Prague Knitting Groups Merge -- New "Official" Prague Stitch 'n Bitch is Born

Went to my knitting group yesterday. Haven't been able to go since the December holiday, but it appears that the old knitting group and a new knitting group have joined forces. I had a blast and knitters moving to Prague who want to meet a fun group of women, should hook up with this crew. I'm definitely the oldest in the group, so it's a young, spunky group with all sorts of interests and backgrounds. We were meeting at The Noodle Bar, a restaurant along the river in downtown Prague: Plavecka 4, Praha 2, Nove Mesto (http://www.noodle.cz/). It had great food and no smoking and they didn't mind if we sat. But we met late during the week and it took me an hour to an hour and a half to get home on public transport. That's fine because it was fun, but this group is currently meeting at someone's house a short bus ride from my house on Saturday afternoons. We'll see if that continues, but it's much more convenient for me. There is also talk of knitting for some local charities, which I like as well.

I have finished a few baby things. I'm on another bib from Mason*Dixon Knitting that's out of great colors. The baby these may be for isn't here yet, but should be any day now.

There's something in the water!

There must be something in the water here in Prague (or at least at our school) because there are babies coming out of the woodwork. Decided I better get going on a few things so I have a stash of baby gifts to give away. Have some cotton that I've used to make the bib/burp cloth from Mason*Dixon Knitting. Here you can see the start of one. I have some pretty green yarn that is soft enough for baby hat and mitts, and will make that next as there is a couple expecting any day and they don't know if it's a boy or girl. We never wanted to find out the gender of our babies beforehand either, but it sure does make knitting something difficult. My husband is sure that this pink-yellow-orange bib would be fine for this couple even if it's a boy, and I know that anything colorful should be considered for any sex baby, but it's hard when it's a gift. My girls were always in boys' clothes and traditionally boys' colors and that seemed fine, but when it's a gift, and it's not actually your baby... not sure it's for me to decide that pink is okay for a boy. Isn't that horrible? Why am I even thinking about this? A color is a color.

I'm Being Too Negative

I am going to confess something to you... I'm really being too negative about the wool selection here in Prague, and partly that has to do with my own insecurities. The first month we were here, three years ago, we walked into a store (I was trying to come up with an adjective before "store" but didn't know what to call it... yarn, woman's clothing, notions, accessories. It had it all). One of those places that is probably a holdover from the Communist era. Anyway, the yarn was behind the counter so you had to ask to see it. I tried, but didn't speak Czech, so we struggled. The place was packed and the woman just didn't have the time or patience to deal with some stupid foreigner (I can see her point). That experience scared me off of going out to find nice wool in a hole-in-the-wall place.

I think the first nice wool shop I visited was on the street of the American Embassy, Trziste 6 in Prague 1. The store is called Textilni Galanterie. What I liked about the shop was that all the wool is displayed on the wall in front of the counter. I just needed to point at what I wanted and tell them I wanted enough for a man's sweater. The woman there was obviously a knitter and knew what I needed. She didn't really speak much English, but she was certainly helpful. There was quite a bit of wool here and every time I've stopped in, there have been great sale bins.

I have shopped at Kotva, a huge department store quite a number of times. They have a large selection, but like many other places, you find mostly synthetic or wool mixed with synthetic. However, if you just need to knit, visit the top floor of Kotva at Namesti Republiky 8, Old Town, Prague 1.

Across the street from Kotva is the new mall called The Palladium. It's a gorgeous building and just as you go into the mall from the metro (Náměstí Republiky on the B line), you will see a yarn and sewing store. Nice sales people and a similar yarn selection to Kotva. They love the bulky wool (synthetic version) so that's what you find a lot of.

Other great knitting stores in Prague:
Marlen : Beautiful place, but not open long hours so for those of us who work, sometimes hard to get to.
Dalin : This place will give lessons on how to spin wool. Check out the pictures of the outing where these women and men sheer sheep, spin wool and knit a sweater all in one day. I've contacted the woman there and would like to sign up for a class. I'll let you know if I ever do it.

These are the ones I know. If I find more, I'll let you know. I've walked by others that look good but don't have long Saturday hours so were closed. There's always Tesco downtown, which has a small selection. And I'm sure if I had more free time (no kids, no husband, no dog, no work...) I'd have found more hole-in-the-wall places. I'll keep you posted.

Wool from the Ukraine

The woman who cleans for me has a son who is a medical doctor and he was going back to the Ukraine (where she is from), and I guess that each time he goes back, he buys wool for his mother. She brought some for me and it's really quite lovely--a stiffer wool, but a beautiful color. I just need to decide what to make with it now. I guess she's well aware of how difficult it is to get nice wool here.

The other day she was wearing a gorgeous sweater that she had knit. The work was fantastic and the pattern really showed off the beautiful yarn nicely. I'll have to find a pattern for something similar. (Sorry, the flash doesn't really do the color justice.)

Mother-in-Law is a Saint

At one point last year, I read about a charity that needed hats for premature babies in third-world countries (is that politically incorrect?), so I knitted a bunch of tiny hats to use up some of my yarn scraps. I never got them sent off, so they now reside with my mother-in-law and I've been waiting to find a charity to send them to.

Just saw on one of my favorite blogs (Knit and Tonic) that there is a charity called The Preemie Project and it just happens to benefit babies at the medical hospital of my alma mater (University of Iowa).

I wrote to the M-i-L and knowing her, they'll be off in the mail tomorrow (or today -- I forgot that it's morning for her with the time difference). It's great to have someone so responsible around to keep me from being so lame :)

Ski Hats and the Mohawk

Our school takes the entire sixth grade skiing in the Czech mountains in February. Last year I could never find my colleagues on the slopes as they seemed to blend in with all the other skiers, so this year I decided to remedy that by knitting everyone hats out of the same yarn--something bright and colorful, I thought. Of course I needed to go to one of the big department stores here that has a fairly large selection of yarns (Kotva). I couldn't decide on the color, so I bought two completely different types of yarn. I figured I'd eventually use it for something, if not for the hats.

I started with the green/purple worsted yarn. Knitted two hats that took me way too long, considering I have six or so to make. The needle size was just too small. Gave those hats away at Christmas to some friends in London. They aren't going to be super warm hats, but that seems fine for London winters.

The other yarn was really quite pretty--and wool! I realized that I was going to be short by one hat if I used that wool, and I had bought every ball the store had at the time. I returned to see if they had restocked, but they hadn't, so instead I made a hat for my daughter, and a hat and scarf for my husband.

So I was back at square one. I went back to the store and bought several "big balls" of that super bulky yarn. I made five hats on the trains to and from Germany. For two of the men, I've ordered long braids that I will put in the hats. Looked for that kind of thing here, but everything was so expensive, that I ended up ordering two very cheaps wigs from the States. My mother-in-law is waiting to send them when they arrive.

The last hat that I must complete is a Mohawk hat for another of the men. The only pattern that I could find (and I searched extensively online) was the one I saw in Jennifer Stafford's DomiKnitrix. You guessed it, I didn't have the book, so I ordered it and had my mother-in-law send it. She really is my savior. Anyway, I've started. It's painstaking and fun at the same time. I had the guy send me his head measurement, which indicates he needs a large, but everything I've read seems to say the pattern is large. Some who have used wool, have just felted the hat slightly to make it fit, but there isn't any wool in this stuff, so I'm sort of stuck. I guess I'll go for the medium and do just one side and before I start the second I'll have him try it on. The other option is to go large -- he can always wear a skull cap under for extra warmth... I hate this!

