MyKnitStudio: Insadong

MyKnit Studio is in Insadong.

Go to Anguk Station (line 2), exit 6 and walk towards Insadong. At the opening of the street there's a huge GS25. The knit shop is on the 3rd floor.

(Incidentally there's a vegetarian restaurant on the 2nd that gets rave reviews from all my friends.)

I've been in to that shop. Great yarn selection, good prices. The woman speaks English well which was nice. She has a great selection of luxury yarns that you can't get elsewhere, such as Koigu and some organic cotton.

Her selection of knitting books/magazines was PHENOMENAL. I will be going back because I've rarely seen a collection of books like this at an LYS in Canada let alone here in Korea.

Banul: Near Sungshin Women's University

Banul is a chain store. They also have an online storefront but it's all in Korean and you need a login ID to shop there. This location is in the Donam-dong area near Sungshin Women's University.

Sungshin Women's University Stn. (line 4) exit 1.

Take your first right and walk to the end of the street.

Not sure you're on the right street? It's not regular pavement, it's sort of a tile/brick kind of street. It's a shopping street full of jewelry shops, shoe stores, underwear shops, makeup shops, and that sort of thing.

Go to the end of the tile road and turn left. Go straight until you come to a lighted intersection. You're going to turn left again. This is kind of a 5 way intersection but you're turning left and not walking up any hills. Just remember that.

Go straight for a little while...7-10min and the yarn shop is on the left hand side of the road.

They're open until 9pm. The woman doesn't speak a lick of English but is really sweet and helpful.She's not open on Saturdays or Sundays but she's open till about 9pm every weeknight.

Turtle: LYS/Craft shop near Cafe T+

This LYS/Craft shop is called Turtle.

Hyehwa Station (Line 4) Exit 4. When you come out, you'll be facing a Baskin Robins. Go straight, Turtle is on your left less than 10 shops away from the Baskin Robins.

Now, when I say "go straight" this may be confusing as there are 2 ways of going straight. Make sure you're on the main, busy road with the busses and all the traffic.

They have a decent selection of yarns including Noro and a few types of Rowan. No other names that I recognized. The prices weren't any better or worse than most yarn shops.

They also have beading supplies and quilting supplies and other craft stuff. Oh yea, embroidery floss. They had crochet hooks, the usual cheap bamboo needles, also some Clover bamboo needles for about 6500won and some other metal needles the brand I recognize from being here but the name is escaping me. They also had straight needles. I didn't see any dpns.

There was one woman who spoke English and helped me see if there was anything thinner than the cotton dk/sport weight that I spotted. She seemed nice. I'm really used to bumbling around in Korean. If only I knew more knitting terms...

Where to buy yarn and other supplies?

In the sidebar there's a link to an old post about where to buy craft supplies in Seoul. As far as I know, all of these locations are still operating. However, there are a lot more places than that.

Over the next week, I'll be posting directions to different places in Seoul where you can buy yarn. Most of them will be north of the river as that's where I live. If you know of any good places to shop for yarn or craft supplies in your area, please email me at seoulsnb@gmail.com with detailed directions and I'll post it on the blog.

Naju kNitters

Seoul Stitch n Bitch isn't the only expat knitting group in Korea. I also know of a group that's meeting down in Naju.

I contacted Leah (MagicKnitter on ravelry.com) and this is what she had to say about the group:

Right now we’re meeting on Tuesday nights at Kenya Espresso in Naju. My cell number is 010-6870-1939 if anyone wants to join and can’t find us or needs to talk. It’s three of us right now, but we’d be happy to have some more. Thanks!

You can also email her at knittingmagicgirl@gmail but she says that the phone is the easiest way to get in touch with her.

Upcoming Events

Besides our regular Sunday meetings (and our newly formed Thursday evening group), we've got some special events planned.

December 6th - Visit a jjimjilbang (bath house). We're probably going later in the evening to Dragon Hill Spa in Yongsan. Exact details to be given closer to the date. We're discussing and ironing all the kinks out on our mailing list.

December 14th - Visit the House of Sharing. Please RSVP to seoulsnb@gmail.com by the end of the day today (November 22nd) so I can pass our reservation onto the volunteers there. You can probably still sign up after Nov. 22nd but please contact them yourself.

December 28th - Rocky Horror Show. Let me know at seoulsnb@gmail.com if you'd like to come and I'll try to book tickets for you with our group.

Gangnam Meeting - Thursday November 20th

Hey Crafty Folk!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that there's going to be another attempt at a mid-week meeting.

When: Thursday, November 20th. 6pm until whenever (Lana says she'll stay till at least 9).
Where: Tea Purple, Gangnam

• Take line 2 to Gangnam
• Exit # 7
• Take a right at Paris Baguette
• Take a left at the Mini Stop
• Tea Purple will be on the right - the sign is orange and purple
• Lets meet upstairs.

Who: Anyone who can make it!

If you get lost or you want to confirm that people are still there give Lana a call 010 7740 4419

Cthulu

Cheryl designed and knit a pretty rockin' Cthulu mask for her friend. Here it is in progress:



And here's a video of it in action:



If you have photos of your work I'd love to put it up on the blog. Just email it to me at seoulsnb@gmail.com

Mid-week Meetup

In addition to the regular Sunday meetings some people are trying to organize a mid-week meetup. There will be a meeting Tuesday October 21st at 3pm till about 7pm at the Starbucks next to KB Bank in Itaewon. Look for the knitters on the 2nd floor. The mid-week group will also meet Wednesday November 5th at 10am in the same location.

There are about 62 people on our email list. Last Sunday we had a record turnout of more than 15 people. That means there's over 45 people on our email list that don't come out to Stitch n Bitch. Now, I know some of you are members who've left Korea and others are just spammers waiting for a chance to strike, but I figure a lot of people on the list are knitters who can't meet on Sunday afternoons.

Rachel, one such member, has said that she'd like to start a mid-week group. Consequently there's some discussion going on the email list about where and when to meet. If you're interested in meeting sometime that isn't the first and third Sunday of each month, please join in that conversation. Two mid-week meetups are scheduled but nothing's written in stone.

And just to be clear, this isn't any sort of "rival" group. There's certainly enough fiber love to go around Seoul. We'll continue to meet as usual as long as there's people coming out.

Stitch n Bitch: Now on Facebook.

Not only do we have a blog, an email list, and a Google Group. Stitch n Bitch now has its very own Facebook group.

Thanks to Rachel (who is also trying to start up a mid-week meeting) we have our very own group on Facebook. I'm really glad she took the initiative to get that done. I barely know how to check my messages on Facebook and it's a good month if I update my status once. I'm definitely not a Facebook user but I know lots of people are so go check us out over there!

Success!

Wow!

I think today's Stitch n Bitch had the biggest turnout I've seen. That was really inspiring (so much so that I'm blogging)! Thanks guys.

We had so many different people working on many different projects. I didn't whip out my camera phone and take photos at this meeting but I did take a bunch of pictures a few meetings ago so here they are:

A rather unsuspecting Robin working on her cross stitch.

Joel, Heather, Cheryl, and Katy.

Heather working on the chenille baby blanket. (Look at where you started just a few weeks ago, Heather. It's really coming along!)

Jenny, probably unimpressed with my photography.


Lana showing off the back of her lovely sweater. Isn't it gorgeous.

I was so thrilled to see so many folks out this week. If anyone took any photos I'd love to post them on the blog. Please email them to seoulsnb@gmail.com

See y'all in two weeks.

Yes, we're still meeting.

I am what one might call the laziest blogger on the planet. I get to writing and do it somewhat consistently and then I suffer one moment of writer's block and stop. But, for the record let me state:

Yes, the Seoul Stitch n Bitch group is still meeting.

In fact, you can be assured that even if I never post again, I will post a message here announcing that we've stopped meeting. But this isn't that message and we are still meeting. I promise.

Every 1st and 3rd Sunday at Cafe T+ in Hyehwa. You can find direction to the cafe in the links on the sidebar.

SnB Goes to Chuncheon!

There's no SnB meeting this weekend since a few of us are going to Chuncheon for the first ever SnB getaway weekend.

See you all in two weeks!

It's on: Seoul SnB Trip May 3-4

We've decided to spend the weekend in the Gangchon/Chuncheon area.
You can rent bikes and scooters. There's bungee jumping. There's a waterfall that makes seven sounds. Or is it nine? In Chuncheon there's really good dalk-galbi.

Here's the details as they currently stand.

Saturday May 3:
11:35am Cheongyangni Station depart.
1:15pm Gangchon Station arrive.

(alternate times: 12:45 dep. 2:25 arr.)

Sunday May 4
7:30pm Gangchon Station depart.
9:05pm Cheongyangni Station arrive.

(alternate times: 6:40-8:20 or 8:20-10pm)

And well, that's about it. I don't want to plan activities and that sort of stuff for us to do. That kind of thing we can play by ear or discuss on the list. I know Jane has intentions of getting drunk and going to noraebang :) I imagine I'll be joining her.

The cost is 4,700 won each way (9,400 won round trip). I want to buy tickets on Saturday (April 26) so I'm gonna need an RSVP by then. Please email me at marielynn@gmail.com to confirm.

I'm currently looking into a place to stay. We were talking about finding some place that would basically accomodate all of us in one room. I'm not sure about the cost but really I wouldn't expect to pay more than 20,000 each.

So please, email me at marielynn@gmail.com to confirm that you want to come on the trip. I'll be booking train tickets and people can pay me back the day of.

Meetup: Success!

February 16th Stitch n Bitch/ravelry.com meetup was definitely a success in my books.

I was late and didn't make it to myknitstudio in Insadong. Neither did Jane. So we met at Dongdaemun and the others joined us later.

It was a fabulous yarn-shopping good time. We wandered around the basement of Dongdaemun Shopping town and lots of us bought lots of yarn. I was not one of the lucky shoppers as I'm broke as a joke but it was still nice to hang out and with crafty folks. I'm pretty sure everyone was happy with their purchases.

At one of my favorite yarn vendors at that market, we were all given free Addi needle guage checkers. They were pretty neat and had a little ruler on them with a short little knife for cutting yarn. VERY handy. One thing I love about shopping in Korea? Service-uh!

After we shopped all the way from the yarn in the basement to the beads on the 6th floor, we headed over to Himalaya restaurant by Dongmyo station for some most delicious Indian foods. It was tasty indeed!


I had a blast, ladies! I hope you all did too. I think we should do it again soon.

Don't forget our regular meeting this Sunday, March 2nd! Cafe T+ at 2:30.

Special Meeting Saturday February 16th, 2008

Hello hello!

Have you all hear of THE coolest knitting and crochet website on the internerd these days: ravelry.com ? No? Well you should head on over there and check it out. It's a great place to organize your projects, your stash, check out patterns, and meet people!

I sound like a paid advertisement eh? Well I'm not I just totally adore the site. And it has a Korea group on there. This Saturday a bunch of us from the ravelry.com Korea group are going to be meeting up for some yarn shopping, dinners, and knitting and you're all invited.

Sarah, from our SnB group organizes the Korea group over on ravelry and I know she'd be thrilled if any of you wanted to come. Here's our plan as it stands:

1pm meet at Anguk Station Exit 6 and head over to myknitstudio. (It's on the 3rd floor of the GS25 convenience store that you see just at the entrance to Insadong)
That woman has a lot of cool luxury yarns (Koigu anyone?) and the largest selection of English knitting and crochet books/magazines that I've seen in Korea. We'll spend some time there and then head over to...

Dongdaemun Shopping Town (Dongdaemun Station exit 9). 6 (or 5?) floors of crafty goodness. The whole basement is yarn. Lots of it is in bulk but there are many sellers who will sell 1 ball at a time. After yarn shopping it's time for...

Dinner at Himalaya, an Indian restaurant at Dongmyo Station (1 stop away). I've never tried it but one of our ravelry friends says it's great! And finally post dinner is an optional sit and knit at Sarah's place which, correct me if I'm wrong, is at Jegi-dong station.

You all are invited for all or part of this day of fibery goodness. If you can't make it right for 1pm at Anguk than feel free to give myself a call at 010 2897 3825 or Sarah at 010 3194-9685 to see where we're at.

I went to China last February. My favorite place was the park outside the Temple of Heaven. People were sitting, chatting, playing board games. And there was this man, crocheting.


He made me smile.

Don't forget, we have a meeting on Sunday.
2:30 at Cafe T+. Hope to see lots of you there!

Directions to Cafe T+

We no longer meet at Cafe T+. Please join our Google Group mailing list for the latest information.

We meet every first and third Sunday of every month.

Cafe T+ in Hyehwa/Daehagno.
Here are your directions:

Go to Hyehwa Station, Line 4, Exit 4. When you come out of the station you'll be facing a Baskin Robins. Turn left. Walk all the way to the end of the street. It's not a paved street but a tiled one full of little shops and booths and other fun stuff. At the end of the street on your right will be a Watsons and Cafe T+ is upstairs from that. Just before you get to Watsons/T+ There's a Smoothie King. The cafe has a large welcome mat that has a green T+ on it.

If you get so that you can see a Dunkin Donuts and a Starbucks clearly across the intersection, you've gone too far.

The Cafe itself is on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the building. We'll be on the 3rd. When you get up there, there's sort of a glassed off area on the left, and we'll be in there hopefully at the largest table. They serve wine, coffee (latte, cappuccino, etc.) salads, pasta, and pizza.

I also know that bus 143 from Noksapyeong will take you to Hyehwa station near exit 2. Cross the road for exit 4.
101, 102, 104, 107,106, 108, 140, 143, 149, 150, 160, 161, 162, 301, and 407 also all go there.

If you're coming down from the north on any of those busses it will drop you very close to T+. The stop is called Sungkyunkwan University. But it doesn't often announce in English. It's one stop after Hansung University which does announce in English.

151, 171, 172, 272 drop you off almost outside Cafe T+ if you're coming up from the South. The stop is Sungkyunkwan University as well.

Here's the link for the bus map: http://bus.congnamul.com/SeoulRouteWebApp/view_english/map.jsp
But you have to be running Internet Explorer with Active X installed otherwise it doesn't work.

Hope to see lots of you out. If you get lost or anything give me a call. My
number is 010 5265 3825.

Change of meeting location

Stitch n Bitch currently meets at Cafe T+ in Hyehwa.
Please read this post for directions to Cafe T+

September 30th's meeting will be at the Seven Monkey's Coffee shop in Dongseon-dong.

Ah!! Where is that? You say? It's incredibly easy to get to.

Sungshin Women's University station (Line 4 - light blue) Exit 1.
Take your first right and walk for less than 5 minutes. The coffee shop will be on your left.
Not sure you're on the right street? It's not regular pavement, it's sort of a tile/brick kind of street. It's a shopping street full of jewelry shops, shoe stores, underwear shops, makeup shops, and that sort of thing. If you get to the end of the brick street you've gone a little too far.
If you manage to get lost, feel free to give me a call at 010 3147 4354.

Can't wait to see you all!

Unless otherwise posted, the first meeting in October will be the 7th back at Indigo.

And we're back...

Well, we've had two meetings since the summer ended. It was great seeing old friends and new faces. I'm sure we'll have an awesome year.