What's up??

So I'm sure you'd like to know what's been going on with me right? Well I don't usually blog personal stuff anymore but here's the scoop..

We've moved to Austin, Texas! My husband, Cody, works for a company that was shutting down its office in New Mexico and over the last year he was put in charge of the whole office and closing it down. There were all kinds of crazy responsibilities involved (like calls at three am or working 26 hours in a row) but there were benefits to doing it believe me. We've all learned our lessons about underestimating the geeks now haven't we? He did such a great job they offered him a cool position here. We had three weeks notice before he started.

I'd never been to Austin in my life and I found myself here for three days picking out a house to buy. Talk about scary! Anyway we managed to pull the whole thing off - we bought a house, got movers, packed everything after living in the same house for ten years, drove across Texas with the pets, and I've been trying to settle into this big house, deal with all this stuff (like HOAs, finding a bank while having two in two other states, prescriptions transferred, getting FURNITURE actually delivered to the house so we could sleep on our bed instead of air mattresses), and make sure Cody's not worrying about too much so he can concentrate on the new job - yes I guess that does sound rather Eisenhower-era but we moved here for his job so that's the priority at the moment. It's all very intimidating. I've lived other places but this is the first time Cody's lived outside of New Mexico and I'm really trying to make sure he's happy and comfortable.

We're still not totally settled in. There are still some boxes and we still have no idea where some things are. We had people who came in and packed stuff for the moving company which was great but that adds to the confusion. We were very careful with our office and my studio stuff though! I packed my studio myself!

Because we knew that Spin Off was going to feature the countinator in their neat things feature page! I haven't seen it yet but the emails have been coming in! We had hoped to be settled in already and have a whole bunch already in stock waiting for this but..life and stuff happens.

Now Cody makes these things himself so he'll be coming home from work and soldering them. I'm going to help as much as I can. Of course I do the packing and shipping. We're going to make as many as we can while still making sure that they all work and are good quality counters for everyone. We're already putting disclaimers on that they may take up to a week to ship. Right now we have enough parts for about 40 countinators. We're going to order more. Cody keeps underestimating the power of a quiet counter lol

Oh and here's a photo of our new house. We really like it.



Anyone want to buy a 1971 house in Albuquerque? It needs updating but it's a great quiet neighborhood!

Countinator Frenzy!

Hello!

A quick note about the countinators:

We have the parts on order and should be getting them this month. We had no idea they'd be this popular!!

We're aiming to have some more ready to sell the week after Christmas. If you'd like to be placed on a list to be notified when the counters are ready or to reserve some please contact me at countinator (at) gmail (dot) com

Have a Happy and Safe Holiday!

Did You Know?

Here are a couple of things about me and my company that you may not have known about that I thought you might find interesting. Some of these things cost me a little bit more or take a little more time but they're things that I want to do to make sure that everything is just how I want it to be.

I use recycled paper to print all my labels and receipts.

I insure every package I send using a private shipping company.

I skein, dye, reskein, photograph, label, package and ship each skein of yarn myself.

All my handspun is spun on my Lendrum Double Treadle wheel that I bought in 2005.

All my yarn and roving is dyed by me in my kitchen.

I design all my own graphics, including ads.

I use Etsy artists to print my labels and stickers.

I blend my own herbs for the sachets and sew or iron the patches on myself.

Sometimes my husband helps me name yarn colors when I'm feeling blocked.

Usually his handwriting is on the labels because mine is awful awful.

Those who have received thank you notes can attest to my awful handwriting.

Noelle's Noodle was the name of my first personal (and handcoded) website in 1997.


That's all I can think of for the moment. But I thought you guys might find it interesting anyway.

Unbiased scarf for Father in law

Unbiased scarf for Father in law, originally uploaded by Noelle Noodle.

taken and uploaded using my blackberry

Makeshift tapestry needle

Makeshift tapestry needle, originally uploaded by Noelle Noodle.

