Monday we found just about every yarn shop in the city was closed, either because they were always closed Mondays, or closed especially for Memorial day. We did visit Gotta Knit! where I found...

I'm going to make this sort of bucket style hat

Since Abby has been asking me to teach her to knit, we picked up some basic yarn (maybe a wee bit too splitty) and started on a rib & cable hat (I wrote the pattern at Starbucks on Monday morning...I'm thinking of ironing out some things and maybe sending it to knitty - it's very repetitive and (I think) a really good beginner hat - some knitting, some purling, some cabling, some DPNing, and ~~some~~ knitting in the round). Abby's doing great - I just forgot to take a picture of her hat before I left.

The store was small, and a little understocked, but cute and the owner was very friendly. The owner and another woman were the only ones there. When I mentioned that I was from DC (saying my LYS didn't carry much Noro and it makes me sad), she said I was the second person that day visiting from DC.

Then we went to Purl, which was the most adorable little store. So cute! I think that if I need to order something online, I want to order from them. So little, so cute, so colorful! And friendly and helpful, without hovering (as best you can not hover in a store smaller than my living room).

I picked up...

The gray koigu will match gray and black pants (my fashion sensibilities tell me that the bright and colorful hand knit socks go with jeans, but come winter in Baltimore, wool socks will be cozy). Not sure of a pattern yet.

The pink koigu kersti might be mittens, not socks. Not sure.

The Lorna's laces is self striping (about two rows in each color), so I won't do too much of a pattern (so I don't muddy up the stripes). Maybe some sort of ribbing at most (not such a fan of plain stockinette socks).

I also picked up some Bryspun needles, since I've heard good things about them for lace knitting.

So on the bus we pass M&J Trimmings. We'd called that morning, but they had a "Closed" message on their phone - which was funny because they were very much open! See, I'd been flipping through Martha Stewart Living, and they having been doing recaps of the past 15 years in each issue (favorite recipes, good things, and this month: Suppliers), and one of their favorite suppliers was "Tender Buttons" - a large button store in NYC - so I wanted to go and maybe get a button/clasp for my sweater. They were also closed all weekend, but while searching for URLs to yarn shops (to call and see who was open Monday) we found the URL to M&J. Anyway, so we got off the bus and darted in, about 30 minutes before closing. I found a great button (button is also only about 3/4 of an inch in diameter) for my Sitcom Chic sweater (20% done, I keep forgetting knitting on the train=motion sick!). Abby also found a nice magnetic snap and button for a Talmud cover she's making - a very productive stop overall. Then we caught a bus that ran up Riverside Drive - while Law & Order (all varieties) would have you believe it is crawling with people just waiting to abduct and/or shoot you, it was actually very pretty with some lovely apartment buildings.

posted by Amber @ 10:23 AM

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