A New York Story.... Finally

So, New York...... I had an awesome time, and have been trying to catch up on my sleep ever since!

What did I do while I was there, you ask? I got there without a plan- meaning I didn't have a list of things I wanted to see..... that's a first for me! So, it was all just wandering as we went. I spent the entire weekend with relatives, so I didn't have any time on my own to wander on my own.

On Friday we walked around the Diamond District, Rockefeller Centre, and Times Square.
There's a Japanese bookstore at Rockefeller called Kinokuniya. At the last Knitting Olympics, Amy had a Japanese book with hundreds of stitches in it. She had ordered it online, but also mentioned this store had some, so this is what I got. I has 500 cable and lace type patterns, written out in charts, and with diagrams, so I don't even have to learn Japanese!



















Saturday was filled with lots of walking around Brooklyn, and eating, and much drinking. My cousin's husband is the manager of the Knitting Factory, a big club in TriBeCa, so the birthday party for Courtney was there, and it was only $1 for drinks..... which for me meant that Sunday was a day of marathon puking. I am such a dork! I can't believe I was so bad in front of my relatives! Ah, well, you only live once.

On Sunday, we did some more wandering around the city. We went to Battery City Park to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The line up was way too long to go out there, but it was a beautiful sunny day to walk around anyway. Then we went to ground zero- the site where the Trade Centre used to be. I was a little awestruck being there. Seeing it all on tv was nothing like seeing it in person. Even more disturbing was seeing how close Courtney's old office was. She was only four blocks away on September 11. Thankfully she made it through the day ok.

We also went to Central Park to see Strawberry Fields (the monument to John Lennon) and the building that he used to live in.
It's amazing how big the park is, and apparently there's another park in Brooklyn that's actually bigger. There are hardly any small green spaces throughout the city, and you can walk for quite a bit without seeing a tree, so I guess they try to make up for it with their parks.

We still had quite a bit of time before I had to catch my bus, so I dragged them all to a yarn store, how could I not! I had been so good all weekend. So, we headed to School Products. Purl was another of my top picks to check out, but School Products was closer.

They had almost every colour of Brown Sheep Wools, and tonnes of other name brand, but the best part was the great big table in the middle. There were skeins and skeins of different hand-spun, hand-painted yarns to dig through. Apparently this is one of their specialties, they buy the ends of high end yarns from Italy. I spent an hour just touching them and looking at all the colours... heaven!

I ended up with 5 skeins of this:














It's 60% silk, 40% cashmere, and it is so soft! I love the orange and green colours. Unfortunately my camera doesn't do it justice.

I also found a copy of Big Girl Knits, which I though didn't come out until this week.... what a great book it is! The patterns may be too big for me, but the tips and instructions in it are fantastic. It is so well written, and fun to read. I was giggling on the way home on the bus at 3:00 in the morning.....


















What will I make with my New York yarn? I'm thinking this, from the new Vogue Knitting, which was in ,y mailbox when I got home. I got gauge (i had to of course swatch as soon as I got home), but it may be a little tight/think for my liking, so maybe it will become Clapotis.....