Smileys

After finishing Manhattan and Brooklyn, I ventured far into the outer reaches of Queens this week to visit a knitting institution. Smiley's (92-06 Jamaica AveWoodhaven, NY 11421Store: (718) 849-9873 Mail Order: (718) 847-2185, http://www.smileysyarns.com/) has been around since 1935. It has always been on Jamaica Avenue, first at one location, and then (for the last 36 years) in its current place. I took the J train out to Woodhaven Avenue and exited down the stairs, finding myself right across the street from the store. Tempting smells of fast food pizza and chicken entered my nose, but our babysitter had to go to school soon, so I had very little time to linger. When I enterd Smiley's, I thought I had gone to a "Target for wool". The store is very large and filled with shelves and shelves of yarn--most of it wrapped in plastic so it won't get dusty. The website promises: "Smileys Yarns offers all of its wool yarns, cotton yarns and acrylic yarns at the guaranteed lowest prices in America." And that is true. The prices are truly amazing. Most balls of yarn are sold for under $2.

Smiley's has been run by the same family since it was founded. The two women at the front were not sure if it was the grandfather or father of the current owner who founded the company. Counting back, though, we all agreed it must have been the grandfather (unless the dad was really old!). The store was quite busy when I was there. A couple of people asked questions and were promptly (and very nicely) educated about the yarns. The women behind the counter were both knowledgeable and eager to help. Both were crocheting. I the feeling of watching old acquaintances during a coffeclatsch.

I would recommend the store to anyone on a budget and to people who are just starting out, who want to work with cheaper yarns before they try the fancy stuff. Most of the yarns can be machine washed. The store carries Tahki Elliott, Royale Love Beads, Bernat Boa, Bernat Eyelash, Cervinia Genova, Patons Twister, Patons Ci Ci, Bernat Bling Bling, Moda Dea Dream, Patons Carmen, Aunt Lydia New Wave, and more. It is a good idea to call the store and ask if there are any special yarns in the store--sometimes they carry cashmere... Aside from yarns, Smileys carries a wide array of knitting and crocheting needles, threading needles, and rows and rows of knitting magazines (also at great discounts). Once a year there is a trunk show in Manhattan where all the yarns are available. Higher end yarns, are also sold during the sales dates--at mind boggling prices. These brands are announced on the website shortly bfore the sales. The ride out on the train was enjoyable and mostly overground. You can catch the J from the A at Chambers or at Broadway Junction. Both transitions are easy--just make sure you catch the "uptown" train if you are coming from the Chambers station. Give yourself about one hour from most Manhattan locations.

After chatting for a little while and snapping photos , I looked at my watch, and dashed back out of the store to get back to Manhattan. I even made it with fifteen minutes to spare! My son greeted me with "Yay, Mom's home, now Kara can leave!" Then he turned his back on me and continued playing with his babysitter--go figure... :-)

P.S.: "Oldestyle10" from Ravelry sent me an alternate route to get to Smileys:

An alternate route to Smiley’s, for those to whom the J train is a mystery.
Take the R or V to Woodhaven Blvd-Slattery Plaza. Follow the signs to the Q11 or Q53 bus, both of which run south on Woodhaven. Get off at Jamaica Ave, which runs under the first el train you will pass, and Smiley’s is a half-block down Jamaica Ave. Travel time is still probably about an hour, but I enjoy buses much more than subways.

And on the northeast corner of Woodhaven and Jamaica, there is one of those wonderful Peruvian roast chicken places. Delicious.

Fair Trade the Second.

After my whole diatribe of "Fair Trade Knitting" last week, I had to eat my words (literally) :-) !

