Jon hit the jackpot

So, you know how it always takes you a week or so to get readjusted after breaks and things? I know it takes me at least a week or two, as I'm a creature of habit, and the shift in schedules from one semester to the other always hits me kind of hard. I've finally fallen into the rhythm of this semester, but it's pretty vicious. This semester is shaping up to fairly light class-wise, but very, very heavy research-wise. I'm working on four projects in various stages of completion, so I usually have to do some combination of administrative work to get through red tape, data analysis in the inexplicably hot and stuffy computer lab, data collection (thankfully, mostly online), and meet with professors and/or undergraduate research assistants. And then do a bunch of reading.

Basically, I have two options to manage this workload, which is apparently a bit larger than the typical first year grad student gets stuck with.

1. Work for several hours every day of the week with no breaks. This has the distinct advantage of allowing me to go to bed at a decent hour every night, but renders any other activities (such as moderate exercise) virtually impossible.
   
2. Work ridiculously hard during the week and do no work at all on the weekends. This requires me to work until 2 or 3 am and get up by 9 at the latest every morning, which means that I'm a mess by Friday. But, it also means I get to sleep all weekend and recharge.

I tried Option 1 for a couple of weeks and crashed and burned. It sounds good in theory, but the constant working meant that I needed more and more downtime, which meant that I was going to bed later and later. The lack of sleep turned out to be a huge drain on me emotionally, as I tended to burst into tears whenever my cats ran away from me.

So, I switched to Option 2. Which worked really well for the last couple of weeks, even if it meant I was a mess on Fridays and spent the weekends catnapping all day instead of hanging out with people. But, now I'm sick. It's not a big deal, just a cold that should pass in a couple of days, but I wonder if taking Option 2 has made me especially susceptible to germs.

Anyway, the bright side of Option 2 is that when I'm not passed out on the couch over the weekend, I'm knitting like a fiend. And this weekend, Jon scored big time! First, witness the Resurrection of the Cosby Socks:
Remember them? I made them waaaaay back in October and then this happened:

Yep, Jon ripped the toe of one of them right on the second or so time he wore them. And I avoided repairing them for, oh, about three months. I'm not sure why....I'm not their biggest fan, to be sure, and I was sure it would be a hassle to pick up all the stitches and reknit the toe, and I was a bit miffed that he took such bad care of them. But, it's cold now, and I felt bad, so I fixed them up good as new.


His voluminous amounts of gratitude then caused the Return of Sick Kitten and Sweatpant Gray yarn:
I made him his hat! Friday I had him go through the Vogue Stitchionary 2: Cables to pick out a bigger, bolder motif that could stand up against the texture of the yarn. He picked the Horseshoe I pattern. I started it yesterday and finished it this morning! I'm quite pleased with the result, in spite of the vomit-colored stripes.
Yarn - 1 skein each of Rowan Harris DK tweed (100% wool, 123 yards) in lewis gray and thatch. Which I still say is a misleading name for that color.
Needles - 40" size 5 addi turbos. I have to say that one reason this iteration of the sick kitten hat went so much better than the last is that I used these needles. The yarn is kind of felted and grippy, which makes it a real pain to use anything other than super-slippery metal needles.
Pattern - My own! It follows below, in case I (or, for that matter, anyone else) want to use it again:

Jon's Horseshoe Cap

This hat is knit from the brim to crown, and is 10" wide and 9" long unstretched.

Notations:

• m1 = make 1 stitch by picking up and knitting/purling through bar between stitch just worked and next stitch
• horseshoe cable pattern
• rounds 1 & 2: k12, p4
• round 3: Work 6st right leaning cable, then immediately work 6st left leaning cable, p4
• rounds 4-8: k12, p4
• stripe pattern:
• rounds 1-6: work in pattern in MC (gray)
• rounds 7-8: work in pattern in CC (vomit)

Pattern:

