I’m a wikipedia junkie… I have it as a shortcut bookmark on my firefox toolbar. Is there some sort of 12-step recovery for us?
Comic is from xkcd.com, link via Wil Wheaton.
Miriam Felton
Unique Designs & Technique for the Handknitter
Boudica Socks
Finally I can show you some knitting!
I have finished the socks for Anne and they are SO lovely! May I present Boudica Socks.
These socks are named after Boudica, the rebel Celtic queen who fought the Roman Empire after they refused her daughters’ claim to the throne of the Iceni people. A Celtic knotwork-inspired braid runs up each side from the toe to the upper cuff, where travelling stitches and a horizontal braid hide calf increases, finished off by a rolled edge.
Pattern: My own, will be available May 1st as a kit-of-the-month from Wooly Wonka Fibers. At some future point I will also be offering it as a stand alone pattern. These socks are knit from the toe up to the top of the cuff. The final toe increases are integrated in the beginning of the braid that continues up the sides. The horizontal braid is pretty nifty too (thanks Susan!). The heel is the same base as my heel flap tutorial. **EDIT** Wow! Anne is speedy! Preorders for the kit are up at her shop!
Yarn: Wooly Wonka handdyed Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) superwash sock yarn in the River colorway. Subtly shifting blues that are PERFECT for this sock. They add interest while not taking away from the texture of the braids. Also, you will not believe this yarn is superwash! It’s buttery soft and silky. I LOVE it!
Needles: Set of 5 2.00 mm (US 0) Crystal Palace 6″ bamboo double pointed needles.
Gauge: 9.5 sts and 14 rows per inch in stockinette.
Verdict: I love them a lot. Some of you may recognize that they are a reincarnation of the celtic braid socks I was working on earlier this year. Those (thankfully) died and these were born from the ashes.
I did some spinning this weekend too (plying actually), so I’ll hopefully have some of that to show you tomorrow as well as some acquisitions that I’ve brought home recently.
M
Nicknames and Watermelons
yeah… they’re totally unrelated… two random things on my mind that I want to share with you.
On Nicknames:
I’ve got a lot of nicknames. Hardly anyone actually calls me Miriam. Some in my family still call me Miriam, but mostly everyone calls me “M”. My nieces and nephews call me “Auntie M” (with Aunt said like a proper New Englander). My knitting friends and other online people routinely call me Mim, and a brother in law came up with Mimsical. My older brother calls me “Mimalicious” in addition to some rather unsavory names like “stinky butt”. My younger brother calls me “Miminiscious” (which always makes me think of a pernicious Mim. That makes me happy for some morbid reason).
One of my coworkers calls me “Miss Miriam”, and another secretary calls me “Lady” because she never gets my name right. Growing up I had a plethora of bizarre nicknames. Muff, Muffy, Muffin, Muff-Stuff-McGruff (my personal favorite… note the sarcasm).
C and I have special names for eachother (no, I’m not telling). And strangely enough we answer to them even though we hardly ever use them. It’s like they’re the names we were meant to have. They just feel right.
But overall, Mim is the nickname I like the most. I respond readily to it, even though at first it took me a while to realize that it was me.
Hows about you? What nicknames do you have? In fact, let’s make this a meme. If you want it, I’m tagging you. What are your nicknames?
On Watermelons:
Cheryl (who I think is blogless) sent me an e-mail and mentioned that she had made the Retro Wedge Felted Bag, but made it into a watermelon! Well that is something I just HAD to see. When Teri was test knitting it way back in the day, we were commenting on how watermelon shaped it was, and I’m glad to see someone took the next step and made it up that way! Isn’t it cool?!
She omitted the flap and needle felted the seeds on! How summery and cheerful!
Have a good weekend! I’m going to knitting like crazy on the second sock for Anne.
M
More In Depth on Codes of Conduct
In another note on yesterday’s topic of a blog code of conduct:
There is something that really bothers me about the “It’s my party and if you don’t like it, leave” thing. To some extent I agree. If you don’t like my knitting, my designs, my voice, you don’t HAVE to read my blog. No one is holding a gun to your head. But on the other hand, the reason I blog is for the community, and that view has a way of stiffling community. I want feedback, that’s why I post. I want discussion. If I wanted a bunch of people to say “Yes! I agree!”, nod with vacant heads, and say nothing deeper all the time, I would not be putting this out there for anyone to see. I like interaction, and I realize that I can only see a limited view of the world by virtue of being mortal. The community and discussion helps me to see sides of issues or ideas I can’t see on my own. That’s why I blog, that’s why I talk to strangers on the bus, that’s why I read autobiographies. That’s even why I read and listen to the news.