I have been enjoying going to the farmers market on Union Square on Wednesdays, and generally I pay less there for food than I pay at our neighborhood grocery store. So last week I went to my favorite salad stand (we've really been enjoying salads at home recently). I picked up two bags. When I went to pay, the man at the stand said, "That will be 31 dollars." My jaw dropped to the floor. $31 for two bags of salad and one box of edible flowers? I glanced back at the sign and it said $6 per quarter pound". He was right. I was too embarrassed to make a big scene, but in the afternoon I checked Whole Foods and found that their prices for salads are nearly four times less. So I went back to the stand today and asked them. "Can you please explain to me why your salads are sooo much more expensive than at other stores?" And here it goes: the guy said, "When you buy an organic salad form Whole Foods or Fairway, it's mostly been harvested by machines. The lettuce gets taken care of by machines, it is ripped out of the ground by machines, and it is washed by machines. On our farm we do everything by hand. Every leaf has been handled with care and everyone on our farm earns a living wage." So I said, "Oh, so it's kind of like Fair Trade Salad then." And he said, "Exactly!" So I went back to Whole Foods and looked at their salads, but after having eaten this amazing concoction of green, red, and purple leaves, I just could not go back to the packaged, slightly limp version. I asked my husband what he thought. Could we really justify spending so much on SALAD? And he said, "Honey, the salads from the market are amazing! They actually have flavor--you feel like you're eating a nourishing meal. The stuff from Whole Foods doesn't really taste like anything." He was right. The salads from the market are amazing. The ones from the store keep sitting in our fridge until they wilt. So today I grabbed a little less salad from the market. I figure, we will pay Fair Trade. We'll just have eat a little less... And I learned (again):

You really DO get what you pay for!

Wool And The Gang

Yet another new knitting store in Manhattan! It seems like we've lost so many, but here they are, sprouting out of the ground again...

Wool and the Gang (96 Thompson Street, New York, NY 10012, phone (212) 966 266, e-mail: nycshop@woolandthegang.com, http://www.woolandthegang.com) is not your everyday knitting store: it carries only three different kinds of yarns--100% Peruvian wool, 100% Peruvian alpaca, and 100% Peruvian cotton--each in up to 20 different colors. The concept of the store is very simple: attract a clientele that is young and hip, and would not get into knitting unless it was easy, fun, and accessible. The patterns are made accordingly. Most kits are stockinette stitch, some with embellishments.

You can either buy the finished garment, or the kit to make it yourself. The store opened with a buzz. One week after its U.S. debut, The New York Times included it in their Fashion Pulse slideshow.

I went to visit Wool and the Gang last week, and found two very nice women in their twenties sitting at a large white table, which filled almost the entire room. They turned out to be the designers for the store. On the table, to my great delight, were two large jars full of brightly colored European candy, the kind that sticks to your teeth when you chew it. I grabbed a handful (they said it was o.k.) and sat down to digest the candy (and the store). A wall drew me in with cartoon-like drawings of a girl knitting.

She is sitting on the floor, trying to wrap her mind around what her fingers are supposed to do. When the girl gets stuck, she grabs her computer and watches an instructional video. A lightbulb appears over her head, and then she continues happily.
"This explains our concept," Aurelie, one of the two designers, told me. "We want people to lose the fear of trying something new. When they come into our store and look at the wall, they see that knitting is done in four easy steps. If you get stuck, you go on the Internet and watch one of the videos we provide … The generation we are trying to attract is one of pure consumers who have lost touch with what it means to make something with their own hands."

We discussed the location, Peru, where the yarn and the store samples come from. All the store samples are made by hand by women in a village named Puno. Aurelie and Jade (the other designer in the store) design the samples and create the patterns. The patterns are then given to the women in the village. "We only have around six samples of our designs in the store at a time," Aurelie explained. I asked her if this was their first store, and she told me that they also sold at Barneys, The Smile, and Net A Porter, but this was the only actual store (aside from one in Japan that also opened recently). The company was started by two women, one Swiss (Lisa Sabrier) and one British (Caroline Main). They first started a website and sold kits in Paris. In order to find out how to reach the young consumer generation they want to convert to knitting, they hired a consulting firm to research what puts people at ease with trying something unknown and potentially difficult. They came up with their concept of easy pieces, poppy colors, and well-documented instructions.

After I got home, I did some of my own research on the store. I came across a whole thread on Ravelry dedicated to Wool and the Gang. Many people have taken exception to the prices of the kits and the garments, especially because the pieces are pretty easy to knit. I usually don't get into discussions like these on my blog, but in this case I'll make an exception because the topic of pricing knitting is very close to my heart. Up front I want to say that as a designer who wants to be paid adequately for my time, facing what regular clothing stores are charging for cheap knockoffs of originally hand-knitted items, I find it very hard to imagine making a living in this field. Given the amount charged by these stores that mass produce in countries where people are not adequately compensated for their work and then sell these samples for “dumping” prices, a person thinking about charging even minimum wage to make a hand-knitted piece (plus materials costs and design) doesn't really stand a chance. In my opinion, knitwear is hugely underpriced on the market right now. Adding to this that Wool And The Gang follow Fair Trade practices, which they attest to on their site, I am not so sure the argument that their prices are too expensive holds.

