Flibbertygibbet

9:01 to Bristol

An ungodly early start, but it was worth it.

A couple of months ago, a Foyles' away day to Get Knitted in Bristol was mooted and approved, and today it finally arrived. Masterfully organised by Ronke, there were six of us who rolled out of bed in time for the 9am departure.  Ronke, Pauline, Claire, Angela, Adrienne and me.

The first of the bargain bins.

Ok, so there weren't so many bargains, but there was a huge selection.  Yarn, fabric, notions and haberdashery.  Free tea, coffee and sweeties, and a loo, which of course is all just in the name of making you spend longer there and part with more cash.  Not that we had a problem with that.  This is just a corner of the shop.  Double sided island of sock yarn.

I couldn't resist these, which seem to be limited editions, artist inspired.

I mostly bought tools and accessories, like Addi Lace needles and Clover Pom Pom makers.   And  a couple more skeins of sock yarn.

We'd found a taxi driver at the station who could take six in his cab, so we kept phoning Roger as our personal driver for the day.  We headed for lunch (fabulous seafood) at the same restaurant that Angela and Ronke visited on their last trip to Bristol and I think we'll probably head there next time, if only so that Angela can ogle the photo of Clive Owen again.  After a quick visit to the sweet shop in the arcade to stock up on Flying Saucers, gobstoppers, and coconut ice, it was jumping back in with Roger again to go to John Lewis - because their sale started today and we were missing it in London.  So we thought we'd just pop up there briefly, because luckily we were going back from the other Bristol station, so we knew we'd be on the right side of town... Eh, right.

It was certainly worth the trip.  There was a lot of stuff on sale, mainly Debbie Bliss, including something I've been hanging out to buy for ages, the Pure Silk, all at 50% off.  So I grabbed a pile, and now of course I'm slapping my forehead because I should have bought the black too, d'oh.  It just never occurred to me.  Not that I can justify it, but that has literally, as you well know, never stopped me before.  And wool doesn't go off.  Any Bristol knitters out there?  Get into JL.  It's worth it.  Plus they had more of the sale yarns still on the shelves too, so quite a lot of stock. 

So we all swooped out of JL, laden down with bulky bags after about fifteen minutes of military precision purchasing, with plenty of time to jump in a taxi (Roger had abandoned us, sadly).  At this point I was glad I didn't go mad at the Liberty sale this week - on things I didn't really want, but would consider simply because there were on sale. Only three balls of Kid Silk Night in red made the cut, as I really want to master knitting with this fluffy dental floss. 

The throngs of shoppers were conspicuously missing from the car park in the rain, as were moving vehicles: no taxis, no buses, no hope of making it to the train on time.  Maddeningly, there was a six seater taxi sitting there, empty, and another cab pulled in briefly and informed us that the driver was inside the shopping mall, because he couldn't get a fare earlier?!  I have to admit that the shine faded from the JL sidetrip at that point as the prospect of paying another £48 for a train fare home loomed.  Sense of humour failures were imminent.  Particularly as the savings in the sale were about to be obliterated.

But the god of train inspectors was shining on us.  Our tickets were fine for the way back.  We were so close to getting Pauline's Bright Dyes laceweight yarn wound up, with me holding the skein and Pauline making her centre pull ball, but even a 90 minute train journey couldn't do it.  I think we got about a kilometre done  - it's 1200 metres.  Back at Paddington, it was worth running to catch the Hammersmith & City line train, because they're so sporadic in the evenings, but we did make it and that was a final triumph for the day. 

A very fun day with a bunch of funny, wise, witty, knitty ladies.  Ideally, here is where we'd like to go next. 

Home in the rain to the mogs.  We're all settled on the sofa.

And Shrimp is eyeing the new yarn...

Time

Passing time:  no work at the moment.  Bah.  The temp agencies tell me that it's "quiet".  Oh, so you're not just ignoring me then.  Will sign up with some more.  My main job at the moment should be finding a job.  Though there are lots of creative opportunities popping up (more news in due course, if any of them pan out) which are very exciting, none of them are potentially very lucrative.  Rather than twiddling my thumbs I'm getting them stuck into clay and fabric and thread, but I'm just so ready to have a proper grown up job again.

Marking time:  I thought to myself this morning - 'Oh, my blogiversary must be soon.'  I realised it was back in May, whoopsie.  So as it seems traditional, I will offer a little anniversary pressie to someone who comments before Monday.  I'm surprised I missed it, and by over a month, but I guess other things have been going on.  But I am eternally grateful to bloggy people and commenters who have made me laugh and given me things to think about, and provided inspiration over the past year.  Mwah, mwah to you all.

Time moves on:  Dates and time were uppermost in my mind this morning and now I realise why - today is the date that the solicitor can go back to the court and apply for the decree absolute (you have to wait six weeks after the decree nisi, which is nothing more than a pain in the arse, let me tell you) and so I should be divorced in the next week or so.  Wow. It's a good thing, just a strange thing.  Paperwork arrived about the new flat.  I have to get myself up to speed on being a house buyer!

Time to go to the post office.  Baby presents and birthday presents to go in the post.  Have a good weekend, all you lovely folk xx

Capital

Still in NY, I loved the Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting show at the Museum of Art and Design.  My only gripe?  No photos allowed (fair enough, though I was secretly hoping it would be the same policy as at Moma where you can take photos freely) but no postcards or catalogue to support the exhibition, which surprised me.  What a missed opportunity on the part of the marketing department, I would have sprung for it.  Denise and I contributed a few rows (and on her part, a very fine cable) to a collaborative knitting project which allowed us more time for chatting and a break from walking.  Perfect combination!

These are the socks we knitted on the way to Baltimore, I stayed with Denise and her lovely husband and son for two nights. 

We did the bus tour of Washington and Arlington Cemetery on the Friday, which was really interesting.

Denise had bought Rory a present at Moma.  It's hard to know whether it was more popular with him or with me.

It was great to see Denise (you wonderful woman, you!) and spend a little time chilling, and sitting on a bus for a couple of hours was a wonderful antidote to the tearing around Manhattan the previous day - in the name of stash enlargement and cupcake capture - and of course to see her hubbie again and to meet her wee man Rory.  Such a cutie.

Here's some of Denise's knitted and crocheted socks - how cool are they?

Saturday morning - Denise was off to Australia for a business trip and I jumped on the Vermonter back to New York.  Dumped my bags at the bar on 8th, called Pauline and it was off to...

It was just fabulous.  We had a rule that we'd walk around all the stalls first and then buy on the second pass around - oh my god that was hard!  But it resulted in some choice pieces from this fair, which was actually a juried show.

The smiley bag contains goodies from Sarah of The Small Object, and that's a detail of her alternative alphabet.  I got number 28, for my birthday.

From The Weekend Store.  Now I wish I'd bought the typewriter pendant too.  This is to hang in my new flat, assuming that's all still on track.  It's in the 'waiting for paperwork' stage.

I think this tote was from the Make Workshop.

Cards to be framed, also for the new flat, from Katie Muth.

Necklace from Danielle Maveal.  I think I tried on everything she had on her stall before settling on this one.

Coasters from Sesame Letterpress, which will be strung on ribbon - again for the flat.

I also came away with things from Fish Cakes,  this bag from Fred Flare, something else for the flat from Stencil1 and Lotta Jansdotter (nice lady) and others too.  Laden down, in fact.

Back to Manhattan.  A couple of destinations including another stop at the City Quilter.  I really went mad this time, even I admit that.  I haven't even photographed most of it because then I'd have to admit it's now in my house without anywhere to live - the craft storage needs an overhaul.

