More on German Opal

Laura asked "Do you have any links for where to get the German Opal?"

There a couple places online to get their patterned yarns, but after a google search I found this place that sells the solids (and I just realized they're in Utah too!). I've never ordered from them, so I can't tell you whether they are good or bad to order from, but also, PTYarn (the Opal distributor for the US) has a shop list arranged by state. If there is a shop in your area that sells Opal sock yarn, it should be on that list.

And look! Another Eleanora sock! They're taking over! It looks great Durandir!

M

I don't have anything to say, so I'll update you on other people's news!

Rose is working on a pair of Eleanora socks! Check 'em out! They're lovely Rose.

And look! Tracey had her little boy on Monday! Congrats Tracey! I'll forgive you for not sending the yarn you said you'd send ;) Good reason :)

And I was waiting for Kim to show modeled pics, but she's the first to finish a Mountain Peaks Shawl! Look at Kim's Finished Mountain Peak's Shawl, which is the FIRST lace shawl she has ever knit, ever, and that is in addition to the fact that she is dead sexy. Yes, Kim, that is the text copied directly from the e-mail you sent me ;) It looks great m'dear!

A Note on Yarn for Eleanora Socks

It has come to my attention that some people are getting a bit confused about the yarn I used for my Eleanora socks. They are the German sock yarn called "Opal", NOT Louet Gems Opal (which is a fine sport weight). Nancy Bush uses Gems Opal in a few sock patterns, but it's VERY difficult to get gauge and a nice fabric with Gems Opal for the Eleanora sock.

Also, read this post for a discussion on where to find this German Opal.

Happy Knitting!

Weekend Report

Look at Maeve's Eleanora Socks in Progress I LOVE the color! They look great!
________________________________________________

So... this weekend I:

1. Wore a pretty dress and petended to be a lady!


My face looks very strange, ignore my face and pay attention to the dress! My mom sewed the underdress on Friday night and I did the stomacher on Saturday morning for the tournament Saturday afternoon. Can I tell you? SO comfortable! You can see a couple more pictures here. I was "escorting" my little brother David. He'll be 16 in July and he's gotten into the whole reenactment thing. See that white bit tied around his arm? That's my favor ;)

2. I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix obsessively. I have no idea how badly they'll have to massacre this book to make it into a movie. And I've spent the whole last half of the book just enthralled! JKR has become such a better writer than she was with #1. I'm about 100 pages from the end, and there may not be any knitting until I've finished it since I don't have anything simple on the needles.

3. I made jam, and it turned out sort of badly. It's not that it tastes bad (it's really quite yums!) but that it separated with the fruit all layered near the top and clear yummy jelly-type stuff at the bottom. I hate that! Does anyone know how I can prevent my jam from doing that? It's strawberry-mango jam, by the way. I got a full flat of strawberries for $8.99, so figured it was a good time to do it. I still have a half of the flat left after making 2 batches of jam.

How was YOUR weekend?
M

*argh! Let's see if Blogger will finally post this damn thing*

H is for....

I'm gonna swipe it from Cara and call my Handwriting Meme my "H" post. Yeah, I'm slacking... but I've been thinking about it for a week and just couldn't come up with a good H.

Rambles on Music; or "Why I love Chronic Future"

Run! Do not Walk over to Kristi's to see her finished Seraphim shawl! It's SO beautiful! Congrats on the FO, Kristi daaaaahling!

I don't have a lot to say, I've swatched for my Philadelphia souvenir socks, but I haven't picked a pattern yet. And I can't show you the mittens (although I have the updated pattern now so I should be able to continue today), and the shawl I'm working on looks like a wimpy green blob... so um... yeah...

So I'll tell you about one of my favorite bands. I love music, I will talk about music given the right company, but I don't like classifying music into the micro-genres and getting all crazed about it. In general, I don't like country music or rap, and I like everything else, but each song, like each person has its own merits and it's own short comings. I like some country, and some rap-type things, but in general no.

But anyway... my favorite band is Chronic Future. If you click on "Media" you can listen to some of their songs. They have such an interesting blend of styles, sounds and beautifully real lyrics that I can listen to their songs over and over again without ever getting bored with them. Although you can't listen to it on their site, my favorite bit of their music is from the song titled "Memories in F Minor", at the very end of the song. It's very hard to describe, but it's amazing. While you're there, check out "Nothing Left To Loose" in the "Song of the Week" section. I think it may be my new favorite song.

