Electra. Brought to you by McDonald's. I'm Lovin It.

  

Pardon the weak lighting. We're expecting a snowstorm any minute.

Pattern: Electra from Rowan #38, in xsmall
Yarns: Gold - Kathmandu DK; Maroon - Grignasco Tango; Cream - Kathmandu DK and Kidsilk Haze held together; Purple - Debbie Bliss Merino DK
Needle: US 5 for the bottom ribbing, US 6 for the body, US 3 for neck and armhole ribbing

First FO of 2006, ow! It is a little upsetting that I open the new year with an homage to Ronald McDonald, but, snakes on a plane.* The color combination looked more palatable in the yarn store, and now I can't help but think I look like a Chinese member of the Partridge family, or a big tub of nachos, when I wear this.

And yet, I still kind of like it. It works better with a crisp shirt underneath, one that has slightly exaggerated cuffs and collar.

The collar is key. Do not try this at home with a white collarless, long sleeved shirt for example, innocent as a white collarless shirt may be. I happened to be wearing such a shirt when I weaved in the last strand of Electra. I immediately tossed on the vest and showed it off to Duck without first consulting a mirror. It took him exactly half a second too long to answer my "What do you think?" before he said, "It's nice!" And even then there was a slight pause between the "it's" and the "nice."

Trust me, I've asked the poor guy enough What do you think's to know when he really means it's nice or not. In this case, he and not the vest was being nice.

A quick change to a crisp white collared shirt saved the day. If I were to do this again - and I just might! Fairisle is FUN! - I'd go with my initial color choices of foresty greens, blues, and browns, and throw in a dash of pink.

No significant project notes. Just the usual of going down a needle size for a smaller fit. I did not do this in the round. I tried to carry the yarn up the sides whenever I could. This was my first fairisle project, done to break up the same ole knitting monotony, and fairisle definitely kept things interesting.

I love vests. I need to make more.

Thank you everyone who commented in the last post. It's fun to see who's reading, and to find new blogs. More more more!

*Another way of saying "c'est la vie." According to this post anyway.

Comments [34]
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Rowan | Electra

Office Space

With the new job, my daily commute entails a short, stumbling, sleepy-eyed walk across the hall from the bedroom to the office. The splash of all that oranginess wakes me right up. Its attempt to be grown-up and professional is thwarted by that relic from college, The Futon. Will we ever be rid of it. And will we ever decorate the bare, bare walls.

That's Veebs filling up the wicker basket nicely. Its usual place is in the basement but since working from home, I have this cat glued to my side 99% of the day. He's such a little lover. An annoying little lover. He's on the desk, in front of the keyboard, walking back and forth, tail in my face, on my lap where he won't sit still, behind me on the chair taking up space, making work furry and soft but quite impossible. With the basket in here he has his own place to sit, and can leave me in peace.

Aimee and Electra are on the blocking board. (Uh, Electra kinda looks like the rug...) I'm wondering now if I should just finish up Electra first, since it really only took about a week to finish a panel. I'm losing focus these days, which is why I haven't been knitting as obsessively as I used to. I just can't do multiple projects at once, and yet my mind wants to wander elsewhere...

Anthropolgie cardigan. I like you.

...to this lovely cardigan from anthropologie. It looks like a very simple construction - the bottom looks to be knit in one piece all the way around, then you pick up stitches along the side for the top portion. I could take a pattern from the Japanese stitch book for the top...and maybe decrease that bottom part so it looks less empire-waisted... yeeesss... yeeeeessssss... The store has so many other inspiring knits which I may just have to go out and buy.

I just found this on amazon.co.jp! Books of 200 more stitch patterns, 500 aran patterns, 1000 aran patterns!!!! God help me.

Comments [6]
Filed Under: General Knitting | Life | Aimee | Electra

Electra Azteca

My first fair isle

My Electra has got some Southwest flair going on, with the colors of yellow corn tortilla chips (the gold), blue corn tortilla chips (the purple), salsa (the red) and sour cream (the offwhite). Hm. I definitely wasn't going for a nacho color scheme. It also reminds me of the 70s. Is that a good thing...we shall see.

I did most of the back on the plane to and from Atlanta. Those were probably the fastest plane rides ever. The fair isle on this is pretty non-extensive, which is good for a novice like me. But it's also been just enough to break up the monotony of working with single-colored yarn. I was starting to get bored of the usual. Kooch is languishing and so is Aimee. Bring on more fair isle!

Warning: badly written pseudo web technical details coming up...

Some of you were asking where I found the link to that Turkish blog. It works like this: Everytime someone clicks on a link to your site from another site, information, such as browser type, where the request for your page is originating, is sent to your server. All behind the scenes. So if you clicked on the link to the blog here, that server will know the hit came from catduckdotcom/clog. This is called the referral link, and my site keeps track of all this information. I'm watching you...

Comments [8]
Filed Under: Rowan | Electra

Fine. OK. I like Rowan. Whatever.

Instead of going to a real sporting goods store for those biking shorts I so desperately need, I decided to knit a pair myself. Why the hecks not. The super chunky factor will make for a more padded, gentle riding experience, while the pure wool factor will keep her toasty in this chilly fall weather.

Or...This is the beginnings of Kooch from Rowan 38. Very unfortunate name I know. 

Isn't funny though that there is this designer knitting magazine featuring things such as "Kooch" and "Kid Acne" at the same time? Can it sound anymore unknitterly? But let's not dwell.

These are the back vents. Later there will be a moss stitch border added to each side of the vent, which will hopefully get rid of the bike-shorts-with-roomy-crotch look.

We haven't ridden our bikes in ages. First it rained for like eight days straight. Then we had 40mph winds for several days, still ongoing. I was doing some downtown shopping recently and while walking between two tall buildings (aka Wind Tunnel of Hell), I was actually lifted airborne for the longest 0.5 second of my life. And then I ran the rest of the way. Not voluntarily though.

I have so much to talk about but so little time to make it coherent. I've been trying to shop for something to wear to a wedding I'm going to this weekend, back home down South. I can't find ANYTHING. This season's inspiration seems to be the balloon, in the deflated state. It's disgusting! For 4 whole hours my credit card was straining to break out of its wallet confines, whining to be swiped and swiped good, I had do something to shut it up.

So I went into a yarn store.

I'm on the Electra bandwagon. Fall is the color. And being the crafty cheapskate that I am, I went for "generic" brands - Grignasco Tango instead of Rowan Felted Tweed (exactly the same material composition), and Kathmandu DK instead of Rowan Yorkshire DK. Kathmandu is a merino wool, silk and cashmere blend. Ooo la, doesn't sound so generic does it? I only call them generic because they were around $6 per skein, as opposed to $10 per for Rowan. 

And for the KSH component I plan on using some leftovers I have of Pearl and/or Liquer. Tink tink tink I hear money leftover in the piggy!

The only problem was, I didn't have the book with me when I picked the colors, this being an impromptu purchase and all, and the store didn't have a copy either (grrrrrrrrrrr). So though I tried mightly to recall the color pattern in my head, in the end the colors I picked were not the wisest. 

The gold will be the main color, so the accent stripes will be the cream and the wine. Which are the exact same colors as KSH Pearl and Liquer. Which will be used with the cream and/or wine color for the fairisle component. Which you won't be able to see because DUH they're all the same colors. ERGH! I tried different combos and it's all the same. At some point the cream colored yarn will be adjacent to the KSH Pearl, or if I use Liquer, then at some point the wine colored yarn will be adjacent to it, etc. etc.

So instead of exchanging one of the yarns for a more opposing color (making exchanges - or anything involving the cash register for that matter - at this certain LYS is a NIGHTMARE. But more on that later), or buying a different colored KSH, I have decided to use something from the stash. It will be ORANGE! But. Red yellow orange cream...Will it look too Fall crazy? Or worse, too Ronald McDonald?

By the way guess what I did today? I subscribed to Rowan International! I'm officially a Rowan fan. Free gift! A couple more skeins of KSH never hurt nobody either. Also they're jacking up the price of admission soon, so get it while it's good.

Before I sign off, thanks for your very kind comments on the bolero. Many of you are the type of conscientious bloggers who take time to reply personally to each commentor. It is very polite and so charming. Unfortunately I am no such blogger. :(

I'm off to Atlanta tomorrow for my high school buddy's wedding. Hopefully I'll find something non-balloony to wear at one of the many strip malls near my parent's house. See ya'll later!

Comments [8]
Filed Under: Rowan | Electra | Kooch