Mim's Knitting Frenzy

Move complete

2006-08-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Hello all, my move is now complete, with the opening of my Online Store at www.mimknits.com/shop. Please go to that site for all your pattern purchases. Also, in case you missed it before, my blog has moved to www.mimknits.com/wordpress I will be keeping this site only as an archive.

Thanks so much!
M

Pattern Sale

2006-07-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

In honor of starting early with the Christmas knitting, I’m offering a sale on patterns. Now through Friday, August 4th, I’m offering a 15% discount on all of the patterns for sale on my site. To receive this discount, you need to enter this code “53322O73″ into the discount box. This includes

* Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl - was $6.50, now discounted to $5.53.
* Blessing Socks - was $6.00, now discounted to $5.10.
* Eleanora Socks - was $6.00, now discounted to $5.10.
* Original Mountain Peaks Shawl - was $6.50, now discounted to $5.53.
* Seraphim Shawl - was $6.00, now discounted to $5.10.

If you’ve been waiting until you’re ready to knit the pattern, this would be a good time to buy it. If this goes well, I may have another sale in the future, but for now, this is the only one planned.
Happy knitting!

M

p.s. if someone is willing to test this, I can refund your money, but it won’t let me “send money to myself” so I can’t test it myself.

*FINAL EDIT* It's working now, just be sure you refresh the page before you click the button.

And don't forget that my new blog is located at www.mimknits.com/wordpress. If you subscribe via Bloglines, they have already moved your subscription over to the new feed.

Movin' over

2006-07-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, the time has come, and I have moved my blog over to my own domain at www.mimknits.com. The blog's new address is http://mimknits.com/wordpress or www.mimknits.com/wordpress works too. You can update your links to that. And the RSS and ATOM feeds are working, and bloglines should be migrating subscriptions to the new feeds as soon as I can figure out the verifcation for them. I have reposted the posts from this month (July) over there, but I will leave the rest here for the time being with a link to the old blog.

Yay for the move! Let me know if anything doesn't work. And I've posted a jam tutorial with lots of pictures to celebrate :)

Miriam

Hmm....

2006-07-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

I've had this window open for about 2 hours hoping to be inspired on what to write. I've still got nothin'. OK, I take it back. I like apricots. How's that for content?

The scarf was progressing, but I've got a shooting pain in my left elbow from a nerve issue in my neck that I can't fix until I'm done with the working day, so I don't even feel like taking out the scarf to take a picture. I'll just feel bad if I do.

I wanted to post my "M" entry for the ABC along, but I forgot to take the picture when I was at home (as I have forgotten all week long) so no go there. Similarly, I would also like to post my "N" entry, but I don't want to do that before I do "M" or I will never get back to M. The desire to do N-Z is what's keeping me motivated on M.

Thanks for all your kind words yesterday. I'm still feeling a bit whacked out, but one thing at a time, and my tomato plants are staked up now, so that precious 15 min. that I spent every day wondering if my tomatoes had fallen over, can now be spent on wondering how I'm going to get patterns printed, and how I can knit the scarf when my elbow is twinging.... Off to ice it again.

Oh, one last thing... if you live in Salt Lake City, GUARD YOUR BACON! Link via Blurbomat.

M

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Quiddity finished a modified version of the Simple trekking socks. check them out!

And Marlana finished an Icarus shawl! It's BEAUTIFUL!

2006-07-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

I'm absolutely crazy. Thought you all should know. If you're interested in why, keep reading, I'll cover it at the end so you can skip it if you're bored.

I keep sniffing my wrists. I got some lovely perfumes from an etsy shop and then realized when the package came that the artisan was in the same city as me! Her name is Tiffany and her shop is Blackberry & Co. I got 1 Pomegranate Rosewater and one White Tea & Ginger. I love them both, but if I had to choose I'd say I like White Tea & Ginger better. It's just soothing and lovely to me.

C and I were driving through downtown yesterday and we saw this crazy truck! I had to take a picture. First the back of the truck said this:

And then it switched and said this:

WTF! Shouldn't that be illegal?! Like, distracting to drivers and all that? The whole truck was covered in these switching billboards. It was all a mobile advertisement! It was crazy!

So on to why I am insane.....I was knitting - like a maniac - on my scarf design last night. C suggested I just put it down and enjoy watching a movie with him. I said frantically "NO! I have to work on this scarf!". He asked me why and even though it sounded stupid even as I said it, I told him why. This has a deadline. Yes, it is a deadline that's 2.5 months away, but frankly, I'm nervous about it. With this scarf I have to come up with a printed pattern because the pattern will be the basis for a kit that Andie will sell at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, England. Maybe I'm off my rocker, but I think this is a big deal. This is a whole different country where my patterns will suddenly be sold in hard copy. And along with the patterns to include in that kit, I figured I might as well start printing out patterns to try selling wholesale to yarn shops. Whoosh! Load off my back. I haven't written about that here because I was worried about jinxing it, but I feel better now that it's out there.

That's the craziness that is all surfing around in my head and making me INSANE! I feel like there are so man things all in flux right now, and I don't know where the tide will take me. And in a way this scarf is symbolizing that. I've got this irrational belief that if I finish the scarf and finish it well, then everything will sort itself out. I'm trying to take it one step at a time and figure out a business plan... decide if I want to invest in a printer and print them myself or invest in a print RUN and have a bunch printed professionally. If I want to find a distributor for paper patterns, or just distribute myself. And then yesterday this wacked out thought came to me to offer this service to other designers to print their patterns so that they can go paper without the initial investment.

There's so much to think about and so much to nail down, and right now I sort of want to go hide in a hole and knit things that other people have designed, but alas, I don't think I'll let myself start anything (Green Gable? Chuck's Cable Socks? Spearfish? I have the yarn and the patterns and the desire to be knitting any or all of those) but Damn it! I have responsibilities! I don't just NOT go to work so that I can stay home and knit all day (even though I may fantasize about it sometimes). Anyway... there it is... if any of you have a Color Laser printer sitting around that you don't need anymore, please drop me a note. I could use one right about now.

M

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Look at Tina's finished Seraphim shawl! It looks GREAT Tina!

And Monica finished her Adamas shawl! YAY! (and in the same post, check out the Blessing socks she's making! They're fabulous!

Silk and a Shitload of Stitches

2006-07-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

On the left you have the beginnings of the scarf for Andie. I have swatched, washed and measured, and as a result I have cast on 301 stitches! That basically took my whole morning commute, but the balls are all wound, the stitches are cast on, the pattern is even charted, so all I have to do now is knit it, take copious notes as to when I change colors and which of the MANY colors I change TO.

On the right you will see some amazingly lovely SILK laceweight yarn that my sister gave me for my birthday!

This stuff is BEAUTIFUL! I could pet it all afternoon! I need to find out how many yards I have, but I plan on dying it.

In other news, my garden is growing (click those links for a couple of pictures of the wee tomatoes), and I even found a volunteer in there one day. The bell pepper plant is blooming, and keeps blooming, but I haven't seen any peppers starting and it's having ant problems.... I'll have to find some way to get rid of them.

And I thought I should draw your attention to this in case you haven't ever played this. The game is 1000 Blank White Cards and you can view the rules and guidelines here. It was the MOST fun I've had with my family in a long while. The basic premise of the game is that you draw cards. The cards can vary from loosing 6 million points if you don't cluck like a chicken to no effect at all, to ending the game. You can also draw new cards as you are playing, which makes for some interesting retaliation. We're big into history in my family and my little brothers came up with these cards.

The first was the one on the left titled "A Crusade Has Been Declared" (drawn by Daniel). It says "Fanatical warriors from a distant land have declared a holy war against you, you stinking infadel. -10000 (points)"

And then David retaliated with the "Jihad!" card you see on the right. It says "Suck it, Christians, Saladin recaptures Jerusalem! Your soci(e)ty wastes away in its E(u)ropean hell hole. -1000 points, France loses its knighthood." hahahahahahahah! Good times, good times....

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I almost forgot! Go check out Wanda's finished Seraphim Shawl! Woot! It's GREAT Wanda!

M

Still tidying :)

2006-07-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

I've finished an update with corrections for the Blessing Socks. If you purchased the pattern, you have been sent the corrected file to the e-mail account associated with the paypal account you purchased the pattern with. If you would like to purchase the updated pattern, the new pdf is uploaded. Please be sure to refresh the post so that you see the updated date at the bottom to ensure you are purchasing the right pattern.

Also there was some confusion as to whether or not the socks said baraka (meaning blessing), and they do. I checked this with 2 native Arabic speakers. Apparently, the little dot there is very important and unless you can see it (it's hard to spot in the photos) the arabic doesn't make any sense. But it DOES indeed say what it's supposed to say.

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By way of updates, C's socks are plodding along, I've swatched and wound all the yarn for the Renaissance wool scarf, and I'll probably start it this evening after I do some charting. I've worked a few more rows on the new shawl design, but nothing really worth bothering taking pictures of.

I did manage to get my house pretty clean on Friday before I went to Logan for family stuff. It was really nice to come home to a clean house! Now if only I can get to the laundry.....

M

Update to Simple Trekking Socks pattern

2006-07-07T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Ina caught a missing bit in the pattern for the Simple Trekking Socks (thanks Ina!) so I have corrected it, and the new pattern is linked in the sidebar. You can also click this link directly to open the updated pdf file. If you click the link in the sidebar, please be sure to refresh your browser window first.

M

*edit* The new file's name is SimpleTrekkingSocks.pdf. If you have that one (not SimpleTrekkingSocks2) then you've got the right one.

Blog and Purge

2006-07-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Gotta clear out the que in my brain, so a list seems to be a good way to do that.

1. I wanted to wax a bit more poetic about the yarn that I used for the Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl. The yarn is a crewel wool (meaning it was originally intended for crewel embroidery, it does not by any means make a statement about the wool's personality) that is dyed with natural ingredients by a lovely woman who lives in France by the name of Andie. Andie originally sent me an e-mail asking if I would mind if she linked to one of my patterns with a list of mods to be worked in her yarn. I told her that I wouldn't mind making a shawl myself and posting a modified pattern, and she thought that was a good idea, so she sent me some yarn. This yarn surpassed my expectations. It was lightweight (but not so light as cobweb), soft, and VERY strong. To give you an idea, my nephew Aiden loves to grab my yarn while I'm knitting, and he would snag my ball and run off with it, and in the many times that he got away from me and twisted up in the yarn, he never once was able to break the yarn. He's a rather strong little 3 year old, so that's saying something.

Another thing that I really loved about this yarn was the subtle color variations that the dyeing process gave it. It gave the color a lot of depth that it wouldn't otherwise have had. Her color range is astounding too! I liked knitting with it so much that I agreed to design a scarf pattern for Andie, and the yarn you see above is what she sent me for that. I think it will work up beautifully doubled up and it should go more quickly than the shawl (which used a single strand on 2.5 mm needles).

2. When I saw Cassie's shawl pin, I immediately e-mailed the artisan who made it, Leslie Wind. We got to e-mailing and next thing I know, I have a shawl pin in my mailbox!

It truly is as beautiful and delicate as it appears, and Leslie even engraved it on the back to say "To Miriam from Leslie 2006". Isn't that sweet? Go look at her stuff!

3. So I'm working on this pair of socks for C.

They're my first toe up socks. I decided to try a toe-up pair because C likes taller socks and I always end up shorting the cuff for fear of running out of yarn when I make him socks from the cuff down. So I decided I would go toe-up (with the help of Sensational Knitted Socks-and what a GREAT help it was!) so that I could just work the cuffs until I ran out of yarn, then do a tubular bind off and call it good. So those astute among you, might have realized what those little spools are on TOP of each of those socks-in-progress. Yes, that is the cute little spool of reinforcement thread that Jawoll sock yarn has so kindly tucked away inside. Well, I was 2 rows from finishing the short row heel on the SECOND sock before I realized that I hadn't used the reinforcement yarn at all. *headdesk* Oh well.... Maybe I'll use it to jazz up the heel on another pair of socks later.

4. I finished an FO last weekend, but haven't gotten around to blogging it:

Yarn: Louet Euroflax Originals Blended Linen (100% Wetspun linen) in Color "Melon Mix". Gifted for my birthday by Michaele (miss you!).
Pattern: Shopping Bag
Modifications: I skipped out on the ratan handles and made a convertable strap. I also altered it to be knit in the round so I didn't have to seam it, with a 3 needle bind off at the bottom.
Needles: US 4 and US 13 circs. Be wary... the pattern has a typo in the specs section that says you need US 4 and US 3, but then in the text it tells you it's a US 13.
Gauge: God only knows... it's open and meshy... I don't think gauge matters.
Verdict: The linen was a little harsh to knit with after I'd been knitting so long with wool, but once I learned to loosen up, it went quickly and easily. And although it seems stiff in the skein, it really softens when you wash it.

5. I am working on a new shawl design. It's a bit slow going right now since I'm fighting sinus-infection induced equillibrium nausea and it's hard to knit hand-drawn charts in that state, and it will probably have to take a back seat to the scarf I'm knitting for Andie, but it's gonna be pretty! I'm excited about it.

OK, that's enough verbal diarrhea for now.
M

Jammy goodness

2006-07-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my Independence Day holiday by proving my independence from tradition! :) I did absolutely nothing that could be considered traditional for the 4th of July. No BBQ, no fireworks, no shopping. I started the day off by cleaning my kitchen, tidying my living room and folding laundry (all things that have moved down in the frantic list of MUST. DO. NOW!), and then I knit for a bit while C and I watched a movie. And then the fabulous Katherine came over to help make JAM! On Saturday I had purchased a ton of fruit from the Farmer's Market (or at least it FELT like a ton as I was hauling it home), and so I had apricots, raspberries, cantaloupe, and cherries taking over my fridge.

After cutting, mashing, boiling, sugaring, skimming, pouring, bottling and boiling again, THIS is what I had.

To the left, we have Raspberry-Cherry Jam, made with Red Raspberries and Queen Anne Cherries (Queen Anne is a semi-golden cherry). To the right we have Apricot-Cantaloupe Jam, which I had made last year and LOVED, so I made some more. And between them we have their love-child. I sort of tossed all the fruit I had left over into the pot and ended up with Apricot-Canteloupe-Raspberry Jam, which is actually QUITE yummy.

And if you recall my LAST jam making attempt (Strawberry-Mango), I had a problem with the fruit all floating to the top, and it didn't set completely. Well, glory be, I figured out what the problem was. I didn't use a large enough pot for the Strawberry-Mango which, considering that the jam doubles size while it's boiling, made for uneven heating as I kept lifting the pot off of the burner to keep it from boiling over. And the fruit separation seems to have come from not skimming enough of the foam off. You see, because of the boiling, there is an opaque foam that forms on the surface of the jam. You have to skim this off if you want clear jam. And what I discovered is that since I wasn't taking enough time to skim all the foam off, there wasn't enough time for the jam to cool down a bit before I bottled it. And as it cools, it becomes more viscous and therefore holds the fruit suspended better. So there you have it, ALWAYS skim the foam off VERY well, and ALWAYS use a steady heat so that your jam will set. This bunch came out PERFECT!

I realized half way through that it would have been good to take step-by-step pictures, but I promise I will think of it next time.

M

p.s. I just saw that the Summer Knitty is up. And LOOKIE! Salt Lake grrl Karen has a pair of FABULOUS socks in this issue!

Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl Pattern Available

2006-07-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

I designed this shawl to evoke the feeling of the beloved Wasatch and Rocky Mountain Ranges. This shawl echoes my deep and abiding love for the mountains that surround my high desert home. From the many foothills to the craggy peaks all throughout the year. From rocky ridges to sleeping snow-capped titans. This version is done with a lighter weight yarn, and smaller needles to make a more delicate shawl. The pattern for the original is available here.

Yarn Requirements: 800 yards (about 65 grams) of lace weight wool. Sample was knit using naturally dyed crewel wool from Renaissance Dyeing (100% Wool) in 'Dark Green'. I used less than 3 250m skeins. I cannot say enough good things about this yarn! It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL to work with, and it was MUCH stronger than I would have expected from such a fine wool.
Suggested Needles: 2.5mm (US 1.5) 24" circulars.
Gauge: 8.5 spi and 13 rpi in stockinette when blocked.
Finished Size: 60" across the top from point to point, 30" from neck to bottom point.

Techniques Used: This pattern uses the following techniques:
knit, purl, k2tog, k3tog, k tbl, yo, double yo, placement and slipping of markers, p2tog, p2tog tbl, p3tog, sl, ssk, psso, and wrap and turn short rows (explaination included in the pattern).

Other Notes:

This pattern includes full color charts, an example of which can be seen here. It also includes a detailed section on construction of a top-down shawl.

This pattern is 6 pages long with 3 pages of charts. The charts can be printed on standard sized paper, but are meant to be printed on legal sized paper for best viewing. If you have trouble getting them printed, please e-mail me for help.

This pattern is a downloadable .pdf file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. You can download Acrobat here for free.

This pattern may only be purchased through PayPal. If you do not have a paypal account, you can open one by clicking that link.

Once your paypal payment has gone through, you will be e-mailed a link to download the pdf file. BE AWARE THAT THIS LINK EXPIRES after a time. You CAN request additional downloads if you miss this window of time. Also be aware that if you pay with an e-check, you will not receive the download link until your payment has cleared, which may take up to 7 days.

With this pattern (and with all of my patterns) I offer full technical support. I will do anything at all possible to help you figure out the best way to download and use this pattern and knit this shawl.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to e-mail me.

The cost for this patten is $6.50 USD. You may purchase it by clicking the Button below.

Please go to my new shop to purchase this pattern

Original pattern uploaded 7/4/2006

L is for....

2006-06-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

Lace!

I realize I'm late with this one, but my ABCalong mojo had deserted me... until now.

I think my first lace shawl was probably the Flower Basket shawl. I fell in love instantly! I then moved on to the Wool Peddler shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls and then I was off like a rocket, designing my own, and going somewhat crazy with it all.

I have often had people ask me why I started designing lace. Mostly I think it was because I have this fascination with how positive and negative space interact and give us an overall picture of something. For years I drew a lacey sort of doodle, which I will try to find a picture of for you guys, that was purely positive and negative space. I love that it can give such a fantastic illusion of texture and depth.

I love that simple things like yo's and k2togs can make something so intricate and beautiful when put together as a whole.

I made the conscious decision to focus on lace designing over other things because I knew that it was a niche that was somewhat untapped in the blog/online market, but I truly do love it more than most other kinds of knitting (socks rank really high up there, but lace still tops them). And as Margene would say, lace is truly all about the process. It can be tedious, treacherous and tempermental. But in the end, that's what we love about it.

M

Another pattern update

2006-06-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

The Mountain Peaks (the original version, not the lightweight one) pattern has been updated. There are minor formatting changes, and the rest is purely visual, but again, if you would like the updated version, please e-mail me. And as with the Seraphim pattern, please refresh the pattern page so you make sure you've got the update date before you purchase it. Thanks!

Finished socks x 2

2006-06-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

So I've had a couple of FO's that I just hadn't gotten around to sharing with you yet, so here they are.

Yarn: KnitPicks discontinued Sock Garden yarn in the Zinnia color, a blend of Red, Orange and Yellow (and damned near impossible to photograph properly).
Pattern: My own, a basic stockinette sock with a 3x3 ribbed cuff, a reinforced "heel stitch" heel flap, modified round heel, and a rounded wedge toe. Both knit at the same time on 2 sets of needles.
Needles: US Size 1 (2.25 mm) Clover 7" bamboo dpns.
Gauge: 9 spi and about 11-12 rpi.
Verdict: Honestly, they were a bitch to knit. Not that the yarn was bad, or anything like that... but I highly dislike orange and yellow and while everyone told me they were RED socks, they still look like ORANGE socks to me. But they're not for me, so it doesn't really matter. These were the socks Imbrium recalled me cursing at Estes. When we piled in Michaele's car to head out on Friday morning, they were only ribbing, and by the time we got home Sunday evening I only had the toes to work.

Yarn: Dale Baby Ull in Navy (left over from the colorwork in the Blessing Socks.
Pattern: My own, a basic stockinette sock with a 2x2 short ribbed cuff, modified round heel, and a rounded wedge toe. Both knit at the same time on 2 sets of needles.
Needles: US Size 1.5 (2.5 mm) Crystal Palace 6" bamboo dpns.
Gauge: 8.5 spi and about 10 rpi.
Verdict: Quick, easy, and they fit the kidlet perfectly. I knit them for my nephew for his 2nd birthday. Sorry for the crap picture, it's hard to take a picture of a 2 year old's feet.

So there you go. This makes 11 pairs of socks for me so far in 2006. Crazy! Hopefully I can get the revised version of Mountain Peaks out soon, so people *coughErincough* can stop bugging me ;)

Update for Seraphim PDF

2006-06-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

I have updated the Seraphim Shawl pdf to be the new layout, and to have better charts. The essential information is the same. All downloads from this point on will be the revised version. If you have purchased seraphim in the past and would like the updated version, please e-mail me.

*edit* If you plan on buying Seraphim now, but have looked at the page in the past, PLEASE refresh your browser before you purchase. You should see a notice of when the pdf was updated at the bottom of the post. If you do not see that notice, REFRESH AGAIN. People are purchasing the old pdf by clicking the old button. It makes a whole lot of work for me, so please just refresh and save me a big headache. Thanks!

Lovely weekend

2006-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

First, to get this out of the way, here is a picture of my Estes Park purchases. If you want to get to the pretty Utah pictures, skip on past the list.

From left to right:
1. Mary Thomas' book of knitting patterns. I checked this out from the library and loved it so much that I had to buy it. Especially when I saw it was 30% off $7.95. Purchased from some place that also had spinning wheels... *shrug*

2. One skein of Textiles a Mano organic cotton. I usually don't like cotton, but this was SO GREAT! I'm going to make a summer top or something out of it. Purchased from Textiles a Mano.

3. One generous skein of "superlamb" Lambswool laceweight. It will become a shawl, although I'm not sure what kind of shawl yet. Purchased from Galina's.

4. One skein of Brooks Farm's limited edition Superwash Wool/Silk/Viscose blend. I don't recall the name of the colorway, but it was BEAUTIFUL! It's got gorgeous muted tones of all sorts of colors in there. It is destined to become socks, probably lacey ones. Purchased from (duh) Brooks Farm.

5. 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca in a bright lovely red. I'm trying to branch out and allow myself to wear colors that are bright. This looks very good on me. It will probably also become a shawl. Purchased from Yarn Today, my yarn store in Smithfield, UT

6. Unpictured, but I bought a Lantern Moon black sheepy tape measure. I couldn't resist. :) Also purchased from Yarn Today.

So this weekend, Margene escorted Michaele, Laurie, Gwen, Janise, and me up to Silver Fork Lodge for a lovely brunch, and a walk around Silver Lake as a farewell to Michaele who is moving back to Colorado. Since I'd never been, I was excited to see the beautiful place where Margene takes so many of her photos.

I got some good ones myself. Sorry for the picture heaviness of this post. Click the images for larger views.

We saw a bull moose up close, he was still "in the velvet" meaning that his horns still had fuzz on them. He must have been fairly young. We also saw 2 calves, but they had the good sense to stay far away from the trail.

These are some of the landscape pics I took (as well as the large one farther up that is my favorite).

I took these great Macro shots too. I LOVE nature photos!

I was going to take a shot of some really cool stumps, but the light wasn't right for it, but then I looked up and realized that Margene was right in the line of sight from the stumps. Bloggers blogging bloggers and all that.

We also found a letterbox that was hidden at Silver Lake. It was very cool and we're already plotting where to put our own letterboxes. I also found it fitting that Julie's new stitch cast is about letterboxing and carving your own stamp for letterboxing.

Hope you had a good weekend too!
M

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Sally, Sophie, Sarah, and Merlin have all finised their Icarus Shawls! I LOVE seeing the variation that people come up with!

And Nadine finished a Seraphim shawl! She dyed the yarn with KoolAid too! It looks great, although it might swallow you alive! :)

Estes Park blogging

2006-06-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about Estes Park and how to do it justice, and honestly I don't think I can. I don't mean to sound like I'm gloating over all you people who weren't there (neener, neener!), but it was just absolutely fabulous!

I met a whole lot of very nice and fabulous people and I felt more accepted than I've ever felt before. Imbrium (another quite fabulous person) explained it very well in her post. In many ways we're very much the same (slightly gothic at heart, unabashed love for Fantasy Novels), but on this we're not only on the same page, but in precisely the same sentence on that page. Read her post, it's good :)

So basically yeah... this was all a long winded way to tell you that I'm not going to blog the day by day of the trip. It was great and I'm sort of directing all of my energy to internalizing it, so you can follow all those links up there and see my pictures in my flickr photostream here, and call that good, k? I promise I'll show you my yarn and book acquisitions, but I need a sunlit picture of it to do it justice and I've just been too tired when I get home to do that.

On to the finished objects (by other people, not me... I'm still waiting for sunlight and energy to take the pictures of mine)!

Look at Bunchkin's finished Icarus shawl!

FOUR finished Seraphims!

Inky finished her Seraphim shawl! It's camoflaged for cat hair!

And Keri finished a Serpahim shawl too! I LOVE the color Keri!

And Linda (who is blogless) finished her seraphim and sent me pictures! You can see them here and here. She used Colinette Marinette in Blue Parrot. It's BEAUTIFUL Linda!

And Eva's is all but blocked!

Whoosh

2006-06-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

A bit of housecleaning before I get deep into Estes reliving. Finally(!) available in the sidebar is the pattern for the Simple Trekking Socks. It is FREE! And I have also added the Retro Wedge felted bag pattern as free as well. If you would all be so kind as to open the Trekking Socks pattern and let me know what you think of the new layout, I'd appreciate it. I'm working on trying to make things just a big cleaner and easier to follow. I like this font better, and the placement of the page numbers, etc... Also, the copyright notice at the end. Just take a look and let me know.

