New York Minknit

Look, Adam finished his first knitted object: a roll-brim hat!

Maybe I need to stop complaining and keep knitting to have an F(inished) O(bject) of my own.

Lekkercraft tagged me with the random things meme. I actually did a version of this earlier, but I interpreted that one as 8 hobbies I could have had. So, since we could all use more random things about me…here we go:

(1.) I love liver, liver products, preserved meats, and potted meats, including, but not limited to: pate, liverwurst (but only the kind that comes in a can, disgustingly enough. I don’t like the sliced kind), rillete, cha siu, chorizo, pastrami, proscuitto, and salami.

(2.) Every year, I have to buy at least one pair of really ugly shoes. I own Birkenstocks, Mephistos, and Crocs. I had the super-ugly white T-strap Birkenstocks before they were popular. Two years ago, Adam was all “NOOOOOO!” when I said I was going to buy Crocs, but then this summer, he was all, “Hmm, I want to buy some Crocs.”

Our ugly Crocs hang out together. (Actually, I think the lady Crocs are cute…but they’re still Crocs!)

(3.) I used to have this insane dentist who would call everyone by wildly inappropriate endearments. For example, he called all of his female patients (including me) “sweetums” and his black patients “my brothers” (he was white). Despite this, I think he was actually kind of a good dentist, but when I switched insurance plans, I decided I should stop going to him. He was really good about fees though–you could be like, “Hey, can I pay twenty dollars instead?” and he would be like, “Sure, that’s fine.”

(4.) I do not have any cavities.

(5.) I only recently acquired a driver’s licence, thanks to the skills of my driving guru, Steve. I loved Steve. He only spoke to me in epigrams, in Chinese. (I learned to drive in New York’s Chinatown.) Like the time I didn’t slow down in front of a flock of pigeons, he said, “Hey, [complex Chinese phrase.]” I said, “Steve, I have no idea what you’re saying.” (I spoke to him in English, he spoke to me in Chinese.) And then Steve sighed, and said, “What Lao Tzu [or whatever ancient Chinese sage he was quoting] means is, ‘Every living thing’s life is valuable, and we should respect that.'” Seriously, he knew a ton of these epigrams, and he rarely spoke, but when he did, they were always these Deep Thoughts.

(6.) I’m strangely fond of sports movies. They’re satisfyingly formulaic. Movies I have seen on the big screen include: The Replacements, Any Given Sunday, and Miracle. (I am not, however, a fan of watching sports on tv, though I like watching actual sports live, at a stadium.)

(7.) I have been to the Hockey Hall of Fame. My guidebook said it was a place where you would see grown men cry. I scoffed. I saw grown men cry, I cried, my friend with me cried, and whenever I’ve recommended this attraction to other people, they’ve reported back that they cried. It’s very moving.

(8.) I suck at Wheel of Fortune, Scrabble, and Boggle. I seriously cannot rearrange letters for the life of me. Related: Vanna White now has her own line of yarn.

Last time I didn’t tag any other knit bloggers because I was worried they already had been tagged, but this time, I do not care! I am tagging the following:

1. Elemmaciltur

2. The Boy Who Knits

3. Pura Lana

4. Knotology

5. Luxe Loops

6. Sockaholic

That’s only six, but I think this meme started as “Six Weird Things” and somehow became “Eight Weird Things,” so I don’t feel bad.

Since I’ve been going to yarn stores, I’ve realized that this country is running out of pun-y names for their yarn stores. (Not to mention pun-y knitting blog names. Adam’s mom came up with mine–he comes from a pun-y family.)

There used to be a flickr group devoted to yarn stores with pun-y names, but it’s now just a yarn store photo group. I think the best needlework pun I have seen was in an issue of Blueprint. It was a caption for a sewing machine, and it said “I got 99 problems, but a stitch ain’t one.” Ravelry‘s tagline is  “Where my stitches at,” which is pretty good too. Though I’m not sure I should be advocating needlework puns that rhyme with rich, as Barbara Bush the elder would say.

Anyway. I’m going to merge two yarn store reviews into one, both of which have pretty good names, Loop, in Philadelphia, and The Point, here in New York.

I went to Philadelphia for work a few weeks ago, and I scheduled myself onto a late train coming back, so I could eat something there and visit a yarn store. Yarn stores, yay!

This was really a wonderful and inspiring store. It reminded me of Purl, here in New York. Whoever orders their yarn has an amazing sense of color, and their store is filled with plump yarns in wonderful hues. They had just gotten a shipment of Koigu and it was spread all over their sofas, and there was yarn! Everywhere!

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I judge fairly harshly on how stores are styled. First of all, they need have to have some sort of color palette. Both Loop and Purl sort by yarn brands, but it almost feels like they sort by color. They both offer a ton of jewel- and candy-colored tones. Even if a store offered beautiful neutrals, I think I could be lured. What I don’t like is when you go into a yarn store and it looks like you’ve wandered into someone’s storage area in their garage. I’ve been in some yarn stores, and they have a combination of baby pastels and dust bunny-ish yarns, and it just seems like someone’s attic. At Loop, the yarns seem like pigments–inspiring materials to paint with.

Photo from Loop’s flickr photo stream–their blog post about it is here.

(I loved this sweater…and look at those colors in the back! Don’t they look great?)

My second criteria is that there has to be a lot of yarn. I hate going into yarn stores (or any sort of store, actually) where there’s only a few skeins here and there. I want to feel a sense of abundance in a store. (I told this to my mom once, and she was worried that this made me sound like I grew up in abject poverty, and that I ran around saying, “Please sir, I want some more.” Don’t worry, I had plenty to eat growing up. It’s just that I like stores to have a lot of stock.)

And here I must now discuss The Point.

I know many many New York knitters like The Point. It is always well-reviewed when New York yarn stores come up, but I am here to complain. Many years ago, before I learned to knit, I remember walking by The Point at night and thinking it looked like the most wonderful place. I said to my friend, “Wow, that yarn store looks so nice–it makes me wish I could knit.” But since I have actually become a knitter, I realized that this store has some problems. I think it has to do with the way they display their yarn, which is in baskets (as you can see in this photo). There’s something weirdly skimpy about the selection in those baskets, and they’re difficult to get yarn out of. You need one of those trash-picker claws to get the yarn out of the top baskets, and it’s hard to see the different colorways available in each basket. In the back, the skeined yarn is held up by hooks, and once agin, there’s something unwelcoming about the display. There’s something uninspiring about the way they display their yarn and it never wants to make me buy stuff here. 

That being said, they have a lot of tables here for people to sit and knit, and their staff always seems nice. I think they need to carry more yarns and display them in a better (perhaps more conventional) manner, and have a more inspiring selection.

Loop 

Address: 1914 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146
Phone: 215-893 9939 or 877-893-9939

The Point

Address: 37a Bedford Street
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212-929-0800 or 877-60-POINT

Here’s an update on old finished objects, now that it’s finally cold. The Ugly Socks, shown here in my dirty clown shoes (it was raining, which is why my shoes are wet), need some extra darning on the heel. I knit the short row shaping loosely, and once the socks are on my feet, the loops stretch to the point where I think they need to be fixed.

The chevron fingerless mittens are great, but I need to finish my mittens, because soon, it will be too cold for fingerless mitts.

Here’s Adam wearing his Odessa hat, given to him on his birthday.

And lately, Adam has been learning to knit his own hat. He is doing quite well. His gauge is even and he’s been clicking along! He even has a Ravelry account–check him out as Hatchback Knits!