On a Mission at the New Yarn Shop

I've been planning to make a pair of gloves for my boyfriend, John, for some time now. Yesterday he let me know he could use a nice warm hat as well. Off we went to the new yarn shop in town, Knitting by the Beach, to pick out yarn for both. It's an average size store in a small plaza that I probably wouldn't have found if I hadn't know just where to look. (For those in the area, here's a Google map of the address.) They had a fairly wide range of yarns along with a small selection of knitting needles, notions, and books. I found the owner to be just the right combination of friendly and helpful while leaving you alone to shop. She let me know that they're still getting things in and getting set up. Unfortunately, one thing they didn't have was sock yarn, which is what I want to use for the gloves. When I asked, the owner said she hadn't decided whether or not to stock it because she wasn't sure how much of a demand there'd be for it. I imagine if she gets more inquiries she'll start carrying some. Overall, it's not a place to go too far out of your way for, but I'm sure I'll be back. For me, it's more convenient than other local shops, I liked the atmosphere, I know they'll have a lot of what I'd be looking for, and I have hope that it will only get better. Obviously, for some things, I'll still need to go further afield. In the end, we came away with a skein of Cascade 220 for the hat but will be looking elsewhere for the gloves.

Once home, I got going right away on the hat. I'm following Allison's New York Street Cap pattern with only a slight modification. It's a very basic hat, but double-thick. You knit one cap from bottom up then pick up stitches at the cast-on and knit the same hat again. Once complete, you push one inside the other. I'm making it a few inches longer so that you can fold up the bottom for a total of four layers over your ears. Right now I have one hat/half done, one to go.

tags: knitting