I'm working on setting up my new site, and I'll be going through all of my patterns to update the format and give them a bit more consistency. Like Seraphim's charts need numbering and I want to make ALL my charts shaded for rightside and wrongside.

Let me know what you think.

M

Cop out

2006-06-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

I'll get around to Estes when I've got some photo editing software installed, but for now, I've been tagged multiple times, so I'd better get this up.

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me — it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word to describe you.

A picture says a thousand words

2006-06-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Katherine has photographic proof of the Chicken Show & Extravaganza! Go check it out!

Trekking Socks

2006-06-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here are the finished Trekking socks for the Trek With Me KAL!

Yarn: Trekking XXL in Color 105, gifted to me by the LOVELY Margene.
Pattern: My own. Soon to be released... in fact, as soon as I print the file to a pdf and set up the to ftp to my new server, it will be available as a free pattern.
Needles: US 1 (2.25mm) Clover bamboo dpns.
Gauge: 9 spi and 11 rpi.
Verdict: They are PERFECT for the Trek With Me KAL. They gave me something simple to knit while I finished up Mtn. Peaks V. 2.0, and the subtle patterning is just perfect for the yarn. I hope you all will like the pattern.

EDITED TO ADD: There was a portion missing in the toe of the pattern, I have updated the pdf, please download the new version in the sidebar. Thanks!

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More finishing news!!

Sofie has finished her Icarus shawl! And so has Kate in NYC! They're both beautiful ladies!! Congratulations!

Too many things to NOT do a list :)

2006-06-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

1. I'll be at Estes Park Wool Market this weekend! If you're coming and you've knit something, or ARE knitting something with one of my patterns, BRING IT ALONG! I'd love to see them all and take a great big giant picture! Come to the blogger meet-up at 11 am on Saturday!

2. I've finished my trekking socks for the Trek Along with Me KAL. Now to go hiking... or does my afternoon walk through the cemetary count?

I'll be taking some better pictures and posting the free pattern for these later this week (hopefully).

3. To international readers who would like to knit Adamas, I got an order in from KnitPicks, and I got 3 extra copies. If you live outside of KnitPicks' shipping area and would like a copy of Adamas, please e-mail me with your address and I will send you a paypal invoice for the pattern price plus the cost of an envelope and postage. Please put "Adamas" in the subject line so it doesn't get lost.

4. I also got the green Mtn. Peaks done, but I'm still trying to take some better photos. I got some good close up shots, but the thing I was trying to get a good full size shot didn't really work so well... I'll have to keep at it. The new version of the pattern should be available soon. I have to get the right software installed first.

5. I got my garden in! YAY! Tomatoes (2 kinds), Red bell peppers, Butterstick squash, and a whole balcony full of herbs in pots :) I plan on planting the lettuces in pots when I get back from Estes.

6. I went to a Chicken Show and Extravaganza with Katherine on Saturday... it was absolutely hysterical! The grand finale was a girl with a cowboy hat on, a chicken resting upside down in the crook of the cowboy hat, while the girl swung a rope around in circles with a boston terrier attached! There were also Chicken races, where Emerson lost and upset a lot of people who had bet on him. :)

I didn't realize things were quite so crazy this weekend! I'll give you a more detailed going over of things tomorrow or perhaps later today.

M

Brithdays that last a whole week are the best!

2006-06-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

My SnB is the best! Now you may say that your is, but you're WRONG, because the SLC-SNB wins out hands down. Where else do you get white chocolate lemon bars, hazelnut chocolate cake and a veritable TON of presents just because you happened to have lived another year and you like yarn? Nowhere else, but Stitch'n'Bitch. Click the picture and read the notes on the picture to see descriptions. Thanks so much ladies! You made my week! I'm verklempt!

M

Beginnings of a Garden

2006-06-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

I did manage to finish the shawl this morning (didn't get it done at lunch), but I should hopefully be blocking it tonight or tomorrow. I have SnB tonight.

Yesterday I bought tomato plants, a red bell pepper plant, and some peppermint. I also bought a new pot to plant my basil in because it was getting a little bit root bound and anemic. So imagine a picture of a happy plant in a big ol' pot here :) I will probably plant the tomatoes and pepper today or tomorrow. I'll put the peppermint in a pot with the other herbs.

I've also planted some seeds for butterstick squash that I will transplant once they are sprouted and large enough, and some lettuce seeds that I'll plant somewhere else. It should be a GOOD summer! :)

M

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Take a look at Tina's finished Adamas shawl! YAY! Way to be not-scared of lace Tina!

Please Lord, have mercy on me.

2006-06-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

I am 5 border repeats away from being done with this ~~godforsaken~~ ~~sadistic~~ lovely shawl. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE the shawl, I'm so convinced it will be absolutely stunning that I'm going to enter it into the county fair. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the yarn. It's beautiful and soft and amazingly strong for how thin it is. (I'll do a full yarn review when the shawl is done). I love seeing the pattern emerge. But the border sort of got old after "emerging" 36 times. You see... even though I knew that knitting Mountain Peaks on size 1 needles would require that I repeat the upper chart multiple times and therefore increase the number of border repeats that I'd need. I didn't really realize how many more rows that would add. The border just drags ON and ON!

The real problem is that I've told myself I can't start any of the numerous other projects I want to work on (except my trekking sock that's already in progress) until I've finished this shawl. I have stuff I want to design, things I want to throw myself into wholeheartedly. And if I have this ~~monkey~~ shawl ~~on my back~~ on the needles, then I will just beat myself up with guilt over not finishing it. If I sit for my whole lunch break I might be able to finish the 5 repeats. So I'm going to give it a shot.

In retrospect, I look back at my first lace shawl (knit on size 5 needles) and I realize that I felt the same way about that one (HOW CAN THESE ROWS BE SO LONG!!). So I guess that I've grown, even if it's just growing a bit closer to CRAZY.

M

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Check out ZenKnit's Razor Shell socks!! And yes, I know the free patterns aren't working. I'm trying to get transferred to a new server, and it's taking longer than anticipated.

And also, go see Kit's finished Mountain Peaks shawl! The colors are great!

AAAAND check out Karen's finished Eleanora socks! They're beautiful!

So cute you should just gag me with a spork now....

2006-06-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Have you seen these? They're absolutely adorable! I'm fighting the urge to make a knitpicks order right now JUST to get those! In fact, I may not fight it any longer :)

M

K is for....

2006-06-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

... Kung Fu Movies, or more generally all martial arts movies.

C and I LOVE martial arts movies! The really good ones like Fist of Legend, to comedies like Kung Fu Hustle and classics like Shichinin no samurai and Enter the Dragon to action movies with a modern twist (and better plots!) like Kill Bill.

We love all of those action movies and I have a special place in my heart for surreal kung fu movies that are more like Chinese fairy tales than normal action movies. Movies like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. I also have a secret love of everything Jet Li does. He has such an amazing grace!

A more recent find (and well worth renting) is Ong-Bak, which portrays Muay Thai, a fighting style I'd never seen before. It was AMAZING! Now go forth and watch some kung fu movies!

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Check out Peg's finished Eleanora socks! She had a bit of trouble at the end with the toes, but no harm no foul, right?

M

p.s. for my birfday I bought the aforementioned yarn and I also got some NEW BRAS! YAY! Turns out the recent change in number of curves on my body changed my bra size a bit, so I got refitted and found some good ones that are MUCH more comfortable!

The day I was "Birfed"*

2006-06-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow knitters! All is well in Miriam-land. Finally settling down after some upheaval, and I'm itching to start designing again. I've had a bunch of ideas float through my head in the last month, but I haven't had time to put any of them down in yarn, although I DID swatch for a sweater I've got in the works, but I don't really care to have a big old cardigan in my lap this time of year :)

My almost constant companion has been my lighterweight version of my Mountain Peaks Shawl. I've been working on it whenever I've got a moment (which hasn't been often), but it's growing steadily.... hopefully I can turn the bottom short rowed point tonight and then the long final stretch of the border on the other side. The yarn is lovely, and it makes good process knitting, but now and again, I JUST WANT SOME PRODUCT! And knitting on the same thing on TINY needles for a few months isn't quite condusive to product knitting. I did break down and start a pair of socks for Margene and Norma's Trek Along with Me KAL. Margene was kind enough to provide the yarn, and I'm sort of making up the pattern as I go. The colors are quite washed out there because I took it in astonishingly direct sunlight. Gotta love skylights in offices :)

AAAAND today is my birthday :) My older brother and I write e-mails to each other but type as if we were speaking with speech impediments. So the title of this post comes from his Happy Birthday e-mail. He said "Today is the day you were Birfed. Happy Birfday!" :) I'm gonna buy some yarn today in celebration of my birf.

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And I'm terribly late in posting it, but check out Rene's finished Eleanora Socks! They're so beautiful! I love the heathery yarn!

M

p.s. I'm 24 today in case anyone was wondering.

Ketchup and other tomato products...

2006-05-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

This post is just a quick update, so no pictures... really busy!

Laurie posted about World Wide Knit in Public Day? What are YOU doing on June 10th? What should be do Utah grrls?

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Patty (who as far as I know is blogless) has finished a Seraphim Shawl and she sent me pictures! You can see it here, just LOOK at those lovely colors!

And look at Margene's Eleanora socks! They look just as fabulous in person as they do on her blog, although more red and less pink :)

M

J is for...

2006-05-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

.... Jobs. I shared a story about a job I had with Sage from Quirky Nomads. You can listen to her read my story in today's podcast here. YAY! I love Sage's voice!

M

I is for...

2006-05-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm catching up.

I is for Imperfections.

I've been working on loving things about myself that may be less than perfect. A couple of months ago, I looked in the mirror and DIDN'T think my ears stuck out too much. That is PROGRESS!

So here's my freckles. I feel most of the time that they make my otherwise pretty clear skin look like it's blotchy... but I'm learning to like them, I think. Next up, love handles, stretch marks and pudgy belly :)

I is also for Icarus.

I've been really happy with all the interest in the shawl! Half of the google searches that lead to this blog have been for the shawl. I've said it before, but again, there is a knitalong up here.

M

Ah... that wet cat smell.

2006-05-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

The other day I gave Ekho a hug and he smelled a bit ripe, so I decided he needed a bath that didn't come from a tongue that was scented with cat food. After a mighty struggle I had a rather pissed cat, a swatted face and a bathtub drain full of hair. But most important, I had a nice smelling cat. I think it's funny how small cats look when they're wet. I really didn't realize that fur was such a large portion of him!

"Woman! I spent forEVER getting my fur JUST PERFECT! Look what you've done."

"How dare you take a picutre of me in my humiliated state!"

Thankfully by the morning he had forgiven me.

"I forgive you because you have a warm lap."

Go see Vanessa's finished Eleanora socks! I LOVE the color!

M

Thoughts on Patience and Knitting

2006-05-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

I knit everywhere. On the bus to work everyday, in waiting rooms, in the car, on my lunchbreak, down the aisles in grocery stores, walking across the University campus where I work.

People's reactions are pretty polarized. Most people sneak furtive glances at my work trying not to stare, while some people are prompted to speak. They ask me what I'm making or tell me their Grandmother crochets too. (Here I usually explain the difference between knitting and crochet..."one hook? crochet. Multiple needles? knitting). Then a slightly awkward silence follows when they just watch what I'm doing and I don't bother to look up. Then: "I wish I knew how to do that". I assure them that they can learn and tell them where the nice LYS is and that they offer lessons for free. And the usual response? "I don't have the patience to knit".

Patience? Who said you need PATIENCE!? I'm sure there are other knitters out there in the great wide internet world who knit because they're patient. But me? I knit because I'm NOT patient. I can't just sit down and wait for an appointment without doing SOMETHING. If I'm not knitting, the time passes more slowly and I get bored more easily, and I end up obsessively clicking a pen or tearing apart and reforming the piece of lint I found in my pocket... Knitting helps me BECOME patient.

Yes, sometimes you need patience to set aside a project that's not working, or to wait until you can ask someone else to try and interpret a pattern. But I don't think that's what they mean.

Perhaps they think knitting takes patience because I'm making large lacey items on very small needles, or a pair of socks on US 1's. And they think "All those stitches, that must take a long time", but what they don't see is that every stitch emerging in a pattern and that every loop of the yarn is magic. Knitting is the INFINITE amusement! If you were solely concerned with the act of knitting, you could rip and reknit the same ball over and over and over again, and then it truly would be infinite, but the most wonderful thing about knitting is that it transforms your spare and idle moments into something beautiful (or beautifully misshapen, depending on your skill level ;) ).

I recall not so long ago, saying that I wouldn't knit anything larger than socks on US 1's. And lo and behold, here I am, HAPPILY working lace with TINY yarn and Size 1's. So perhaps I began knitting because I DIDN'T have patience, but now it's taught me a measure of it. So perhaps my response to the "I don't have patience" spectators should be "Jump right in, and you'll LEARN patience. And you'll end up with a nifty scarf too."