Posting Will Make It Happen

The perils of living overseas became apparent with this sweater that I started during summer vacation. I invested in some nice Rowan yarn (Wool Cotton 941) and bought what the pattern called for. The size above called for the same amount, so I was convinced I was safe. However, when I started to measure the sleeves, I decided to go a little longer as I have freakishly long arms and hate sweaters that ride up to three-quarter length. Anyway, finished with JUST enough, but not enough to sew it together. I tried a similar color of a different yarn, but it didn't work, and then I tried another color in the same Rowan yarn, but that was a disaster as well.

I haven't found Rowan yarn here, so I called my mother-in-law to see if she could pick up one more ball for me and send it. She tried, but the store that sells in St. Cloud was out of the color I needed. I thought of ordering it and having it sent to her house so she could send it to me, but the added shipping was going to be expensive. Decided to wait until we went to London in December. I found the yarn easily, but paying in pounds didn't make it much cheaper.

Felt great to have the yarn I needed, but the sweater still hasn't gotten done. I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to sewing things together. Thought if I posted this picture, it would force me to get it finished or face cyber-embarrassment.

By the way, the pattern is really quite beautiful and fun to do. It's called Bookworm Tunic and is from Better Homes and Gardens' Hip Knits: 65 Easy Projects from Hot Designers.

Friends Come from Germany Bearing Gifts

Friends came to visit from Passau, Germany, and knowing how much trouble I have finding nice wool here, they brought me three balls of this beautiful gray Italian wool (52% virgin wool -- that's 52% more wool than I usually find).

I've started a hat from Catherine Ham's Knitting: 20 Simple & Stylish Wearable for Beginners. For the first time, I'm using the felted join when starting a new ball of wool. It worked like a charm. If you visit KnittingHelp.com you'll see a great little video that explains the felted join. Why didn't I know about this before now?

We've been sightseeing through Prague, and knitting along the way. Should have the hat done any moment.

Knitting in Prague

When I first moved to Prague, I attended a workshop on how to adjust to life in the Czech Republic. I was knitting and during a break, one of the women who was running the workshop came up and talked to me. She said when she was a young girl, her mother knitted all the time. She said her mother was a great knitter and always came up with interesting patterns. Whenever she wore a new sweater to school, all the teachers would gather around her with paper and pen and take notes on the pattern and then come to school soon after in sweaters that looked just like hers. Back in the day, no one was buying patterns, they were sharing and copying when possible.

Turkey

In October, we took a family trip to Istanbul, Turkey, so of course, I took my knitting. Earlier in October, I had finished a cute little skirt for my youngest based on a pattern I found in Suzan Mischer's Greetings from Knit Cafe, and wanted to do something similar for my eldest. She thought the skirt was simply too frilly for her, so I decided to make her a long tunic that she could wear with jeans instead. Here I am working on it on the Ido ferry up the Bosphorus.

That was one of the few days I got much knitting in while traveling through Istanbul. Most public transport was so crowded we were forced to stand, or we walked. We did A LOT of walking.

Didn't have much success finding wool in Istanbul, but can't say that I tried very hard. We were traveling with another family with a total of four children and yarn shops weren't high on anyone's list but mine. We did find the textile areas of the Grand Bazaar (Kapali Carsi) and in the area around the Egyptian Bazaar (Misir Carsisi). Although I was able to find a couple of shops, the selection wasn't extensive. They did have some great felted hats and fez caps, very artistic. You can see there picture to the right.

Of course, we did have a long lesson on Turkish rugs and kilims. The kids were great -- entertained themselves, drank cup after cup of apple tea and listened to each lesson about what makes rugs, carpets and kilims different. Two places were recommended by the International schools in Turkey as being aboveboard with quality items and good deals. Adnan & Husan in the Grand Bazaar by the Fez Cafe and the Crazy Lady's shop was a great place, and there was also a place in the Cavalry Bazaar (first series of stores as you walk down the stairs). I even received a Christmas card from them this year. Just tell them the teachers from the International School of Prague sent you.:)