Remembering Pearl Chin

Pearl Chin, owner of the legendary New York City knitting store Knitty City, has died. She was 71 years old and had been battling lung cancer.

Knitty City was billed as a yarn studio when it opened in 2006, and it quickly became a community gathering place thanks to Chin’s welcoming spirit and willingness to listen to her customers and order the kinds of yarn they wanted to buy.

An obituary in the West Side Rag says the shop was a hub for making pussy hats after the 2016 election, and comments on the shop’s Facebook and Instagram pages note Chin’s kindness, openness and generosity as well as her support for independent designers, organization of a men’s knitting night and more to support the knitting community and the wider community.

Knitty City will be closed for a week in her honor.

I’ve never been to New York but I know that so many people found a fibery home at Knitty City thanks to Pearl’s presence, and I know she will be missed.

[Photo via Knitty City’s Instagram.]

The butterfly on this piece — the Owl Butterfly Playmat by Sophie’s Stitches — caught my eye before I even knew what the project was. Now that I’ve give it a closer look I’m still not 100 percent sure what it is meant to be for, but I still love it.

I think it’s maybe to give you a flat surface to roll dice or play cards on, but there are no images of the project in use so I’m just speculating on that. If you know what it is, be sure to let me know!

What it physically is is a worsted weight mat (the sample is worked in cotton) that measures 14 by 24 inches, or 35.5 by 61 cm. The impression I get from the pattern notes and the photos is that you knit the rectangle plain and the butterfly is stitched on after using duplicate stitch, which is provided as a chart.

Of course you could choose to knit some of the colorwork as you go, either using stranded knitting or intarsia techniques, or maybe some of both. It just looks like a lot of duplicate stitch (and it is!) so knowing me if I were making this project I’d probably try to knit some of it instead of stitching it all.

The pattern also suggests that you can knit a second plain mat to sew on the back and cover up all the yarn ends, as well as making the mat thicker and a little more stable. There’s also a photo that shows fabric sewn to the back, which is also a good option if you have some fabric that has a bit of grip.

I like the graphic on this one enough I might just make it as a table pad for our entry way table. You can always make the mat part a different dimension, just make sure you’re centering the image if you do.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sophie’s Stitches]

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