M

The knitting continues apace

2006-05-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

Lynn has started a KAL for the Icarus shawl. If you're interested, go check it out here. Links to all the KAL's for my patterns are listed under the pattern in the left sidebar.

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I've been working on the lighterweight Mountain Peaks shawl, so there's not anything interesting to show you, but it's certainly growing, and my yarn ball is noticibly smaller!

Thanks for all the kind words on the Blessing Sock pattern! I'm glad you guys like it, as always it's in the sidebar.

Things are a bit consuming at work, so I'm not sure how regular my posting will be. Unsettled is the word.... but it should all get sorted pretty soon. I'm just too preoccupied to blog much.

M

Blessing Socks Pattern Available

2006-05-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

This design is dedicated to my Nana, who survived stomach cancer, heart surgery and the death of her husband of 50 plus years all within 18 months. The original socks will be going to her because she can use all the blessings she can get.

The motif of these socks is Arabic calligraphy of the word "baraka", meaning "blessing". The chart was originally published in A History of Handknitting, and was found on a pillow entombed in 1275.

The twisted cuff echoes the spiraling purl decreases on the toe, which it turn mimic the garter ridges and seam stitch on the comfortable, turned German heel. Knit these for someone in need of a few blessings. With good thoughts and a prayer in your heart, the recipient will know they are cared for.

These socks are worked from the cuff down with the twisted edge worked flat and then joined in the round for the rest of the cuff. The heel is a turned German Heel with a garter “seam-stitch” on the center back of the heel flap, which echoes the garter ridges on the sides. The toe is decreased over 3" using purl decreases to give a comfortable and beautiful fit.

Yarn Requirements: 100 grams (378 yards, or 2 skeins) of Main Color (MC) (2232- Tan), 25 yards of Contrast Color 1 (CC1) (5755- blue), and 30 yards for Contrast Color 2 (CC2) (0083- gray). All of Dale of Norway Baby Ull (100% Superwash Merino wool).
Suggested Needles: US Size 1.5 (2.5mm). These can be tricky to find, but I like Crystal Palace 6" bamboo.
Gauge: 18 sts and 22 rows per 2 square inches in stockinette without colorwork.
Finished Size: Unstretched, 5.5" from cuff to top of heel flap, 8" around upper cuff, 8" around foot and foot length to measure. The sample fit a size 8 women’s foot with a good amount left of the MC. If you want to lengthen the foot more than 2 shoe sizes, I would suggest buying a third ball of the MC.
Techniques Used: This pattern uses the following techniques:
knit, purl, k2tog, knit front & back, slipped stitches, p2tog, ssk.

Other Notes:

The motifs in this pattern are charted. Charts are in black and white.

This pattern is 5 pages long, and will print on standard 8.5" x 11" paper.

This pattern is a downloadable .pdf file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. You can download Acrobat here for free.

This pattern may only be purchased through PayPal. If you do not have a paypal account, you can open one by clicking that link.

Once your paypal payment has gone through, you will be e-mailed a link to download the pdf file. BE AWARE THAT THIS LINK EXPIRES after a time. You CAN request additional downloads if you miss this window of time. Also be aware that if you pay with an e-check, you will not receive the download link until your payment has cleared, which may take up to 7 days.

With this pattern (and with all of my patterns I offer full technical support. I will do anything at all possible to help you figure out the best way to download and use this pattern and knit these socks.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to e-mail me.

The cost for this patten is $6.00 USD. You may purchase it by clicking the Buy Now Button below.

Please go to my new shop to purchase this pattern

pdf file updated 7-11-2006

Seraphim KAL

2006-05-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Eva has started a Seraphim KAL! You can visit the blog here and join up using the instructions given in that most recent post.

I'm still alive, by the way... working like a maniac... trying to get things in order. I hope to get the Blessing sock pattern tested this weekend, and get the pattern out Monday or Tuesday.

M

A Peek at Mittens

2006-05-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

I checked with Terri and she's ok with me showing you a peek of the mittens that I test knit for her book.

This is the inside out front and a peek of the palm and thumb. They were a LOT of fun to knit and they gave me the courage to start the blessing socks since I'd never been satisfied with my stranded knitting before. I figured out what I was doing wrong from the post at NonaKnits on Yarn Dominance. I was twisting each of my floats together and never realized that they were supposed to strand one above and one below.

Anyhow, the blessing socks are going really well! I've completed the heel and gusset and I'm working on the body of the foot. I'll test the pattern by knitting the second sock and then I'll make it available for sale. Oh! And I ran into a guy who speaks Arabic (it's hard to do in this small city I live in), and I double checked and the words actually DO say "baraka" which really does mean "blessing". So we're all good. :)

M

Mittens are done and a new sock is in the works.

2006-05-02T06:07:00.000-07:00

Look at Monica's finished Mountain Peaks Shawl! I love the colors! It's beautiful Monica!

And Vivica finished her Eleanora socks and sent me a picture. Take a look! They look GREAT Viv!
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So... I have finished the mittens for Terri, and they're GREAT! But I don't think I can show you at all. You'll see them eventually, I'm sure. They were a lot of fun, and I loved doing colorwork, so much so that I'm working on a new sock pattern!

I'm calling them Blessing Socks. The charcoal gray there is arabic. It says "baraka" which means blessing. So I've decided to make this pair for my grandmother, since she could use all the blessings possible to give her. What do you think?

M

More on German Opal

2006-04-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-04-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-24T06:54:00.002-07:00

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

2006-04-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

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"

2006-04-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

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'

2006-04-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-04-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

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"

2006-04-14T03:11:00.000-07:00

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....

2006-04-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-04-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

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

Housecleaning

2006-03-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Pennsylvania! I'm having a fabulous time and got myself completely exhausted today!

Just to touch bases, I'm still checking my e-mail, and I have received a couple delivery failure notifications for pattern download e-mails. If you purchased a pattern and didn't receive the download link, PLEASE E-MAIL ME at mlbrilliant AT yahoo DOT com.

Over and out,
M

Eleanora Socks Pattern Available

2006-03-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

These socks are inspired by the socks found in the tomb of Eleanoro de Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de’Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. She was buried in 1562 after dying of the plague and her crimson silk socks are amazingly well preserved. (Images of the original socks can be seen here and here)

They were knee-high with turned down cuffs. The lozenge patterned cuffs on this adaptation are NOT turned down and the motifs have been reduced in number of stitches due to gauge differences.

Yarn Requirements: 100 gram ball of sock yarn. I used Opal (75% Superwash wool/25% polyamide) (425 meters) in color 1997-13. Please note, this is the German Opal sock yarn, as seen here, not Louet Gems Opal (which is a fine sport weight and too heavy)
Suggested Needles: US Size 1 (2.25mm) and US Size 0 (2.00mm) double points (sets of 5) or size needed to obtain gauge.
Gauge: 17 sts and 25 rows per 2 square inches in stockinette on US 1's and 19 sts per 2" on US 0's.
Finished Size: 6.5" from cuff to top of heel flap. 12" around upper cuff. 9" around foot. 9" from heel to toe.
Techniques Used: This pattern uses the following techniques:
knit, purl, k2tog, k tbl, yo, placement and slipping of markers, slipped stitches, twisted stitches, p2tog, ssk, psso, and sl2-k1-p2sso (centered double decrease).

Other Notes:

The motifs in this pattern are charted. Charts are in black and white.

Included are some links and interesting notes on the history of Eleanora and her stockings.

This pattern is 6 pages long, and will print on standard 8.5" x 11" paper.

This pattern is a downloadable .pdf file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. You can download Acrobat here for free.

This pattern may only be purchased through PayPal. If you do not have a paypal account, you can open one by clicking that link.

Once your paypal payment has gone through, you will be e-mailed a link to download the pdf file. BE AWARE THAT THIS LINK EXPIRES after a time. You CAN request additional downloads if you miss this window of time. Also be aware that if you pay with an e-check, you will not receive the download link until your payment has cleared, which may take up to 7 days.

With this pattern (and with all of my patterns I offer full technical support. I will do anything at all possible to help you figure out the best way to download and use this pattern and knit these socks.

FO's and travel plans.

2006-03-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a weekend of socks, finished books and packing. I'm getting ready to leave tomorrow morning for Philadelphia to stay with my friend Miriam (we're nametwins). I'm really excited! ehehehehe! I'll have a 3 hour layover in Cleveland too, so I should have plenty of knitting time. I'm working on some commissioned gloves in a black Falkland Wool and I'm about to start a cobweb weight version of Mountain Peaks in some BEAUTIFUL wool from Andie and Renaissance Dying. Should be plenty of knitting for the plane. Plus I'm going to start HP3 as well.

I did finish the Eleanora Socks and the next post will be the pattern-for-sale post. Here's a pic and the specs:

Yarn less than 100 grams of Opal sock yarn (75% Superwash wool/25% polyamide) in color 1997-13.
Pattern My own, link in the sidebar.
Needles: US Size 1 (2.25mm) and US Size 0 (2.00mm) double points (sets of 5).
Gauge: 17 sts and 25 rows per 2 square inches in stockinette on US 1's and 19 sts per 2" on US 0's.
Verdict I LOVE them! The way I worked out the toe shaping makes them super comfortable! Isela liked the fit too :) I'm very pleased with them and hope you all will be as well.

I also finished the Koigu socks (which I was not allowing myself to work on until I finished the Eleanora socks).

Yarn Koigu KPPPM gifted by Margene, I think it may be colorway P711.
Pattern Yarrow Rib sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.
Needles: US Size 1.5 (2.5mm) Crystal Palace Bamboo Dpns.
Gauge: 8 spi.
Modifications: I made them a little shorter because they just fit better on my leg that way. I also made the heel flap a bit shorter since it was risking being too long.
Verdict Another home run! I chose this pattern because I wanted to try out a german heel (the heel with garter stitch bands at the sides) and I was not disappointed! I was a little apprehensive about the french toe (the reason why seen here), but it's really quite comfortable! And how could you go wrong with Koigu? Squooshy goodness.

Well, I may be MIA for the duration of my trip. I expect I will be checking e-mail, but I don't know if I'll have time to blog. If not, see you all on Tuesday, April 4th!

M

Attention: Kathleen Courtois

2006-03-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

I am trying to contact the knitter with the Paypal ID of "Kathleen Courtois". Your download link and all e-mails I send to you are getting sent back. Please e-mail me at mlbrilliant AT yahoo DOT com from a valid e-mail address so I can send your download link along. If I don't hear from you in 2 days I will cancel the download and refund your money.

The little things

2006-03-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I realize that my mind is going 50 ~~billion~~ directions at once and I feel so overwhelmed with the list of things in my head to remember or do or buy or say that I just have to take a step back. Yesterday was that day for me.

Waking up to such a shocking sight as your cat pooping along the carpet** may serve to shock you into realizing you're not nearly ZEN enough today.

So I walked around outside barefoot and felt the power of the earth beneath my feet, I practiced making a tinder ball well enough to start a fire in the wilderness, we took a drive in the canyon and saw deer and squirrels and ducks and tiny little birds, I took a 3 hour nap, I sipped tea, I read, and knitted and meditated on my knitting. I layed on the floor and stared at the ceiling. In short, it was exactly what I needed.

A thought struck me as we were driving through the canyon. There are mice (and other creatures) who will live their whole lives in that canyon within 2 miles of the highway, but they know every blade of grass in their small world and they know when it has been disturbed. They feel the other animals, they know where water is, they know the good places to hide.

Our worlds are so big, with the internet making our neighborhoods global, and our man-made boundaries of states and countries. Space and interstellar travel... and yet, me miss the microcosm. We don't even notice the plants that surround our homes unless we plant them ourselves, we don't notice the spiders and mice and other creatures who share our space unless they become a problem to us. We miss the natural order of things because we're so busy planning how to change it. Which way is better? Knowing the microcosm at the cost of missing the big picutre? The mice and birds don't know how they fit in with the scheme of the world, but neither do they CARE. But if we worry so much about the macrocosm, we miss so much beauty!

I'm not saying that we shouldn't be able to change our world and make it better, or make it better suited to us at least... I just think that we should take the time to dwell on the earth and all it's inhabitants with reverence. Afterall, we are all interconnected whether we like to admit it or not. And I find that the more people focus on the little things and acknowledge them, the happier they are.

Stop to pick up a rock and REALLY look at it next time you're outside. That rock will probably never be held by another person. EVER. Take the time to appreciate it. Time is the only thing we can really give back to the earth for all it gives to us.

M

**Thanks for all the advice and concern. Ekho is fine. Did some investigating and figured that he got at some of the chicken on the stove that we had left uncovered... it was spiced for tacos. If I were him with chili pepper, garlic and tabasco coming out my bum I'd probably have tried to rub in off on the floor too. I checked for anal gland problems, and there was no evidence for that. And he's up to date on his worm shots. It was solid normal poop too... ok... that's enough of that.

*ETA* Just after I posted I saw this on Judy's blog. Beautiful!

HELP! CAT ISSUES!

