Knit Night @ Freddy's Bar, June 26, 2011

The perfume of Silver Lindens hung heavily on a warm slow breeze, reminding us that summer has arrived. With my fried chicken dinner in one hand and a bag of yarn in the other, I walked to Freddy's for our monthly Knit Night. Our small group of South Slopers gathered for Beer 'n' Balls and of course conversation — dog sweaters, socks, new apartments, old neighborhoods, hair, new jobs, the economy, school...etc. I like spending my Sundays with our quirky little group, Knit PH.

I haven’t been knitting much lately, I’ve been working on my pattern store, TheYarnMonkey.com. Proofing patterns, programming, taxonomy, taking photos, writing....etc., it never seems to end. I’ve been getting a lot of fan mail from Australia, Norway, and the UK asking when my Elven Anthropology line will be ready. I just keep telling them to hang in there, I’m just one man.

Three cheers for partners Matt Kimmet, Matthew Kuhn, and the artful dodger himself, Donald O'Finn! Freddy’s Bar has been enjoying its new success in Greenwood Heights, in South Slope Brooklyn. After the travesty which is Atlantic Yards and their debacle with eminent domain abuse, Freddy’s success is well deserved. Everyday more as the Nets Arena grows consuming 22 acres of Prospect Heights, public sidewalks and creating an enormous traffic problem, it resembles a disembodied airplane hanger... with flights to nowhere. Some folks have blindly resigned themselves to chanting the rubber-stamp statement that “New York is city of change.” But what we’ve witnessed as change doesn’t benefit Brooklyn. At the rate that a shady realtor can rename a Brooklyn neighborhood to jack up sales, there may not be a Prospect Heights.

Our group is called Knit PH, named for it’s origins at the old Freddy's location in Prospect Heights — a bit ironic considering that the new location is in South Slope. Initially I told our group that Greenwood Heights was named after a mythical revolutionary ”Admiral Greenwood” (so I was told by a shady realtor), but I was completely misinformed. According to Wiki, This Brooklyn neighborhood was named for it’s proximity to the Greenwood Cemetery. People are still dying to get here. It’s always been an ethnically and economically diverse neighborhood — working class and middle class families; mainly Latino, Polish, and Italian. The new additions to 5th avenue would be first-time home owners, restaurants, coffee shops, and bars like Freddy’s and South. The vibe hasn’t changed that much. Although Morisi’s Pasta and the Italian baker are gone, Eagle Polish Provisions now shares the block with Jubilat’s smoked Polish goods and Corzo... Luigi's Pizza shares the slice with the new Italian cafe.

On this night, Knit PH shared the evening with the sweet sound of the self-proclaimed Graham Nash tribute band, The Country Baptizers. We used to share our evenings at Freddy’s with an Alphorn band. As the months heat up our group will be taking a summer break. July will be the last Knit PH meet-up for the summer. We’ll pick it up again in the fall. I’ll miss everyone, we have a small but interesting group.