A stop at Flight 001, a very endearing encounter with a Village native and his two little chihuahuas ('Schweethearts')  who escorted us to Mxyplyzyk which was great - and then directed us up the street to Benny's Burritos.  A bucket of frozen Margarita later, and we were completely refreshed.

We also managed to get to Sephora and Dean & Deluca and I picked up a couple of their signature spice tins. And one of Jelly Beans, which didn't even survive long enough to get packed to bring home.  Ideal for button tins, you know.

I really think that might be about it for NY.  I made my way back to the bar that night and M's hubbie came and picked up both up at 11pm.  Off to Queens for a couple of days, further relaxing.  Home on the Tuesday morning and back into the job hunt.  That's what is looming in on me, darkening the horizons but the trip was fantastically rejuvenating.  Inspirational, in fact.  I would have stayed, I really would.

And even better

On Wednesday I also managed to get to the City Quilter (round 1).  Most of these are for quilting (a pile of orders are due soon) and specifically for quilt backing, for quilts for little boys.

I also went to Tinsel Trading, and unfortunately didn't make a couple of purchases I wanted as I thought I'd be back the next day but didn't make it, and also visited their wonderful ribbon shop,

'The Store Across The Street'.  It's seriously beautiful and worth checking out.  However I would have to say that I thought it was rather overpriced, given that I found many of their ribbons (obviously not the antique ones which are worth going for) in Daytona, for literally half the price.  I know, I checked.  Though the silk flowers were magnificent.  Of course I found a couple I couldn't pass up, and they were so prettily wrapped too:

One of the best things about this trip was that there was a constant stream of fun people around - some natives and some transplants.  Pauline was working in NY that week so of course we had to hook up which was brilliant....we decided at one point that telepathy works better in NY as one of us would say something and the other would literally stop in her tracks, exclaiming "I was just thinking that!".  My favourite example being - and this will show you what a cosmopolitanish melting pot London is - when I confessed that I had been musing to myself earlier about how there were loads of Americans about and Pauline said me-too-me-too...

This is where we went for drinks and dinner that evening - Pauline will have loads of photographic evidence to show later on. (She's great, she was the official photographer for the trip).  It was hysterical - she told me that there was something unusual about the entrance to PDT, so when we arrived in what looked like a normal fast food place, I thought 'Ok...' then I was kind of mystified when she ducked off into a phone box on the left  - and lo and behold we emerged in here!  God, it was such fun.  Apparently the entry criteria is that there's space inside (that will explain how I got in) not who you are/what you're wearing - and to reiterate that, from our perch on the bar we could see the little CCTV monitor that shows the poor unfortunates who are in the fake phone box entrance hammering on the false wall trying to get in.

We drank cocktails - slightly pretentious ones, pretty much each one has some mysterious ingredient that nobody's ever heard of , like Lustau manzanilla, anyone? - and ate hot dogs.  Yum. 

Then we popped across the road for chocolate, caramel and banana crepes for dessert.  Yes, we know how to have a good time.  With extra sugar, where possible.   Thanks to the poster in the creperie, we are also fully aware of how to do the Heimlich Manoeuvre, should it be necessary. It was funny to be waving goodbye to each other in Grand Central later, as if we were at the tube at home, with cries of "See you on Saturday" - more on that later!

[Can I just say that I never thought I'd be defending the London underground but yet again I have new-found admiration for an underground network that goes around the compass points, not just horizontally and vertically; and for stations that also let you go in both directions??  Mind you, the subway is cheap, cheap, cheap.  Particularly with magical British pounds.]

It was lateish to bed and really early to rise the next day, as I went off to meet the lovely Denise (who doesn't blog - yet) from her 8am train, having first checked out of my hotel and left my luggage at Penn Station,  and we set off to really kill the credit cards.  On the way, I spotted one of the Star Wars mail boxes that Susan blogged about ages ago (Anna, check out Susan's blog too as she has a link to the Threads list of where to go in NY for sewers!)