2006-03-23T06:41:00.000-07:00

So I got out of bed to call my supervisor and tell her I won't be coming in to work today because of back problems, and I hang up the phone and to my horror, Ekho is dragging his butt across the hallway floor and pooping the whole way! HELP! What does this mean?! Is he sick? Will he keep doing it? I closed him in the bathroom with his litter while I cleaned it up, changed his litter (it wasn't FULL but it was nowhere near empty and it sounded like he was flicking it around before the butt dragging incident). I kept him closed in the bathroom while I did a quick google search, and I can't seem to find anything, but maybe "dragging butt and pooping" isn't the correct search term. He kept meowing to get out, so I took him in the tub and washed his butt (he still had nasties there) and then let him out. He's now grooming himself by my chair.... anybody have any great insight into cat behavior? Is there something I should do, or was it just that the litter was too full for his liking, so he decided to poop on the carpet? HELP! I've never had a cat before.

M

Completely ambiguous entry!

2006-03-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hello! Sorry I haven't really been posting regularly... I've been busy with work and trying to get all sorts of things taken care of before I leave for Philadelphia.

Frankly, I'm a bit despondent... I want to start a new project, but I need to finish Eleanora's socks first, and I want to work on my Koigu socks (they're both on the home stretch of the foot), but Eleanora socks are taking priority. The first one is done, as you can see in that pic, and the second is begun. Sorry for not showing the whole thing... I kind of want to unveil the finished pair instead of being very anticlimactic by already having shown one finished sock.

And now... I shall distract you from the lack of content by a cute cat!

This is Ekho with the catnip mouse I made him, right after I gave it to him. It's now been a bit beaten up, clawed and turned into a one-eyed fuzzy blob. After one night of being woken up at 1:46 am by a loud kitty repeatedly pouncing on a very tasty catnip mouse, we decided to only let him have it during daylight hours. That seems to be working. We also got around to trimming his front nails, so he doesn't claw so much at night and wake us up.

OK, that's all I got.
M

Browser trouble!

2006-03-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's come to my attention that if you are using Internet Explorer, you can't see my posts at the top of the page... I believe it's a problem with the column width for posts and a column width for the sidebar. They just don't like eachother in IE. If you keep scrolling down PAST the sidebar text, then you will see the posts. Even though I would love for you all to download Firefox (as it is more secure and less likely to lock up and FREE open-source software), I am working on a fix for you IE folks. I've asked blogger if they know of anything that will help, so I'm waiting for an answer from them. But hopefully it won't be like that for much longer.

Sorry for the inconvenience!
M

*EDIT* OK, I found the culprit... one VERY long link in my bloglines listie, so I made it private and now it doesn't push the entries to the bottom, but it's still got all my text centered for some STRANGE reason that I haven't yet figured out.

1984 Weekend

2006-03-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

I spent yesterday (Saturday) mostly watching movies. We went to see V for Vendetta (which was VERY good) and then rented Good Night, and Good Luck, so I suppose there was a theme there of "BEWARE! The government is trampling our civil rights!" Makes me want to be an activist or something.

I also watched A History of Violence which was also very good. It brought up interesting questions of how we view violent people, even if they're violent for the right reasons (to protect their families, etc...) and where do we draw that line? When is it too violent for what is needed? How much does intent matter? Things that are very important to ask ourselves. And Viggo is hot too ;)

Be sure to go check out Megan's finished Adamas Shawl! YAY! It looks GREAT Megan!

Sock love!

2006-03-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

It's a veritable sock orgy over here! (I just KNOW I'm going to get some strange google hits for that one). I didn't post yesterday for a couple of reasons.

1. Not a lot of sock progress due to Harry Potter reading and
2. Too busy ~~fighting with~~ working on my new website. I think I've got a format that will work for me for a while. Of course, as I learn more in the program I'm using (Adobe GoLive CS2) then I'll probably make it cooler :) Right now what I want to do is just get a clean, usable site up and running.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you some knitting, since this is (duh!) a knitting blog. :)

Eleanora's sock is really a much warmer brown, but it's heathered, and I put it in overcast indirect sunlight for the photo, so it kind of washed out. But trust me, it's nice :) I battled with the heel... At first I thought I should do a Dutch Heel, as it was more period that the turned heel we like so much today, but decided against it, because it's an "inspired by" pattern, and frankly, I find this heel more comfortable. I tried doing an eye of partridge heel flap, but it just wasn't showing up in the solid, heathered yarn, so I decided to just do my normal slip-stitch reinforced heel and I think it compliments the patterning very well. The grand master plan is to finish this sock, write up the pattern and then knit the mate from the pattern so that I can test the written instructions. It should work since I've already sort of forgotten what I had done before because I've been obsessing over working on the Koigu socks. Mmmm...Koigu socks......

That's them behind Eleanora's sock. They're both ready for a heel flap, but I'm keeping myself from working on except when watching movies or doing something complicated, because I feel I ought to finish Eleanora's sock first.

Now I'm off to work on my website some more.

M

Grrlfriends are Goood!

2006-03-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

Random Wednesdays at work again... list form comin' at ya!

1. Happy Ides of March! The day when we celebrate the death of Julius Ceasar as made famous by Shakespeare's play. Et tu, Brute?

2. My lovely friend Kim was visiting family in the area while on Spring Break from Lexington, Virginia. And the Logan grrls took a roadtrip! It's been so long since I was able to go the 3 hour round trip drive to Salt Lake to hang out with all the lovely ladies! Bloggers in attendance were Myself, Kim, Tina, Isela, Margene, Eliza, Susan, Laurie, Katherine, Bonnie, and Teri. Non-bloggers included Heather, Jessamin, a new girl named Julie, Karen (who sells her FABULOUS hand dyed yarns here. and I'm sure someone else I'm forgetting....

3. I rationalized not buying some of Karen's sock yarn by inventing a thing called Sock Yarn Karma. Where if you buy sock yarn when you shouldn't really be spending the money, then your socks will carry bad Karma with them and terrible and annoying things will happen to you. Unless you let the sock yarn marinate in your stash long enough that the sock yarn karma dissipates.... shut up. It totally worked in my head! At least it kept my from buying the yarn. I'll get some someday though.

4. Speaking of socks! I took a picture of handknit socks representin' at SnB! I even photoshopped it so I wouldn't have to mess up the description of who's socks were which (although Margene was distracted so her handknit socks aren't in this picture). SHINY!

Please note Isela's very newly finished Saxony Sock :) It's sooooft!

5. I've succumbed to the evil and started reading Harry Potter ;) I'm about two thirds done with the first book.

6. My socks progress apace. One of the Koigu socks is ready to turn the heel, and the other is close behind. Eleanora's sock is ready for the heel turn too, but I just decided this morning to go for a practical and comfortable heel instead of something more period. Because above all, I want these socks to be WEARABLE history.

7. The only good thing about having your period is that you know that you're not pregnant. Other than that, I feel like shit.

8. I also am still having a hard time breathing at 3:30pm because this morning I was at the bus stop and realized I had forgotten something, so I ran back home, got it, and ran back to the bus stop. Thankfully the bus waited for me, but my lungs were on fire... I must be sicker than I thought.

9. I leave for my trip to Philadelphia in 12 days! Woot!

Up and coming

2006-03-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

I'm glad you guys all liked the post yesterday (or at least didn't say anything mean ;) ) I was worried it sounded way too historian-geeky.

So yeah.. real knitting content today! I've been working a bit here and there on the Koigu socks that I ripped and restarted in the Yarrow Rib incarnation.

I think they're turning out really well and I can't wait to wear them! But I must admit I've been seriously distracted. I've been carrying 3 socks in my bag with me. I've been reluctant to blog about this since it will be my next design release, but it seems to be working really well and I love it.

This sock is sort of inspired by the socks that Eleanora of Toledo was buried in in 1562. Being the wife of Cosimo de'Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, she was buried in much splendor even though she died of the plauge and was buried hastily. But one of the only things that survived were her socks, which were knit in crimson silk at a ridiculously small gauge. So this pattern will be not so much an adaptation as an "inspired by" version. But I LOVE THEM! And I hope you will to. There was a very impractical and very disproportionate (in my opinion) pattern published in Cast On's holiday issue in 1990. Anyway... Caleb even said he'd like a pair like this, crazy boy... I told him they were girl's socks, mostly because I want them for myself ;)

M

F is for....

2006-03-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Family and Fiber.

I took the picture expecting to also blog about Rose Gardener Brilliant, my paternal great grandmother who crochetted the afghan underneath, but I forgot to get a picture of her yesterday, so this entry will only be about the shawl on the top.

The shawl is woven rusty-orange colored wool, with a few moth-eaten spots, and beautiful detail in the weaving. It belonged to my great great Grandmother, Rosa Vittoria Arnoldo Amaral Furtado (alot of names... which I will try to explain...)

She was born Rosa Vittoria Amaral in Povoacao on the Azore island of Sao Miguel so far into the Atlantic ocean to hardly be called part of Portugal. She married Francisco Amaral (who was her 3rd cousin), emigrated to the United States (by sailing ship!) and had a little girl named Mary, but Francisco died of pneumonia when Mary was only 6 months old. Rosa then went back to the Old County where she remarried to Manuel Furtado*. She then returned to the United States, this time by steamer in 1910. There she bore 7 more children, Rosa (who's daughter is my Maternal Grandmother, Hilda Dias Simas), Evangeline, Manuel, John, Joseph, Anthony, and Helen (who was roughly the same age as my grandmother). That's her in the middle of the picture, with her husband standing in the back left, and her children except Mary and Rosa (who were pregnant at the time and therefore unphotographable).

Rosa basically raised my grandmother, Hilda. She and Helen grew up as sisters and Helen even moved out to San Diego after Hilda moved there with her new husband.

Rosa died in 1938 in Providence, Rhode Island.

*The Furtado name entered our line when one of our ancestors had a long-standing affair with the widowed Queen of Portugal. Furtado meaning "stolen" as in the stolen virtue of the queen who probably would have married him had it been possible in her situation.

Thoughts on Self-publishing Online

2006-03-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

Now that Mountain Peaks has been out for about a week (and I've already sent out 2 corrected versions), my thoughts have finally been allowed to congeal on the subject of self-publishing online.

I think a lot of people online (certainly on ebay) equate online shopping with bargains, and while that's mostly true for ebay, there is a risk taken. You don't know for sure that the item you are purchasing is really what it's stated to be. You can't heft it, you can't flip thorough it, you can't check the color in natural light... it's "iffy".

As a consumer of knitting patterns and paraphenalia online I highly value having a personal connection with the seller I'm purchasing from. If someone has a blog and I can get a sense of who they are, or if a friend of mine has had e-mail conversations and can vouch for someone's professionalism, then I am more likely to consider purchasing a pattern, even if it's something that I could probably figure out myself. i.e. Kristi's Spearfish Socks. Everyone raved about what a great design it was, and I had NO desire to purchase it until I started reading Kristi's blog, and swapping e-mails with her. Now I love her guts and I have purchased the pattern. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, and I know that this has influenced by business ethic. I have tried to be available for every question from "do you think this yarn would work with your pattern" to "how can I adapt this for a smaller version" etc... I like to be there for you knitters because I like designers to be there for me.

This is something unique to the online publishing world. When you purchase a paper pattern at your LYS, a designer has written a pattern (sometimes for a certain company who has already paid her her fee), and then a distributor sold the pattern to your LYS and now your LYS sells it to you. The proprietors of the store may help you figure out the pattern, but they are not paid to give you pattern support. The designer is very removed from the knitter, in fact, the knitter may just glance at the by line in the pattern trusting more that the company's name is the important thing, i.e. A FiberTrends pattern instead of a pattern by Bev Galeskas and PUBLISHED by FiberTrends.

For self-publishing designers, it's their name (and ONLY their name) on the line. For myself (being a self-proclaimed perfectionist) I expect that every error in a pattern of mine (even if it's been test knitted) speaks directly to my skill as a designer. It's really irrational, seeing as we're all human, and self-publishing designers generally don't have a whole tech editing crew to review every pattern before it's made available. But still, every time you put a pattern out there, it's scary! What if it's a complete flop! What if it ends up being ripped to shreds on YKW!?. It's enough to make you question your sanity.

And the removal of distributors and middle men means that there's no one else to absorb the cost of failure. If a pattern doesn't sell, the designer has put time and energy (which we HAVE to assign a monetary value to) into a pattern that we will never break even on. I set myself a dollar amount as my Break-Even-Point based on what I would have charged to sell this design to say a magazine or a pattern publisher, etc... I still haven't broken even on Seraphim, but I'm getting close on Mountain Peaks after only a week.

And with such a strong connection to the designer, that means that the designer is offering online tech support for her pattern. I spend a lot more time answering e-mails and tweaking technical aspects of my self-published patterns than you would ever believe! To me, this justifies charging more for a self-published online pattern. You'd be willing to pay a bit more for a car that had a 10-year warranty than you would for one without. You'd pay more for a computer with a full technical support package than you would for one without. Why not pay more for a pattern with full pattern support than you would for one without? I don't think most knitters online really understand that. It took me 3 days to make all the charts for Mtn. Peaks. And that's just transferring them from my original handwritten charts!

