And I know what you all REALLY want to know about is the yarn shops in New York City! Never mind all the lovely tourist things to do, and the lovely restaurants, and the excitement of the city. You wanna see YARN!
Cara escorted me on the yarn-shop-crawl to beat all yarn-shop-crawls on Tuesday. It was a total blast to meet her, after reading her blog for so long. If you go to NYC, you have to talk her into showing you around. I used Tuesday as my “free” yarn buying day*, after nearly a month of abstinence. I was pretty good, though, and only bought a few things. No doubt the house project expenses figured into that. I did also get online that morning and buy some yarn for a sweater from Elann. This stuff, if you’re curious.
But, the shopping. Back to the shopping. We went to School Products, Habu, Purl, The Point, and Seaport. I think. Am I missing any, Cara? They are all fabulous. School Products is upstairs in an office building, and has more Karabella yarn than I’ve ever seen in one place, Purl is a beautiful sight to behold, Habu has some of the most creative yarns I’ve ever seen, and the Point has a cafe and yarn in baskets on the walls. Seaport is an office, not just in an office building. It’s a working marketing firm with yarn stuffed in every corner. You’ll be looking at a rack of yarn and some guy is at a computer at a desk behind you, working. It’s probably the most unique yarn shop I’ve ever been in.
Jen from Two Purls, and her charming little son Xavier, joined us, as did Kay from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Kay even autographed my new copy of their book, which I bought for the occasion.
Two stinking yarn shop photos are below. Unfortunately, I’m much better at my day job than I am at photography, and most of the shopping pictures either didn’t turn out or were unflattering. It’s written in the Knitbloggers Code Of Honor that you will not post unflattering pictures of other knitbloggers, especially when they are lovely ladies like the ones I was shopping with. And I completely forgot to whip out the camera at most of the shops. Here’s Cara at Habu:
And here’s Seaport:
Trust me, Jen and Kay were there, I wasn’t imagining it, and we went to all of those places, I didn’t imagine that either. I apparently was drooling too much over the yarn to take pictures.
And here’s what I bought:
From right to left: first is a cone of cotton lace weight tape, from Habu. The color may not show very well in that photo, but it is a pale mint-sea green. I think that will be a shawl. In the middle is a cotton-viscose blend from Garnstudio Yarns, purchased at Seaport. It will be perfect for a scarf, maybe the Branching Out scarf from Knitty. Last but not least is Euroflax linen, for a handtowel, inspired by Kay and Ann’s book. Never mind that I already have a bunch of this in the stash, I didn’t have any in this color, and apparently the mood of the day was green.
Oh, and I bought this, because I couldn’t resist it, and because you can never have too many tape measures.
All in all, a great day! Thanks girls–I couldn’t have imagined doing this any other way!
Next post will be knitting project photos, house project photos, and maybe a few scattered NYC pics. I leave you with a picture of someone who was very glad to see us come home:
*Remember, the Yarn Focus doesn’t prohibit yarn buying; you can buy yarn on one day a month, on a day of your own choosing. The ticker doesn’t need to be reset for that day, only if you succumb and buy yarn on a second day in any month.
Awwww, looks like you had a great welcome home. And an awesome trip. Hmmm, maybe I should turn my office into a yarn store, or at least I could store yarn here, then maybe it’d be a happier place for me.
Sounds like a great trip, and I really am in awe with how you knit anywhere! 🙂 Kudos to you. 🙂
So fantastic to meet you!! The day was completely my pleasure – good friends – good yarn – good eats! Nothing better!
(Oh and Tina wanted to know if you were going to the festival this weekend. If you do – give her a hug and kiss for me okay? Thanks!)
Sounds like a wonderful trip!
Aw, great trip and an even better welcome. Your restraint was admirable!
Oh, and I got that same tape measure from Liz when she visited. Isn’t it adorable?
What a terrific welcoming committee! I’m glad you had such a fun trip, and brought home such wonderful souveniers!
Welcome home! What a great time!
I’m blaming the stashalong for your lack of focus in the photo taking department. Must have been deprived of yarn for too long! =)
I love Seaport. Isn’t it just too fun? Plus, the cash only thing really makes me focus on what I want.
To be welcomed home by a dog is a joy! Glad you had a great time. Did you get to see Ellis Island and do the self-tour? That was one of my favorite things in NYC. And I was disappointed that the Statue of Liberty was so much smaller than I had imagined it to be. But she is beautiful.
I’m so impressed! You’re doing so well with your diet, it’s inspiring. Still no yarn shopping in Sweden, but this is my week for fiber tourism, so we’ll see what happens.
What you did buy is lovely. Good use of your free day!
It was great to meet you, too, Lorette. I’m glad that you had a good time on our yarn crawl, I certainly did. Glad you made it home safely!