The Happy and The Sad

I'll start with the sad. This weekend the St Francis of Assisi statue in the garden at my church, my parent's church really, back home in Colorado was stolen. I like this statue. He modeled my hat for me this winter when my mom and I were playing crafty photo shoot at the church. Doesn't he look awesome?

He was wearing the red bow when we got there. Apparently we were not the first to think he needed some accessories. Anyway, if you are in or near Colorado Springs and you see this guy chillin in someone's yard or truck on the way to metal recycling or who knows where, call the cops because he doesn't belong there.

Now the happy. It's Girl Scout Cookie delivery day at the shop today!

Woohoo Thin Mints!!! It's the little things that really make a day awesome.

I Like My Books Signed

What is better than owning these books?

Having them signed and personalized to me.

Recently I attended the first night of Penguin's "Breathless Book Tour" at Books of Wonder. While all of the books look awesome and are on my radar, the real reason I went was to meet Kirsten Miller, author of Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb, and her latest The Eternal Ones. The female characters she writes are bad ass on Buffy and Veronica Mars levels. My favorite thing about her books are the team of "Irregulars", (what the girls of Kiki Strike call themselves). While so many YA books spend a ridiculous amount of time describing how pretty their girl characters are without disclosing much else except maybe an ability to fight, Kirsten Miller has created a completely diverse and well defined cast of characters who are into things like science, technology, mechanics, history and culture. These girls are strong in every sense of the word and wicked smart to top it off.

A few years ago I requested that I choose my teenage cousin's Christmas book and gave her the first Kiki Strike. She loved it as much as I did. I have been helping choose her books since. About 2 years ago she told me she loved all the books I chose for her. This made me so happy that I have been sending her my book windfall since. Every few months I send her a box of whatever books I recently finished. This keeps my bookshelves from tipping over and quells panic attacks over the thought of eventually having to move all those books. Of course I also feel like a loser when she reads in a weekend what took me months but I take comfort in knowing that the subway is a distracting place to read. The only reason you are not seeing a signed copy of The Eternal Ones in the pictures is because I purchased it that day it came out, read it and sent it to her.

Now that I've gushed about that for a while I am going to gush about Books of Wonder. I love this store. It is across the street from The City Bakery so I can pick up the city's best mocha and peruse the shelves of this independent kid's bookstore. They frequently have panels and signing's with really great YA authors. The employees are super nice and fun to talk to. If you go in there without the long wish list that I have, they have great recommendations. There is a cupcake shop attached to the bookstore with icing so bright it stains your mouth for hours. The best part is the freebie bookmarks at the register.

One last thing... Check out the title of the book I picked up while there for he signing. Haha! Thank you Bookshelves of Doom for that recommendation!

Starflower Flake

Have you ever spent time looking at the images gathered from the Hubble Telescope? I have to admit, I am a bit of a nerd for the Hubble website. One day after spending some time ogling some star pictures I thought I would attempt to capture the effect as best I could in knit form. With the aid of a recent sparkly pen buying binge at Kinokuniya I worked out this pattern back in November. It was then put on hold while Christmas was made. Finally, with Christmas finished, box sets of Vicar of Dibley to be watched, and an extra week off thanks to cancelled flights, I was able to knit this up from the comfort of my parents house.

The result looks a bit like stars, it also looks a bit like flowers and a bit like snowflakes.

I have a big head so even though the pattern calls for sport weight I went with some DK Madelintosh knit on smaller needles. The colorway is called Baltic and I am not sure there could be a prettier teal/blue yarn. This one is just stunning. It is matched with a newer Karabella Yarn, Super Platinum that has a metallic sheen. The Super Platinum is held double. This example was knit by working each chart once. It makes a shorter hat with just a slight slouch. This is my absolute favorite hat shape. I would not be surprised if I end up making a dozen more patterns in exactly this shape simply because I like wearing them.



This example was knit using Classic Alpaca from Alpaca Yarn Co. in a light blue/grey and some gorgeous Ella Rae Lace Merino held double in colorway 101, a great pink, violet, black, peach skein. This hat was made working the middle chart (Chart B) 3 times to make it nice and long like a stockingcap.





To purchase the pattern, you can do so through Ravelry or by clicking here:



This pattern is easily adjustable by changing yarns, adding or deleting chart repeats around, or adding chart repeats to the length. I am toying with the idea of making on of those great long stocking caps that are both hat and scarf in one but repeating Chart B until the hat is nice and long. Feel free to play and adjust the pattern to fit your needs.

Pom Poms!!

I am just a bit obsessed with making pom poms this year. There is something wonderful about wearing a slightly slouchy hat with pom poms dangling off the back that bounce when you walk. Because I love pom poms so much, I thought I would post a little pom pom tutorial. It is a tad picture heavy so rather than post it all here, I have posted it as a flickr set.