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the subject, even if you disagree with me. I would love to hear how everyone else justifies pattern price. Is price even an issue? What would you want out of a designer/knitter relationship. This may be cheap market research, but I feel like I'm sort of shooting blind, and I'd like a better idea of where I'm heading.

M

Momentous Occasion

2006-03-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

OK... generally I have a really good sense if something is overdone or not... but I just can't decide. I think I'm emotionally attached to these socks... but I need to know, should I knit or rip? Is the pattern competing with the yarn? Can you even SEE the pattern?

With flash

In natural, late afternoon sunlight

I need opinions, please.

M

*edit* Thanks for all the input. I ripped them. You all were right. It didn't do either the pattern or the yarn justice. And for Anna and Kit, the yarn is some Koigu in an unknown color that Margene gave to me just because she's fabulous. It MIGHT be P711, but it's hard to tell.

Starschmucks & Book Meme

2006-03-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

I have a beef with Starbucks (don't we all*). I'm not a coffee drinker, so I can't speak to the quality of their goods, but when they take over every campus-run drink dispensing unit so that I have to pay 27 CENTS for a crappy paper cup to use MY OWN TEA BAG and get FREE HOT WATER so I can have tea in the morning I just want to beat them all about the head with stinky dead fish! 27 CENTS for a freaking CUP that's too hot to hold unless you use their crappy carboard wrapper! I am overflowing with Squirrelly Wrath!

I was tagged by Carole. Now... if there were more books about history on here, I'd probably have read a greater portion of them. :)

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini)
(The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold)
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt)
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

I've seen this meme floating around blogland, and I'm always curious why people would say they would never read a book. I'm interested in reading ANY book. It might not be high on my priority list, but I'd still read it if I had it and didn't have anything else I'd rather read. Oh, and if you want to be tagged, yoink it.

M

*I highly suggest watching "Squirrel Songs", and the content relevant ones are "Small, Medium, Large" and "Coffee House Propaganda". I can't get them to link individually. Don't click if you don't like curse words and crazy talkative squirrels named Foamy :)

Sorry for so long since the last real post!

2006-03-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Sorry I've been sort of MIA lately. It's been rather busy at work and with designing, etc... I've been answering a lot of questions, and working out some cool new stuff.

But I DID finish the Trekking socks!

Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush (I love this book!).
Yarn: Trekking XXL in Color 102, purchased from Yarn Today.
Needles: US Size 1 (2.25 mm) Clover bamboo double points. Oh, and I used a longtail cast on on US 2's so the ribbing would be SUPER stretchy.
Gauge: 9 spi.
Modifications: I shortened the cuff by one repeat (20 rows) on each sock so that I didn't run out of yarn since the original pattern called for a 4 oz skein of Shaeffer Anne and I only had a 3.5 oz skein of the Trekking. That was probably good because I don't htink I would have made it. I also shortened the heel a little since it seemed like it was getting rather too long for comfort. I SHOULD have modified the toe. It came out VERY pointy and I don't like it, but C doesn't mind, so I won't rip it out.
Verdict: C loves them, so I'm happy. I loved knitting with the Trekking. It's nice yarn while still being fun. I like the variegations without pooling and flashing. It all just blends into the next color stripe, and it's really very subtle.

I bought some good stuff this weekend. I bought and dyed some 100% extrafine merino laceweight (which you can see here) for the KAL contests. And I got a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot to make a pair of socks for my mom. She was with me and picked out the colorway. She bought me a niddy noddy (I still need to sand and finish it), so I bought her sock yarn :) I'm excited to work with it.

This morning on the bus I started a pair of socks for myself in the Koigu Margene sent me. I'm using the Child's French Sock in Citron Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks. :) I've only got about an inch done, but I like how it's coming out so far.

In non-knitting news, I'm getting really excited for my vacation to Philadelpia later this month, and Kim is coming to visit early next week. I've missed her alot. Expect pictures :) Also as soon as I finish the book I'm reading now, I'll be starting Harry Potter. This could become a whole new obsession. Like I need another one of THOSE!

*edit* You HAVE to see these kitty pictures from Not An Artist (scroll down)! They totally made my day!

Funny little thing

2006-03-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

I woke up from a nightmare... one of those standard family-dying-and-you-can't-do-anything dreams. So I'm sitting in the other room, futzing on the computer. There's a 12 pack Dr. Pepper box on the floor. Ekho is trying to stick his head in it, but the hole is on the end, so he's turning the box around and around in circles trying to get his head inside. Oh! He's pushing it forward... and into the leg of the drafting table! His head is now firmly stuck inside. He shakes the box to try to free himself and can't. He finally manages to get his head unstuck by pushing the box away with his front paws. He is looking at the box as if to say "What did you do THAT for?!"

Is it sad that I enjoyed that so much?
M

Mountain Peaks Shawl Available

2006-03-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

Yarn Requirements: 600 yards (about 65 grams) of lace weight wool. Sample was knit using KnitPicks Shadow (100% Merino Wool) in 'Sunset'.
Suggested Needles: 3.75 (US 5) 24" circulars.
Gauge: 5 sts per inch in stockinette when blocked.
Finished Size: 68" across the top from point to point, 24" from neck to bottom.

Techniques Used: This pattern uses the following techniques:
knit, purl, k2tog, k3tog, k tbl, yo, double yo, placement and slipping of markers, p2tog, p2tog tbl, p3tog, sl, ssk, psso, and wrap and turn short rows (explaination included in the pattern).

Other Notes:

This pattern includes full color charts, an example of which can be seen here. It also includes a detailed section on construction of a top-down shawl.

This pattern is 6 pages long with 3 pages of charts. The charts can be printed on standard sized paper, but are meant to be printed on legal sized paper for best viewing. If you have trouble getting them printed, please e-mail me for help.

This pattern is a downloadable .pdf file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. You can download Acrobat here for free.

This pattern may only be purchased through PayPal. If you do not have a paypal account, you can open one by clicking that link.

Once your paypal payment has gone through, you will be e-mailed a link to download the pdf file. BE AWARE THAT THIS LINK EXPIRES after a time. You CAN request additional downloads if you miss this window of time. Also be aware that if you pay with an e-check, you will not receive the download link until your payment has cleared, which may take up to 7 days.

With this pattern (and with all of my patterns) I offer full technical support. I will do anything at all possible to help you figure out the best way to download and use this pattern and knit this shawl.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to e-mail me.

The cost for this patten is $6.50 USD. You may purchase it by clicking the Buy Now Button below.
Please go to my new shop to purchase this pattern

pdf file updated 6/30/2006

Passed on plea for help...

2006-03-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

Does anyone have one ball of Knit Picks Merino Style, Color Vanilla, Dyelot 59136? SJ is desperate for JUST ONE BALL. KnitPicks is out of stock until March 17 and even then, there's no way for her to have the same dyelot. She's SO CLOSE to finishing her sweater. She just has the bands and seaming left.

Help a knitter out, would ya?
M

Clarification

2006-03-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

I guess I was so excited that I didn't state things clearly in my last post.

1- If you want to join the knitalong, and want a chance to be one of the 5 who get the pattern free, then you need to wait until I post the pattern and officially open the knitalong.

2- If you'd like to join the knitalong now, and just wait to buy the pattern once it comes out and remove yourself from the 5-free running, you can e-mail me now and I'll add you in. Make sure you tell me what your choice is.

Either way you'll still be entered in the contest to win the yarn drawing on March 15th as soon as you've joined up.

M

So much news that I'm bursting at the seams

2006-03-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I've got plans. So many plans my head feels like its going to burst open. So many plans that I am skipping lunch even though I'm already starting to feel light headed because I have to finish things up.

The Mountain Peaks Shawl pattern is ready. I will be launching it on Monday. Along with a knit a long hosted here. The knitalong will officially start April 1st so KALers should have plenty of time to find yarn, etc...

On Monday morning I will post to this blog that the pattern is available and the first 5 people to join the KAL will receive a free copy of the Mountain Peaks Shawl pattern.

Everyone that joins the KAL before March 15th will be entered into a drawing for some hand dyed yarn (more than enough to make the shawl). That should give me time to get it mailed out to the winner before the cast on date.

There will also be a contest with some more hand dyed yarn for the first person to finish the shawl. I'll be dying the yarn this weekend, so I'll post pictures of it on Monday on the KAL blog.

I am so excited! And I'm close to having 2000 comments as well, so there will be a prize for the person who posts the 2000th comment. Contests and craziness, all the time around here. *squee!*

Spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

M

*edit* The link for the KAL has changd. We're combining the Mountain Peaks Shawl with Susan's Mountain Stream Scarf and making a "Mountain Lace Knitalong". If you've already bookmarked it, please update your bookmarks.

E is for....

2006-03-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

... Ekho. Blog, meet Ekho.

This is our new housemate. Ekho is a 3 year old Siamese cat that we adopted yesterday from the Cache Humane Society. When I first saw him (his name was Buddy... blech) he was terrified. Huddled in his cage, pupils hugely dilated, and his heart beating out of his chest. Then the next time we came to see him he came to the wall of the cage to be petted. He was still scared and uncomfortable when we got him home, but as soon as we set up his litter box and sat down with him he turned on the motor and started rubbing up against everything, especially our hands.

We kept him in the bathroom for about an hour and a half and then he was just so eagar to explore that we let him out. He went around the house poking his head into every cranny to see what's there. He managed to turn off our computers by flipping the powerstrip's switch.

When he purrs intensely there's a little cooing trill on top of the base rumble. It's the cutest thing I've ever heard. He layed by me while I fell asleep until C came to bed, then he curled up by C's feet. He woke us up at 1 am meowing that he wanted to play. I gave him a pet and he let us sleep. When I got up, he got up with me so I could pet him, how nice of him. ;)

I'm so happy with how happy he seems to be with us. I was worried that he had been abused and was too far gone to every trust people again, but it looks like he was abused by the other 7 cats his previous owner had. He certainly wants to be an only cat. I'm sure Ekho will play a part in future blog posts, but luckily he seems to be uninterested in yarn, except to sit in piles of it. There was yarn dangling all over and he was totally oblivious. And I even knit with him on my lap and he didn't look twice at the twitching yarn. YAY!

M

p.s. his eyes are almost the same gray blue that C's are.

Finally some pictures!

2006-03-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Check out Lori's finished Adamas! It looks so great!
_____________________________________________

Pattern: My own basic stockinette sock with tapered cuff and wedge toe.
Yarn: Regia Cotton Surf (41% Superwash wool/34% cotton/25% Polyamide) in color 5420, Brown Stripes. Frankly, I didn't really love this yarn. I got it on clearance from Black Sheep though, and they're pretty comfy. The yarn hurt to knit with after a while because it had very little give and it made pretty hard solid stitches (as cotton is want to do).
Needles: US Size 1 (2.25 mm) Clover Bamboo Dpns.
Gauge: 9 spi
Verdict: I love the socks, although I didn't really enjoy knitting them.Now that I think about it though, I probably should have done a reinforced heel instead of a plain stockinette heel, but I was worried about the hard cotton yarn hurting my heel if I did a reinforced heel. In retrospect I think it would have been fine as the finished fabric got pretty smooth.

After finishing the shawl and getting stalled on the baby sweater (ran out of yarn with only one sleeve to go, but blessedly Tracey is sending me some more), I started the Gentleman's Fancy Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.

I had originally bought the yarn (Trekking XXL in color 102) and begun the sock for myself, but as the cuff striping appeared, C (who is very picky with his socks) decided that he liked it, so I shortened the cuff by one full repeat and made the foot longer for him.

I finished the first sock this morning, but wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn for the second as the pattern calls for a 4 oz skein of Shaefer Anne, but I weighed the sock and the rest of the skein this morning. Good thing about working in a Chemistry department, there are plenty of scales around, bad thing is that I couldn't find one that measured grams. So now I know that the sock weighs .0900 lbs, while the unused yarn ball is .1186 lbs. Good thing it went to 4 decimal places!

I'm getting the Mountain Peaks pattern done slowly because there is a lot to do at work right now, but hopefully I can get it done before the end of the week. I also have a lot on my mind about my creative future, which I'll probably do a whole post about soon after things are more settled.

M

The Olympics are over...

2006-02-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

... and so is the weekend. I wish the weekend were longer. I could have used a bit more relaxation.

But check it out! TWO finished Adamas shawls! First, there's Disentagled's Olympic Adamas shawl at A Little Loopy. And there's also Rose's finished Adamas at Rose Read. They look lovely ladies! Good job! I'm fairly certain I've missed someone who knit Adamas... if I did, leave me a comment and I'll be sure to post it, and please accept my profuse apologies, the winter doldrums are setting in and I'm slightly overwhelmed by everyday life, so I've been missing things.

*edit*: It's HEATHER's I forgot! Congrats on the gold Heather!

