Helix aka the Pine Cone Blanket

A gorgeous and sophisticated addition to the Molting Yeti pattern shop, meet Helix, aka the pine cone blanket.

This beautiful, substantial, sophisticated blanket mimics the natural spiral pattern found on sunflower heads and pine cones. Two sets of spirals emerge from the center, intersecting as they grow. Simple pinwheel construction with no piecing or seaming make this a quick and enjoyable knit.

This blanket was featured at the juried Mathematical Fiber Arts Exhibition at the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC (it spirals in two directions - what's not for a mathematician to love?). But don't fret - there's some fussy counting in the beginning as the pattern establishes itself, but it's smooth sailing after that!

Gigantimon Site Update, and Look out Pittsburgh, Here I Come!

I've been working like crazy over the last couple months preparing for the next big step in my knit-designing career - selling wholesale to yarn shops. I've updated all of my patterns with a simplified, professional, and consistent look, and with some downright gleeful formatting. My designs are all about having a gigantic sense of fun - I try to make objects that are fun to wear and fun to play with, and write patterns that are fun to make and even fun to read. Oh, and beautiful, too! I hope you'll agree.


Thanks yet again to my amazing crew of test knitters for helping make this magic happen! I couldn't have done it without you!

Full-color printed patterns on fancy glossy paper are now available in the shop, and at wholesale rates to yarn shops - If you'd like your local yarn shop to sell Molting Yeti patterns, don't hesitate to get in touch!

I also put together a help page with links to tutorials on all of the trickier moves used in my patterns. I hope people will find it useful!

...And, if any of you are in the Pittsburgh area this weekend, be sure to find me at the Fifth Annual Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Show! It promises to be an awesome time, with vendors galore and some really awesome classes. You can't miss me - I'll be the guy in the boa!

Math, Fiber, and Actual Tatting Content!

In January a blanket I designed was featured at a juried Mathematical Fiber Arts Exhibit at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC. My blanket shared the same table as design hero Norah Gaughan's original for Celestine, which feels pretty great!

I'll gush more about that later, but here's something else from the show that I find totally awesome - a tatted fractal by mathematician Ted Ashton!


I love this. It's mathy and handmade at the same time, which means that Ted in making this piece was really doing the math by making smaller and smaller triangles. Plus I think it's really beautiful.

Thanks again to sarah-marie belcastro and Carolyn Yackel for organizing the special session and show!

Edit April 3 09: If you're in or near NYC between April 25 and May 17 and you want to see Ted's work in person, stop by the Yarn Theory show at the PS122 Gallery!

Pillbugs for the Popcorn School

Hey folks - if you've been itching to get your hands on a MoltingYeti original and you live anywhere near Flatbush, Brooklyn, here's your chance! I'm donating one of my sample Doodlebugs (aka pillbug, roly-poly, woodlouse, armadillidiidae or the only known terrestrial crustacean) to the silent auction at my godson Silas's pre-school.

The party promises to be tons of fun too - There will be yummy food and dancing, lots of dessert, and auction items galore, all for one of the coolest pre-schools ever.

Next Saturday, January 31 @ 7:00
The basement of the Dutch Reformed Church
Kenmore Terrace and East 21st Street
(near the intersection of Flatbush and Church)
Brooklyn, NY
$15 cover includes dinner & dancing - all proceeds go to the Popcorn School.
It's a benefit for kids, but this party is for grown-ups.

Hope to see some of you there!

Knitting, Graffiti, No Pants, and... Oatmeal?

What a strange world it is ...

At our last Stitch 'n' Bitch, Barbara and Renee shared the most hilarious stories of running into pants-less people on public transportation over the weekend. Renee's description of interceding with a cop who was hassling a pants-less fellow was particularly awesome. Something like: "She said 'hey, put some pants on' and he said no and she said 'so why don't you go where you're going, and then take off your pants?' And I said 'hey look he's got a constitutional right not to wear pants! It's his free expression and it's not like he's exposing himself or anything!' And then she moved along to someone else and tried to get them to put their pants on." Why all this public pantslessness? It was, of course, No Pants Day.

Of course? If, like me, you missed out on the fun, here's a ravelry thread and here's a youtube video:

Note the pantsless subway knitter about a minute in!

After we'd pretty much said all we could about No Pants Day, the conversation turned to the knitting-as-performance-art that's going on right now at the Time Warner Center (the big shiny shopping mall at Columbus Circle). A bunch of knitters are covering parts of the mall with knit-fiti a la Knitta or Denise Litchfield (pictured below from a Sydney Morning Herald article my friend Jemima just sent me).

The reason for tagging the mall with knitting: Jamba Juice. It'll be Jamba Juice sponsored knit-fiti in Jamba Juice colors, as a big celebration of ... oatmeal. Knitting ... graffiti ... as performance art ... for the man? It's all going on today until 9:00. Check it out if you can.

Economies of Scale

I'm totally psyched to let you all know that my friend (and co-leader of the Flatbush Stitch 'n Bitch) Marci Senders has some work appearing in Economies Of Scale - a Juried exhibition of Miniature Works in Fiber by members of the Textile Study Group.

The show runs from January 7 to January 31 at the Phoenix Gallery
210 Eleventh Avenue at 25th Street, Suite 902
Hours: Tues-Sat, 11:30-6

There's an opening Reception this Thursday, January 8 at 6:00. Hope to see some of you there.

Congratulations, Marci!

Santa Claus on a Steam Whistle

Check this out from my Mom's home town of York, PA - Christmas carols played on a factory steam whistle. Totally not bourgeois.



Merry Christmas, everyone!