I will be the first to admit that I have a hard time taking non-constructive criticism. I spent years feeling like a worthless piece of shit and it’s really easy to fall back into that cycle. It’s easy to see peoples’ critiques of you as a black mark on your judgement and self-image instead of understanding all of the complexities of each situation. Maybe the commenter was having a bad day… maybe the commenter felt stupid themselves, but instead told you that YOU were stupid… there’s more to see than is readily visible and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I don’t want my blog to be a dictatorship where the only comments that are encouraged are the vacuous head nods. I want discussion, thoughts, ideas, and constructive criticism because THAT is why I do this. These things help me become a better person, a better designer, a better friend/lover/daughter/sister/acquaintance/human.
So aside from giving myself a code of conduct to deal with threatening and abusive comments (which I thankfully have not as of yet received on the blog), my code of conduct proposed in yesterday’s post is meant to foster the sense of community. To give everyone who comments or participates here a sense of security knowing that I have their backs and will not allow them to be abused in my space.
In a post last week, a commenter prefaced her remarks with her concern about getting flamed. And it struck me hard. I felt almost offended that she thought she would get flamed on my site, but I realized that I hadn’t ever made it clear that my space was safe and that no flaming would take place. So that’s what these guidelines are meant to do.
I hope that makes sense.
As Rhonna suggested I’ll be posting them as a section in the sidebar as well as have them listed in the About page. I will also be linking these discussions from that about page section.
M
Blogging Codes of Conduct
Heather linked to an article on proposed codes of conduct for bloggers and it got me thinking.
There have been quite a few incidents of flaming and bad manners on knitting blogs, but still we seem to be a bit above the fray. Tensions and voices don’t run quite as high when we talk about knitting as they do when a blog talks about politics, current events, or something similarly controversial. As if we were insulated by all our yarn and fiber.
The above linked article mentions the idea that a code of conduct should be posted BEFORE any flaming results. But what SHOULD be included in that code of conduct? Tim O’Reily proposes The Blogger’s Code of Conduct (on the wiki for blogging, which I think is awesome). BlogHer has their own code for being a member of their site’s community, but is there anything specific to our community that we need to make clear?
I’m leaning more toward the alternate code of conduct (also from the blogging wiki) as a basis:
- Be courteous.
- Give accurate information in the spirit of being helpful.
- Respectfully disagree.
- Use the correct venue for your post.
- Admit the possibility of fault and respect different points of views.
- If you screw up, take responsibility for your actions.
My thought are to add the following:
- As the host of this blog, I will attempt to find balance between allowing “free speech” and protecting the rights of my readers. This means no abusive, harrassing or threatening comments will be allowed.
- I will not write anything on line that I would not say in person.
Any thoughts before I post this as a permenant page in the sidebar? I feel that having a structure of what is and isn’t acceptable in place will make individual decisions easier in the end. I think some standards are good for any community.
M
*snarls at the world*
It’s sort of an old picture… but this is how I feel at the moment. There are a bunch of things that are stressing me out (some I can’t talk about), and I’m exhausted and I haven’t paid rent yet because I can’t remember that I need to pay it long enough to write the check, and I feel like I desperately need a vacation but can’t take one, and I just want to knit something without a deadline but there are so many deadlines looming that I can’t convince myself it is ok.
I’m in desperate need of Stitch and Bitch tonight (Birdsong will be there!), so I’ll be there even if I have to walk across Salt Lake City to get there. I feel like a towel that has been physically, emotionally, and mentally wrung dry and it’s like I’m staring at a series of wringers and wondering what more they think they can get out of me.
It’s enough to make a girl move to a yurt in Outer-Mongolia where she can just starve to death in peace.
Hopefully some less morbid commentary tomorrow. I got a few books in the mail and plan to review them, but again with the not caring getting in the way of actual productivity.
M
p.s. I don’t really want to hear “I hope you feel better”‘s, etc… so I’m not allowing comments on this post. Don’t freak out… I just don’t want to feel guilty for not responding to more comments.
