Recently in KIP Category

A bee, I tell you! A bee! There has been so much knitting around here that I haven't had time to sit down and blog about it. There have been the usual suspects: the Sophie Shawl is growing, and I'm slowly moving along with Claudette.

In the midst of this, I'm also working on a baby project for a coworker's son, born two weeks ago. It's my usual striped baby sweater. This time I'm knitting it in Lion Brand WoolEase. Some of you, I know, are cringing at the mere mention of an acrylic yarn. Subway Knitter ain't no yarn snob, and she will not stick a high-maintenance garment on new parents.

Of course, valuable blogging time has been sucked up by other matters:

Yes, we had to take some time out on Monday to celebrate Rosenmontag at Loreley. We drank a few beers and watched a rebroadcast of the Rosenmontag parade in Cologne. You need to do all this in costume because...well...that's what you do. Notice my costume? I'm a bee!

What's a great thing about living in New York? You can be wearing a bee wig (complete with glittery antennae) on the subway, start to knit, and nobody thinks anything of it. Then, some guy in a crazy hat starts taking your photograph, and nobody bats an eyelash:

Kölle Alaaf!

I cannot remember the last time I did this. It might have been in Boston. No, no, on second though I think that I did make it to the Freeze Peach in Astoria one afternoon. But that had to be over 18 months ago. I'm sorry to hear that the Freeze Peach closed.

Anyway, I recently found myself in Boerum Hill (that's the Bo of BoCoCa--the fancy-pants conglomeration of neighborhoods in brownstone Brooklyn) with time to spare. It was cold, so I ducked into a café for a quick coffee. [I must agree with some of the reviewers who wrote about the burnt coffee. It certainly will not go down as the best cup of coffee in my life. Still it was a nice space. Next time, I'll get tea.] As I sat with the sunshine warming my back I remembered what it was I used to do when I sat in a café.

Ah! I could really get used to this. Perhaps this should be a New Year's resolution: more café KIPing.

The title says it all. You and I boarded the same flight on Saturday, both bound for JFK. I noticed the needles as you stood a few people in front of me.

I saw you there, wearing that red plaid shirt and holding that green bag. The Shepard Fairey Obama button telling the rest of us that maybe you were one of those that helped NC to go blue in November.

Then on the plane (and I wish that I had been able to snap a photo of this) you were working with huge needles. What on earth were you knitting? A rug?

Of course, you were long gone off of that plane by the time I passed your seat (that 90-minute delay was a bummer, no?) so I won't know for sure.

Unless you're reading here, oh mystery knitter.

So I'm riding the 4 train down from the UES (that's New York for Upper East Side) and I spy a woman two seats away who's knitting like crazy with some red yarn. Hmm, I thought, must be a Christmas gift. It was indeed. Turns out this woman (who instantly slid over to me and asked what I was knitting) is an UES nanny and is making a red hat for one of her little charges.

And, some UES family is getting a steal of a childcare deal: according to this woman she makes $600 a week for a 60-hour workweek. [Love it when I get subway TMI--too much information.]

Ha! It's been a while:

I wonder, is that a Christmas gift in the making?