306: New York, Day 3

I'm on a plane! Do you guys know how awesome Virgin America is? Granted, WiFi isn't free, but for $13 I can use the interwebs as much as a please. So I will take time to write a post about my last day in New York.

First, we got a horribly late start. The sleep was wonderful, though. We left around 1 pm and headed off to a knitting cafe to get breakfast.

Stop 1: Stockinette. The Stockinette Knitting Cafe was the coolest thing I've ever seen, yarn-wise at least. They served sandwiches and coffee and tea and best of all, yarn! I got a grilled chicken, mozzarella, and sun-dried tomato pesto sandwich and a nice and warm chai. Mmm, I love chai. The sandwich was really good, too. As for yarn, I bought 4 skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted to make this lace shrug...

a skein of Twinkle Soft Chunky...

and a skein of Malabrigo Aquarella...

That was a big purchase...

Stop 2: The Lion Brand Yarn Studio. I've been looking at Joann and Michael's for Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Linen for the longest time since I started making a garment and ran out of yarn, but I bought the yarn about a year ago and they stopped carrying it in my local stores. But thankfully, the LBY Studio was next to the 14th St Path station and they had the color I needed. I bought two skeins of those and Miriam found a pattern on their iMacs (awesome) on Ravelry to make a snood.

Stop 3: Downtown Yarns. We went here and Miriam bought some needles to use for her snood. I got some more Malabrigo (mmm, Malabrigo...)

and then we rushed back to the subway so I could get back in time for my flight.

And that was it! It was an all yarn store day, which was really fun. The whole trip was a lot of fun but I wish I could have stayed longer. I only got to see a small, but big, part of New York. Next time we'll have to venture out farther. Thanks Miriam! And thanks to Matthew and Kat for letting me stay in their home!

305: New York, Day 2

My legs are so tired. And I am so stuffed. What a day.

Start: Take the Path to 33rd St. On our way to Time Square!

Stop 1: FedEx. Miriam had to make copies of her sheet music so we stopped at FedEx. I remembered that Comic-Con tickets went on sale at 9 am. But I couldn't get them on my phone, which I thought was a phone issue, but I guess they were having technical issues. Next week!

Stop 2: Time Square. There were so many moving screens, it was ridiculous. But it was kinda cool to walk around and see everything. We saw Cookie Monster and Elmo from a distance. And a giant M&M store.

Stop 3: Nintendo World and Rockefeller Plaza. The Nintendo store was awesome. They had games and clothes and toys and Miriam and I played Kirby's Epic Yarn (want!). I got a sweater, shirt, two toys and a beanie. Pictures to come.

Stop 4: D'Espresso, kind of. We went in but we didn't get anything. Instead we planned to where we would go next.

Stop 5: Le Pain Quotidien. We stopped here for some coffee and a snack. Initially, we were going to get lunch, but the place was a bit out of our price range, so I got an apple turnover and mochaccino and Miriam got a brioche.

Stop 6: The subway to 53rd and 7th Ave. My first subway ride in the city (different but still similar to the Path). Miriam had a voice lesson in the afternoon so while she did that, I went through Central Park to my next stop.

Stop 7: String. I loved this yarn store. Everything is very neat and instead of having all their stock out on the floor, they had one of each colorway from each type hanging on a rod. Then you would let the staff know what you want and they would go get it for you. I got two skeins of yarn, one Koigu KPPPM and one Prism Merino wool.

KPPPM

Prism Merino

Stop 8: A carriage ride through Central Park. After Miriam's lesson we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the lower East side of the park. The guy was nice, although the ride was really short.

Stop 9: Lincoln Square. Miriam had to return one of her books at the library and we got to see Juilliard and the Met and the Lincoln Theater and this really awesome fountain. I could have stood there to watch it forever. But I didn't because we were hungry.

Stop 10: Subway back to the West Village and to a restaurant called Hummus Place. This place was great. It was vegetarian, which we didn't expect at first and both really wanted meat, but we made do. The food was so good and so reasonably priced! And to add to that, they had live music! It was a great atmosphere.

Stop 11: The Path back to home. To make pear galette. Which is done now, so I'm going to eat it. And I really wish we had vanilla gelato to go with it. But we don't. But it's okay, because it will still be good.