One of their kits is sold for 75 Euros. It contains 2 balls of Peruvian wool, one set of knitting needles, one pattern, and one set of threading needles. Let's say (and I am approximating here) the two balls of yarn were sold at 10 Euros each, the pattern at 5, the needles 15, the packaging 5 Euros. So far we are talking "normal" prices. The company hired a firm to do research to explore their target group. A graphics artist developed drawings, designers were hired to design the pieces (they are actually paid employees and not the owners of the store--at "regular" yarn stores, the designs are often created by the owners for little or no compensation to themselves), the store has to pay rent in Soho... It’s easy to figure out where the “missing” 30 Euros go!

I have recently come across a number of posts on Ravelry in which prices are discussed in relation to knitting. One blog by the designer Annie Modesitt talks about her frustration at how little knitwear designers are compensated by some of the established knitting magazines (often signing away all of their rights upon publication).

So after this long diatribe, I do want to make a plea here: please let us all take in how much work knitting is and not allow prices to be dictated by the people who run large chains of stores that dump knitting on the market at cheap prices.

Do I sound like I’m on a soap box? I guess I am.

On that note, I wish Wool and the Gang lots of luck. May they produce a whole new generation of knitters, accustomed to Fair Trade pricing, who will then become clients of us hand-knit designers and pay fair prices for our work!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So... I was hoping to post tonight, but life--once again--is not on my side. What was I thinking, assuming that I was going to have time to blog on Thanksgiving? Somehow it completely escaped me that I am cooking!

...And there was this:

Anna and I went to see the balloons being blown up on 81st street. It's a time honored tradition, but it has gotten so huge that there is hardly any space to walk and people get herded by a massive police force (which my daughter flirted with extensively). We had fun for the first half and both hated the second half where the mass of people just pushed us by balloons and out of their sight. We barely made it to the grocery store to get dinner together for tomorrow.

I actually did sit down to blog tonight (as you can see), but I got into this huge rant in my head about something knitting related. I got all worked up over some "principle" stuff (more about that next week) and just could not let it go...

...before I knew it, it was 9 p.m. and spinach/cashew/bacon stuffing was calling and potatoes want to be cooked.

Long post, short message: I'll see you all on Monday.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Gotham Fine Yarn

Rebecca, the owner of the newly opened Gotham Fine Yarns (148 Orchard Street, betw. Rivington & Stanton, New York, NY 10002, phone: 646.863.3504, http://www.gothamfineyarn.com/), is by far the youngest owner of any New York yarn store. She opened in the middle of October in a district that used to be a garment center. Today this part of the Lower East Side is a very trendy hangout, still home to Katz’s Deli (where Sally had her fake orgasm). The Tenement Museum lets us know how people used to live when this neighborhood was in its heyday. Arthur Miller grew up here (his father was in the fur business).

Stanton street between Clinton and Attorney has a soft spot in my heart because it houses the first apartment I lived in after moving here from Germany. I moved in during the night of the Tompkins Square riots and saw the helicopters fly over my rooftop.

Last Friday, I walked through a neighborhood much more peaceful than it was back in the eighties. American Apparel has taken over the corner where I used to buy my bagels with melted cheese. Giant snowflakes hung between the street lamps. Since Gotham is open until 8 p.m, I was out in the dark during one of those nice fall drizzles that make you think of upcoming cozy winter nights. I found Gotham easily. It is so new that the awning isn’t up yet, but the handknit sweaters in the window gave it away…

Inside, I found a young woman teaching another young woman how to knit at a cozy, large wooden table in the back of the store. I recognized Rebecca as the owner because of the way she said hello. While they were talking, I looked around the store and found a lot of very nice yarn. Having followed some of her comments on Ravelry, where Rebecca is known as “yarndarling”, I knew that she originally wanted to carry only environmentally conscious yarns. I found many of those, and lots of other very nice yarns as well. When I asked her, she explained to me that she had thoroughly looked into carrying only organic yarns, but found that they were often a little more rough than chemically dyed and treated yarns, and so she decided to carry a bigger variety. We got into a long conversation, so I decided it was time to whip out my book and start to write things down.