HOLY CRAP!
What a weekend! Or rather just Sunday and today. Saturday was pretty tame by comparison.
On Sunday morning we packed up to go to my parents’ house for Easter lunch. I am almost done with the first sock for a kit for Anne, but the upcoming bit was tricky, so I figured I would need something else to do. And with 8 sugared-up children running around, I figured I needed something soothing, so I strapped my wheel in to the back seat, with a pillow to cushion it and a box of fiber.
We made good time to Logan and when we got there the soothing nature of the spinning (because I had already hit a wall with the sock pattern) was exactly what I needed.
My sister and her husband had brought Settlers of Catan to play and we had so much fun! We philosophized about the merits of a Sheepalopoly (when you play the Monopoly card to get everyone’s sheep and happen to have a sheep port) and my niece came up with a theme song for the Sheepolopoly as well. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time! Anyone know where I can get a copy for cheap?
We went to visit a friend and then disaster struck! About 9:00 pm, our tire blew out! We had a donut in the trunk, and we put that on, but clearly we couldn’t take the Interstate home on a donut, so we had to stay overnight. I called in to work and told them I’d be late on Monday and that I’d get there as soon as I could.
In the morning we went to a tire store and got the two front tires replaced, but I was faced with a long wait and nothing to knit. So I took my wheel out from the back seat and spun instead. I wish I had photographed the looks I got for spinning in the tire store!
We’re back to Salt Lake safe and sound now, but I am still wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday and slept in last night and I feel a bit ripe. When I get home I’m taking a shower!
M
Be sure to check out Amy’s finished Seraphim! I LOVE the colors!
Wow… just…. Wow
you should all go read this post RIGHT NOW.
Go… seriously…. it will change your life.
Then come back here and discuss.
Mama's got a new pair of shoes!
I promise that I am getting just as sick of photo-less posts as you are. I am knitting, I just can’t show it to you. It’s all contract work or I’ve managed to not take pictures before it disappears. Like the 2 pairs of wee baby socks I made for a friend’s coworker’s new premie twin girls out of KnitPicks Dancing. So on to some totally not knit-related pictures!
I got new shoes 🙂 When my last pair of Chacos gave up the ghost in fall of 2006 I figured I could get through the winter without them and I managed, but now that it is getting warm I was ACHING for some new Chaco action! I got the new version (new as of last year, but my previous pair lasted for a good 5 or 6 years and I beat them up pretty badly), which is the ZX/1. I thought about getting the ZX/2 with the toe strap, but decided against it since I hike a lot in my Chacos and the toe strap tends to tighten when I hike. I like my toes intact and not separated from my body by force (or turned blue and necrotic by lack of blood circulation), so I went sans toe strap.
The new line of ZX’s have this nifty basket-weave strap feature. The amazingly cool thing about Chacos in the first place is that the strap that wraps around your foot is one continuous strap. So they are HIGHLY adjustable, and VERY comfortable to wear. The new line is even more comfortable because each strap shifts a bit to conform to the shape of your foot individually, so the straps don’t cut into your flesh.
Another really nice thing about Chacos is that the footbed of the sandal is molded in such a way that it hugs your foot right where you need it to keep your ankles from rolling and the footbed has a molded in arch as well. They’re very comfortable to wear and worth the investment. I bought my pair at REI for $95.00 and since I anticipate this pair lasting me at LEAST another 5 years, and I will wear them every day for 8 months out of the each of those 5 years, that’s a good deal to me.
Hopefully tomorrow I can pry the pair of slippers I made for my neighbor from his feet and take a picture of those. He took them home while they were still wet because he couldn’t wait to have them!
M
Linotte finished her Icarus shawl in a BEAUTIFUL bright sunny color!
The shop is non-functional at the moment
Hi all, the shop is having some trouble… it’s a matter of a misintallation of the ZenCart upgrade. Totally my fault. But the shop is taking payment, but not taking orders. Everyone who has purchased something and not received an order has been refunded until I get it fixed, but for now, please don’t purchase anything. I will tell you when I’ve got it working again. I just have to revert to a previous backup.
Miriam
*EDIT* It’s back up and running. I tested it all the way through to download and it’s working again. Just FYI, it was not a ZenCart problem. It was a ME problem. I hadn’t upgraded properly. I apologize for the downtime, but all is in working order now. Thanks for the patience!