304: New York, Day 1

I've never been to New York before, and the only part of this side of the United States I've been in is Virginia and Florida. Yesterday, I stepped foot in JFK and experienced my first taxi ride in NY. My friend Miriam moved out here after college and I decided to visit her this weekend, which ended up being the same weekend as Halloween. Perfect to see the Halloween Parade down 6th Avenue! But more about that later.

This morning was Miriam's brother's birthday brunch / her niece's baby shower / Halloween party where her brother and sister-in-law cooked up an amazing meal. There was pulled pork and warm apple sauce and pumpkin biscuits and apple slaw and mushroom-asparagus frittata and mashed sweet potatoes and mmm it was good. After the brunch we planned our trip into Manhattan.

Start: Take the Path from Grove St to the WTC stop. After walking in the wrong direction at first, we made it to what we thought was going to be Seaport Yarn. Which it still was (we saw the sign) but was closed on Sundays. So instead we headed towards SoHo.

Stop 1: Easy Spirit. Miriam was looking for some comfortable shoes to replace her old wedges and found the perfect pair.

Kambria wedges

Cute, right? And they were having a special where you could buy two pairs and get 20% off your purchase. So, of course, I had to buy a pair of my own cute shoes.

Elga boots

The best part is that they are water repellant. Win! And now I have a pair of ankle(ish) boots.

Stop 1.5: Starbucks. But not for the coffee, for the restroom.

Stop 2: Purl SoHo. Which was open, thank goodness. One of the cutest yarn stores I've ever been to, and they have fabric, too.


I got some yarn for me, and some yarn to make Miriam and her neice matching(ish) hats. I also got an adorable embroidery kit. Onward!

Stop 3: Kate's Paperie. I got some great stuff here. They had a pack of random pretty papers that I can use to make more magnets (excited!) and I also got a set of alphabet stamps. Their Halloween stuff was on sale, so I bought some sparkly, black, gothic letters and a mask (to be decorated). Such a cute store.

Stop 4: Think Coffee. On the way to the Village we stopped by this coffee place in NoHo. We both had the Spanish Latte which was delicious at the bottom (the condensed milk piled up a bit, yummy).

From there we headed up to Washington Square Park.

Stop 5: Washington Square Park. We saw the arc. That's about it.

Stop 6: 6th street and the Halloween Parade. We walked around for a bit and eventually found a spot on 6th street to watch the Parade. We didn't get to see the meat of the parade until about 7:30 (started at 7 pm). There were some neat puppets and some semi-enthusiastic Thriller dancers. There were also some French people that were standing way too close behind us. I like my personal space...But otherwise the parade was enjoyable.

Around 8 we headed back to the Path and back to Jersey City. All in all a very fun day. Tomorrow is going to be an early start heading to Times Square and Central Park. More yarn stores and coffee shops and other cute places to visit. Yay!

Finished Object!

Here they are =) So, as you can probably tell in the picture, the left and right glittons don't exactly match. I did the right one first and just happened to read the pattern wrong. Instead of ribbing for 6 rows and then knitting until the mitten part is 1.5 inches from your fingers, I did ribbing the whole time...oops. And then I forgot to do some decreases on the top of the mitten part (notice how its a lot flatter than the left hand). But I realized this much too late (when I did the left hand) to redo it, and I think it looks okay when you wear them. Barely noticeable and I know Miriam will still appreciate them. Since it was a men's pattern, there wasn't really too much shaping for women's dainty little wrists so I decided to add a ribbon (from JoAnn's) to narrow that part. And then of course the buttons (so cute! Also from JoAnn's (did I mention I heart JoAnn's?)) which hold the mitten part back when you're not using them. Aren't they just adorable? Very feminine; I think they're more me than they are Miriam but that's okay.

I'm trying my hand at embroidery for Cathy's bag. It's not really embroidery - I'm kinda winging it. So far it looks alright, dare I say, cute? It's got a very handmade look to it. I'll have to take a picture of it. The design is this sort of tree/sun thing. More abstract, though.

Lookie, lookie!

I got two gifts done, one of which was on my previous list. Mary's legwarmers were finished on Monday and Izzy's winter set was finished Sunday? Maybe? Lookie! (with gift tags and everything):
I feel a little better but I still want to finish my dad's sweater before break is over (I'm not sure that's going to happen). I'm making progress on Miriam's glittons, though. I should be finished with those later today. I better start making things work - oh Project Runway tonight!