Hopefully I'll have a better entry with pictures tomorrow. I've got a new sock past the heel and almost done with the gusset, so I'll get pics of that and the poor baby sweater... you may never get pics of my finished regia cotton/wool socks haha! Kind of going crazy here... Maybe I'll elaborate tomorrow.

M

*edit 2* Did you SEE who left a comment! I think I may just die a happy knit blogger now ;)

Linky love

2006-02-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

Holly is awesome... just take my word for it... but she just opened a webstore (Three Dog Designs) that sells her beautiful knitting bags! She'll do special orders too if you're interested. Go check her out!

D is for....

2006-02-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

Duplicate stitch, today's saving knitting technique.

So I've been working on this baby sweater for my cousin's new baby Samuel - and my sister just had her new baby yesterday, so welcome to the world Anthony! - and once again the knitting goddess chose to smite me for my hubris. I had just finished the Mountain peaks shawl and I thought I was a knitting genius! "NOT SO!" said the Goddess in a stern voice. I was merrily knitting along on this sweater in (sadly discontinued Lion Brand CottonEase) and I had finished the arm increases and started the stripes before I realized that the stripes would be a little low for my taste... like... around the baby's belly button! But there was no way in hell I was going to rip out half of a baby sweater in cotton/acrylic yarn including putting sleeve stitches back on the needles. So.... I made the stripes slightly shorter, and duplicate stitched an extra stripe higher up on the body.

I think it will work, although it still may be a little low, but this means I can make the sleeves solid blue without a lot of trouble. I also used duplicate stitch to fix a BIG problem. The cotton ease had a knot in it and I thought "oh well, I'll just make sure it stays in the back of the work and it should be fine." But again, the knitting Goddess says "Uh-uh! *smite*" And the knot came undone and a couple stitches got all fucked up. So I tied the ends in a knot really quickly, and then today I duplicate stitched the opening closed. It looks a little wonky, but only if you're looking for it.

Thanks for all the great comments on the Mountain Peaks shawl (I didn't realize that Susan's scarf was called "Mountain Stream" until I visited her blog this morning and saw it there... a bit too close, but maybe we just love our mountains a lot ;) ) I'm working on replying to comments, but they may have to wait for the weekend, when I don't have 5 prospective graduate students visiting and I don't have to spend the next 2 hours walking backwards in the cold giving a campus tour.

*edit* My inbox is too overwhelming and so I won't be answering all those e-mails individually. Sorry... I love you all and love your support, but frankly, I'm sooo ready for the weekend and I just don't wanna worry about it. So a collective thank you to all of you, and here are some answers to things asked in the comments.

The shawl used 64 grams (564 yds) of KnitPicks Shadow lace weight yarn (less than 2 skeins). I would suggest that you get 600 yds at least.

Happy Weekend Knitting!
M

happy sigh

2006-02-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

It is done. Here you see the unnamed shawl having been extricated from the needles along with the hand drawn border charts. This is what I had last night at about 6:30. Unfortunately I had to be somewhere at 7, so I couldn't block it until about 10:00 pm.

But now, without further ado, may I present....

The Mountain Peaks Shawl. This shawl echoes my deep and abiding love for the mountains that surround my high desert home. From the many foothills to the craggy peaks all throughout the year. From rocky crags to sleeping snow-capped titans. I love my mountains!

Pattern: My own, soon to be offered to you, the knitting public!
Yarn: KnitPicks Shadow in the Sunset color
Needles: US Size 5 Addi Turbo 24" circulars
Gauge: About 5 spi once blocked.
Verdict: Absolutely love it. I was iffy about how it was turning out until I blocked it. I usually end up doing this with my shawls. I worry that they're going to turn out horrid and not up to snuff, but then I block them and the magic happens. It's different than my most recent shawls. They were more simplistic with clean lines, while this is much more traditional. I think it's echoing my state of mind. I've been reading a lot of books about the history of knitting lately, so I'm going more traditional. I really like the knitted on border. It allowed me to have more drastic peaks than a border that was worked as part of the whole shawl would allow. And it meant that although I spent a long time working on the border, I didn't have to bind off a million stitches with a finicky cast off. :)
Final verdict? I LOVE it and I'm very pleased. This shawl challenged my skill as a designer more than anything I've ever done before, and it taught me to trust my creative gut (so to speak). I hope you will all be pleased as well when it's available to you.

I also finished my pair of cotton/wool Regia socks, but I'll post about those another day. This shawl needs it's own moment. :)

M

...knit a lot

2006-02-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

Hi! Just to let you know, I've got some double pointed needle cases for sale in the previous post, take a look if you're interested. I put it in a separate post so that I didn't bombard you with it if you weren't really interested. Here's the knitting content. This is the unblocked shawl...

I had much headache with this shawl... and charted so many things that totally didn't work out. Including picking a border, modifying it and THEN realizing I'd charted it backwards... *headdesk* But alas, it is coming together and it's BEAUTIFUL! I'm so relieved! And finally a spot of luck. I was thinking I would need to tweek the border to get it to match up with the repeats in the shawl (it's knit on perpendicular to the stitches in the body of the shawl so it would require a bit of math), but then I decided I just wanted to be done with it, so I used it as is, and VOILA! It lines up all by itself! I sighed in relief and then poked C until he looked at it and acted suitably surprised. :) I even managed to short row the corner of the border to my satisfaction on the first try! If the rest of this shawl was murder, the border was my reward for putting up with the rest.

Here's a detail shot (unblocked still) of the border.

Thanks for all the responses to the poll yesterday. I'm taking it all into consideration and it looks like I will probably be offering this shawl pattern with multiple choices for the patterning.... I'm not sure whether I can still charge $6 or less for it, but I'll have to do some math and ask around before I can figure that out. It's just a lot more work to do that much charting and also the typing for a written out pattern.

M

Sew a little...

2006-02-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hi! I had a good long weekend, how about you? I sewed a little bit over the weekend. I made some double pointed needle cases!

The first 2 are $20 each, including shipping and the red and black one is $25 including first class shipping to contiguous United states. They're each sewn carefully with top stitching for nice clean lines. The pockets graduate in size (each one has a slight variation because I was kind of just sewing for the fun of it and didn't really want to measure and mark each pocket. ;)

Each one folds over and rolls up to be tied by the ribbons. This fold-over allows for varying heights in double pointed needles.

Each one is about 12" tall and about 18" wide.

The ribbons both come out of one side and then when it is rolled up, wrap around the case and tie however you'd like. I prefer a bow :)

1. The first one (that you see in most of those modeling pictures) is blue & white plaid on the inside and a denim-colored chambray on the outside, with a white ribbon tie. It has 13 pockets.

2. The second one is a burgundy fine-wail corduroy with a burgandy and pink floral motif and a matching burgandy ribbon tie. It has 13 pockets as well.

Sorry, this one is sold

3. The third one is fabulously beautiful! The fabric is from my Senior Ball dress (which was really REALLY hot). It's a true-red Japanese silk brocade with a black cherry blossom design on them and a black satin. The brocade is on the outside and makes the pockets, and the rest of the inside is black satin, and a black organza ribbon tie. There are 12 pockets.

Sorry, this one is sold

If you're interested in purchasing, please e-mail me and mlbrilliant AT yahoo DOT com. If you've got a color combination or a special order one in mind, also let me know :)

M

Choose your own adventure*

2006-02-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

OK, since the last poll was so very enlightening, I thought it was time for another. This one will almost certainly effect how I publish patterns from now on. So here you go...

If you have an OTHER option... leave it in the comments.

*does anyone else remember those books? They drove me crazy because I could never keep track of what all adventures I COULD have had.... I started going through and marking off each line of "adventure" until I lost interest.

Um... yeah....

2006-02-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

So we're sitting in the kitchen. And I look up and notice that there is a lightbulb missing from the fixture. I ask C and his brother, I, "Do either of you know why there's a lightbulb missing?" I looks me straight in the face and says "Yeah. That's why the light upstairs works". *blink* So he took a lightbulb from the kitchen to put in his room. And I said "You know, we have extra lightbulbs." "Well, C didn't know where they were." haha. So instead of calling me and askign where the lightbulbs were, they took one from the kitchen and put it upstairs. Boys are crazy.

M

For everyone who's ever dated a gamer...

2006-02-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

... you must see this video. You will pee your pants laughing. Link via Peeve.

Over and out,
M

A REAL post!

2006-02-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry for all the book stuff yesterday. I had made quite a few books over the weekend and tI needed to gethem up while I had the time to do it. If you're looking for books, scroll down, or as always, the links are in the sidebar.

Updates in list form so I don't ramble on and on (and on...):

1. I FINALLY steam cleaned my living room carpet... well... most of it. I didn't do a few patches because I wanted to leave somewhere to sit on the floor that wasn't wet, but the other parts are dry now, so I can do that tonight or tomorrow. The water that came out of my carpet was almost black though... that's bad. REAL bad. I also might not be the best at vacuuming.... *shifty looks*

2. As you can see, I made a bunch of books :) I dug through stuff that I had tucked away in corners and behind other things and found some goodies. I've got a bunch more wrap journals in the works and in my head. If you've got a request, e-mail me and I'll tell you what I've got.

3. The shawl is progressing BEAUTIFULLY!

This one will have a knitted on border... like knitted on parallel to the rest of it. I've got plans, just trust me :) I will be offering this one for sale online as a pdf unless someone approaches me with a design deal first. See the lifeline? I had a retarded weekend and realized 1) DO NOT thread a lifeline through your stitch markers and 2) You don't have to cut off stitch markers once you've threaded your lifeline through them. You can just let them hang from the lifeline and replace them with new ones until you remove the lifeline. I lost 4 stitch markers, but I learned a valuable lesson. Speaking of the lifeline, I've ripped back to it twice trying to find a good border pattern, and since I'm making it up, I've charted about 5 times, and I finally think I'm liking the results.

4. In my infinite insanity, I've decided to submit a sweater design for a future issue of IK. Yes, I realize I have never really designed a sweater before... what of it? I have plans and they're beautiful! Now to find some Kid Silk Haze to swatch with... anyone got a ball leftover that they'd be willing to trade? Don't know what you want for it, but e-mail me if you've got something in mind. This publishing bug really has my by the throat.

5. I have registered & purchased the domain mimknits.com. I will be building a site very soon and hopefully getting it up before the Summer Issue of IK comes out. Right now, I'm trying to figure out all the DNS shit... *sigh* It's causing some contention in my overcrowded household. Once it's up in all it's glory, I will be moving my blog. If I can't get the blogging template to work or something, then I guess the blog will stay here, but I'd rather have it all in one place. I plan on having a section for books, a section for knitting patterns (free ones and ones to purchase), put my tutorials from my old website up as well as probably some more... maybe videos if I have the bandwidth. I'm really excited!

6. I have a flight booked for my trip to Philadelpia in March! I will be leaving March 28 and coming back on Apr. 3. I plan to meet up with Naomi at some point. Which of those days will be best for you N? Anybody else in the area? Anyone got any suggestions of things I need to do or see or eat?

7. The best thing in the world on a shitty Tuesday that also happens to be a shitty )#%&ing Valentine's Day is to run into a beautiful person as she's coming out of the ladies room. Especially if that person is so happy to see you that she gives you *4* of the BEST HUGS IN THE WORLD, and makes herself late for class because she genuinely cares about how you're doing. Annemarie, I love your guts!

M

Burgandy Wrap Journal

2006-02-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

Specs: 4.25" wide by 6.25" tall by .85" deep. 80 sheets or 160 pages if used front and back. The pages are blank for sketching or writing.

This book i covered in a slightly textured burgandy Canapetta bookcloth. This sturdy cover material makes for a long-lasting book even with daily use. The end papers are a handmade pink paper with burgandy inclusions (a better picture of the paper can be seen here). A beautiful pewter-colored 'North Star' button and matching burgandy satin ribbon create the wrap that keeps this book closed.

The binding is a coptic stitch in waxed linen thread, which is great for journals, as it will lie completely flat or even fold around. This journal would be good for anyone to jot down thoughts at odd moments. It would also be good for a travel journal as once the wrap is done up, it will stay closed in a backpack or luggage and the pages won't be damaged.

Cost is $17.00 including first class shipping to contiguous US States (if you want Priority Mail, it will be extra).

PAYMENT INFO: I accept paypal. If you are interested in International shipping, I can do so, but it will cost you more (as I'm sure you're aware) and you should e-mail me and NOT pay by using the paypal button.
SOLD

Cream & Copper Dragonfly Journal

2006-02-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Specs: 5.75" wide by 8.75" tall by .75" deep. 60 sheets or 120 pages if used front and back. The fine cream-colored, flecked pages are lined for writing.

This book is covered in creamy Mulberry paper with hand screen printed copper dragonflies.

The binding is a coptic stitch in waxed linen thread, which is great for journals, as it will lie completely flat or even fold around.

Cost is $23.00 including first class shipping to contiguous US States (if you want Priority Mail, it will be extra).

PAYMENT INFO: I accept paypal. If you are interested in International shipping, I can do so, but it will cost you more (as I'm sure you're aware) and you should e-mail me and NOT pay by using the paypal button.

