I'm having trouble with something I'm making that isn't directly for the class. It has color changes, which I've done before, but I"m having a lot more difficulty with this one than the others I've done. For some reason I'm getting a pulling and buldging around the color changes. Does anyone have an...

Yay! Now I can double check things and submit some things so I can relax and focus on my research project (Instead of just writing about yarn bombing I'm going to attempt a small one and then write about that) and scarf...

You'll let us know when it's up again right?

I usually use a knit on method for casting on, and have only used the loop on method when my grandmother was trying to show me her bootie pattern and... I'm not terribly fond of it. I'm using it in the first assignment, and I'm having issues with the ends looking droopy because the stitiches are loo...

I've been using Nico Coer or Nicolette Coer in HP fandom since 2001?

And the reason I started using it in the first place:

So, When I picked out the Screen name Nicolette Coer I was 13. Coer was a misspelling, initially, of Couer. And though part of my reasons for Nicolette was that my middle name is Nicole, Another, Significant part it waa because of the following story. (It’s a Medieval French Romance in the chantefable style, though I was introduced to it slightly differently.)

Nicolette et Aucassin

In a Kingdom in What we now know as France, there was a duke Who had a son named Aucassin. He was, of course, Handsome, but he wasn’t terribly concerned with the bravery and honor expected of him for his own sake. He did his duty, but that was not where his heart lay- he much preferred to listen to music and hear tales from bards and jongleurs.

One day, his father’s men returned with slaves, prisoners of war from their battles with The Saracens. They were trophies of their contribution to the reconquista in northern Iberia. [Note: By the time this story was written, Saracen was used in Europe not just to describe those of Syrian Decent, but also followers of Islam in North Africa and Iberia.] They were forced to convert to Christianity and put to work in The Duke’s castle.

One day, Aucassin was strolling about the castle, and spied a beautiful Moorish girl. She was of the slaves brought back as spoils. A relationship, though, develops, and He falls deeply in love with her- so much so that he refuses to be knighted and go to war for his father unless he allows them to marry. The Duke is displeased by this, and as a punishment for the lovers separates them. Afterall, his only heir mustn’t married a Saracen Slave Girl. Nicolette is trapped in a tower, and denied access to Aucassin.

Through her own brilliance and ability, she escapes. But knowing she could not stay and be free, she disguises herself in a shipment headed to an Iberian port and flees to her homeland. Once there, she made her way to lands still held by her people, where her true Identity is revealed. She is actually a princess of a Moorish kingdom. For a while she tries to return to her life, but it is dull, and lonesome. There was little let to her to challenge her mind, or to test her ingenuity.

One day, she spies a traveling group of performers, and their sight convinces her she can stay here no longer- Her heart is instead with the one she loves. So she dresses as a bard [edit: or jongleur, or trubador, or or or], and thus also as a man, and goes with the group when they leave. She has many adventures, and is daring and bold, facing and defeating danger, as she travels ever closer to her lover’s lands.

In the mean time, Aucassin faces some not so dangerous conflicts- including a food fight siege while fighting in his father’s name. He also is taught humility when he faces a group of shepherds that point out his misconceptions about them.

Nicolette, disguised, arrives in the Duke’s Court. She performs for the court, and tells a strange tale- one in which two lovers are separated, and the maiden faces danger to be reunited, disguised, with her lover. Aucassin hears this, and realizes that it is his own story being told- and that this must be Nicolette!

They reunite in the forest. Here, the “originalâ€￾ ends, though other accounts add in other adventures- including a trip to the summerlands/land of the fae, Nicolette facing down feats of both wit and strength, and having many travels until they receive word that the Duke has passed, and they can return so that Aucassin can claim his birthright.

~FIN~

Even in the original, it transformed and turned on head many of the conventions of the romance tale. It turned gender roles and class roles on their heads, and in some ways mocked the very narrative of romance fiction. The Princess is the hero and antagonist, while her lover is the one who is passive, progressing only in ways that make him yet more suitable to her. (For contrast, I suggest looking at snow white, where she is primarily passive and in her “exileâ€￾ becomes hard working and Domestic.)