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.

Baktiari, The Hat

After months of being completely blocked, unable to come up with a name for this pattern and the attention span to sit and write, I am finally able to present...

Baktiari is a hat that can be knit in either a beanie or a slouch in size large (22") or small (18").  The large is knit using either aran or worsted weight yarns and the small is knit using either worsted or sport weight yarns.  The background can be knit with stripes like the grey, white and pink example or with a solid background like the teal and gold example.

The slouch hat chart includes a section that can be repeated if you wish to make a longer hat like a stocking cap.  If you march to the beat of your own drummer, you can even use the motif to make something bigger like a sweater, blanket, ect.

The pattern includes all yardage information.

Pom Pom and i-cord instructions can be found in my flickr account.  I do not include instructions for tassels but a google search of "tassel tutorial" comes up with many.

Thank You to my mom and sister for helping me try to name this thing.

Next up, a simple pumpkin motif pattern for October.

Sneak Peek alert...

I have posted a sneak peek of my next hat pattern on my Ravelry group's message board.  If you are so inclined please go check it out!

Gotham Skies... Available Once More!

About two years ago I designed a pair of steampunk inspired socks for The Sanguine Gryphon.  At the end of last year Sanguine Gryphon split into two separate companies and the sock pattern was no longer for sale anywhere.  Well as of this week I am happy to announce that the pattern is once again available for purchase!  You can find it on in my Ravelry pattern store, or you can purchase it through Cephalopod Yarns (soon) while you pick up some gorgeous Skinny Bugga to knit the socks with!

I am hoping to find the time to knit up one sock in a slightly heavier yarn and use it as a Christmas stocking.  My apartment has this awesome mantel and it needs some stockings come December.  

I need to thank my pal Carly for letting me use her feet to take pictures.  I like to ambush my friends at work and say "Pretty, pretty please can you model this so I can take pictures?"

My Ravelry Group

The day job is slow right now so I thought I would tackle a few things I keep putting off.  One of those things is starting a Ravelry group for Thea Eschliman Designs.  If you are interested please join!

I thought I would use it to announce new patterns, the occasional promotion, and as a place for people to post their finished projects.

Now, a Sneak Peak!

This is one of the projects I have been working on this summer.  I am hoping to have a cowl and baby blanket ebook by fall.  There are other patterns much closer to completion that will be published first but I am so in love with these mermaids I had to share.  The half a tail you see under the stitch marker is a seahorse :)

The picture was taken at Rockaway Beach in Queens NY.  It was my favorite place last summer, wonderful on the day I took this picture, but has progressively gotten more crowded and the crowds are leaving the place trashed.  Not cool.  Trash = seagulls = seagulls pooping on people.  NOT COOL.  If caught on the right day at the right time though, you can knit a way in crisp ocean air, which is at least 10 degrees cooler than everywhere else, while watching surfers.

Hope to see you in the Thea Eschliman Designs Ravelry group!

Pollen and Bubbles Cowl

In January this year I was still riding that wave of energy from slamming out Christmas knitting, so I decided to whip up a bunch of matching cowls from some of my hat patterns.  You have already seen the Pop Blossoms cowls, I have finally gotten around to photographing the Pollen and Bubbles cowl I also made.

I wanted to mirror the flower pattern from the Pollen and Bubbles hat along the top of the cowl but the pattern did not quite match.  Luckily all it took was adding one additional line to the colorwork charts to make the patterns match up perfectly.  I have added that one additional line of colorwork to the Pollen and Bubbles hat pattern as well as adding some instructions for making the cowl.

The instructions do not include any yardage requirements, because the charts can really be used with any weight of yarn, they can be repeated as many times as you want to make the circumference wider or the cowl longer.  The cowl can also be finished with a full lining or without.  Because there are so many variables, I did not include yardage.

If you are curious what yarn I used for the example, the red is a Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Solid and the teal is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Baby.  They are both Aran weight.  The charts were repeated 8 times around and Chart B was use twice to give it height.  I did not fully line this one, it is just hemmed at the top and bottom.  It is a whopping 34 inches in circumference and 13 inches high.  I made it super big and chunky.  

I hope everyone reading this has been able to stay cool enough to knit this summer.

Cylon Centurion Hat 2012 Update, Done! Finally!

Remember this?

It took several months longer than I wanted, but the Cylon Centurion Hat pattern has been rewritten!  It is longer (the pattern, not the hat), and probably looks more complicated, but it should make more sense and actually make the hat without trying to divine what I was attempting to communicate in the first version.  I was very, very, very new to pattern writing and using relatively unfamiliar-to-me shaping when I wrote the original pattern.

The updated pattern has been uploaded to my Ravelry store, still for free.  

download now

If you spot any errors please let me know.  If you have any questions about construction, don't hesitate to ask!

Wonderfallz(at)gmail(dot)com or message me on Ravelry

And check out who's face is uncovered.  By finishing the pattern, I paid the ransom (to myself, god, I'm such a nerd), and the digital post-it over Nathan Fillion's face has been removed.

It's like my very own slow moving, lame video game.