NYC Yarn Crawl is coming up! 25-27 September 2015

Ooh, it's getting to be that time of year. The time when it's not in the 80s, when you want to grab a sweater before you head out, when thoughts turn to yarn and knitting. The most wonderful time of year!

Kicking things off this Fall for me is the NYC Yarn Crawl from 25-27 September. This year there are 11 shops participating in Manhattan and Brooklyn. I will, of course, visit Knitty City (my knitting home away from home) and may venture to some other shops. Purl Soho and Downtown Yarns are always fun to visit, and you never know what sort of direct-from-Milan treasure you might find at School Products Yarn, so we shall see if I can make time to visit those shops. I've never been to Seaport Yarn or any of the Brooklyn shops, so perhaps it's time to leave my borough!

If you're going to be crawling, let me know! I'd love to meet up and squish skeins of yarn together. And if you visit Knitty City, be sure to say "Hello!" to Caught in the Rigging - she's hanging out in the Knitty City window until the end of the month.

The 2015 #NYCYarnCrawl map is ready! Check out the website to download a copy and get store hours, prize info and more. See you there! www.yarncrawlnyc.com #followtheyarn #yarncrawlnyc #yarncrawl

A photo posted by NYC Yarn Crawl (@nycyarncrawl) on Sep 12, 2015 at 2:16pm PDT

Meet me at Vogue Knitting Live! 12-1pm 1/18/15 booth #710

I'll be chatting and selling patterns in the Knitty City booth (#710) Sunday 1/18/15 from 12-1pm in at Vogue Knitting Live NYC. The rest of the day I'll be wandering the Marketplace in a wool-fume-induced haze with my dear friend Annie. So much fun - I hope to see you there!

Now, to get ready for VKL, I have to decide what to wear. This is especially fraught when I won't have any other samples with me (the booth is just too busy for me to bring (and have to keep track of) a bunch of samples. So, I'm thinking one sweater and one accessory (shawl).

I wore Sailor's Valentine to Knitty City last week, when it was very cold (it's a super-warm sweater and the wool is a little crispy to wear without a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath). Since the weather is supposed to be more amenable on Sunday, I'm thinking Sotherton (I wore it for the first time this winter about ten days ago and was pleasantly reminded of just how flattering a piece it is) or Wavelette (lightweight lace is so easy to wear in the over-heated wilds of NYC) with Upon the Spanish Main (the MCN yarn is such a pleasure) or In the Shallows (such a great go-with-anything piece)/Thistle Leaf Shawl (there's always something extra-special about the latest design, isn't there?), respectively.

Any favorites for which you'd like to put in a good word?

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

Trip report: Knitty City talk 1/8/15

I had such a lovely time last Thursday! As you may know, the lovely folks at Knitty City invited me to meet their knitters at the monthly Young Designer Meet & Greet for January. I brought a couple of carry-ons filled with wool and took over every hanger in the place to share my knitwear designs.

Holding Benwick at Knitty City

Wearing Sailor's Valentine next to my rack o' wool

The knitters I met were a lovely and dedicated bunch (it was frigid that night - enough so that a pound of Bartlettyarns' Fisherman 2-ply on my upper half seemed just about right). As supportive and lovely as my family is, most of them (my darling sister excepted) don't necessarily understand the finer points of my work like an avid knitter does. So, it was fun to be able to discuss the finer points of various patterns:

• the hood on Sailor's Valentine is basically a big turned heel that allows the Heartstrings cable to travel uninterrupted up the back and over the head, and if you eliminate the ribbing (which pulls the fabric in and gives your figure a bit of flattery without waist shaping), you would have a project suitable for any man
• the bindoff for In the Shallows is a k1p1 rib so the edge stands up rather than turning to one side or the other - there is truly no right or wrong side, and it's a great way to knit up a special skein of sock yarn
• Benwick has integrated epaulets in the saddle shoulders and a heart on the sleeve (individual Ravelry download coming soon)
• only three stitches are cast on and off for the Ozark Wrap - the rest is created as you go - we also decided that with slight modifications, this would make a great blanket (Interweave Knits, Winter 2015 should be at your LYS any minute now, if it isn't already - my Quadrille Pullover is in there, too!)

All in all, a lovely wooly time! If you'd ever like me to bring my woolies to your LYS, drop me a line (greater New York, New England, and Chicagoland are places I get to on a regular basis).

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

Spring has sprung

Monday was such a beautiful day that I took my walk/trot/run/wheeze up to 125th then down along the river and back through Riverside Park. Apparently, the cool weather has kept the pollen down (for the moment), so I am trying to take advantage of the low pollen counts to get out and get this body moving. Thanks to all the knitting I do my hands are very strong, but the rest of me could use some work :)

Here are some pics that you may have seen on Monday of a few highlights along my route...

ready to run in my Team Wilson shirt

 
memorial to the 18th century amiable child along my running route

 
Clearwater sloop on the Hudson - one of the things that makes running along the river awesome

 
cherry blossom graffiti along the Cherry Walk

 
blooming tree along the Cherry Walk

 
violets in Riverside Park

 
stripes cut with a bit of sequined polka dots (putting away laundry happens after the run - there may be a Deckhand mixed in with the store-bought stripes!)

Button Hunt

Yesterday I went on a button hunt!

If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter (I post most Instagram pictures to Twitter, too, in case you're not interested in joining Instagram), or Facebook (all tweets get posted to FB, if that's more your social media speed), you already saw my adventures, but I thought I'd share some pictures (and a little video) of how the button hunt went. I had grand plans to visit both M&J Trimming and Mood Fabrics but ended up finding some beauties at M&J first. Don't worry, Mood, I'll always need more buttons and come visit you soon. (And there are even more little shops with buttons and other findings in the area that I had "in my pocket" just in case.)

Beautiful Springtime in New York

 

M&J Trimming's fabulous window display

 

Choices, choices!

 

A little something I picked up for myself at Kinokuniya NYC, which is up the street from M&J and across from Bryant Park. I've been to five of the Old Time places on the list, so I have a fair bit of work to do!


Since I was so button-obsessed yesterday, I also did some hunting on Etsy, creating two treasuries in the process: Handmade and Vintage. Though I have yet to shop with the vendors in the treasuries, many of them have thousands of sales and five-star reviews, and even the new vendors seem highly regarded by their customers. I may start designing sweaters just to go with some of those handmade buttons!!!

I hope Spring is treating you well (even if you got some snow like we did here in NYC) and that all your projects are clicking along. I'm working on magazine sample #3 (of 4, if you're keeping track) so am keeping very busy.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen