New York Minknit

So, I decided to check out Knit-A-Way in Brooklyn, after we passed it on the bus a couple of weeks ago.
Knit-A-Way is on a stretch of Atlantic Avenue that is bordered by rapidly gentrifying and/or gentrified neighborhoods. If you’ve read any Jonathan Lethem novels (I only read Fortress of Solitude, but apparently, they’re all the same) then you know about this neighborhood’s on-going tony-fication.

Look at the awesome needle selection!

* I ran smack into my college roommate and her husband when I was going to Knit-A-Way the second time, and she confirmed the un-gentrified powers of this street because they live about a block away from Knit-A-Way and they are unable to get a dog walker from any of the posh neighborhoods nearby because, as she says, “We are on this weird periphery where no dog walkers go.”

So it all began on Friday night, when I used a gift card given to me by Sarah to buy the sock book, Knit Socks! aka the book shaped like a sock. Apparently I was so sucked into my new excitement about a future of sock knitting that Adam came right up next to me and yet I totally didn’t see him and clutched the only copy available at Barnes and Noble and headed down on the escalator. I was like, don’t mess with me knitters! I have the only Knit Socks! book in the store! (Note that the book is called Knit Socks EXCLAMATION POINT! Excitement is clearly soon to come.)

Then, even though my co-worker generously gave me her needles, the sock book teaches you to use  a set of 5 double-pointed needles (DPNs), not 4 (she gave me a set of 4 clover bamboo needles), so I had to drag Adam to Purl Soho before dinner to get a set. (I dare not defy the instructions of a book with an exclamation point in its title.) I managed to squeeze in right before it closed.

Purl Soho, (www.purlsoho.com), a really beautiful yarn store where I got my Manos del Uruguay for My So-Called Scarf, just opened an equally beautiful fabric store down the street called Purl Patchwork. It is literally the cutest store ever! Check out another blogger’s photos on her flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/disdressed/sets/72057594083640613/ (Thanks H-Dub for pointing me to these photos!)

I ran into Joelle Hoverson, the owner (and author of Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, and former Martha alum) outside, and she was telling me the store just opened on Monday. It truly is beautiful, and Molly, friend of Maddy (a hilarious blogger and a college friend), is going to be the manager.

 It’s a scoop! You, my dear 3 readers, have gotten the newest info on Purl Patchwork! So so so so cute. I would totally take up quilting if I had a sewing machine.

 Check out the beautiful knitted quilts on Mason-Dixon knitting.

Purl Patchwork
Location: 147 Sullivan Street, New York NY 10012 [map]
Phone: 212-420-8798

On Saturday, I conned Adam into going to Seaport Yarn with me. I totally loved this store. It’s like the office that Catherine Keener and John Cusak work in in Being John Malkovitch. You go to this totally nondescript office building near South Street Seaport, and then you take the elevator (with an empty spooky lobby, with a lone guard who ignores you) to the fifth floor.

Once you’re there, you see this weird paper sign up that says “Seaport Yarn.” I expected to be led to a strange tunnel which would hurtle me into John Malkovitch’s mind at any momment. Instead, I would up in this really weird waiting lounge, like one for a sad dentist, circa 1985, complete with extremely bad (and strange) wall art, and receptionist area. I said, “Um, is this a yarn store?” And a woman said yes, and then when I entered, I went into this weird labyrinth of office rooms (still complete with office furniture in many cases) with yarn everywhere. It was like the yarn twilight zone. Only one person could really be in the hallway between the rooms at anytime, and if you moved too fast, you would knock over a bunch of yarn (like me).

Adam overheard the owner say that that they might be evicted because the building is being turned into condos (and I’ve read that she used to run a consulting business out of the office originally). Anyway, I loved it. It was a totally opposite experience than all of the twee-er-than-thou yarn shops in Manhattan, and it really did have an enormous selection of yarn, all at reasonable prices.