Chiagu Blog

Woolyn - a new yarn store in Brooklyn

Posted on September 21, 2016 | 0 Comments

My friend Rachel has opened a yarn store in Brooklyn called Woolyn (Get it? Wool + Brooklyn = Woolyn).  It's a great name for a pretty nice place.  

Woolyn - a new yarn store in Brooklyn Heights

 

(FYI - I've know Rachel for a while, we were roommates for Sock Summit and Woolyn is selling my project bags.)

Chiagu Project Bags at Woolyn Yarn Shop

 

Rachel has a wonderful background for a yarn store owner: she has worked in a local yarn store and she has designed knitwear that has been featured in Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits. And she hand dyed yarn for her previous business venture, Studio Avenue Six.  She knows her textiles!

 

Yarns at Woolyn Yarn Shop

Woolyn is stocked with industry workhorse yarns from Cascade 220 and new indie dyers -  in fact both Mollygirl and Narwhal Needlework dyed special color ways for Woolyn.

Lux Adorna Sport Kit

In addition to wool and cotton fiber Rachel also carries the cashmere kit from Lux Adorna Knits which Clara Parkes has just blogged about for Knitter's Review.  

 

Roving and braids at Woolyn

Woolyn also stocks roving (Sweet Georgia!) for those who use drop spindles and spinning wheels.  There is an area where you can sit down and have some refreshments.  And don't forget to browse the highly curated books.

The store opened in mid August which may have been too late to be included in the New York City Yarn Crawl that is happening this weekend (Sept 24-25).  If you are exploring the city's yarn stores Woolyn is definitely worth the visit.  Near the Brooklyn Bridge Park, the area has great eating, shopping and calling all cat lovers - it's one block from the Brooklyn Cat Cafe.

 

Woolyn

105 Atlantic Ave (between Henry and Hicks Streets)

718-522-5820

By Subway: R to Court Street , 2/3/4/5 to Borough Hall, F/G to Bergen St

By Bus: B63, B61 (Atlantic Ave and Henry St stop)

www.woolyn.com

Posted in Atlantic ave, brooklyn cat cafe, cascade, chiagu, crochet, knitting, mollygirl, narwhal needlework, needlefelting, project bags, spinning, sweet georgia fiber, woolyn, yarn store

It's Inventory Time...

Posted on January 28, 2016 | 0 Comments

When Vogue Knitting Live officially ends at 4pm on Sunday there is a mad rush by all the vendors to pack up their booth.  Those who traveled to the show have to deal with the package delivery services once their boxes and pallets are ready.  We locals dealt with getting all our stuff into a rental car on a snowy evening.

I took a couple of days off to recoup and then started an extended inventory.  This means counting and reviewing yarn colors, knitting kits, project bags, and yes, even patterns.  I'm running a bit behind with photos, but once they are done updates will happen in both shops, probably this weekend.  Believe me, I am making sure that next year the photos are done before Vogue Knitting Live takes place.

I also review the comments and requests that customers gave me.  Color-wise there will be new kits and new samples.  There are many new ideas for bags that hold your knitting, crochet, and drop spinning. There will (finally) be new patterns.  And of course I need to put an order in for more Koigu. A big thanks to Koigu for making sure I got more beautiful colors in time for the Vogue show.

Posted in bags, crochet, knitting, knitting kits, koigu, new york, ny, patterns, project bags, updates, vk live, vogue knitting live, yarn

2KCBWDAY2: Skill + 1UP

Posted on March 30, 2011 | 1 Comment

The second prompt for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is: Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year.

This one's kind of a head-scratcher for me. I've been knitting since I was a kid and would call myself an "expert knitter" (if there is such a thing), by which I mean that I've tried just about everything and have gotten to the point that I rarely think "oh this is hard" about any knitting or crochet project. I might think it's annoying, or tedious, or not fun to physically do (two-color brioche comes to mind and entrelac are in that category for sure) . . . but that's not really the same thing.

Looking back on the previous year's worth of projects in Ravelry, I would say that if there's one change it's that I've mostly gotten over my loathing of weaving in ends. I still don't enjoy it, but in the past I would avoid projects that had too many ends to weave in, no matter how much I liked the idea of the project . . . and I no longer do that. Evidence?

Exhibit A:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="HUNDREDS of ends to weave in on Babette"][/caption]

Exhibit B:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Dozens of ends of Koigu to weave in"][/caption]

Now, mind you that I'm not saying I've actually woven in those ends yet . . . the progress is more mental that skill-based. I still hate weaving in ends and will procrastinate on that step in a project for WAY WAY WAY too long. I really like the seaming part of finishing and am quite good at it, but the weaving? Blech.

Speaking of which: If you're a NYC knitter and want to trade seaming for weaving in ends, drop me a line. It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

Posted in crochet, knitting, Knitting Techniques

Daily photo: March 18, 2011

Posted on March 18, 2011 | 0 Comments

This is how far I am into section 9 of the Babette blanket. It's still so beautiful and so much fun!

Although, all I can think of when I look at this particular picture is, "woah, that's a lot of ends to weave in when I'm done."

---

PS - I mean it when I say "daily photo": I'm attempting to take at least one photo per day of something knitting/crochet related. Now that I've discovered how awesome the pictures my iPhone takes are, this is going to be way easier than it was in the past. I can hardly believe the above photo (and the ones from yesterday) were taken on my phone! It's a rare day that goes by that I don't touch something yarn-related so this will be a fun project to remind me of what I too easily forget I've done. Hope you enjoy it too!

Posted in crochet

Hello from paradise!

Posted on March 16, 2011 | 0 Comments

I'm on vacation with my parents this week in the Caribbean but thought I'd check in here and show you what I've been working on:

Babette!

I've been so inspired by the gorgeous multi-colored projects on the Completely Cachy blog lately! Every time I check in on her progress I'm impressed by her color sense and the stunning finished items she creates. It rekindled my passion for the Babette blanket!

Last week I attached section 8 to the blanket, so that means I only have 2 sections left. In the interest of getting some serious progress accomplished while on this trip, I brought no other projects but this one. What you see above is what I got done since I got here on Sunday night . . . not bad huh? That's about one third of section 9.

I would have even more done by now if it hadn't been for the fact that I forgot my color key at home. I brought the pattern, but not the key that mapped my colors to the letters of the pattern! When I realized that I was so annoyed at myself that I could hardly think.

The prospect of having nothing to do with my hands all week was enough to make me reverse-engineer the color key . . . which involved about an hour of staring at my previous progress photos on Flickr and mapping the colors to the letters in the intructions. In the end I have a new color key to work from:

So it was definitely worth it. And now, I also have a digital record of said color key, just in case I manage to make this bone-headed move again before finishing the project . . .

Hope you're having a good week wherever you are! I'm headed back out to the pool now that the intense mid-day sun is passed. See you next week!

Posted in crochet

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