Hyperbolic Bouquet

My sweetheart brought me these awesome pink flowers the other night, 'cause she knows pink is my color, and because they look like brain coral. My google-fu is failing me - anyone know what they're called?

Tweed Summer

Last weekend it was 95 degrees in Flatbush and I was holed up in my sweltering house, listening to an audiobook of Tom Sawyer and knitting on deadline for a magazine project. I'm still too superstitious to crow about my work for publications before I see it on the page, but let's just say it's something big. As in voluminous. And tweed! Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed, to be precise. Because really, what completes a summer day like a lap full of tweed? I'm spending warm summer days indoors, suffering for my art. And my next project (this time for a book)? More tweed - the exact same yarn in a different color. It's tweed with tweed on top!

Kidding aside, I'm in love with this yarn - I'm a sucker for the variation you get even with plain old stockinette stitch from slubby one-ply with a little bit of thick-and-thin to it. And this stuff is really supple feeling and dreamy to work with - it just feels great in your hands.

And now to get all hokey again, this post made me get Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" stuck in my head, so here's the chance to stick it in yours, too! Check out those overalls! New York in the 80s, banana peels, and everything!

Bananarama - Cruel Summer
Uploaded by hushhush112. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Lace and Loop Scarf Errata

Just a quick post to let folks know that corrections to the Lace and Loop Scarf as it was published in the 2009 Knitting-Pattern-A-Day Calendar are published here on my pattern website. I've had a few folks contact me looking for the errata sheet even though it's already been posted for a while now. Sorry to anyone who started and got stuck - Lace and Loop was the first of my patterns to get published commercially, and the goof snuck by both me and the editors.

Beautiful Mirabilis-es

One of the funnest parts of knit designing is seeing how much fun everyone is having with your patterns. Check out a few of these gorgeous Mirabilis-es!

First up: Oiyi. She was one of my test-knitters back in December. She's an awesome and thorough tester, I absolutely love her work, and her photography is gorgeous! Her post shows the full evolution of the blanket, too.

Images by Oiyi - full post here

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Gold

Next, a bold red Mirabilis by Tawana - Tawana's a member of my Stitch 'n Bitch, and often brings her daughter KJ. KJ is just about the sweetest toddler ever. This was a total thrill for me - it's one of the first times I'd seen one of my designs all knit up in person, and in use as a stroller blanket, too!

Images by Tawana - full post here

Yarn - Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Bold Red

And last, here's Vanessa's. Vanessa runs the online yarn shop The Fiber Fix. The Madelinetosh Worsted she used for this blanket is downright dreamy.

Images by Vanessa - Ravelry project page here. Check out her shop here.
Yarn: Madeline Tosh Worsted in Cherry

You can see more Mirabilis-es in progress here on Ravelry:


And the pattern is available here in the Molting Yeti pattern shop:

Ten Days in Doily Heaven

I'm just back from a family vacation - my extended family (including my best friend and her family) took a nine-day bus tour through Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. We spent a day meeting some distant Slovakian relatives in the wee town of Trstene Pri Hornade - distant? Well, from my generation we all have the same great, great grandma.

Here's the bunch of us tromping through the cemetery outside the church where my grandpa was baptised to see the tombstones of our wayback kinfolk. There's a jillion Yuhases on the tombstones (well, Juhases), but none of them are related to us - Yuhas is a Slovak word for shepherd (or apparently, the shepherd's helper), and there's lots of them. Mostly I picked this photo for the blog 'cause it's gorgeous - it was in the 90s but really bright and clear. The mountains in the background are the border with Hungary.

And here's my dad with his arm around his third cousin Ladislav - family resemblance? At least in the belly. And the eyebrows, too!