Autogyro is Go!

Hey everybody - check out my pattern in the new Knitty! Father-son propeller beanies! I'm so proud. The pattern is over here.

Friday Sneak Peek - Knitted Pillbugs!

Hi everybody - Here's a peek at the newest addition to the Tatting My Doilies strange knitted toy menagerie - A Pillbug!

What do you call these things? (Aside from the only existing terrestrial crustacian or armadillidiidae) Apparently it's one of those regional things - I grew up calling them pillbugs. My friends from Upstate NY call them potato bugs, and Faye from Australia calls them roly polies. I'll probably call the pattern doodlebug, just 'cause that's the cutest name I've heard for them yet.

The pattern should be up by next weekend, so stay tuned!

Eisenia the Earthworm is Ready for her Close Up

Brand new in the pattern shop, meet Eisenia the Earthworm! This easy pattern includes three patterns in one - a mama worm, worm babies, and a worm egg. Hope you like it!

Knitted Vermicompost! Yippee!

Live in a teeny apartment but wish you could compost? You can! All you need is some compost worms (red wrigglers aka eisenia foetida), some newspaper, and a plastic storage tub with some holes punched in it. There's a whole book about it here and the wikipedia article is pretty good too. You can order worms online or find a source locally - in NYC I know you can get them from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and the ecology center stalls at the Brooklyn and Union Square farmers' markets.

And, um, if you want to knit your own squiggly friends, the pattern's almost done! Mama worm, worm egg, baby worms all in one! Food scraps and casings not included.

Crochet Coral Reef

So here's my utterly belated post from the opening of the Crochet Coral Reef at World Financial Center. If you don't already know about the reefer madness that's descended on our city, go here or here or here. (And Londoners, you're next!)

I totally love this stuff. At the opening, I was privileged to meet my craft hero Helle of Gooseflesh fame, and also got a tour from my new friend Gay of the crochet guild, who pointed out her contributions. That little bit right there is mine... That's part of what I love about this project - it's so additive and polyglot. A number of the folks I've talked about it with have dissed the presentation - you can't tell from my fuzzy picture (it's behind glass) but much of it sits on separate bits of black fabric. It's nowhere near as faboo as the highly controlled photos on the IFF site's gallery, but I kind of love that about it, too - I can almost hear the Crochet Ladies who put it together saying "wow! this is neat!" a zillion times over.

Dog Drawings against Breast Cancer!

Hey check this out - my friend the brilliant and talented Maria Sputnik (aka Sascha) is offering custom schwag to anyone who donates to support my breast cancer ride! She says -

if you donate money, I will draw a picture of your dog! And if you don't HAVE a dog, I'll draw a picture of what your dog would look like if you DID have one.

She started doing this for another friend who's doing a 39-mile breast cancer walk in Colorado, and she's generously offered to extend the favor to my readers here, too! Here are some of her awesome drawings:

You can see she's mad talented - can you guess who asked her for a yeti?

If you want to play along too, here's how:

make a donation of any size on my donation page to support Tour de Pink.

Then leave a comment on Maria Sputnik's lj page telling her what kind of drawing you want.

Thanks, Sascha! Thanks, everybody!

A Big Bike Ride Against Breast Cancer

Hi everybody -

This October, I'll be participating in the Tour de Pink, a 200-mile charity bike ride the whole way from Hershey, Pennsylvania to New York City to raise money for the Young Survival Coalition.

Those of you who know me pretty well know that I would probably find it easier to ride all 200 miles uphill and in the rain than hitting up all my friends, family, co-workers and blog readers for donations. But here goes: Breast cancer stinks. My grandma had it, my mom has had it, three of my five aunts have had to deal with it. Like everybody else, I hope for a time when my nieces and nephews won't have to worry about breast cancer. So please consider supporting me - you can make a donation here.

The ride benefits the Young Survival Coalition, the only international, non-profit network of breast cancer survivors and supporters dedicated to the concerns and issues that are unique to young women and breast cancer. The event costs are underwritten by the corporate sponsors, so anything you give will go straight to supporting the Coalition's vital work.
Thanks, and all the best!