Knitting Lifestyle

I owe my greatest activities to my friends' ideas and inspirations. Just do it, like Nike says....

C mentioned a month ago that she's going to learn how to knit. She posted a few pics of design by Proenza Schouler (jazz-age-inspired coat) and Diane von Furstenberg (oversized cardigan), and wanted to bring in the pictures to her knitting circle.

I was definately inspired and checked out the scene here. To my delight, San Fran is a knitting town....

Fabulous yarn stores are easily within reach, offering hand-dyed wool, merinos, silks, mohair, cotton, and high-end thready blends that shimmer and shine on their spools, cones, and balls. Chairs are set up inside the store near windows, inviting you to start your project then and there, surrounded by other knitting enthusiasts.

If you are a knitter, you have to go to:

Artfibers (designer yarns in magnificent colours), SF Financial District, Sutter Street, for the company, and the really cheap knitting classes!

The Craft Gym, Bush between Polk and Van Ness, for their Start-to-Finish Knitting Basics series, perfect for those starting out. I was lucky, when I signed up, no one else was able to attend, and I got private lessons from Leah, originally from Maine, where parents have a designer yarn store....

The Urban Knitting Studio on Fell in Hayes Valley, for their cables and twists classes...

Jon's Knit Blog, for some fashionable projects by a hip city blogger. Check out his miles and miles of stockinette stiches entry, he is so cute....

...and so many more stores than I can count. In North Beach on my walk home, through Grant Avenue, there is an unnamed store that I encourage you all to try to find. It's a giant knitted products storefront, where I left with a turtleneck poncho and a parisian knit wrapped sweater with small flowers along the v-neck....

Delicious Offerings from Artfibers Yarn Catalog, with names like Haiku, Golden Siam, Kyoto, and Alfabeto....

A Fisherman's Cable, from DCist, my current project....to practice basic cabling technique and to combat the cold fog here on the Bay....

A basic poncho with pompons: pattern by the Craft Yarn Council.