• CO 84 st in CC, work in 1x1 ribbing for 1 inch or so
• next round: switch to MC, [k4, m1, k4, m1 knitwise, k2, p1, m1 purlwise, p1] repeat to end (105 sts)
• next round: [k12, p2, m1 purlwise, p1] repeat to end (112 st)
• work rounds 3-8 of Horseshoe cable pattern, maintaining stripe pattern
• work Horseshoe cable pattern 4 more times (5 times total)
• when work is 2" shorter than desires, begin crown decreases over next 15 rounds:
  o in MC [k1, k2tog, k9, p4] repeat to end (105 sts)
  o in MC [k8, ssk, k1, p4] repeat to end (98 sts)
  o in MC [cable 5 to the right (hold first 2 sts to back), cable 5 to the left (hold first 3 sts to front), p1, p2tog, p1] repeat to end (91 sts)
  o in MC [k2, k2tog, k6, p3] repeat to end (84 sts)
  o in MC [k4, ssk, k3, p3] repeat to end (77 sts)
  o in MC [k8, p2tog, p1] repeat to end (70 sts)
  o in CC [k2tog, k6, p2], repeat to end (63 sts)
  o in CC [k5, ssk, p2], repeat to end (56 sts)
  o in MC [k1, k2tog, k3, p2] repeat to end (49 sts)
  o in MC [k2, ssk, k1, p2] repeat to end (42 sts)
  o in MC [right leaning twist, left leaning twist, p2tog] repeat to end (35 sts)
  o in MC [k1, k2tog, k1, p1] repeat to end (28 sts)
  o in MC [k1, ssk, p1] repeat to end (21 sts)
  o in MC [k2tog, p1] repeat to end (14 sts)
  o in MC [ssk] repeat to end (7 sts)
• break yarn and draw tightly through last 7 sts
• weave in all ends, attach pom-pom if demanded to by your significant other

Here's a closeup of the cable motif and the crown decreases. I'm really pleased with the way the crown decreases turned out and took a picture of them before I added the pom-pom.

But that not all! I started Jon a pair of peekaboo mittens tonight as well:
It'll be fairly simple. All stockinette, all in the round, and I'll probably substitute an afterthought thumb for ease. I'm using the leftover skein of the alpaca tweed from my totally awesome first sweater ever, but I'm holding two strands together and knitting it on 7's to make it nice and thick (and fast).

Between the hat, socks, and mittens, Jon should be nice and toasty when he drives around all night delivering pizzas. I'm making all this stuff for him in large part because it's gotten soooo cold here. In my phlegmatic, fevered stats, I've spent the night watching the Grease: You're the One that I Want marathon, which has been interrupted three times with weather advisories talking about polar fronts and windchill temperatures hovering around -12 degrees. I guess I just wanted to make sure he didn't lose his ears to frostbite, because, let's face it: ear stumps are not sexy.

A new city, a new blog, a new set of Christmas knitting

So, here I am, almost a year to the day after I first learned to knit withmy very own, brand-spankin' new knitting blog. My plan is that it shall be awesome.

And who am I? I am a brand-new grad student in the University of Michigan's psychology Ph.D. program. I moved away from my comfortable nest of friends and knitting companions in Ohio and I've been feeling a tad bit lonesome out here by myself. All I have for company is my big goofy boyfriend and our two cats, Mittens (the littly gray one) and Jonnikins McFattington (the orange one), whom we call Fatty for short.

In general terms, I'm a huge dork, which I have come to accept and treasure. Need proof? I enjoy statistics...a lot. I titled my blog Captian Knitpicky because my compulsive rationality soemtimes gets me into trouble. I once went off on how much the space-time incosistencies in the Chronicles of Narnia bother me, to which a friend of mine responded, "That's ridiculous. You're the most illogically logical person I have ever met." Which, I think, makes me nitpicky. Add a K and you get a nerdy pun!

Anyway, this blog is supposed to focus on knitting. I have tackled the Christmas list, because I am too poor to buy proper presents. Knitted gifts would be acceptable, except that most of the people I knit for live in Texas, and my family keeps the air conditioner on even in December. Here are the things I have already completed:

A Clapotis for my mom. I used about 3 1/2 skeins of Katia Ingunea Print in color 5652 and knitted it on size 7 needles. I started on a really awful pair of pink plastic ones, but I lost one at some oint in an airport coming back from my friend's wedding and finished them on wooden ones. Honestly, how do you lose a 14 inch knitting needle without noticing it?



Also, a pair of socks for my mom. Although, technically they were for her birthday. But whatever. I used 2 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in color 105 on 40" size 3 addi turbos. You can't really tell, but I used a traveling eyelet pattern that looks really nifty. The pattern is my own, although this is certainly not the first time someone has used traveling eyelets.





Here's a pair of socks I knitted for my boyfriend. I knitted them on my size 3 addi turbos and used 1 skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Amish and another in Black Watch because he demanded that the socks be complementary, not matching. So, I chose a basic rib with stripes based on the Fibonacci sequence. See? I told you I was a dork. Anyway, the colors overwhelmed the stripes, and they turned out looking suspiciously like a Cosby sweater.

Here's what I have yet to knit:

• the second cabled sock for my stepdad (one down, one to go)
• felted bags for my sister and her best friend and her best friend's sister, who are like sisters to me
• fingerless gloves for my boyfriend
• socks for my Other (see I Heart Huckabees)
• felted slippers for my bestest buddy

Wish me luck.