Me: How long have you been open?

Rebecca: This is my fourth week.

Me: Why did you choose this location?

Rebecca: I love to hang out in this neighborhood at night, and I thought if I worked here, I’d be down here a lot. Then I found out that this neighborhood had a lot of yarn stores 20-30 years ago (Lionbrand used to have its offices around the corner). A lot of people have come in and said that it’s great to see a yarn store here again. They used to come to this neighborhood for yarn with their mothers when they were little.

Me: How do you choose your yarns?

(Ella Rae sockyarn)
Rebecca: Yardage, price, colors—basically value. Mostly everything I carry is under $10 a skein. It invites people to explore more. I carry about 20 different companies. Malabrigo, Ella Rae, Debbie Bliss, Araucania, Louet… the details are listed on my website (http://www.gothamfineyarn.com/).

(Louet alpaca)
Me: Who makes your samples?
Rebecca: Mostly me, but sometimes I get samples from the company. I only put out the ones I like, though.

Me: What made you want to open a yarn store?

(Debbie Bliss camel)
Rebecca: I’ve always wanted to have my own store. With the economy being what it is right now, I was able to negotiate a number of costs down, but yarn is generally a business you can start with very low capital. I planned it for 6-8 months. Then I had dinner with a couple of friends in the neighborhood and saw the empty store, and I kind of had the feeling that this was it. I called the landlady the next day and signed the lease soon after.

Me: What kinds of classes do you teach here?

Rebecca: I offer four classes at the moment. There is a sock class (taught by one of the Ravelry moderators); by the end of the class you can make five different kinds of socks. The others are basic beginners classes that I will teach. I will cover knit, purl, casting on and binding off. I teach a number of basic scarves (some with pockets) and how to finish a piece (sewing).

(Louet Kidlin mohair)
Me: This is an extra question. Since I saw you on the Ravelry forums, I am curious how much Ravelry helped you with figuring out your business.

Rebecca: Ravelry is great! The support, the idea that people out there cared enough to get back to me to answer questions I put into the forums, really helped me. A lot of people have been very supportive. I use it now to look up a pattern when I have a Raveler in the store. They can get the wool here, I give them the links, and they can download the pattern themselves. Many people have come in and introduced themselves by their Ravelry names. There’s also a Whole Foods knitting group that meets at the one on Houston street. They love that they can come in here and buy yarn and then go grocery shopping around the corner.

(Ella Rae)
Me: And my last question, although maybe this is not something you can answer. How do you think the economy has affected the knitting world?

Rebecca: I can answer that. It has made my having a business possible.

It was now 8 p.m. Time for Rebecca to be released into the wild, and time for me to turn in at home…

Good luck to you!

Lana Fabrics--Knitting Supplies

Lana Fabrics (909 Kings Highway, Brooklyn, NY, (718) 339 8940, F to King’s Highway; B, Q to King’s Highway) is all the way out in Coney Island, near the last stop for the F, B, or Q train. I took B train out, reading a book and drinking coffee. After a few very hectic weeks, the quiet hour was very welcome. It was a beautiful fall day with a light breeze coming in from the water, smelling ever so slightly like sea salt. I walked on King’s highway for about 4 minutes past stores filled with Russian delicatessen, lots of high heels, and fur collars on anything from sweatshirt hoodies to jean jackets.

Lana’s Fabrics is a medium size shop filled floor to ceiling with fabrics, ribbons, buttons, zippers, and one hallway full of yarn. It feels a bit like a balloon that is blown up so much it might pop at any minute—but instead of helium, it’s bursting with very useful stuff. Narrow aisles lead through the different sections of the store. One entire aisle is full of yarns of various discount brands (Bernat, Ordell, Patens). Although the store does not sell many brands, it has a wide selection of different fibers and colors.

A number of patrons were looking for last minute costume items for Halloween. The store seemed quite busy. I found Lana, who has been running Lana Fabrics for nearly forty years, and her grandson Joe, who has been helping her lately. Both of them were very friendly and helpful. Joe was interested in exploring other yarn companies, which the store might carry in the future. I was intrigued by this grandmother and grandson team. They were very in tune with each other, and Joe was involved in every aspect of his grandmother’s business. Both of them live in the building, which belongs to his grandmother. Lana, Joe told me, is from a tiny village outside Honkong, called Canton. We talked a little about the economy and how most of the small businesses that are surviving do so because they own the buildings they are in and are not dependent on outside leases. After chatting for a while, I asked them both my seven questions.

