I love the Green Market in the morning.

Twice this week I have ended up at the Union Square Green Market early in the morning. It is an awesome way to start the day. I was already taking pictures of my knitting project so I had my camera out and went a little snap happy documenting how pretty all the veggies looked this morning. I picked up an amazing bunch of beets for $2.50 at one of the stands that had mounds and mounds of carrots and beets.




I actually don't like peaches very much but they are so darn pretty, esp in the early morning light.

Lords of Kobol Mission Complete

This is my completed project for the BSG Fleet Power Battle's second round of missions. I chose the Lords of Kobol mission, meaning I had to make something "Honoring" or representing one of the Lords of Kobol. I have dubbed this shawl the Hera Mountain Ridge Shawl, named after the mountain ridge on Kobol.

Any of you not into BSG this is all giberish to you so here are all the pretty pictures. I got to city an hour early and hung out in Union Square taking pics. It was fun, made my morning feel a little more productive.

Never thought I would be Crazy for Potholders

I blame Hello Yarn and the Japanese Bookstore.

I have been on a major potholder kick recently, which a year ago I would have thought was about as possible as a toilet paper cozy kick, but one can never predict where your interests will take you. Anyway, it started when my mom sent me a vintage potholder she had found at an antique store. She had been inspired by Hello Yarn's recent vintage potholder acquisitions and subsequent pot holder crocheting experiments. The weekend after receiving the potholder I turned it into a pattern and made three with some Karabella Vintage Cotton that was just not working with the scarf pattern I had started ages ago. This also happened to mark the start of my blue/red trend.



The next pattern I started using was the Pretty Petals Potholder. I only loosely followed the pattern since I hate reading crochet patterns. They should all be in graph form like the Japanese patterns. I used some Sensa Cotton that I had hanging out in my stash and some Paton's Grace. I ended up bringing this one to my grandmother and it was used as a trivet under the many bouquets of flowers she was receiving. The color in the pictures is a bit deceiving. It is actually bright pink with pale green leaves.



I had so much fun making that one that I picked up some Rowan 4 ply cotton, which is very sadly discontinued, and came up with a cabbage pattern. This is accomplished by using a light green as the base, dark green as the petals and a dark purpley-maroon as the accent. The purpley-maroon is crocheted onto the back loop of the top of the petals. I also added a row to the center of the potholder. The picture does not do it justice because the finished product is awesome. I just have trouble taking pictures in one of the rooms in my apartment. I swear it is the black hole of light.




I am making like a dozen more pairs of these. I love them, and they have already been gifted.

Finally, I made a placemat out of the pretty petals pattern. I picked up some Blue Sky Skinny Dyed Cotton, which Holy Crap is amazing stuff, and whipped this up.


Seriously, if I won the lottery, which coincidentally I don't actually play, I would buy enough of this yarn for several sweaters and a blanket. The Blue Sky people have a way with colors and that Glacier is the perfect delicate light blue.

Nerdy Knitting for points on Ravelry

So Battlestar Fan, Itsyournickle on Ravelry decided to put together a BSG Knitting contest, the Battlestar Galactica Fleet Power Battle. Similar to the Harry Potter House Battles, except this one is between the Pegasus, Galactica, and the Cylon Basestar. Unfortunately, I am a weak link on the Cylon Basestar. I only finished one of the first months challenges. Luckily it was complicated so I feel like I accomplished something. Knitting Designer Glenna C. designed a sock pattern called Viper Pilots. I used that sock pattern to make a Viper Pilot Cowl. I have this thing about not making socks. I tend to use and abuse socks so I feel that it would be a waste to spend time and precious yarn on them, so I make cowls instead. This one used some Kramer sock yarn that I got from The Point when they had their going out of business sale. It's merino, silk, and silver. I used the arrow cable pattern, the vipers, 6 times separated by the swirled rib cable and a little shaping at the bottom so it flares.




The only time I smile at work is when I take pictures of my knitting for this blog or Ravelry. Otherwise it is scowl city.

The intensity of the cables were a welcome distraction from my life for the month of June. It is difficult to be sad when you are thinking this hard about your knitting.

I am hoping to finish all of the challenges for the month of July. The first being a garter stitch shawl with a lacy border. I am smitten with all these finnish knitters and their garter stitch shawls I see on Ravelry. Here is a sneak peak of the colors.



Warning to anyone visiting Purlsoho, Beware of the wall of Koigu. It will suck you in every time.

Measure a Life in Love

2009 will not go down as a particularly stellar year in my book. This June I lost my grandmother. Although she had been sick for some time, I never actually thought it would come to this because in my eyes my grandmother was an energetic bad ass. She would give me a light poke in the ribs and admonish me for using college language, but that is what she was to me.

