Skip to content

Dear Ann,

I didn’t really leave my yarn in San Francisco. Well—maybe a few scraps of Felted Tweed on the floor of my hotel room (as you do). I write this sitting in the airport, homeward bound, after a super-fast business trip in which I had just one full free day to taste the delights of this beautiful city.

First, the Friends

I did a crash tour of MDK contributors, almost like speed dating—but with knitting, matcha lattes, and you know, not dating. I absolutely suck at remembering to take documentary selfies. I had wonderful, albeit fleeting, meetups with Liz Kaplan and Cecelia Campochiaro which were captured, if at all, only on surveillance cameras. (Hey! Did you know Cecelia’s new book, Making Marls, is coming out next week? We’ve had a preview, and it’s amazing. Stay tuned for more news.)

You know who’s the best at selfies, and in particular at finding perfect backdrop walls for selfies?

Sonya Philip, that’s who! When we were saying goodbye and realized we hadn’t taken a picture, she pointed to this hot pink window, which T Mobile probably put there just on the off chance that Sonya would pass by.

And who’s that in the middle? It’s Vilasinee Bunnag, the principessa of pom poms and passementeries, who is also one of Oakland’s most dependable goat sitters.

I know I’m not the only one who misses Sonya modeling handknits and me-mades in front of the glorious murals of the Mission. She’s on the final laps of writing her book, which will come out in April 2021. I cannot wait! Here’s hoping she’ll soon be freed up for new doings and writings here on the internet. (Like, literally: here. In this space.)

New Frontiers in Portable Knitting

I’m so confident that I’ll finish my pullover version of the Main Squeeze Cardigan by the end of February (and the end of our Bang Out a Sweater knitalong) that I’ve barely put 5 hours into it since the start of the month. I could be on the road to disaster, or to a very long night of knitting on February 28. But here’s the thing: I just can’t tear myself away from my Stranded Stripe Throw until I finish every stripe of Kaffe’s Coins motif. Here’s where things stood as I left for the airport:

40 inches long.
Eight more Coins stripes to go.

If my flight out here is any measure, I can expect to get 4-5 of those remaining stripes done on the plane home.

I’ve got the same feeling I had when I was on the last hundred pages of Middlemarch: I can’t stand the thought of it ending.

The only thing keeping me going is the prospect of making my first needle-felted steek.

In the MDK Shop
For porting your portables. Thanks for looking around the Shop. Your purchases keep us going here at MDK.
By Julia Hilbrandt

The Art

A highlight of my Free Day was my first ever visit to San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. On a Tuesday afternoon, with gorgeous sunshine outside, the galleries were nearly empty. We wandered almost all by ourselves amongst the Richters, Matisses, Kiefers, and Alberses, and one stunning Osawa. I drank it all in. Life is good. I put a few of my favorites up top in the gallery.

If you can get there in time to see JR’s fabulous moving panorama, get there! If Cecelia hadn’t peeled me off the bench, I’d still be gawping at it.

Wish you were here!

Love,

Kay

33 Comments

  • I was wondering where Sonya had gone to and I’ve been missing her— mystery solved! Hope to see her back soon!

    • I’ve been wondering too! Look forward to seeing her back here on MDK

  • I would love to get both her books, but after the new big vogue (that actually had nothing in it that I was looking for) and it’s hefty weight, i am only buying paperbacks. They are too heavy and don’t stay open when used. I will buy the references when they are lighter, maybe even spiral bound.

    • Just a thought…there are places, such as Office Depot, where you can get books converted to spiral bound. Don’t know if it can be done with hardcover but I’ve had it done with paperbacks

      • Yes, this is a great option!

  • I have missed Sonya, too. I hope we see her back here soon.

  • I too love the SFMOMA, also viewed in a cram session two years ago when I taught at the last VKLive there. The Louise Bourgeoise Spider gallery floored me (I was going through some mom drama) and coming around the corner to run smack into a Frida Kahlo self-portrait made me well up in tears. And that whole floor of Keifers? omg.

  • Love your blanket. I am in withdrawal from doing the coins scarf. Loved every minute. I am trying to find a good reference for stitches, like c1F and c2b — it’s a Lucy Neatby pattern.

  • Absolutely love the pic of you, Sonya and Vilasinee! Miss Sonya’s articles on MDK, but am really looking forward to her book. I’m always happy to see Vilasinee at various yarny events. I have somehow fallen by the wayside on my Main Squeeze. I had hoped to have swatched and be ready to cast on by Presidents Day weekend, but I’ve been having a lot of “Look, Squirrel!” knitting moments as of late.

  • You have one more knitting day. This is leap year 2020! You can make easy.