Me: How long has your store been here?

Lana: 38 years, since 1972.

Joe: My grandmother used to be a seamstress, but then she started selling notions, then notions and yarn. At some point she decided just to do the store.

Me: What do you look for when you are buying yarn?

Joe: We sell Bernat, Ordell and Patents. We have been working with all three companies for years. We have people who ask for angora and more expensive fabrics, but they don't want to pay the prices.

Me: Who is your staff?

Lana: Me and my grandson.

Me: Do you teach classes?

Joe: No, not at this time. We don’t have the space.

Me: Who makes your store samples?

Joe: We don't have store samples.

Me: Do you think the recession has made people knit more or less?

Joe: It's come back. Knitting has become bigger lately.

We chatted a little more. After I took my pictures, I walked back to the subway, stopping only for moments in a number of very tempting stores... If I hadn't been expected elsewhere, I might have swung over to the amusement park and taken a couple of rides on the roller coaster, or taken a stroll on the boardwalk...

(picture from http://blog.ratestogo.com/thrilling-amusement-parks/)
But life being what it is, I did not have the time :-(.

The Yarn Tree

(image taken from Yarn Tree website)
This week I went to the Yarn Tree in Williamsburg (347 Bedford Avenue, between South 3rd and South 4th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211, phone: 718.384.8030, http://www.theyarntree.com/). I got out at the Bedford Avenue stop on the L train and walked along Bedford Avenue to South 4th Street. I arrived at the Yarn Tree in a bit of a bad mood. I was tired; I thought, "What's the point of all this work I am doing anyway? Knitting! Who cares about knitting? Couldn't I come up with something more important to do?" My brain was rambling a sort of general existential diatribe that always pesters me when I have had too little sleep.

When I got to the yarn tree, the first thing I saw was the dog in the window. I opened the door and was greeted by a happily wagging tail, which instantly made me feel better.

Then my eyes caught a hanging skein of yarn that looked exactly like the 13 kilograms (29 pounds) of yarn I had just ordered from a German mill: devastated by their decision to discontinue the yarn, I had bought up their entire remaining natural-colored stash. I asked Linda (the owner) where she had gotten the yarn, and she told me she had ordered it from a mill in England. I was so relieved. I love this yarn, and now I knew I could get it again.

My mood thus improved, I explored the store and took pictures. Linda was busy helping customers. The store is separated into two rooms, one filled with yarns, and one filled with fibers. The yarn room is for knitters; the fiber room, for spinners. Both were full of fascinating things I had not seen before, such as these hand spindles:

When Linda had a moment we sat down and I asked her my seven questions.

Me: How long has the store been here?

Linda: We just celebrated our 8th anniversary.

Me: How did you choose this location?

Linda: I've lived in the neighborhood for 18 years. I am a weaver. My fellow loomers and I had lost our studio, and I had to find a place to put my looms. I first had one side of this store, then the person next door moved and I took over her space as well. At South 2nd Street we have another space where we teach; our focus has always been on teaching.

Me: What got you into yarns?

Linda: I have been working in textiles for a long time. I was a costume designer for Matthew Barney's "Cremaster Cycle". Towards the end (I had this space already) I was on location, teaching the principals how to do a five-finger-walking-braid as a magic spell. We were shooting a close up when I asked an assistant to get me some fresh yarn because I didn't like the way the yarn looked in the shot. Someone from the Guggenheim saw me do it and said: "That woman knows her yarn." Matthew answered, "Yes, she does know her yarn!" It stayed with me, and I woke up that night thinking "I'll open a yarn store!" I had very little capital, so I bought yarn form anybody who would sell very small quantities. This led me to very small companies, people who were just starting out... I started with one shelf. Now it's much bigger.

Me: How do you choose your yarns?

(Blue Sky Cotton)
Linda: I stock only natural fibers, no synthetic blends. I don't carry metal needles, only bamboo and wood. I want to support small dyers, farms, and mills. Blue Sky used to be small but it has grown to be a large company. I still carry them. Schaeffer in Upstate New York is an indie dyer that I carry. They do wools and blends and mercerized cotton. She names them after memorable women. Frog Tree is a not-for-profit. In the last four years they have given away 1/4 million dollars.

