The Traveling Sock

I’ve been dragging my sock around town, annoying everyone, but putting in a row here and a row there.

Here it is visiting the parachute jump at Coney Island. (My knitting has now visited two of the remaining remnants of the 1964 World’s Fair, the other being the awesome Panorama.) By the way, as an occasional reader of weird pop culture history books and through my years of research for work, I’ve discovered that almost everything was invented or debuted at a World’s Fair, including Belgian waffles, air conditioning, various electrical gadgets, and ice cream cones. Whenever someone wonders when the first “______” came about, if you answer “The World’s Fair!” you would, I think, be right at least 75% of the time.

I also made it pose next to many different types of magnolias, tulips, and cherry blossoms  at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, (and one patch of neighborhood jonquils). It’s like the gnome! It’s everywhere!

This is a small little yarn store in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Midwood, which is a short drive away from Coney Island. Adam and our former co-worker, Seltzerboy (pictured) wanted to eat pizza at Di Fara. (If you click through on the links, you can read about how the two of them are fanatical about Di Fara. I was the victim of much eye-rolling when I suggested that Di Fara should institute a line, instead of the free-for-all pizza ordering system they they currently have.) It’s just a neighborhood yarn store, with Red Heart and Patons, and similar brands, rather than the more high-end yarn stores in Manhattan or other parts of Brooklyn. It is, however, devoted entirely to yarn, unlike a lot of similar neighborhood stores, which tend to be a catch-all of fabric, yarn, Bedazzlers, and other craft supplies. I am guessing that they developed this inventory–of more inexpensive, and often acrylic, yarn–by observing customer demand, though I wonder if it would benefit (or hurt) the store to carry more boutique lines of yarn as well. Their inventory is so similar to that of Michael’s or Jo-Ann’s that it lacks any stock that might give it an advantage over those big-box craft stores. It may be, however, what the neighborhood wants, and a store carrying Koigu or Malabrigo might be seen as too expensive or too snobby by its customers. I don’t know; that’s just my guess.

Stitch N Stitch

1320 Coney Island Ave.

Phone: (718)-692-0100

This was on the same block, and I think it might be owned by the same people who owned Roxy Yarns, but I couldn’t find Roxy Yarns. Perhaps both stores are moving? I liked the name: “You’re SEW materialistic!”

Posted in travelingproject, Uncategorized, Yarn Stores at April 20th, 2008. Trackback URI: trackback

6 Responses to “The Traveling Sock”

  1. April 20th, 2008 at 10:08 pm #Adam

    I’ve heard that knitting was invented at the World’s Fair! 😉

  2. April 21st, 2008 at 10:58 am #jenny

    That name is amazing! Two puns for the price of one!

  3. April 21st, 2008 at 9:45 pm #anne

    what a lucky sock! and you made it back to coney island again- I loved your pictures from last year.

    Stitch n stitch has the best shiniest sign ever.

    Did you like Di Fara? Been meaning to try it sometime, but I’m partial to California yuppie style pizza.

  4. April 21st, 2008 at 10:16 pm #Claire

    Di Fara is good, though (shhhh…don’t tell Adam) in my opinion, not necessarily worth the trek to Midwood, unless you’re in the neighborhood. I like Californian pizza too, and Di Fara is definitely New York style!

  5. May 4th, 2008 at 9:18 am #kim

    whoa, that stitch ‘n stitch sign is like the alhambra water truck sign (?). i think more things should have shiny metallic signs for no particular reason.

  6. July 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am #Sew Materialistic

    Hi!

    We actually moved to 1131 McDonald Ave, several blocks away. Roxy Yarn shares some of our space.

    Thank you for complement on the name! 🙂