Pop quiz. You're a certifiable yarn junkie and you've got five hours in New York City. Where do you go?

Well, I started at Knitting Hands in Brooklyn (website - info here). This is a great yarn store! Brooklyn knitters sure are lucky to have such an awesome LYS. The place was packed with customers (lots of new knitters looking for help with new projects) and the staff was very friendly. There's every yarn you could possibly want here - GGH, Colinette, Manos, Blue Sky Alpacas, Mission Falls, Plymouth Yarns, andandand.... There's even a large selection of the less expensive acrylic yarns (making up for the lack of strip mall craft stores in NYC I guess). And lots and lots of pattern support too - books, older pattern magazines and tons of individual patterns. Wowie! I got caught up in the patterns for a while and then almost got some Mission Falls cotton (such pretty colors!), but then I decided to contain my excitement. Didn't want to get carried away at the first store. So I left empty-handed. Of course my hands were quickly filled after stopping by Urban Monster, a hip baby gear store next door! Had to get something fun for the boys, you know.

Next up, I crossed the river and stopped at the Yarn Connection in midtown (website). What a cute store located up on the second floor with a huge window looking out to the street below. We were buzzed in and found an incredible selection and amount of yarn in a small room full of cubbyholes and baskets and bins. This place is like Rowan central! I could browse Rowan yarns all day long and could no doubt knit my way through all the Rowan mags with the selection they've got here! They also had more crochet stuff than I usually see, which inspired me to pick up a few things for my first real crochet projects.

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky for a fun crochet scarf and Berroco Suede for a crocheted bag. Both in blue. What else?!

I had hoped to make it to Purl Soho (website), but the next store was so great that I never made it. That's right, I spent the final two hours of my knit-trip at Knit NY (website)! Can you imagine anything better than a store with all of this and yummy baked goods too?

They've got one ball of each yarn (in every color) in its own tiny cubbyhole out on the wall for you to admire and touch. It's such a cool way to display the yarns. It's practical and beautiful. And you get to sit right in the middle of everything and knit. Check out the cool transparent stools full of colorful yarnballs. This place rocks! Two hours, a yummy doughnut, 20 balls of yarn, two books and one t-shirt later and I was done. Just enough time to grab a slice of pizza and hit old Broadway.

I love New York!

Just got back from a quick fiber-filled day trip down to NYC! Sandy (above), Kerstin, I, Leigh, and Carrie and Cindy all decided to meet up in the big city to see how many yarn stores we could hit in 5 hours. We ran into some unfortunate summer/sudden store closings, but still managed to see several shops. I finally got to see The Yarn Co. We didn't spend much time in the store, but I couldn't leave without these neat retro buttons for a future project for the boys. The coolest place we visited had to be Habu, where they had hundreds of amazing yarns made from all sorts of fibers and materials hanging on display in a teeny-tiny hallway.

Carrie and I both fell in love with this beautiful cotton in red. I bought enough to make one of these asian-inspired tanks from Rebecca #26.

After all the shopping we even squeezed in a little knitting and giggling time in a midtown deli.

Thanks gals, for such a fun day! Next time I wanna try to stay longer and maybe meet up with some of my NYC knitbuds. I seem to have developed a little nyc knitting habit - hee hee.

What a great trip! I had a wonderful visit with my mother and was also able to meet up with fellow knit-bloggers Jenn, of nipperknits, Elisabeth, of Curls and Purls NYC, and Jackie, of Jackie Blue. Check out their blogs for pics of all of us together - and look for a cameo by my mom! I just can't say enough good things about these three NYC knitters. Jenn is the cutest little thing you ever saw. It was real pleasure hanging out with her, talking yarn and politics and stuff (we didn't even get to discuss our shared crush on Ron Weasley!). Mom and I even followed her after our yarn shopping adventure over to the Swatch store where she works to buy a few watches! Elisabeth was the best guide one could ever find to the fabulous world of yummy yarns and snacks that is downtown Manhattan. And such a friendly and fabulous woman herself. I'm never shopping in NYC again without her! And Jackie, whose blog was one of the first I ever read and whose projects I've long admired, was just as fun and hip as her blog would lead you to imagine. She looked so stylish in her new Phil' Ruban tank and Phil' Eponge sweater and her current Rowan project is another to-die-for knit. She's a real New York gal too. So cool sitting in KnitNY, knitting with New Yorkers. I felt so at home! Thanks, girls!