(Schaeffer Mercerized Cotton)
Me: Given the dog in the store, I love that you carry a yarn called "Wag Tail".

Me: Who is your staff?

Linda: I am the owner. I have one instructor for embroidery, one for spinning, one for felting, one for crochet, and one part-time employee. People often complain that stores close between 5 and 6 p.m., so I chose to be open late instead. It made sense and I didn't mind working later. Our hours are from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., except Saturdays and Sundays, when we are open from 12 noon to 7 p.m. We are a teaching facility, so a lot of people like to come after work to take classes. The store is always open during class time. That way, if anyone needs anything, it's right here. We also sell meat from a small farm (pork, lamb sausages…). It’s high quality meat and very good (I walked home with a good chunk from their freezer in my bag).

Me: What classes do you teach?

Linda: We teach all levels of knitting, crochet, embroidery, wet- and dry needle felting, 3 + levels of weaving, natural dye and low impact dye. Shibory workshops...

Me: What’s Shibory?

Linda: It’s like the piece that hangs on the wall over there…

Me: Wow! That is beautiful!

Me: Who makes your store samples?

Linda: I design them and make them.

Me: Do you think people are knitting more or less in the recession?

Linda: Overall, I think it's less than in the first four years of my business. I think the economy has an impact because knitting is expensive. But in the last 9 months we are finding new knitters...

Me: There were some things you mentioned before that I am curious about. You said you travel a lot.

Linda: Yes, I took three trips in the last year. I traveled to Rwanda, where I taught genocide victims to identify dyeing plants, how to gather them, and to make dye from them. I was there for ten days. They had sheep, and I taught them how to dye and weave. They are baking bread for a living, but now they are learning how to dye as well. They are all HIV positive, but they said, "We are having fun." That's what is important to me.

Me: What were your other two trips?

Linda: I went to Southern India, where I worked with specially abeled youth. I taught them how to work with cochineal, which is an insect that gives a red dye from the acid in its stomach. I was in Munar for about one week and taught thirty kids.

Me: And the third trip?

Linda: I went to Mexico. We had raised funds to bring books to children. We had conducted a few fund raisers at the shop, and collected enough to buy books, shoes, and uniforms. We went to Mexico as a group to present the gifts. This year I'll be going to Honduras. I'll consult with two villages in the coffee region to see what they could make with their hands that they could bring as additional products to the market place. I'll also go to rural Ghana. There is a group of people who make beautiful baskets out of garish colors--not natural dyes. I want to teach them how to identify plants and make natural dyes. When they dye naturally, they will be able to make a product that can sell on the American market.

Needless to say, when I left Linda I was full of thoughts. As a knitter who also cares deeply about things that go on in this world, I was very inspired by her. Knitting (and dyeing, weaving, all things fiber related), I learned once again (I actually learned this before...), is what we make of it. It can be light and fun and playful, and it can be deep and thoughtful. It can help cities, countries, people--it can give them a reprieve from the vagaries of life, bring joy, improve their economies... All those things.

Thank you, Linda, for showing me new ways to connect to the world through fiber, and for changing the color of my day :-)

Happy 5,000 Visitors!

Hello Everyone!

Thank you all for coming and reading my blog. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am... If you have any suggestions or want me write about something in particular, please let me know...

:-)

Brooklyn General

Brooklyn General (128 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231, btwn Columbia & Hicks, phone: 718.237.7753, fas: 718.237.4688, http://www.brooklyngeneral.com/) is located in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. I took the F train from Manhattan to Carroll Street, got out at the back end of the train, and walked west on Union Street through Carroll Gardens. It turned out to be a fairly long walk by lots of pretty brownstones.

Union Street is in the part of Carroll Gardens that turns into a wonderland from Halloween to Christmas. The brownstones have little patches of garden out front that turn into Ghostlands and Christmasworlds with moving sculptures and tons of lights (and sometimes even noises). It's a huge attraction for the surrounding neighborhoods. Kids and adults alike dress up and walk through the streets enjoying all the holiday hullaballoo together.

After about 5 minutes of walking, I reached the highway bridge that crosses from Carroll Gardens into Red Hook. The store was on the next block. I entered and found an abundance of beautiful, high quality yarns. (Very much worth the walk!)

