The Sweatshop of Love Blog

New Years Eve is my birthday! I turned 28 on Saturday! As if it being New Years Eve wasn’t a good enough reason to finish my Short Row Sweater, I knew I wanted a fun outfit to wear, even if we were just spending the evening chilling with a few friends at Blue Door Pub in St Paul.

I love this sweater. It’s so fun, unique, and interesting, and I styled it almost like a vest over a long sleeved tshirt and high wasted skirt.

From the front it looks like a pretty normal tshirt. Thank god, because when I finished knitting this top it looked like a mini shirt! I was really scared about the length. I knew it would grow a bit because I used fingering weight yarn instead of the DK weight the pattern calls for, but kept the needles at 5s. Blocking added at least 5 inches!

And the back is just so fun. Putting this top together was a little bit challenging! The pattern is really helpful with pictures and diagrams, though, so I figured it out with relative ease.

And I’m in love with the yarn! Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Peacock. It’s beautiful! Just a tiny bit of shimmery glitter that you can’t even feel. It’s just super soft yarn that is really drapey and lovely. I just cast on another sweater with it a couple days ago!

Pattern: Short Row Sweater by Purl Soho

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Peacock

Needles: Size 5 24″ and 16″

Ravelry Project Page

I’m not a shopper, really. When I go to a store I go with a list of things I need and I don’t mess around. I thought I was like this because I budget well, I’m very determined to spend wisely, I try to be very practical, and don’t buy things I don’t need.

I found out Thursday that I have just been going to the wrong stores my whole life.

Grisel, a friend of mine from Chicago, is in New York City for a while and she was my perfect excuse to finally make it to a bunch of crafty stores I’ve been wanting to go to since I started knitting. She knits, sews, and even has a interest in cross stitch, AND she lived in New York for years so she knows her way around.

It was the perfect storm!

We started at Tender Buttons because Grisel needed buttons for her finished Baby Sweater Buffet and I lost the button off my red skirt. I didn’t pack a lot of clothes so loosing that skirt was a big hit to the wardrobe.

Once our buttons were obtained we were off to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, which had the most amazing window display I’ve ever seen! A big beach and carnival display and, of course, everything was knit or crocheted.

So yeah, I was kind of sold on the place before I even got through the door.

The Lion Brand Studio has every kind of Lion Brand yarn displayed beautifully and priced reasonably. They have yarn that isn’t available anywhere else, too! I picked up a skein of their Superwash Merino in Dijon, a color I’m going to be obsessed with this fall.

Next up was Purl SoHo, the store portion of the blog I absolutely love.

I have never been to a store that had something I’m passionately interested in occupying every inch of it until now. Every book, ever bolt of fabric, every skein of yarn I loved.

I could easily pack up one of everything at Purl SoHo and be happy rolling over it all laying in a big pile for the rest of my life.

We spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at everything EVERYTHING everything in this store.

One of the fun parts of being in the store was finding all of the projects she has featured on her blog placed around the shop. Like this needlepoint canvas!

She had a lot of them displayed in bookcases around the shop.

Our final destination was Brooklyn General Store and, I’m sad to say, this is the only picture I took. I was still in store shock from Purl, I think, and we had been running around shopping for like seven hours at this point.

I will be back, though! They had these cute turtle buttons I haven’t stopped thinking about and an amazing price on Cascade 220 I want to take advantage of.

Sadly, just because I visited these places doesn’t mean I had a ton of money to burn or, more importantly, any space whatsoever in either PT’s apartment or my suitcases. But I did pick up some essentials. That skein of dijon at Lion Brand, my skirt button from Tender Buttons, needles and thread from Purl SoHo to attach the button and do a couple other mending jobs I’ve developed since living here, and one of those fancy tiny measuring tapes I’ve always wanted, also from Purl.

A HUGE thanks to Grisel for being the best crafty shopping partner an out of town girl could ask for. I had the best time and could do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that!

~~~

PS: I totally got accepted into the DIY Trunk Show this year! Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 20th because not only is the DIY Trunk Show really fun and full of amazing crafty vendors, this year I get to be one of them!

Do you want a chance to win a Sweatshop knitting pattern? The lovely Amy at @threadpanda is hosting a giveaway! Go show her some love!

Don’t you love when you see a pattern and know immediately that you NEED TO KNIT IT? And all other thoughts leave your head? And you stare at the pattern and all the pictures and imagine the outfits you can built around your soon-to-be FO?

It took one picture for me:

Isn’t it perfect? I love everything about this picture, over on The Purl Bee. Subscribe to her blog now if you aren’t already.

I love them. I used some Knit Picks sock weight Gloss that has been laying around here forever and the yarn is lovely for this project. They knit up fast and this heel might be the easiest heel I’ve ever had to turn.

The pattern calls for size 1s for the top ribbing, then the rest of the sock is knit with size 4s. I had size 2s so I just used those for the rib, but it’s worth running out and getting size 1s, because my rib is a little loose. Wearable! But loose.

So now it just needs to stop being 50 degrees so I can wear them out!

Pattern: Fishnet Anklets by The Purl Bee

Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Sock Yarn in Grape, which is a discontinued color

Needles: Size 2 and size 4 DPNs

Rav Project Page