M

Totally random WednesdayThursday

1. Look at Lindsay Lohan! She's wearing a Kittyville hat! We knitters will soon rule the WORLD!

2. We watched a funny movie last night. You know it's gonna be good when the first line of the movie is "I'm Deadly Thug #1!", and the official title of the movie has an exclaimation point at the end.

3. I love Karma! There's a big decision that I've been unsure of for a while, and it's getting to a point where I really need to decide, and there are so many factors that I was really torn. But I ran into someone who's decisions are sort of coinciding (sorry this is so vague), but I took it as a sign that I need to do this, so I'll be doing it... more details later. :)

4. In knitting news, I'm stalled on the mitten for Terri, awaiting some changes, and the tiny lace is TOTALLY not interesting to me at the moment, so I brought Sensational Knitted Socks, Knitting Vintage Socks and the Gems Pearl yarn that I bought at Loop in Philadelphia (that was a very linky sentence!) and I plan to pick a sock pattern that's simple and elegant to knit for myself. Something mindless that I don't need to have a chart in front of me to do.

Happy Thursday! Logan girls, are you coming to TNIK tonight? PLEASE say YES!

M

p.s. I took some gnifty flower pictures, you can see them here.

All Memes all the time

I saw Kat's Meme in a couple of different places, but most recently on Carole's blog, go here for the birthing of this meme and to enter the contest.

Name 5 places other than your house or a knitting store where you have knit...

1. At a Green Day concert in Salt Lake City. (Thanks again, Laurie!)
2. Through my University Graduation.
3. Covered only by a flimsy paper sheet in the doctor's office.
4. Through the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and overlooking the city from the "Rocky" steps).
5. In the delivery room while my sister had her first son.

This is in addition to knitting in cars, buses, planes, trains, etc... and knitting in coffee shops, bookstores, on my lunch breaks, on normal breaks, at my relatives' houses, basically anywhere I can breathe, I can knit.

Where have YOU been knitting?

M

Handwriting Meme

It started here, I saw it here, and now you find it HERE.



Write a pangram on a piece of paper, sign your first name, take a photo of it and load it onto your blog, or upload into the flickr pool.

Let me see your handwriting! :D

With the writing, you will see in the bottom right, the very small-needled Mountain Peaks Shawl, and on the upper left, the mitten I'm test knitting for Terri. I can't show you the whole thing, but it's very cool and I'm LOVING knitting it. :)

M

Finished socks, mine and others'

Check out Jessica's finished Razor Shell socks! They're great Jessica!

And I finished a pair of socks myself this weekend. This is my Mom.


And these are her socks :)

Yarn: Mountain Colors Barefoot (60% Superwash Wool/25% Mohair/15% Nylon) in the Winter Sky colorway.
Pattern: Made up as I went, with 2 socks knitted at the same time on 2 sets of dpns. k3, p1 ribbing at the top, slip stitch reinforced heel, and wedge toe.
Needles: US 1.5 (2.5mm) Crystal Palace 6" Bamboo Double Points (my FAVORITE dpns!)
Gauge: I honestly don't remember, but probably aobut 8 spi.
Verdict: I thought the barefoot was a wee bit scratchy at first to knit with... but I decided it would probably soften after washing, but then I was mostly done and I tried on the sock and OMG! I HAD to buy some more of this yarn for a pair for me! They're FABULOUS! Very warm, and it just snuggles your foot. Like how a cat pressed against your thigh feels so good and nice and warm, like that, but wrapping your feet. FAN.TAS.TIC! Mom likes them too, so that's good ;)

I've started another Mountain Peaks Shawl, but this time in a VERY tiny yarn (I think it is probably classified as cobweb weight) that I got from Andie at Renaissance Dyeing in France. (She's very nice!) It's crewel embroidery thread, but it's wool and can also be used for cobweb weight yarn. It's all dyed with natural products too. The green that I got is beautiful and deep because it was dyed with Madder and then overdyed with Indigo. I'm knitting it on US Size 1's! LACE!! ON 1's!! But it's turning out very pretty indeed, even though it will take a VERY long time.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments on Icarus! You made my VERY happy day :)

M

Mountain Peaks Revision

Hi, I've sent out a revision for the Mountain Peaks Shawl, if you haven't received it, make sure to check the e-mail associated with your paypal account. The new file has been uploaded to the download server, so if you purchase it from here on out, you should get the newest version. The pattern should also have been sent to you if you were one of the 5 who got it free. If you didn't get it, please e-mail me at mlbrilliant AT yahoo DOT com.

