Sunday, October 24, 2010

7 months later... The New York City Yarn Crawl

I have been away for 7 months, and I am soooo sorry I kept you waiting for so long.  I have run into a slew of things that I can use as excuses (summertime fun, birthday fun, working too hard, computer issues, internet issues) However, I dont want to dwell on the negative.  Let's look to the future of happy knitting time.  I have so much to get you up to speed on.  So let's start with my most recent knitting adventure, and take it from there.

On October 9th and 10th, New York City Hosted a Yarn Crawl.  I had an absloute fun time galavanting around the city, and entering myself into raffles for a huge yarn basket. 

Saturday I made it to Knitty City, Yarntopia, and The Yarn Co. This was my first time visiting Both Yarntopia and The Yarn Co.  I bought the Stitchionary 5 Book at the Yarn Co, and received a book that they wrote called "Knits for All Seasons" as a free gift for spending over $25.  That was so nice of them. Honestly, I didn't look at any yarn, because I already have waaaaaay to much of a stash.  My friend threatened to cut my hair if I bought a skein.  So, I restrained myself.  LOL!  I am glad that I have books with patterns to help me knit with the yarn that I already have.

365.281 Saturday's Gifts

On Sunday, I made a plan, and headed to 6 stores in Brooklyn, and Manhattan.  My list of intended stores was Knit-A-Way, Brooklyn General, Lion Brand, Purl Soho, Downtown Yarns, and La Casita.  I made it to every store except Downtown Yarns, because time was just running out, and so was my energy.  Here are some pictures that highlighted my trip.

Brooklyn General
Scavenger Apple #2
This store was so warm and friendly.  Part of the NYC Yarn Crawl was a Scavenger Hunt for knitted apples.  As soon as I walked in there it was right there.  Isn't this tree awesome? I want one in my house.  LOL!  So, each apple had a tag with info on the knitter who made it.  I had to send it to one of the yarn crawl organizers via an email.  I was intent on finding the apples in every store that I went to.

Another sweet treat that Brooklyn General had to offer was an apple pie/cobbler contest.  I had a sliver of both pies, and they were equally delicious, but I chose the one that had a slight sweet and tart flavor.  Flavor complexity is a winner in my book.  I perused around the store for a bit, and found some really nice magazines, but since I didn't want to get caught up on falling in love with a project when I put myself on a yarn diet, I declined to purchase them and torture myself.  I will be back to the store though.  I love the fact that they have plenty of yarns that are not your usual run of the mill yarns.

Traveling to the City

So, my next step of the journey was to go to the Manhattan to 14th Street, so that I can go to the Lion Brand Store.  These 8 stops seemed to have taken forever.  When I got to Lion Brand it was busy and bustling.  I signed up for the raffle, and found the apple in a basket of project bags. 
Scavenger Apple #3
And speaking of apple, with New York being the Big Apple, I found the store's front showcase to be very fitting to the NYC persona.

Lion Brand
Stop #3 - Lion Brand Entrance

My Next Stop was Purl Soho.  I admired the fabric display in the front of the store.  I love the fact that this store is a home to knittiers, quilters, cross-stitchers, and embroiderers alike.
Purl Soho
Fabric Bonanza!
However, this store was SUPER CROWDED. I had to run out of there to catch my breath.  I took a quick stop at Starbucks for a refreshing Iced White Mocha.  But, not before I got a picture of the Purl Apple.
Scavenger Apple #4

After this, I realized that making it to Downtown Yarns before they closed was impossible.  I am very unfamiliar with the streets in the Lower East Side, and didn't want to get out of the train, and waste time walking in the wrong direction.  So, I just went straight to La Casita.
La Casita
Stop #5 - La Casita

I was greeted by the ever-so-lovely-and-knowledgeable Hannah.  She offered me a glass of Cava as I walked into the store. I love knitting stores that double as coffee shops and wine bars. 

Hannah and I

So I settled into my favorite knitting shop for the rest of the night.  I ate some Empanadas and salad that were finger lickin' good. 
Empanadas

I marveled at the raffle prize, hoping that I could be one of the lucky winners.

Raffle Prize'

 I found the apple for the Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Apple #5

I decided to actually knit for the rest of the evening.  I knit this baby hat for my nephew.
Hat for a baby

Once the ensemble was finished, he tried it on a week later.  Doesn't he look so cute?  The color looks a little "froggy" to me, but it's a welcomed deviation from Baby Blue.  The pattern for the Jumper is called Pepita, and the hat is the Sockyarn Baby Hat.  I used 2 skeins of Wool Candy Meringue Sock yarn in the Fresh Herb Colorway. I made the socks using the same instructions that were in the Pepita pattern for the attached feet. I figured that babies grow really fast, so he would outgrow a footed jumper very quickly.  I added some length to the foot part of the sock as well as the cuff.  In this picture he is 2 months old.  He is growing so fast. 
365.289 - Baby Clothes

This encompases 2 of the projects on my 10 in 2010 list.  Whew!
Coming up next.... More knitted updates on the status of the rest of my 10 in 2010 projects.

2 comments:

deltapurl said...

Looks like you had a lot of fun

Tawana said...

Yay you blogged! Ooh I wish I knew you was going on the yarn crawl. It looks like you had a lot of fun.