20 October 08
A Day in San Francisco
As Numenius said, I had a wonderful day in San Francisco yesterday, hitting Open Studios, a cooking supply place in Japantown, Chloe’s cafe for lunch (see sketch), and the unbelievably fabulous Imagiknit in the Castro. An Irish customer in the shop explained to her friend she had spent months exploring all the yarn stores in San Francisco, and this was by far the best one, she should have started here; mostly, she said, because they were so helpful. (But also, I should add, because the place is like a dream palace of color and texture; it left me speechless.)
Yes, they were helpful. I haven’t done any knitting for over 20 years and I’ve never knit socks, but I have had the WORST hankering to do this. Kurt-the-helpful organized me with a beginner’s pattern and took me over to the fingering yarns. Then he sat me down to do a tension gauge. Hmm, he said. You were taught to knit by a Spanish person… (You have to picture this because I don’t have, and am not likely to provide, a photo: needle under my right arm, balanced on my right boob, and yes, my hands remembered what to do… fast. It’s a fast way to knit).
I ended up with some small bamboo needles for the socks. I can’t fit them under my arm and over my boob, alas. But I’ll just have to draw on my memory of English knitting (thumb under, rather than over, the needle). It’s slower for me but not excruciating, and the needles are lovely. The cats agree. Oh dear.
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I have bamboo dpns as well as a teeny-tiny Clover round needle for making socks. Hope you’ll have as much fun as your cats. ;)
w00000t! SOCKS! Pictures, pictures please!
Cooking supply place?
Ron: Sanko’s on Buchanan and Sutter. It’s very expensive, as I found, but I got a great sushi thingy for my nephew the wunderkind chef…
Yay, socks! I was working on a pair, until they were temporarily derailed by a baby blanket.
I love hearing/seeing how other people knit. Me, I hold the right needle curled into the palm of my hand, and “throw” the yarn pinched between my thumb and the side of my index finger of that same hand. The left mostly serves to move the stitches on the other needle forward.
Sanko’s? Thankos!
I just finished a pair of gigantic socks in Green Bay Packer colors, as per the order of my son in Wisconsin. I am now busy at work on a matching hat to go with the socks…. Then, it’s back to socks, because I developed a taste for knitting socks on those little bamboo needles!