This past spring NYC began running ferries from Manhattan to locations all over Brooklyn and Queens. (An Astoria line is scheduled to start running later this month.) For the same price as the subway you can take a lovely ferry ride. Sorry, you can’t use your metro card, but try the app, its super convenient.
One of the many locations the ferry will take you is to Rockaway Beach. Most people probably think of Coney Island when they think of NYC beaches. I’m game for a bit of Coney Island kitsch every now and then, but sometimes I want a more low-key beach experience. Rockaway Beach is definitely more low-key, especially on a weekday.
This past Monday IJK and I made an impromptu decision to take the ferry to the beach. The ferry ride is delightful. I can’t decide if I like getting or being there better. It takes about an hour each way. On the trip you pass most of South Brooklyn, go under the Verrazano Bridge, and see Coney Island in the distance. You’ll pass all kinds of boats: cruise ships, tour boats, barges, tug boats, container ships, the Staten Island Ferry, and sail boats, to name a few.
Being the sorts who can’t just sit on the beach doing nothing, we came prepared. IJK had her sketch book, and I had my knitting. I’d brought two projects. (I can’t be the only one who over packs knitting, even for day trips). There were the sleeves of a very woolly colorwork sweater, and a cowl in a not-so-woolly yarn, baby yak/silk yarn from Myak. It’s pretty obvious which I worked on the most while sitting in the sand staring at the waves. Some yarns are just not meant for the beach. As lovely as that green is, other than a few moments in the sun for the photo, it stayed in my bag. The baby yak/silk however was out all day.
This got me thinking about one of the chapters in Drop Dead Easy Knits, called No Sheep at the Shore. Gale Zucker lives near the beach. When she, Mary Lou Egan and I were brainstorming chapter ideas and talking about the places we knit, Gale said she likes to knit by the ocean, but only certain yarns work at the beach. Mary Lou and I both agreed that water-side knitting was a favorite, but yarn choice was critical. We decided that a chapter dedicated to non-wool yarns would be something a lot of other knitters might appreciate. The projects in this chapter are designed in silk, linen, or cotton — all fibers that work well for summertime knitting by the pool, lake, or ocean. One of my favorites in the chapter, is the Kiawah V-Neck.
This one is on my must-knit list. I love that it dips lower in the back, the three-quarter sleeves, and the sweet eyelet details at cuffs and hem. The Quince & Co Sparrow that Mary Lou used for the design comes in a gorgeous range of colors. I’d like mine in Moon or Mica — both pretty shades of grey that I know I would wear a lot. But then there’s the mYak in baby yak and silk that I mentioned earlier. I’ve also been tossing around the idea of using it. The mYak would make a fantastic transitional sweater since it could take me from cool late summer evenings well into fall.
And check out these lovely mYak colors. I’m leaning toward the grey-blue, or maybe the salmon-y color, or the green, or…
I’m sure I’ll make a decision eventually. For now I’ll finish that colorwork sweater in my air conditioned apartment and I’ll save the cowl for the beach and the ferry.
