Knitting in Brooklyn

Part of why this poor blog has languished the past few years is I have been going through a massive amount of transition on the work front. I haven't added up this year's miles yet, but last year was over 100,000 miles. 

Much of that was back and forth to New York for a summer gig. The company rented us an apartment in Cobble Hill, which I highly recommend if you ever get the chance.

Literally a block from our apartment was La Casita, a yarn store and wine bar with a small cafe.

When I travel I tend to get quickly overwhelmed with a lot of people (hellooo New York). So when I can I usually take a few hours to head to a local yarn store. I have several reasons for this:

• It is a great way to check out the public transportation. I am a public transport nut.
• I hate going someplace I may never go again and only seeing the lobby of a Marriott. We have those here.
• Yarn stores are always in that section of town. The one with real local coffee shops and book stores. You get a real sense of place.
• Each store is different. I know, they fundamentally all sell string, but you learn so much about a place from these little visits.

And I have seen some things I never would have other wise. In Dallas I happened across a Quinceañera where all the girls were escorted in on horseback. BTW that was not happening in the lobby of the convention center. In LA I got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time since I visited my brother in Tokyo. In Denver I learned that public transportation was not full of the habitually sober. It is a great way to quickly get a feel for a city.

SO this past fall we made a trek back up to NY for Maker Faire. We got the chance to stop by Cobble Hill again for the afternoon. Here is the window display from that trip:

If you are ever in Brooklyn and need some string this is the best yarn store I found there. I know, I know, Purl Soho is only a subway how away. And it is worth going too, but I really prefer La Casita. The selection is amazing, and they serve sake in the cafe, which is perfect for keeping the mister occupied and mellow while yarn is happening.

Sweater for Little-Sis

The resident eleven year old recently announced she needed a sweater. These moments don't come often, so this is a drop-everything situation. We looked at pictures and he decided a Norwegian sweater would be best.

At first she was thinking along these lines:

Which is pretty amazing. It is by Shiri Mor and I think is about everything I love in a sweater. Little-sis mostly liked the hair. After a visit to the Knitting Basket she changed her mind to brown and blue and wanted a bit more input into the pattern, plus "more snow-ish". And for the record, if you are in Richmond and HAVEN'T been to the new location for the Knitting Basket it is worth a trip. Decent selection and super friendly. 

Back to the sweater, the base is just plain old Fisherman's wool. I have a serious love affair with that stuff. Once ball is enough for an entire kid sweater plus some. Two balls is enough for a sweater for me. I'm guessing the mister would be three if he let me knit for him. The blue is some left over Knit Picks and Rowan.

So we swatched, and liked it OK. I tend to do a rough swatch, then start with a sleeve. If gauge hold true, you are fine. If you are wildly off, frogging a few inches of sleeve isn't too painful.

Sleeve:

And then we measured, and swatched some more:

And hated it. Dark blue on the brown is too hard to see, and not nearly "snow-ish" enough. So then then we watched Star Trek and planned:

I use Excel for planning out knitting. Just set the column width to 3 and use the fill option to create your pattern. Very easy to copy and paste to create repeats. Then I swatched again - much better. It caused a lot of happy bouncing.

It has been a lot of fun planning this with her. Big sis usually want something very "one color" and there's not a lot of chit-chat about design. Little-sis, like everything else in her world, throws herself head on into the process.

Some details:

• Yarn weight: worsted
• Lion Brand Nature's Brown
• Rowan Pure Wool Worsted in 2 blues
• Knit Picks Swish in Big Sky
• Needles: Size 5
• Gauge: 5 st/inch, 7 rows/inc in plain sections, 6 rows/inch in stranded parts

General plan is to knit the body in the round with a steek. I am leaving 10 stitches for the steek. I originally cast on 140, then realized that once I added 1" button bands to the opening it was going to be a mite big. So I absorbed an extra 8 stitches into the steek with some ktog over several rows. My figuring is the extra fabirc in the first seven rows will just get folded back ito the steek.

Size is coming out just right. Sleeves and half the lower body are done. I'd like to get this together before she has another massive growth spurt. She'd like it a bit smaller, but I am banking on growth.

Everything is bigger in Texas

I'm in Dallas for the week for the SIGCSE conference. A computer science thing.
I have two passions when I travel. I always try out the public transportation. It's my trip and I like trains, so sue me. You want to really get the feel of a city- try the trains.
I also make sure I track down the local yarn store.
So about a 20 minute walk from the hotel I arrived at the Shabby Sheep.
This store is great. Cute dog, great selection, lots of light. Seriously worth the trek.

February Socks Done!

I have been doing the Self Imposed Sock Club on Ravelry this year. The idea is you bag up sock yarn and patterns at the beginning of the year, and each month you grab one and go. It has been great fun so far. My main problem is now I have a much longer list of have-to socks I want to make.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces in Unicorn Parade. I got it last month at the Knitting Sisters in Williamsburg. My favorite yarn store. Local (ish ). Great selection. Friendly.

Lorna's Laces Unicorn Parade

So I had planned on these becoming Jaywalkers. No offense to the pattern, but this yarn turned out to be much busier than I originally thought so they weren't a good match. When I bought it the blues and purples were more on top and the orange was not as visible, I have a backup yarn for that pattern, so I will get a pair of Jaywalkers.

So I frogged, and frogged again after trying basic toe up vanilla socks. I'm a math person and the random stripy-ness was bugging me. I know, I know, really it makes no difference. The socks are for big-sis, not me. And she's in shoes most of the time, and...anyway, it bugged me.

 So I came up with this pattern. It alternates regular stockinette with bands of slipped stitch patterns. Just enough to a) not be boring and b) break up the stripes.

Plus it required counting, so it made me happy.

Afterthought heel. Not the best picture but big-sis was getting tired of posing.

I plan on playing with the pattern again. It seems to work well with all the crazy variegated yarn I pick up but can't ever seem to find a use for.

 

Wish I could remember what this yarn is. I bought it last summer at Knitting Addiction while on vacation with the parental units and the girls at Nags Head, NC. It is cotton, and gorgeous, and I am pretty sure the label floated away while I was knitting it on the beach.

Side note: This is hands down one of the BEST knitting stores I have ever been to. They were stocked mostly with cotton and non-wolly stuff, since it was July, at the beach. Huge, sunny, and LOTS of samples - well labeled. I would be there now if I was a less responsible mother.

So the yarn. Really it would be pretty just nailed to the wall. Originally I turned it into two shrugs for the girls. The shrugs were CUTE, but by December they had worn them exactly once. Enter FPS (Fiber Protective Services). Yarn abandonment. 

So I re-purposed it into a cowl for me. Size 11 needles, cast on 80 stitches. Four rows garter, Knit until you think you might not have enough for the last four rows of garter -do the four rows of garter, cast off. If you get bores of the knit throw in a line of purls. I did prime numbers (3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 or 23) Because I'm nerdy like that. Perfect.

Problem is I cannot get my hands on it. Yesterday the girls and I went to Carytown to look at their favorite toy store - World of Mirth:

And our local yarn store, the Yarn Lounge:

And now I can't get it back - Little-sis refused her coat so she spent the afternoon with it wrapped over her head. Last night big-sis wore it for movie night. No longer abandoned.