Knit PH at Freddy's: April 20, '08

Dave from the German Language Studies group brought a baked cheese cake for everyone to share. It was baked fresh by German comrad, Stephanie. They eventually assembled in the front room at the bar, possibly plotting against the French. The German/knit nights have been a little confusing for some. Tracey wanted to do both but settled with the knitting. She tried to convince her brother Peter that it's very cool for a guy to KIP. But he and his friend moved to the bar for conversational Deutsche, beer, and ESPN.



Bitsy finished her cable-hoodie. There's an Elvish quality to her sweater — it's very Cate Blanchett circa LOTR. She brought a few large cones of black cotton-something-or-other that she purchased from School Products. I suspect it's their house cotton-silk. You can't beat that yardage for the price, but it's not very practical to bring on the train. She wound them into smaller balls. I too was seduced by School Products' massive cones. I bought the last two charcoal grey silk/wool cones — store proprietor, Victor, said "Iz good qvality, yes? And good yardage, you make good purchase." He has a mild Russian accent. The original plan was to re-create a saddle shoulder cardigan that my father bought me when I was 19. My fahter had this funny idea that when I moved from Guam to Los Angeles for college that I would be cold in winter.



It's a very simple grey cardigan with knife ribs. It now has a few cigarette holes, a worn area on the back, and it's literally come apart at the seams. I've been playing around with a pattern inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's earthworks. A knit-on-knit cable is referred to as "shifting sand". Doesn't that sound like a Kung Fu move? I want to incorporate this into my cardigan design. Meanwhile, I've just finished a pair of arm warmers for my friend Caroline using this shifting sand pattern. I was also told that arm warmers are referred to as "gauntlets", not arm dickies.



Hanna and boyfriend Dave arrived — she finished her first sock and started the next one while Dave made himself another watchman's cap. There were a few new faces. Megan brought some friends, Alexandra, Stacey, and Emeline. They are also members of Archie's Park Slope Knitting Circle. Tomo asked me if I've gone to the Atlantic Avenue circle run by Daniel. I didn't know that Atlantic had one. Isn't it funny that most of the Brooklyn knitting circles are run by men?

I settled at a table with Liz (from Detroit) and Tomo. Liz has been to Freddy's before, she's actually a big fan of the Kings County Oprey, an evening of contemporary and origianl Blue Grass music. Liz works at a veterinary clinic on the Upper East Side. She reported that the cost of fuel has directly affected veterinary care. She had to inform clients of the new prices changes, some supplies have gone up by 200%. Even cats have fallen victim to the unsettling socio-economics and weird weather patterns we are all experiencing.



By 10:00 pm the cheese cake was mostly finished. I brought the last slice to bar owner Frank Yost. Emmeline pointed out that the clock on the wall had the wrong time. It's actually broken, I remember when it was knocked clear off the wall on Opera Night. The sopranos were getting routy.