Also there is a small change to something in the Seraphim Shawl pattern, so if you purchased that, it should be coming at you soon.

*sqeal!*

Lookie! Scroll down to see Icarus! I can't wait until the issue comes out! I'm so excited to see it in print!

"Why I'm Tired", or "I Want To Kill My Smokedetectors"

It's 4 am and I'm up. Why, you may ask? Because about 3:30, my smoke detector went on, beeped for about 10 seconds and then went off again. I checked it, no low battery indicator... just normal. Also, it alerts us when there's a low battery with little chirps every minute, but not full alarms. So I checked the house just to make sure nothing was burning.

Then about 10 minutes later, same thing. I got up with my pillow determined to fan away anything that might be setting it off. There was NOTHING. I hypothesized that perhaps it was dusty or some pollen from the open window had wafted in and set it off.

Keep in mind that we have 3 smoke detectors within 10 feet upstairs, and at this point I don't know which it is, except that it's not the one in our room (which leaves the one in the hall and the one in the second bedroom).

So I took down the hall detector and blew in it and a bit of dust came out. I figured that was probably it. And we went back to bed. Then 10 minutes later.... AGAIN with the wailing beeping for 10 seconds! I sat up in bed, cursed quite a bit and then got up, took both the hall and spare room smoke detectors down, took out their batteries, wrapped them in blankets to muffle the intermittent beeping they were still making and stuffed them in the laundry cupboard downstairs, which is as far from our bedroom as I can get them). And now? I can't get back to sleep.

If I were a coffee drinker, I slow drip into my bloodstream today. I've got a MASSIVE deadline today for work. Something that I can't miss, or do a sub-par job with. Send energy if you've got any extra to give. Perhaps tranquilizers would be good too.

M

Ugh... and G is for....

Sorry I've been a bit absent... busy at work, busy in my head... busy wondering why my period hasn't graced me with its presence (no, I'm not pregnant, I've checked, TWICE).

Yesterday was a pretty crappy day. Usually I have a pretty tough skin. People saying mean things about me can make me a bit sad, but I don't usually freak out. Yesterday though I was checking my referral stats via SiteMeter, and I came across a message board where someone had said some disparaging things about one of my patterns. I was feeling very low. Because, dear readers, I make myself vulnerable with my patterns. They are extensions of my self. I'm totally fine with people not really liking the pattern and not wanting to knit it (there are a lot of patterns I don't like and wouldn't knit). I know it's nothing personal, just a difference in styles. But does that give someone a god-given right to insult me? No! If I don't like a pattern, I just say "Not for me!" or don't say anything at all... Anyway... I was feeling pretty crappy about it.

But then I read Heather Armstrong's post from yesterday where she recaps her hate mail from recent days (read it, I'll wait). My blog will never be NEARLY as well known as she is, nor do I really WANT it to be, but I am reassured by her ability to let people's negativity slide off her back, that someday I can do the same.

So in conclusion... G is for Growth. Constant growth. Here's to a thicker skin, constant self-evaluation and continual change. My new life-motto.

M

p.s. Please don't comment with "Oh Miriam! Your patterns are GREAT!" I didn't post this for positive feedback on my patterns and I'm really not in a mood to hear it. Thanks.

p.p.s. Sorry if this post sounds really dark and morbid... I'm too tired to put forth the effort of sounding cheery.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Part I

So many people have been doing this, and today I feel I need format, but I don't have enough umph of my own to come UP with a format, so this is what you get.

The Good: I am reading Harry Potter. I can official say I am HOOKED! I finished Book 4 and I'm itching to start Book 5 today at lunch.

The Good, Installment the Second: I have finished the rather boring, but paying job of 3 pairs of black wool gloves, so my knitting will now be interesting AND blogable!

The Good, Installment the Third: Socks. My one true love.


This pair is for my Mom. She picked out the Mountain Colors, Winter Sky colorway. She saw me knitting them yesterday and said "What a beautiful color! I love it!" And I said "You SHOULD! You picked it out and they're for you." We laughed about it quite a bit. Hi Mom!

