Darling Mermaids

I am very happy to announce the release of my latest ebook, Darling Mermaids.

This ebook was inspired by Pushing Daisies, many hours spent on the beach, and fondness for all things mermaid.  It started as a cowl pattern and because I liked the motif so much, quickly snowballed into a hat, mitten, and baby blanket ebook.

 The ebook is available through Ravelry for $11.00.

The hat comes in 2 sizes, 19"/ 48cm in circumference and 22"/ 56cm in circumference.  It is knit using sport weight yarn.

The cowl comes in one size, 32"/ 81cm in circumference, and is a simple tube.  The chart is repeated 6 times around so the cowl can be adjusted to be more snug.  It is knit using a fingering weight yarn.

The mittens are one size, 9.5"/ 24cm from palm to fingertips and 8"/ 20cm in circumference around palm above thumb.  The measurements do not include the ribbed cuff which can be adjusted to personal preference.  The mittens are knit using a sport weight yarn.

The baby blanket is one size, roughly 1 yard/ 91cm square.  The example was knit in a rectangle and does not perfectly reflect the pattern.  It is knit using worsted weight yarn and the back is lined with fabric.  This is the hardest pattern of the bunch.  In order to make the blanket you should be comfortable with steeking and hand sewing.

Darling Mermaids Sneak Peak 2

Second sneak peak from the Darling Mermaids Ebook which will be releasing on Tuesday, Oct 1st in my Ravelry shop.

Darling Mermaids Sneak Peak 1

I have a fun new ebook releasing on Tuesday Oct 1st.  This is the first sneak peak.

Darling Mermaids Cowl

Uh Oh!, She's Fan Knitting Again

What happens when a girl spends some time cruising around the foreign TV sections of Netflix and Hulu looking for Scandinavian crime dramas (because I heard that's what British people like) but stumbles onto some Korean TV instead?  A full blown, all consuming obsession of course.  It didn't even start small.  One day I was watching a bunch of British stuff, the next day (and everyday thereafter) it was nothing but Korean: Korean TV, Korean star tumblr searches, Korean news.  I thoroughly confused my friends and family with my wild change of interest.  I was suddenly unable to participate in water cooler conversations.  Now, 4 months since watching the first, countless shows have been watched, Level 1 of Talk To Me In Korean has been learned, and I have 1 new hat pattern designed.  Luckily subtitles were only a hinderance to knitting for the first 10 hours, after that you pick up on enough to fill in the gaps when you need to look down at your knitting.

 Anyway here is the 1st Korean drama inspired hat...

*The name is a hint to the drama that inspired it.  Some of the KDrama Addicts Ravelry group members already know (shhhh).  If you can figure out what drama I am referring too by the name or the picture alone, then we should be friends. We can knit on the beach and talk about why I can't stop following JGK/JKS even though I find him kind of weird.

This hat is an easy one compared to my normal colorwork.  I have slammed out 3 in the past month even while working on other projects (Baktiari cowl!)  The hat is mostly ribbed knitting in the round.  The two tricky aspects are the purled cable stitches on the portion of hat that gets folded out to make the oversized brim and making the giant pom pom.

The pattern includes a template to make the giant pom pom but the instructions can be found in my flickr account.  Flickr has revamped their format so make sure to click on the pictures to get the written instructions that accompany each picture.

Luckily this hat is relatively normal compared to my last foray into fan knitting, the Cylon hat.  You don't have to be a crazy KDrama fan to want a big cozy hat with a giant pom pom.  

Stellar Burst

After many months of horrible pattern writing blockage, I am happy to release Stellar Burst, a hat and cowl pattern.

$5.00 for the PDF Pattern

I drew this up after spending some quality time last year on Flickr, searching Finland, Sweden, Lapland, ect and pretend vacationing.  When the everyday grind of NY gets to be too much and I pretend vacation on Flickr or Craigslist, although checking out the prices of apartments everywhere else can sometimes exasperate the problem.  Anyhow, on one of my pretend vacation afternoons I came across a gorgeous pic of some spiky red stars hanging on a winter tree in front of a house with light blueish-grey shutters.  That picture was the inspiration behind this pattern.