POM POM TUTORIAL

I May Never Get Back to NY at This Rate!!!

On Monday my flight was cancelled because NY was blizzarding. Today my rescheduled flight was cancelled because CO is blizzarding. I am not sure I will ever make it back to NY at this rate. Anyway, because I am still on vacation and being silly, here are some pics to illustrate my feelings about the weather messing with my plans. Yes, those are my Christmas pajama bottoms.

All this fell in 2 hours.

Merry Christmas, better late than never

Here I am with an extra few days to my vacation thanks to the blizzard that hit NY canceling all flights for a bit. On the one hand, I really need to get back to work because of rent and what not, but on the other I am sooooo happy so spend just a few more days in the happy home-home bubble with my family.

The air in CO could not be better for me right now. This fall I have been suffering from horrible asthma, thank you crappy NY air. The oxygen in CO may be thin, but the lack of pollution is positively magical. Just check out what the trees and sky looked like a couple days ago.


In NY I have an amazing view from my train stop every evening of the NY skyline. It always changes, it is always gorgeous. In CO I've got the sky and the mountains. This is a picture of the colors of the sky on our early morning Christmas Eve run to the German bakery. (no worries, that is steam, not smoke in the foreground)


Although you wouldn't know it by my blog activity I have been a busy busy knitter this fall. I had the amazing opportunity to pattern and knit a hat for Santa's casual look in Elf the Musical on Broadway. There were also a couple cuffs and leg warmers, but the hat was the big deal, to me at least. Unfortunately the knit part of the hat cannot be seen in any of the publicity pictures. You can imagine a cute design with reindeer and stars if you want the full effect. The picture is taken from the playbill.com taken by Joan Marcus


I have also been working on two new designs, that were also Christmas gifts. I have to write up the patterns still but they should be out soon. This is a preview of one of the patterns in two different styles.


Finally here is a CO deer who is far to willing to come near humans, saying Hello.

NY Sheep and Wool 2010!

This weekend marked my favorite time of year, that wonderful peak fall weekend at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, the NY Sheep and Wool Festival affectionately known as RHINEBECK!!!!!!!!! This was my 4th year and it never ceases to be my favorite place on the planet. I headed up with Leila and Nana. Since Leila now lives upstate we drove from her place and skipped the expense of the hotel. Luckily these two know that I am a bit of a loner, I like to run around completely on my own at a breakneck speed catching everything twice. I am also a major magpie, if it sparkles or it's really really bright, I must look at it. I have learned though, that there are a few booths, well one, that has both those things (sparkly and bright) but is seriously expensive so I have trained myself to skip it. Judging from what L and N purchased and the pictures everyone in the Rhinebeck Ravelry group are posting, my color choices seem to be on a different planet so wandering by myself seems to be best.

So this is the stage the trees were at. This is half the reason NY Sheep and Wool is so awesome, seasonal timing. I can revel in the fall colors I dreamed about in CO where the fall colors are yellow and brown. This is what Fall is supposed to look like.


The very best part of Rhinebeck this year happened at the Saguine Gryphon booth. They were a last minute addition to the vendor list after someone else backed out. So last minute that they were not in the guide and their booth was in the farthest back corner it could possibly be in. None of this stopped it from having a line and excitement rivaling Socks That Rock, maybe even more so which is a massive accomplishment. I wanted to introduce myself as the Gotham Skies girl but I could not get within 10 feet of Gryphon and Sarah (manning the register dressed in full steam punk regalia). I did manage to squeeze in and get this shot of my socks, on display with the rest of the steampunk collection.

I stopped by every 2 hours or so to see if it looked calm enough to introduce myself and did not get a chance till 4:30 in the afternoon when Gryphon has stepped away from the booth for a breather. Now, here is when the moment happens to make my day. After introducing myself I am finally able to reach the yarn, pick out two skeins and get in line. Then I notice the woman in front of me is buying my pattern!!! We all get to the register, she is told that the designer is standing behind her and asks me to sign the pattern for her! Unfortunately I was not expecting that and after a long day of fiber overload I could not think of a single note to write so I just signed my name. Considering I feel stressed out thinking of what to say when other people are signing books for me, it is not really a surprise that I could not think of a note to write when signing a pattern for someone else. But to the person who made Rhinebeck really special for me this year I thank you!

Anyway, here is a pic of the haul in all it's day-glow glory!

From the top left corner:
Top Row: The Saguine Gryphon, Socks That Rock, Creatively Dyed
Middle Row: I can't remember the name of the farm but gosh that purple and gold is pretty!, under that is Loop's sparkly alpaca roving tan with light purpley sparkle, to the right is Fiber Optic Yarns, Brooks Farm
Bottom: The Alpaca guy (not the companies name but what I know him as.

Next year I'm hoping I will be attending with my mom.