The Bad: I am working on a new design, and I decided I wanted to make a small change from when I bought the yarn. Not too drastic, but I need to find myself a skein (even about 50-75 yards would do the trick) of Dale Baby Ull in Color 5545. Does anyone have any of that? It's just sort of an accent color for the socks I'm working on. I could probably order a skein, but I need less than 75 yards and paying shipping and full price for 75 yards seems a bit ridiculous really.

The Ugly: You see what that sock is reclining on? A Dissertation for a Chemistry PhD student. God help me! Part of my job is to review all theses and dissertations for format and gramatical errors. This is the least-loved part of my job. Especially when students skip corrections that were originally given and get mad at me because it won't be turned in on time. At the end of every semester I get a flood of papers on my desk. People who decide at the last minute that they can just finish this semester, even though the end is only 3 weeks away and they still have to go through (at least) 2 rounds of corrections and approvals and make all their copies and drop them off to be bound before they can graduate. *sigh*

P.S. The Good, Installment the Fourth: I bought jeans. I haven't had a pair of jeans since my hips spread and I didn't fit into any of my old ones... so I bought girlie pants. They're stretchy jeans and they're SOO comfortable! Plus they hug my curves, which I'm just starting to love, so I feel HOT! :) Maybe if you're lucky I'll taka a picture of my ass for you ;)

M

Short and Sweet

Check out Chandra's finished Razor Shell Socks! They look GREAT!

Holy shit! I love this tank! It's so beautiful and feminine and just lovely, but I doubt I could do with the eyelets... maybe I'll get brave some day.

Hello again!

So... here I am. And I have uploaded the pictures too. So here goes with the post... I don't have a lot of time to write it, since I have to start work soon. Let's go in chronological order, shall we? Click on the links for the pictures... I don't have time to insert them all (ok... all except one)

The flight in was pretty good. I went from SLC to Cleveland airport, where I had a 3 hour layover that turned into a 4 hour layover because our flight crew was delayed. But there were 3 birds in the Terminal! It was a little shocking when they swooped by my head and started pecking at the crumbs under the airport seats! I got into Philly just fine and Miriam and Molly picked me up.

The friend I went to visit is also named Miriam, so lets get that out of the way so there's no confusion. Miriam lives in Bryn Athyn Pennsylvania where she teaches at the ANC.

The next day Miriam took me on a tour of Glencairn. So awesome! I took this picture of the Great Hall, and it's shakey because we were sitting over a hole in the roof, looking down a hell of a long way at the great hall! Just so you know, I'm sort of scared of heights. I also took this one, which doesn't do the detail justice. All those very cool borders and the stars and the whole roof is done in mosaics! BEAUTIFUL mosaics! You just can't even know how beautiful it was! We also went up to the tower of Glencairn, where I took these three pictures. I also got this shot of Bryn Athyn Cathedral (make sure you check out their website, it's very cool!).

We also walked through Pennypack Park, where I knitted and the trees looked pretty.

The next day we went into the city to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The city looks awesome from the steps of the PMA! This is Miriam in front of the PMA. And I knit at the PMA.


We spent the next few days chilling and resting our VERY tired feet. I got to soak up the beauty of the place. How can you resist sunsets like this! Oh! And there was this awesome Shaker swift in an exhibit at the museum! I had to take a picture.

The next day I met up with Naomi and we walked ALL OVER the city center! I bought yarn and tea and looked at fabric and crazy people. I got told I had a nice ass by a guy riding by on his bike. We got bagels at this amazing bakery! I have to show you a picture of this bagel! It was absolutely amazing! I just need to move to Philly and I'll never have to tell them to give me more cream cheese again!

On Sunday I got to go to a wedding at the cathedral! It was really pretty! We also went to a town called New Hope that had really awesome artsy shops. It was a lot of fun! I have made new friends and I hope sometime to go back and visit again, maybe with C this time... I think he'd like it.

The flight back was crazy! I flew from Philadelphia to Houston where I only had 50 minutes scheduled to get to my next flight, but then my flight was late coming INTO Houston and I had to run across the Houston airport because my flight came in at Concourse C when my flight left from Concourse A. So I ran down the escalators to the inter-terminal tram, and rode that around until it dropped me off at Concourse A, then realized after some running around like crazy that I had to go through security AGAIN! Luckily they pushed me to the front of the line and I just barely made my flight.

I totally wore Ekho out with petting him and C is glad to have me back :) Regular blogging will (hopefully) resume tomorrow.

M