The example cowl was knit striping a light gray and a light blue for the background while the hat got a solid background.  The instructions include one size for the cowl using DK weight yarn and two sizes, small/med (18 inches), and med/large (20 inches), for the hat using sport or DK weight yarn.

The chart background is striped.  This is optional and can be ignored if you wish to have a solid background.  The chart is repeatable horizontally and vertically except for the stripes which should be reversed if you choose to repeat the chart vertically (this is unnecessary for the projects in the pattern and only applies if you choose to use the chart for another project entirely).

The pattern includes yardages, and the needles and notions needed to complete the projects.


I hope you enjoy the new pattern, and remember, spring and summer are when you knit the things you wear in the fall and winter!

Time to Stop Being a Hermit

It's the start of the year and time to share some things.

Patterns:  

I have two new-ish (I published them in the fall of last year) patterns. 

*my apologies on the scary coloring of the pic.

As soon as fall weather hits I cannot get enough of Pumpkin themed stuff.  Large glittered pumpkins ala Martha Stewart, nerdy carved jack-o-lanterns of Firefly characters, Trader Joe's pumpkin greek yogurt...  I think the only pumpkin thing I don't like is Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte's (I hate them with a fiery passion despite their excellent cozy marketing).  So this year I decided to whip up a quick pumpkin pattern that could be used before and after Halloweeen, something that could be worn a little longer than the Hocus Pocus pattern.  The chart for this one is fairly small so you can adjust the pattern easily if you wish to change the yarn weight, size of the cowl, or if you want to use it for something else altogether.

This winter hat was designed on a lark Christmas 2011 and is the first thing I knit using yarn I spun (the green and grey version).  The green yarn was an awesome sparkly batt I got from the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn a few years ago, post pool, pre riverside.  The grey yarn is alpaca that came from a farm in Callicoon, NY.  We visited the farm and got to meet all the alpacas.  If you have a chance to visit an alpaca farm I highly recommend it, they are adorable and so soft.  

The pattern includes instructions for a large or medium hat using bulky, aran, or dk weight yarn.

Christmassy Happenings:

Once again I went back "home/home" (CO as opposed to "home" which is NY) for 12th night.  Christmas day was spent in NY seeing Les Mis and eating Chinese food like 75% of the population of the city.  No lie, I took a lovely walk from the theatre in Chelsea to my favorite Chinatown dumpling place and I passed multiple people talking about Russell Crowe's singing.  

I decided to take a bunch of "Christmas in NY" pics this year.  I know it's a fairly common subject but NY does the holidays so well.  

If Christmasy pictures of NY are your thing, there are a lot more in my flickr.

A few days after Christmas I  took off of Colorado for some fresh air and family.  My deer friend came around to see me.

*please note that this is an absolutely horrible example of how to behave with wildlife.  Deer are wild animals and can hurt you.  If I still worked at the zoo I would be getting a stern lecture right about now.  Yes, I worked at a zoo in high school.

We named her Stella.  This is the second time she has visited me at Christmas.  Most of the deer are not afraid of humans but don't dare approach, Stella on the other hand is curious and will walk right up to our door and sniff until someone comes out to see her.  In internet terms, she thinks she's people.

The rest of the trip was lovely even though I was working through that dreadful flu that swept the country.  I saw high school friends, post college friends, and spent many marvelous hours sitting in the kitchen jabbering at my mom.  I also fit in a few trips to my favorite Colorado Springs places Panino's, Wimbergers, Salsa Latina, La Casita and fit in a movie, Silver Linings Playbook, with my dad at the awesome indie theatre, Kimball's, where they still allow you to bring ice cream from the the amazing Josh and John's next door.  Not so fun fact, movies are a good $5+ cheaper in CO than NY.  

OMG Have You Heard of This?!:

Lastly, over Christmas vaca I discovered Miranda.  

I'm completely obsessed.  I think I've watched every episode 10 times at this point.  Had to order this from Amazon UK which is surprisingly affordable and fast.

My mom, ever ready to replace TV watching with book reading, ordered Miranda Hart's book from Amazon UK as well.

It's going to live with Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling's books on the awesome and very funny ladies shelf.

Well it is lovely catching up with the dear blog again.  Now I am going to go enjoy the snow that fell last night.