So, wanna see where we went?

the obligatory purl shot

First was Purl Soho. I loved it! Such incredible yarns, a whole table full of beautiful swatches to entice you, and a very friendly staff to boot. You can't beat that! While my mom and I shopped, the gals sat and knitted (shouldn't it be "sat and knat"?) at the table in the middle of the store. It was a really comfortable atmosphere. I love it when a yarn store welcomes people to knit and browse, even if not everyone is shopping. The other gals have much better pics of us sitting at the table in Purl, but I've got a close-up of the cute little doggie that slept on the table while we were knitting. I left the Vintage Knits book in there for scale. That dog was so tiny and so adorable in its little Polo shirt! If it weren't for hunger pangs, I could have stayed there all day with the dog, the girls, the yarn....

purl makes me happy

After a fabulous lunch at Once upon a Tart, the gang moseyed on over to Downtown Yarns.

is that Calmer on sale?! - oh, this IS a good store

Another incredible wall of yarn, a giant table for sitting and knitting, and the nicest staff EVER. We loved it so much we even went back the next day for more. They recognized us of course, because we were in there forever on Saturday! There wasn't a cute little doggie, but just look at the adorable teddy bear they had on display, knitted out of some really cool rug yarn.

raise high the roofbeam knitters

One piece of advice for when you go to this store: Don't forget to look up! The room might not be that big, but there's yarn and amazing display items all the way to the gloriously high ceilings. I still don't think we managed to see everything in there! We would have kept looking, but hunger got the best of us again and we finished off the last day by having another yummy lunch. This time at nearby Benny's Burritos. I couldn't resist the name. That's how mothers are, you know.

So what did I buy? Tune in tomorrow for the shopping bags....

yes sir, yes sir

Well, if I didn't do much shopping on my last trip to NYC, I sure made up for it this time. Ably aided by my mother and the best group of enablers one could ever want, I did good.

Habu rocks

First, even before I met up with the girls, I had to go to Habu! I picked up another ounce of my fabu habu red cotton, just in case I don't have enough to finish the tank I'm working on. They wound the ounce on a little teeny cone, which is so cute that I'm hoping I don't need to use it and can keep it with my other "decorative yarns" on my knitting table. Next to the red coned cotton is some incredible handspun cashmere that my mom couldn't resist (note: mom is not a knitter, so I get to knit her purchases as well - woo hoo!). So, someone's getting a cashmere scarf this Christmas. Then there's two little yellow mini-skeins of Habu's silk-mohair. It reminds me of KidSilk Haze and is so soft. Maybe I can use it someday to make something with crazy hazy ruffles like Elisabeth's Elfin. Finally, the coolest thing ever, preknitted, retro-colored strips of yarn that I have no idea what to do with but had to take home. Take a closer look and tell me you could pass that up!

cuckoo for Koigu

Once I met up with the girls at Purl Soho and Jenn showed us her incredible Vintage Knits wavy-line sweater, my mom and I decided I had to immediately buy enough Koigu to make one for myself. And does Purl ever have the Koigu, let me tell you! They've got lots of the solid colors too, which are really my favorites (remember, I've got variegated issues). Mom also found this sweater knit up as a store model and we decided that we both had to have one. I just happen to have some DB cashmerino aran from the Must Have Cardigan that I chickened out of. And mom wants the DB cotton angora that the pattern calls for. A mother-daughter knit-along is born!

painting the downtown red

At the comfiest yarn store ever, Downtown Yarns, we could only see red. My mom kept coming back to the red and white Manos Cotton Stria (soon to be a candy-cane scarf for her) and I just had to have the one ball of red Calmer (ON SALE!). Jenn had us hunting around for good handpainted yarns after mentioning the Pooling Colors Scarf pattern in the Fall Interweave Knits. When we saw the Schaefer Anne yarn, we started laying out skeins and checking out how the colors would stripe. I ended up with a skein with subtle red colors. I can't wait to see how this pattern and yarn work out!

blue is for knitting

Finally, at my fave, KnitNY, we went blue. I picked out a skein of GGH Via Mala in my favorite color for the fingerless gloves from Weekend Knitting. Mom picked out some Koigu (yes, more Koigu!) for me to make some socks (yes, socks!) for my great aunts. And I picked up a lovely coupon for 10% off my next purchase. Makes me want to rub my hands together like Montgomery Burns on the Simpsons and say, "exxxxcellent."