Black/Gray Mango Leaf Journal

2006-02-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

Specs: 7.25" wide by 8.75" tall by .75" deep. 60 sheets or 120 pages if used front and back. The pages are lined for writing.

This book is covered in black Rayon Cialux bookcloth and gray and black Mango Leaf paper from Thailand.

The binding is a coptic stitch in waxed linen thread, which is great for journals, as it will lie completely flat or even fold around.

Cost is $28.00 including first class shipping to contiguous US States (if you want Priority Mail, it will be extra).

PAYMENT INFO: I accept paypal. If you are interested in International shipping, I can do so, but it will cost you more (as I'm sure you're aware) and you should e-mail me and NOT pay by using the paypal button.
TAKEN

Brown Hardback Journal

2006-02-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

Specs: 5.75" wide by 8.75" tall by .5" deep. 60 sheets or 120 pages if used front and back. The page on the left as you open the book is left blank so that you can sketch, or paste pictures, etc... and the page on the right is lined for writing.

This book is all about the details, the hand sewn bookblock, the headbands, This book is bound in durable Rayon Cialux bookcloth in a rich chocolatey brown. The end papers are a beautifully colored marbled paper.

It would be good for someone who loves simple, but beautiful and functional things. It looks deceptively plain when you look at the simple brown cover. The solid spine will hold up to years of hard use. This book would prove a daily joy for any journal writer.

Cost is $28.00 including first class shipping to contiguous US States (if you want Priority Mail, it will be extra).

PAYMENT INFO: I accept paypal. If you are interested in International shipping, I can do so, but it will cost you more (as I'm sure you're aware) and you should e-mail me and NOT pay by using the paypal button.

Mmmm.... knitted goodness!

2006-02-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is my sweater shelf. My happy place of goodness. I LOVE my sweaters. I may like them because I'm usually pretty cold (low blood pressure), and sweaters are cozy and warm. The problem with those 17 knitted sweaters, 1 mohair wrap, and 3 sweatshirts (one not pictured because it was in the wash), and 1 polar fleece jacket is that of all of them, only 3 of them are remotely form fitting and flattering.

*edited to add* Just to clear up some confusion, I've only knit 2 of those 17 sweaters, and I knit the mohair wrap too. But yeah... not THAT prolific!

My quest? To design a BEAUTIFUL and functional sweater that will make me look hot. :) I've been paying attention to the cut of shirts that make me look longer wasted, and minimize my tummy bump, make me look well proportioned, etc... I've been taking notes, and I've got plans for some wool/alpaca/silk yarn I got a while back from KnitCraft in Ogden. It's a really pretty light gray with brown tones so that you almost think it's tan. It's good. I've swatched (and washed the swatch), and I'm getting 6 spi on US 3's. The plan is to do a top-down sweater with a wide round neck.

I can't start the sweater until I finish this shawl design (which is going pretty well... I'm still in the boring upper part with the same pattern repeats). So any suggestions before hand would be appreciated. I may actually write up the pattern and offer it in multiple sizes (something I've never done before). Isela already wants to knit it just from my description :)

Also a shout out to Margene, the sweetest woman in the world! She has graciously gifted me with a mountain (at least a mountain to ME) of Koigu! And a prefect little orange chibi with small needles that are great for socks! Thank you again, Margene! I love your guts! Quick question though... are all those balls the same colorway or not? I'm trying to determine that, but it's difficult. I'm thinking perhaps 2 of them are a darker colorway or maybe dyelot... *shrug* It's lovely no matter what. It made my WEEK!

p.s. Check out /vm's finished Adamas (check the links within that entry)! BEAUTIFUL!

M

Knitting Confessions

2006-02-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

Check out Heather's finished Adamas! It's LOVELY! And she even started another one! Glad you like it Heather!

OK, I have some confessions to make.

1. I have never owned any Koigu. I cast on a wee swatch, knit a few rows and then ripped out some that Marnie brought on our meet up. But I've never had the joy of Koigu otherwise.

2. I have never owned a Chibi. I hear those bent tipped needles are NICE, but I've never worked with them.

3. I secretly watch everyone's Gathering of Lace projects take shape, and I plot ways to get my LYS to stock the book so I can drool over it every week. So beautiful, and yet, I haven't ever even flipped through the pages! I would love to buy it, but can't justify spending the money on a book that I don't need when I'm having a hard time making ends meet as it is.

4. I've only recently started swatching. I didn't used to do it, and after reading things on blogs, I realized it really IS important. In fact, I'd never WASHED a swatch until this weekend after Margene's quasi-rant about how important it was.

Got any confessions of your own? Consider this a sort-of-a-meme. If you want to be tagged, go for it.

M

My Mommy Loves Me

2006-02-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

She bought me a new coat!

It's a wool and CASHMERE blend! *drool* It replaces my old coat with a disintegrated lining that had been replaced and disintegrated again. Plus the old coat was wearing thin around the buttons and it had a hole in the wool on the back. Happy!! My little brother (who is the photographer for this pic) says I look like a Pirate today with the black headscarf.

Knitting also loves me, while chores... not so much. I was going to clean my carpets again (like the weekend BEFORE last) and didn't. In fact, I didn't get much of anything done other than a load of dishes in my dishwasher, and a couple sinkfuls of the big stuff that can't go in the dishwasher. But I finished a book that Carole will give to her husband for Valentines Day. Just trust me, it's cool :)

But knitting has been good. I had started a new shawl design using Judy's handspun, hand dyed merino silk yarn, but in the end, the design I wanted to do was much too complicated for the variegations in the yarn. So I ripped that back and I started the design in some Shadow from Knitpicks. Here's a peak... not that you can SEE anything. But this one is complex. This is a pattern with design on BOTH right and wrong sides. For ADVANCED knitters, trust me. :)

We went to see Tristan and Isolde (pretty good movie, I must say) on Saturday, and I KNEW the shawl wasn't going to be good movie knitting, so I cast on a really boring, really simple pair of socks. Love on the Stockinette! It's a cotton/wool blend yarn from Regia. It's kind of a bitch to knit with, but it's making some pretty nice socks. Not as stretchy as wool, but still nice. And I LOVE the subtle browns. All in all, perfect for knitting while working on the complicated crazy shawl...

Which I think will be LOVELY when it's done, I just wish I had more time to work on it. I requires that I sit with the pattern, not a lot of distractions and good lighting, which is something I haven't encountered in YEARS! All my knitting has been memorizable after a couple repeats and then I usually can knit anything anytime (including lace on the bus while having a conversation). A little irksome, but this will pass :)

M

Autumn Leaves in Winter and a Poll

2006-02-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

Autumn Leaf Socks are Finished!

Pattern: Leaf Socks by Cindy Walker in Socks Socks Socks.
Modifications: Quite a few, first I omitted the bobbles. I HATE bobbles. Second, I left off the border around the top. It was supposed to be knit separately and sewn on. Like I really want to sew something onto the top of my socks after I've finished knitting them! And also, with the variegated yarn, it would have made blocks of color perpendicular to the lines in the actual sock... that sounded WAAAY too busy, so I left it off. I also made the leg longer than the pattern calls for.. but that was actually a mistake. :)
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the color "Gold Hill", traded with Norma for a book.
Needles: Crystal Palace Bamboo Dpns in US Size 1.5 (2.5 mm). I broke one by leaving it stuffed in my bag, but I managed to super glue and sand paper it back into use... good thing too. I originally bought 2 sets of 5, but I seem to have lost or broken 3 of them, leaving me with just enough to have 3 on each sock and one working needle to switch between them. Sadly, now that I'm done with the sock I can't seem to find needle #7. Dammit... I guess I'll get another set of 5.
Gauge: 8 spi
Verdict: Good! Snug and soft, but still very bright for my tastes. They're growing on me though.

I've added pics of the patterns available in my sidebar... tell me if you think it's clear, whether you like it, etc... Also, those pdf patterns that were missing are back up. I think the Baby Sock pattern is wonky, but a pdf of that is forthcoming. I just have to find the time to do it while still at work (the only place with the right software), then I can upload it at home. Anyway, let me know if you like the images up there. I think they're eye-catching.

I was having an e-mail conversation with Michelle the other day and she mentioned that she'd rather buy a .pdf online than wait for a paper one to come in the mail. That got me wondering how you all felt about it. It's come up as a question in the KnitDesign yahoo group, but people seem pretty mixed on it.

A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

2006-02-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

Call via Grace's Poppies link via Juno... check out Juno's poem post today. So beautiful!

Words from my C. They sort of remind me of Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, but more concise and a bit more cynical.

Be who you are,
Do what you can,
Change when you should,
Think before you speak,
Speak when you must,
Worry wastes energy,
Pain educates.

C is for.....

2006-02-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

Calla Lillies. Calla Lillies are my favorite flower. I love their clean lines and the slow fade from green stem to white petal.

I got these silk Callas many years ago. I had been going through a very hard 3 or 4 years and I was very depressed. I finally went to see a therapist and we began working on my issues (of which there were many). I was so far down that I couldn't accept that there was anything beautiful or worthwhile in the world to be striving for. No reason to pick myself up from depression, no good in myself or the rest of the world to applaud.

My therapist asked me if there was anything that I thought was beautiful. After a lot of thought I said Calla Lillies. She told me to buy some Calla Lillies and put them in a place where I would see them every morning when I woke up. I put them on the chest at the foot of my bed. Every morning I woke up and saw those flowers. I could make out their shapes in the dark before I even turned on the light. And then I'd spend the whole rest of the day thinking about them, wanting to get through my day and home again to look at them and be effected by their beauty.

They were the key. Without these flowers as a reminder that there were beautiful things in this world worth saving, I probably would have killed myself 5 years ago. These are more than flowers to me... they are my salvation.

M

Almost Finished Socks and other FO's

2006-02-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

Check out Kellie's finished Seraphim! She gave it to a friend who is about to start chemothreapy and made her cry (in a good way). Click the link in my sidebar for the info on the pattern and to buy it.

Aaaand I've finished one autumn leaf sock.*

All in all, the socks are a bit snug so far, but I like them that way. My row gauge must have been off from what the pattern called for because they're a wee bit short, but that adds to the snugness. The yarn feels nice though :) I should have the other toe finished by the end of the day with a finished pair to show you tomorrow.

Sorry for yesterday's fly-by post, but it was one of those crazy days at work when you've got a million things to do RIGHT NOW but because they're little things you finish the day still feeling like you haven't actually accomplished anything.

M

*I'm experimenting with the size I save my photos at to see if I can get a better compression in flickr... maybe I should just give it up and upload them to my own server... *sigh*

*edit* A bit better... I'll keep tweaking it.

How do you prefer lace patterns?
	As charts showing right side rows correctly and wrong side rows as they appear on the right side.
	As charts showing right side and wrong side rows as they are knit.
	As written out patterns, word for word instead of a graphic representation (chart).
	Other

Free polls from Pollhost.com

All things being equal, would you rather buy a pattern:
	Online as a paper pattern that will be mailed to you
	Online as an instantly dowloadable .pdf file
	At a LYS (get a paper pattern and instant gratification)

Free polls from Pollhost.com

Mim's Knitting Frenzy

Move complete

Pattern Sale

Movin' over

Hmm....

Silk and a Shitload of Stitches

Still tidying :)

Update to Simple Trekking Socks pattern

Blog and Purge

Jammy goodness

Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl Pattern Available

L is for....

Another pattern update

Finished socks x 2

Update for Seraphim PDF

Lovely weekend

Estes Park blogging

Whoosh

Cop out

A picture says a thousand words

Trekking Socks

Too many things to NOT do a list :)

Brithdays that last a whole week are the best!

Beginnings of a Garden

Please Lord, have mercy on me.

So cute you should just gag me with a spork now....

K is for....

The day I was "Birfed"*

Ketchup and other tomato products...

J is for...

I is for...

Ah... that wet cat smell.

Thoughts on Patience and Knitting

The knitting continues apace

Blessing Socks Pattern Available

Seraphim KAL

A Peek at Mittens

Mittens are done and a new sock is in the works.

More on German Opal

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

A Note on Yarn for Eleanora Socks

Weekend Report

H is for....

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

Totally random WednesdayThursday

All Memes all the time

Handwriting Meme

Finished socks, mine and others'

Mountain Peaks Revision

*sqeal!*

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

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

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Part I

Short and Sweet

Hello again!

Housecleaning

Eleanora Socks Pattern Available

FO's and travel plans.

Attention: Kathleen Courtois

The little things

HELP! CAT ISSUES!

Completely ambiguous entry!

Browser trouble!

1984 Weekend

Sock love!

Grrlfriends are Goood!

Up and coming

F is for....

Thoughts on Self-publishing Online

Momentous Occasion

Starschmucks & Book Meme

Sorry for so long since the last real post!

Funny little thing

Mountain Peaks Shawl Available

Passed on plea for help...

Clarification

So much news that I'm bursting at the seams

E is for....

Finally some pictures!

The Olympics are over...

sqeal!

happy sigh