My grandmother brought me to my first Broadway show when I was 15. It was RENT. I have used this blog several times to wax poetic about the special place the RENT has in my heart. That is even truer now. After seeing RENT that night we drove back to New Jersey and stopped at a classic diner at midnight to have NY style cheesecake, because to a girl from Colorado, that was extremely cool. Later that trip she and my Grandfather took me shopping in the East Village. My Grandfather would watch pick up basketball games while my Grandmother I ran in and out of punk looking stores picking up wild hair color, big chunky jewelry, wacky nail polish colors, pleather jackets and 5 inch platforms because NY is where you could find platforms shoes for big feet. We went to the Slaughtered Lamb pub and ate pumpkin ravioli next to a werewolf statue while Hellraiser played on the screens in the background. They took me to the TKTS stand in the World Trade Center and we got tickets to Miss Saigon. That vacation was amazing and my grandparents solidified their place as infinitely savvy and cool in my mind.

A few years later my brother joined me for another visit with them and we saw 1776 and Ragtime. As an extra bonus they took us to the Will Rogers Follies at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

Shortly after this trip, my grandparents moved to Denver to be closer to all of us. This dramatically changed how we did holidays, as they were now spent at their house with many of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. We would have large, loud get togethers with enough food to feed several small armies.

My grandmother was with me during my senior year of high school when I went on a tour of UNC and the televisions in the common rooms and cafeterias were filled with news flashes of a school shooting in Littleton. We drove back Denver listening to the news updates on the radio and saying very little, because really, what was there to say?

When I went to college in Boulder my Grandmother and Grandfather would regularly come up to see me, take me out to eat, or pick me up for a weekend at their house where I would bogart their washing machine for the weekend. My grandmother made care packages and would take me to Costco. In the first semester of my freshman year when I was terrified to walk on campus alone after dark they went with me to see Eqqus. If any of you have seen this show you know, it is not the ideal show to bring your grandparents too, but they were unflappable. Whenever I needed to get away from campus my grandparents were there to pick me up.

I think my grandmother was excited when I moved to NY. She had lived here for years in her 20's. She and my Grandfather were married here. They lived a few blocks from where I live now in Brooklyn. She got to visit me twice while I lived here. The second time, she stayed with me in my apartment, which was made possible by the sofa and large bed that she got me. This time I was the one guiding her all over the city. We had an awesome dinner in Little Italy and another one at a cool cuban restaurant. We saw Wicked. We had come full circle.

I will miss her like crazy but I know she lives on in my NY adventures, my emails to my 14 year old cousin, in my doll collection of dolls she made, my love of big broadway musicals, and even in my love of all things sparkly, something we share.

I love you Grandma!

Pattern Clarification and Explanation

I have gotten a few questions about the numbering on the Cylon Centurion Hat pattern and I wanted to address them.
1- I numbered the pattern wrong. Whoops! It has been updated with the correct numbers in red. My editing skills are such that even though people told me it was numbered wrong, I did not see the big discrepancy till yesterday.

2- The numbering of the point shaping is separate from the numbering of the rest of the hat. This was my way of saying those rows do not go around the hat, but are only knit in front. Not sure if the professionals would write it that way, but it made sense in my head :) The number sequence goes like this knit 1-16, continue with 1-12 of point shaping, finish with Row 18 to the end.

There was also a question about the short row shaping used to make the point and wrapping stitches. Here is a page from Knitting Daily that explains it.

Anyway, If you have questions send me an email at Wonderfallz@gmail.com or on Ravelry and I will update this page with new questions as I get them.

What a week

Wow, this week has been intense. This time last week I was just really excited for a new Battlestar and excited that I had finished my Cylon hat, my third project of 2009. I figured the BSG fans of Ravelry would get a kick out of it but I never expected it to spread as far as it did. I want to say a big Thank You to:
Shayne at Geek Crafts
Jenny Ryan at the Craft Magazine Blog
Meredith Woerner at io9
Tim Quirino at Geekadelphia
AMC's SciFi Scanner
-although geez AMC, way to wield the double edged compliment! No, my knit hat does not compare to Tricia Helfer, She's Tricia fraking Helfer!! But thanks for using us in the same sentence, and in the same post as RDM news.
and Thanks to all the other twitters, live journals and blogs my pattern has popped up on.
This is what traffic to my blog looked like this past week.


I must say it has been unnerving going to my favorite blogs and seeing my face all over the place, so it's a good thing I can hide behind my latest finished project (finished project 4 of 2009) when I am feeling overly exposed, or exposed to the elements since it has been damned cold here lately.

This cowl is based off Cookie A's Monkey sock pattern but knit without purls. The yarn is Socks That Rock I picked up at Rhinebeck. I have to show some blog love to that ring I am wearing. It was my gift to myself from the Bust Craftacular this year. It is ridiculous, sparkly, and huge and I absolutely had to have it. I managed to line up early enough to get a gift bag, and I saw Amy Sedaris. So much fun.

My pal J decided he needed in on the Cylon hat action too, so I got some better pictures of the hat on him if you want to see it in better light and from the side. For some reason my apartment is like the black hole of light and I get much better pictures at work.