Jenn
Jackie
Cari
Em
Iris
Elisabeth
Jackie
Valentina

A wonderful bunch of gals to knit with on a Saturday afternoon. Thanks for a great time ladies!

I certainly hope you didn't believe me.

I started my big day in NYC by doing a wee bit of shopping before meeting the gals for knitting. I was in search of the perfect yarn to make a bright orange scarf to match the orange lining of my winter coat (see it peeking out in the picture from yesterday?). I was hoping to find some orange cashmere at School Products, but no luck. So I dashed over to Yarn Connection and found so many fabulous things that I was late meeting my nyc knitbuds. I left the store with two balls of scrumptuous Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky in the perfect orange and ran down to meet everyone at KnitNY. They were eager to inspect my purchases and then asked to see "the sock". Although everyone was very supportive about it and tried to get me to pick it up, I only wanted my new Cashmerino. Did I mention that I also bought the needles I needed so that I could start knitting my scarf right away? Heh, heh. So I started and didn't stop until I finished it on the bus on the way back.

I'm home!

Time to unpack.

Have you heard about the yarn bus?? Not only did Flying Fingers' shuttle bus, which takes shoppers from downtown NYC to their yarn shop out in Westchester, make the Channel 7 News, it got a write up in the New Yorker!

Next time I'm in New York I so want to do this! But there are still plenty of fun yarn trips to be had up here in New England. In fact, I'm off today on an excursion out to Webs in Western Mass. No giant fiberglass yarn balls on the car, but I'll be knitting all the way!

Update: I just found this awesome post of Bevin and Sooner's yarn bus adventure. Check it out! Thanks to Illana for the link.

I just got back from a quick happy birthday trip down to NYC with my son B to see grandma. (Poor S had to stay home with daddy and 103 degree temperature.)

B was thrilled to ride on the train. He spent three hours of the four hour ride happily looking out the window, leaving me with a surprisingly great deal of knitting time. He did insist on helping me with the cables on katy though.

On Saturday, I got to go to Broadway - no kiddies, just me, other theater-going adults, and a lot of spam.

Then we took a walk in the park and went home to eat cake. Yum!

There was just enough time before the ride back on Sunday to do a little knit-tourism. First up was the new knit cafe in town, the Point. (Where I picked up a t-shirt and some sock yarn - surprise, surprise.)

And of course, a must for every NYC knit-trip, Downtown Yarns. B even helped wind the Koigu I bought! (I'm going to make the shrug that the woman helping B is wearing.)

And then we came home, I dropped the suitcase on my foot and got to spend the first three hours of my real birthday in the ER. Happy, happy. Result: a bad bruise, no broken bones, and half a Fixation ankle sock complete. I'll be spending the rest of my birthday on the sofa with my foot elevated. And most likely watching the fireworks tonight on tv.

So happy birthday to me and God bless America, home of the free, the brave, the most fabulous knitting stores in the world, and 24-hour healthcare!

I'm still recovering from the weekend with the boys in NYC. Touring the big city with little kids sure can be stressful!

After two days, grandma and I have figured out how to plan better though. First, think long and hard about how much time you have and what you want to do with the kiddos. Cut out long walks and travel time, plan in breaks, food and fun stuff. Once you have a reasonable, parsimonious plan, cut out an additional three things on the list. And be sure to stop to enjoy the simple things, like your reflection in a rain-filled sidewalk grate or puppies in a shop window.

PS - The puppies are right by Gotta Knit (which was unfortunately closed on Sunday as we walked by).

All four of us were just beat at the end of the Saturday, when we first stopped by a closed Yarn Co. (silly me, I believed those hours listed on the website) and then visited what is possibly the world's loudest museum, the Children's Museum of Manhattan, for a Dora- and Dr. Suess-filled ride to overstimulation hell.

Sunday was much better with us first eating awesome waffles and pancakes at EJ's Lunchonette and then stopping by KnitNY. (Sorry, Point-ers, we had to nix our visit to the Point in order to keep all our activities in one area of town.)

The boys ate cookies and I ran into Jon, of the Jon blog, who was working on this incredible intarsia baby blanket!

Speaking of KnitNY knitting, we spotted the KnitNY shrug that I made last year for mom at her office, which we briefly crashed for an emergency potty break!

We even had some time during a little dry spell in the weather for the boys to play in the sandbox at Washington Square before rushing off to Penn Station to wait an hour for our delayed train back home.

I did no knitting, and so still have the task ahead of me of ripping out this lovely, but waaaay too long sleeve I knit last week for my long-sleeved nothing but a t-shirt.

I got so into the stockinette and the idea of a nice long sleeve that I overshot the mark by about 2 inches!

Lesson learned: less is more.

My yarn shopping strategy for this last trip down to NYC was to visit those stores I don't get to visit usually. A sort of long-time-no-see, what-I've-been-missing kind of thing. I started at School Products, since they are one of the first to open (and close!) on Saturdays.

first one there! buzz me in!

I let my fingers do the walking and they walked me right over to a store model of a cute grey child's sweater. The yarn was soft and squishy and a little fuzzy. I was intrigued. When I heard that it was Yak yarn, I couldn't resist.

really, it's so soft!

So the boys will be getting fall yakets, probably along the lines of this Rowan Junior pattern. It's about time I made something for them again!

From School Products, it's just a hop, skip and a jump west to get to Habu. They were having a little mini-sale.

look, yarn in the main room

I took my time and fondled all the yarns but left with only happy hands. You gotta bring your imagination with you when you shop at Habu and I wasn't quite imaginative enough this trip to come up with a purpose for their special and unique yarns.

Later that afternoon, I made it over to the Yarn Co., which has to be the busiest, most expensive, and frankly, least pleasant yarn store I've been in. They've got tons of lovely yarns and scores of great pattern samples hanging up, but it's all very "what do you want?" and "well, we write the pattern out if you buy the yarn". I stayed a long time and was tempted by their very impressive selection of GGH yarns, but alas, I couldn't overcome my dislike of the store to buy anything.

I had hoped to make it down to Downtown Yarns to show them my progress on their shrug, but I couldn't squeeze it in on Saturday. I didn't have the shrug finished anyway. Plus, this trip was for the places I DON'T usually visit, and I always visit Downtown Yarns.

Sunday began at Purl. What a wonderful yarn store! We - mom came with - got there when they opened and, despite the fact that the place is no bigger than my living room, we stayed for two hours!

you gotta love a store that has painted the pay phone and bench outside to match it

They might not have much room, but they've got it crammed full of only the best of the best yarns. It's like they took all the yarn possibilities, threw them in a giant vat, waited to see what rose to the top, and then only put those in the store. And the people working there were SOOOO nice. Seriously, can I move in? When we did leave, we had filled an entire shopping bag with yarn.

purl is now officially on the list of stores to visit every time I'm in town

I picked up lots of their custom colored striping Lorna's Laces sock yarn, a little Koigu (I haven't been able to find Koigu anywhere else recently - I thought there might have been a distribution problem, but apparently, it was all just at Purl!), and, my absolute favorite, two hanks of Lobster Pot lace-weight cashmere. Swoon.

We only left Purl because we had to go to the Point to meet up with some nyc knitbuds, whom I haven't seen in ages. The Point is a yarn store that just makes you happy. There's the "eat, knit, and be happy" sign in the window and the fun bins of yarn that hang on the wall (see them in my post from my last trip), and here's a picture of the corner of the store devoted to yarn hanks.

even with a torrential rain storm outside, we couldn't help but smile when surrounded by all this

I met up with cool knitbuddies, Jackie, Valentina, and Cassie. After the rain let up a little, Shannon came to join us too.

panoramic view - photoshop is grand, ain't it?

It's great knitting in a shop with regulars! In addition to feeling very welcome, we got to chat and have a few laughs with Point-man, John, whom I'm sure you all know from his new Knitty pattern. Besides being damn funny, the Point staff was very helpful, even pulling out some shade cards for me when I was being "that person" and having a hard time deciding on some Rowan Cashcotton colors.

must have been the fabulous cashcotton cardigan Jackie was working on that sold me

Well, that's it. Car full of yarn and I was ready to go. What a great trip! I think the next big trip will have to be to IKEA to buy more yarn storage. Heh, heh.

and knitnying, and knittycitying....

What a beautiful day it was in New York City yesterday! And full of beautiful things. First, there were the fabulous clothes at my favorite little boutique in Brooklyn.

Then there were all the yarns and samples and accessories the latest and greatest yarn store on the upper west side, Knitty City.

Knitty City was a very friendly and cute store with a good selection, especially sock yarns! I spotted a few things there I'd never seen before, like Lily Chin's new line of yarn, Frog Tree Merino (love their alpaca too, but their merino feels just like Malabrigo!), and I even met a fellow Sockapalooozer there (hey, Julie!).

peeking in

Next up was a delightful cream puff at Beard Papa's right down the street. YUM!

And then downtown for the prettiest of them all, Purl (I was very tempted to get some Manos there for my afghan; and all the Lorna's Laces Worsted - swoon!), and some late night knitting at KnitNY (where I even ran into fellow sock sister, Cathy!).

Frog Tree Merino and Trekking sock yarn from Knitty City
and a Go Knit Pouch from KnitNY

I didn't buy much so far, but there's still today, right?!

First up on my second day in NYC was the newest and hippest knitting store to come to town, Suss Designs. Yes, the Suss from Hollywood Knits has brought her gorgeous knits and yarns to NYC.

Wowza, is this place incredible! They had lots of yarns I'd never seen before, including the Suss yarns which are lovely - what a difference it makes when you can see and touch them - all with beautiful colors and wonderful fibers. And the knitted garments for sale were to die for! They were even having a 50% off sale on winter items, but they were still too pricey for me. The styles were fabulous though. And browsing for inspiration is always free!

A quick lunch at Peanut Butter & Co. (everything peanut butter!) and then it was back to Purl so I could finally use that gift certificate my mother got me for Christmas.

We spent a looooong time looking at the staggering selection of Koigu and Kersti. I was all set to get some Kersti for a sweater, when mom pulls out the most amazing swatch of Alchemy Synchronicity in Rich Berry. I put the Kersti back, Julia Roberts came in to pick up some yarn, and I snatched up all the Synchronicity in that colorway.

alchemy synchronicity from Purl
and artyarns ultramerino sock yarn from Suss

Then I rode the bus home with about 500 other people - I've never seen so many people waiting for a bus (we were wrapped all around the entire downstairs gate area, which if you've ever been to the Port Authority you know is huge!). They must have pulled in every bus they had that would run. When I realized that none of the seat lights inside our bus were working, I briefly considered putting the knitting away. Then I thought, who says I can't do a short-row toe in the dark?

perfect short-row toe knit by feel

When the bus made a stop for folks to grab a quick bite to eat and the driver turned all the lights on, I realized my mistake.

perfect short-row toe on side of foot

Well, at least the yarn shopping was good.

Wee one made her first trip new york city to see grandma!

That's wee in front of Washington Square Park (hey, give me a break, it's hard to get baby and archway in the same picture while holding baby in a bjorn!). Yes, we went straight downtown to visit purl, where I didn't even look at the yarn. I know, I know, but this visit I decided to go easy on the yarn and instead went to purl patchwork to pick out some pretty fabrics to sew some simple dresses for baby L. I'm not very skilled with the sewing machine, but if there's ever going to be a time when I can make clothes for wee one it's now, when a basic little romper will look so cute on her.

I did do some yarn shopping, of course. On Sunday we stopped by Brooklyn General, where we met up with former knitsmith and now nyc's subway knitter. (Colleen's in town only a few weeks and she's already led me to the coolest yarn shop around!)

Brooklyn General (see the sign under the Frank's sign?) was great! It's a huge space with beautiful old-fashioned wood display cases on the walls (very general store-y), filled with gorgeous, gorgeous yarns in every color (really, Debbie Bliss, Rowan, Morehouse Merino, Tess, Alchemy, Savannah, Elspeth Lavold... and each one in more colors than I've ever seen in one store!). They also have retro vintage and hip modern fabrics and neat little handmade items for sale. It's just like a crafter's general store with enough fabulous yarn and fabric to keep your hands busy for a long time, all the necessary notions for sewing and knitting, and all in a very relaxed and friendly neighborhood atmosphere.

I bought some rowan denim for a denim pinafore for wee one. I made one for a friend's baby a couple of years ago and hear that it is still in good shape and still wearable as a top. Two years for a kid's knitted garment?! Baby L needs one of these!

And right at the end of the same street as Brooklyn General is the coolest little coffee shop cafe ever, the coffee den. It's waaaaay kid-friendly and the whole back of the store looks like some ultra-funky retro living room. There's even an old tv with a fake fireplace log in it. Hilarous! And awesome grilled cheese, too!

Then it was back to Amtrak for us. The train rides were a little trying (mostly because wee one insists on rolling over now wherever she is, even if it's on my lap in a narrow seat), but we made it home happy, healthy, and with some really cool loot.