At the office with cody today and I'm grafting the unbiased scarf using a pen top as a yarn needle :)
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

taken and uploaded using my blackberry

Opposing Biases Scarf (Reverse Engineering Edition)

I'm well into my holiday knitting here while I wait anxiously for a delivery of aran weight yarn blanks. Take your friggin time Fed Ex.

So I'm to my father-in-law on the list and since he's never received a scarf from me and that's what they heavily hinted he needed during their visit last week that's what he's getting this year.

Back in 2005 I made this great scarf for myself from a free one sheet pattern that was at my LYS. It was made with a thicker rough spun wool/silk/mohair blend yarn from Japan that most US knitters are familiar with called Noro Iro and was my post-holiday easy to make for myself celebratory knit.

I love this scarf so much I still wear it pretty much every time I go out when it's cold. Seriously. I love all the freaky little colors in this scarf there's just no comparison. You know it's an Eisaku Noro yarn when you see this combination of colors.



I used to talk only about painters and sculptors this way. Now I talk about yarn artists too.

And I still get compliments on it! Even at my LYS last winter someone who worked there said that it was beautiful. Now that's pretty cool. I told them I got the pattern from there but they didn't remember it. Someone on Ravelry wrote to me asking about this pattern last week too.

So this week as I dug unto my stash looking for yarn to knit holiday gifts (I'm knitting from my stash so go me) I ran across some more masculine Noro Iro that suits my father-in-law really well. I looked through all 900,000 pages of my printed patterns to find this old pattern from almost four years ago. No luck.

So I sat and looked at my favorite scarf and reverse engineered it instead. Here's what I came up with.

It's not that complex and I haven't written a pattern in years but at least it gives a good idea of what to do :) Eventually I'll PDF it and everything I just wanted to type it out while it was fresh in my mind.

Opposing Biases Scarf (reverse engineering edition)

I made this scarf in January 2005 and it is STILL my favorite scarf to wear. Because it's knit in stockinette stitch even after blocking it will roll up sometimes (the slipped stitches will help a bit) but this makes it a very cozy scarf.

This scarf is long enough to double up around the neck too!




Yarn:
2 skeins Noro Iro

Size 11 needles
tapestry or yarn needle
Optional Crochet Hook for fringe

Terms
WYIB - With yarn held in the back
KF&B - Knit into the front and the back of the same stitch
K2tog - Knit two stitches together


Instructions

CO 22 stitches

Row 1 - WYIB Slip first stitch as if to purl, Kf&B, K to last 3 stitches, K2tog, Knit the last stitch

Row 2 - WYIF Slip first stitch as if to purl, purl to the end

Repeat until you use most of the first skein and/or have enough to make optional fringe place live stitches on stitch holder

Use 2nd skein of yarn to make an identical scarf, leave enough yarn to graft two scarves together and/or make optional fringe.

Soak and pin out the scarves to block to a shape you prefer. This softens the yarn too which can be a bit rough.

Use a Kitchener stitch or 3 needle bind off (or even a mattress stitch) to graft scarves together to make one very long scarf.

Use your favorite technique to make an optional fringe (I love wrapping yarn around a dvd case to make mine long and scraggly) and use a crochet hook to add to the ends of scarf.

Colorized Countinators

So Cody worked over the weekend to make some new Countinators with the new colors that we have. We can order more white parts if anyone's interested this was just what was easy to get.

There are a few improvements that Cody worked on that had been bugging him. He soldered an extra reinforcement to the wires where they came out of the unit but only to one side - so the back can still come off to replace the battery. He also added a larger sensor to the counter so it would be easier to set up. We're also going to start including a replacement battery with the package. No complaints so far! We're just refining and working on how we think it should go :)

So here are the new ones! Choice of Red, Blue, or Green translucent colors!



I'm going to list them in the Etsy shop's tools section in a few minutes. I have three blue ones, four green ones, and seven red ones.