  • Having just flown somewhere, I’m curious – HOW do you manage to knit on the plane? I got some done waiting to board, but in my seat we were so crammed in I couldn’t do it. Maybe I need to learn to tuck my elbows in more?

    • My pro tip: definitely pull out a skein of yarn and start winding it during the boarding process. On Southwest, where the seats are unassigned, you’ll have the middle seat next to you empty until the very last passenger has to sit next to you. Winding yarn is terrifying to people, I tell you!

    • I knit on planes pretty regularly, in aisle or window seats, but never with projects as big as a blanket! I usually work on a hat or socks on circulars.

      I do always ask the middle seat person before I start though, and encourage them to let me know if I bump them too much because I’ll happily stop.

      My favorite experience was finishing a mini Santa hat for my newborn nephew on a Christmas Eve flight. I had about a half dozen people stop by my seat on the way back from the bathroom to ask me about it, and two of them tried to buy it off me!

    • I’m always in an aisle seat if possible, and I just hunker down and go. I don’t think I can fly without knitting, so I’m motivated. Typically I’m also using circulars. On this return flight I had the boon of an empty middle seat, so the Kaffe blanket had its own space!

    • I usually knit on planes also and always use circular needles because they seem to take up less room and require less arm spreading. I also like to work on socks using DPNs, which also allow for tucked elbows. I’m most often in the middle seat these days, so arm rest space is difficult to acquire.

  • Glad you enjoyed SFMOMA! I work there and love knowing that other people love the art on view as much as I do. And we have a staff knitting group that meets every Wednesday.

    • Wow! That sounds like a dream job! I’ve never been to America but I have been to the Tate modern in London and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, I think your gallery must be similar? It must be an amazing place to work!

    • It’s extraordinary and I will return!

  • Come to the Brooklyn Museum for more JR. The throw is my next project, yours looks great!

  • For next time: if you haven’t been to the deYoung in a while, go into the waiting area to get on the elevator to the viewing deck (not into the galleries) – it’s a whole room of Asawas!

    • Yes yes! Was just there too—amazing views! And the Legion of Honor is worth a visit—beautiful porcelain collection. Also if you’re at the SFMOMA don’t miss the Josef Albers paintings… glorious colors

  • Although I am NOT a city person, I adore San Francisco and have found that there is NEVER enough time to explore. Spouse #1 went to Berkeley. Honeymoon was one week at the Fairmont Hotel with morning room service daily. And since Jamie knew the City and how to drive those hills, we explored. Our holiday continued by driving up the Pacific Coast for another week. But, I too left a lot in San Francisco. A week at The Fairmont w/room service…

  • Is there anyone else in that photo we should be looking for besides Frida Kahlo? 🙂

    Your Kaffe Coins is exquisite–definitely on my ever-growing Life Queue!

  • Been missing Sonya too! The book is good news but I hope she will resurface for memademay. You are my inspiration Sonya.

  • You may call it a throw, but Olive calls it a cushion for her window seat! (BTW, it’s looking good. Hope the in-flight movie didn’t put you to sleep!)

  • Thanks

  • HEY, KAY!!!!! GREAT NEWS…IT IS LEAP YEAR. YOU HAVE AN EXTRA DAY!!!!!

  • I’ve been missing Sonya!!! Thanks for the update. Can’t wait until her book come out. Currently living in the Nashville area, so may I assume she will be in the area whilst on her book tour?!!!

  • That’s quite the travel project! Bonus points!

  • OMG!! I am reading your bloggy-email and and just tickled by the fact that you’ve just here in SF! I am an avid MDK ‘follower’ and OF COURSE fellow knitter (and weaver) and live in Boston but have been here in Oakland since end of December visiting our granddaughter, daughter and son in law. SO enjoyed the JR exhibit too and visited a terrific yarn storm in Oakland: A Verb for Keeping Warm. Maybe on your next visit if you missed it. And of course love LOVE ImagiKnit. Also a shout out to Vera and Marie at the Handcraft Studio School in el Cerritto; wonderful weaving class! Such fun being on the west coast for a couple of months in the winter — nothing like knitting in the sunshine! And so happy to miss the snow and bitter cold—much better to knit sweaters and cowls and socks in SF temps rather than New England brrrrrrr …thanks for the terrific update on your travels. So enjoy them!!! Happy knitting from our last week on the ‘Best’ Coast!

  • See you at the next meeting of Coin Knitters Anonymous. For real, what IS it about this pattern that makes it so hypnotic. I have knit nothing but since I started mine.

  • Ah, Middlemarch…

  • Kay, On the Kaffe Coins project you’re doing, can I get the cast on count and dimensions. I love what you did and Im having so much fun making pillows and shawl, I’d like to try the coins also. Thanks

My Cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping