Samuel Barsky has a sweater for all seasons.

The Baltimore man knits sweaters of the places he goes and the sights he sees. He wears the sweater when he visits those things.

Why does he do it? "It seemed natural to me that if I would be visiting some place and I have a matching sweater, I should wear it there," Barsky said.

Back up. Why knitwear in the first place? "I enjoy being able to create whatever I want and wear it. And it gives me something to do with my spare time."

Barsky learned to knit in 1999 with help from the owners of two different yarn shops. The first shop taught him the basic stitch. The second gave him the tools to make a sweater. Now he can make one of his multicolor creations in about a month's time, in both short and long sleeve varieties. For his wife, he knits dresses.

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The artisan once knitted sweaters of the places he had visited or those he'd seen in pictures. Now, he'll create a sweater in anticipation of his travels. It's become, to a certain extent, all about the 'gram.

Barsky's 23,000-plus Instagram followers want sweater pics, and Barsky delivers.

The knitter's followers can depend on his quirky photos to break up the monotony of their social media feeds. On an image from an amusement park, @jennimarionmaniam wrote: "Sam, you bring joy to my day on a regular basis. Thanks for simply being good."

It's nearly gotten "to the point of being a job," he said.

That's the price you pay when the entire visual world is your inspiration.

"Anything that crosses my eyes is a possible sweater," he said.

The sweaters are priceless – Barsky doesn't sell them, but he does give workshops and take paid requests.

A recent New York Times profile brought the magnificent yarn creations to the world's attention. But something was missing from the article — not a single San Francisco-themed get-up.

Any man who owns a sweater of a Seder plate, llama farm and truffula trees must have a Coit Tower or cable car in his wardrobe.

SFGATE reached out to Barsky to correct the Times' oversight, and he does, indeed, own a single San Francisco sweater. It's emblazoned with the Golden Gate Bridge.

"I was only in San Francisco one time in my life — for part of a day," Barsky said. It was a stopover en route to Singapore. Barsky wore his bridge sweater when he and his wife crossed the bridge, and he wore it in an overexposed photo his wife took at the foot of the bridge.

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"This was before I was seeking out such pictures," he said.

It's the only such photo Barsky has in Northern California, but the region remains in his thoughts.

"I want to knit a sweater of Lombard Street for whenever I come to San Fran next. And possibly of a trolley. Perhaps I could make it with one on each side," he said. Yosemite and Lake Tahoe are also on his sweater bucket list.

A date for Barsky's next Bay Area trip is elusive. He'll come, he said, "Whenever someone sponsors my travel expenses."

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.