (70% silk, 30% cotton), colorway 513-Dew.

Mods: I lengthened the fronts and back by an inch so my shirttails wouldn't hang out from under the bottom edge. The largest bust size offered in the booklet is 40, and I'm a 44, so I also went up a needle size all around. Between that and this yarn's tendency to grow with wear, I ended up with the size I wanted.

Thoughts: This is my first adult sweater, and my first time making a garment in pieces and seaming it up. I was too chicken to make any changes that required serious math, but now I wish I had added some waist shaping to it. It's a very boxy sweater. I also overcompensated for the large vintage button and bound off 4 stitches for the button hole instead of the called-for 2, and I think that was too many--- the button stretches the hole out by ALOT. I may eventually go back and rip and reknit the buttonband since it's only 8 rows of garter and I've got yarn left over, but for now I'm calling it done. This colorway has flecks of turquoise, pink, and a mango-y yellow that aren't showing up in this photo. Right now this sweater is in the exact color and yarn called for in the pattern, so I'm also considering adding some sort of embroidery to the top of the front pieces to personalize it; if I do do that, it'll probably be stars or starfish (which appears on the bakelite button) in the colors of the flecks. I'll probably wear it until I get bored with it and then make those changes. I'm pretty excited about it. Silk is way warmer than I anticipated, so I don't think this is a "summer" sweater, but it's still not warm enough to wear in February.

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Meet the goats!
The little one on the right is Pearl, Gold is in the background on the left, and Copper is in front of Gold.
They are devouring the wild blackberry canes and honeysuckle, and we are pleased.

back online

We've got the computer back!  2 weeks without the internet was a nice little break.  I finished the Honey cardigan, and started both a new sweater and a tank top. Last week we went down to Georgia to pick up the goats. There's only about an hour of daylight left, so I'm going to go find the camera and try to post again later tonight :)

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My laptop is broken,and going to the Mac doctor today. I don't know when we'll get it back.

88

More fog, more rain.  Spent most of the day scraping hive frames clean of brittle beeswax and propolis. Went into Chattanooga after work for Knit2Tog at Genuine Purl. Lots of chatter about voting tomorrow (DO IT!). Home to Fraggle Rock with Logan on the laptop. Now the others are asleep and I just spent 2 hours on the internet catching up. I should go to bed.I'm having a hard time breaking out of the mindset that I-need-to-use-the-internet-every=time-its-available-cuz-who-knows-when-we'll-get-signal-again. Signal's not going anywhere, and I'm still adjusting.

Also, I've run out of not-at-all-clever blog post titles, so we're gonna try numbers a la Amisha

unproductive

There was an SVI board meeting in Chattanooga last night, and we ended up spending the night there afterwards, chaperoning an impromptu 3-yr-old slumber party. I feel like I never really woke up today...

Today was a Moonshadow work day, and I somehow managed to remember to bring the cardi to seam up, and the yarn, but forgot the darning needles. Broke up wooden swordfights between rambunctious little boys instead; found myself saying "forgive each other" pretty often.

It's a rainy night, and we've got tons of new-to-us music (tonight it's Aesop Rock)  and a copy of In Defense of Food to start on before bed...

wireless!

Ever since we moved into the yome a year ago, we've been internet-less at home. The land is completely off the grid; there's one pole on the property where phone/power lines cross, but we're not hooked in and it's a ways off from the yome. We have no desire to get on the grid, but it does rule out most of the traditional ways of getting online, which typically requires either a phone line or cable TV (we don't have a tv either). We've got cell phones, so need for a land line.

We occasionally got online at friends houses or coffeeshops with free wifi. The vast majority of the time we would drive into the closest town (which has no coffeshops) and park in front of one of the two spots in town with a wireless signal we could detect (a hotel and a church), open up our laptops and go for it. Online time was limited to the duration of Logan's nap; we'd drive him around until he fell asleep first. The driving has been the only thing that's worked to coax him to sleep in daylight for a LONG time now, and is still a bummer from an ecological standpoint, but whatever, its way better than a toddler that is melting down half the day due to being tired.

It is way more difficult to get in a bloggy headspace with a laptop wedged between yourself and the steering wheel, ya' know?

Today we went to the Verizon store and got the gizmo for wireless internet (btw, thanks roro and obi!)... I'm actually posting from the yome for the first time ever, and I'm a little giddy about it

Now if only I could figure out how to put buttons in my sidebar...