Brooklyn General carries many yarns that I love: Fiber Company's Road to China, Malabrigo, Blue Sky, Botanical Shades, Manos, and many more. The store also carries fabrics, notions, sewing patterns, felt, some clothing, and dolls. I would describe the feel of the store as "Knitty City meets Purl."

A very nice woman at the cash register (whose name, I am ashamed to admit, I did not ask) told me about the store policy of carrying entirely natural fibers. Only a few yarns have traces of synthetics (namely the sock yarns: a little bit of nylon can add a lot of durability). In the coming weeks, many of the yarns will be available through an internet store as well (on the website).

(photo from their website)
Brooklyn General is owned by Catherine Clark and Katie Metzger. Catherine is also a midwife and works across the street. They used to run the store out of a tiny space adjacent to the midwifery. Everyone was very happy there, but when the space became available across the street, the two grabbed the opportunity and gained lots of room for new yarns and fabrics...

When I took my pictures, I noticed that people seem to enjoy hanging out in this store. The back is very roomy, with a comfortable couch and a large table. Yarn shelves separate the area from the front, creating a sense of privacy. A large selection of books begs to be explored. I was very tempted to stay and hang out, but I had to get going, so I browsed a little, leaving with two skeins of worsted Malabrigo for my nephew's birthday. When I got home, I emailed my questions to Catherine, who answered promptly.

Me: When did you open your store?

Catherine: In 2003

Me: How did you choose this location?

Catherine: We live in the neighborhood. In fact, I live across the street. When Frank's Department Store became available, we couldn't resist the old "general store" appeal. We always wanted our shop to be like the Olsen's store in "Little House on the Prairie".

Me: Who is your staff?

Catherine: We have several part time staff: Heather Love, Laura Cromwell, Jennifer Divina, Esther Rosenberg. Katie Metzger runs the fabric side of the shop, and I run the yarn and fiber side of the shop.

Me: How do you choose your yarns?

Catherine: I choose my yarns with my heart (and certainly not my head!). If I love something, I will stock it. I choose only natural fibers because I love the way they feel and smell.

Me: Who makes your store samples?

Catherine: I make most of the store samples.

Me: Do you offer classes, and if yes, which ones?

Catherine: We offer many classes, too many to list. They are on our website.

Me: What got you into yarns?

Catherine: I have been knitting since I was 5 years old. I don't think being a midwife really has much to do with the yarn business, but there are many overlapping aspects to my two careers. Helping women is the primary mission of both businesses. In addition, I often have customers that become my clients and vise versa. Sometimes I will see a client for a visit and then run to the shop to do some work, and I end up helping the same woman in the shop.

Me: Do you think people are knitting more or less since the recession?

Catherine: It seems people are knitting more since the recession. I think people want to occupy their time with handwork rather than go out to dinner. Even though you need to spend money for supplies, you have the process as well as the final product .

After I left the store, I walked back east on Union street to Court street. Court Street houses my favorite bakery, Sweet Melissa, which catered our wedding desserts: madeleines and chocolate covered strawberries. Sweet Melissa is known for its chocolate, pistachio, and hazelnut madeleines (as well as many other things). I would kill for them, so I decided spontaneously to celebrate our anniversary. When I came home I put the bag in front of Adam.
"Happy anniversary," I said.
"But it's not our anniversary."
"Well," I said," it is the 10th anniversary of our being together on a September 21st--so there! Happy September 21st Anniversary!"
We both laughed and enjoyed our madeleines. Later, as I was falling asleep, I thought up a perfect trip:

First, I'd take the IKEA ferry from Battery Park in Manhattan (I think it's still free) over to Red Hook, then I'd walk the couple of blocks north on Columbia Street to Brooklyn General (rather than walking from the subway). I'd go yarn shopping at Brooklyn General, then walk over to Court Street (hopefully during Halloween or after Thanksgiving). Then I'd go to Sweet Melissa and grab a bunch of madeleines. Full and happy, I'd head back home on the F train.

I hope I have time to do that, soon! :-)

New York Yarn Crawl

The New York Yarn Crawl starts this Friday, October 9th and runs through Monday, October 12th! It's a great fun event that features many different New York yarn shops. Free instructions, book readings (see the Stitch Therapy post below), and much more... Check out their website.

Happy crawling everyone!