After breakfast, it was off to School Products (I'll tell you why it's called that a bit later).  Here's Denise browsing in this huge place.  Can you spot her?  She was choosing her Koigu.

I bought this lilac merino and the variegated cashmere.  Yum.

I think we got to Purl next.  Purl, the mecca for us UK knitters.  I have to admit, it's a rather lovely experience.  Particularly for someone like me, who's a total yarn flibbertygibbet and doesn't really know what she's buying - apart from some custom colour Lorna's Laces. 

And some Blue Sky Alpaca Silk (left) for the infamous Clap. I am following Helen's lead and not using a variegated yarn, rather something soft and luxurious.  Denise bought some more sock yarn (what was it?) and I picked up some amazing stuff for Lucy from my knitting group but unfortunately forgot to take a picture. 

Some tips: 

• Purl Soho doesn't hold exactly the same stock as the internet - that stuff is in California.  They can get  any of it in but it takes a couple of days.
• The Lorna's Laces custom colours don't have the names like 'Berry Stripe' on the actual labels, just on the net (no, I couldn't figure that out) so make sure you are buying the same ones if they are for someone else (don't worry, the staff there are super-helpful)
• They don't take American Express.  I had brought an Amex debit card - like traveller's cheques but in card format - and went to the local corner store to get cash instead.

And then we had some lunch to fortify ourselves at the little cafe next door.  "Once Upon a Tart".

Before making for the No I destination: 

Oh, I really loved Purl Patchworks.  It kind of reaffirmed that while knitting is my favourite social craft, I adore sewing.  I got overexcited, natch, while Denise patiently sat down and started on her sock. 

The very first thing I requested from Joelle (yes, the famous owner of the store was there herself)  was the Denyse Schmidt 'Katie Jump Rope' bundle and you know it was worth schlepping it all around town.

There's a part of the selection, it was such fun. Joelle is very patient and so friendly.   I'm sure a lot of you will have seen the article about the shop and her beautiful apartment in Blueprint, with the quilt pattern but I didn't want to appear stalkerish and mention it.

As I was repacking the bags post-fabric purchasing so that it would all fit a little better, she spotted the lilac merino and said 'Oh, that's nice - that's not from Purl!' and I explained that it was from School Products.  Then the conversation went like this:

Joelle: I wonder why it's called that.
Woman: Oh, I just designed her book,  it's because it used to be a school supplies store.
Us:  Really?
Me: Oh, when is your new book coming out?
Joelle:  Not until September, it's called Last Minute Patchwork Gifts (I think that's what she said)
Me:  I can't wait - I was gutted that Amy Karol's book wasn't coming out until Tuesday and I go back on Monday.
Woman: I designed that one too!

It's a teensy-weensy tiny world.  Or maybe the telepathy/synchronicity thing works with total strangers too.

I must say that I am a big fan of the City Quilter and it worked well for me to go to both stores first and then back to the City Quilter as it has such a big selection.  But if I only had time to go to one location, or wanted to go somewhere to hang out, it would definitely be Purl Soho/Patchwork because they have plenty of lovely things, and the atmosphere is fab.

After all that fabric shopping we needed some sustenance (yes, that's right, all we did was shop for craft materials and eat sugar - and lo, 'twas good) and we went to Magnolia bakery, the home of my favourite cupcakes.  (recipe here) Damn, they were delicious.

We stood outside and devoured them, and then realised that through the window you could see them, making the magic and just look at those jars of sprinkles.

Ok, unbelievably there's still yet more to tell you, (and more fabric to show you) but I'm done for the day again.  Laters, ladies.

 

So good. (They named it twice.)

Oh yes, plenty of new places for my little red book this time around.

So I got to NYC on Tuesday afternoon.  In the end I was glad I didn't do the stopover option via Washington as it meant I got to fly Virgin, direct, which was very civilised.  Just so you know, when you bring your dpns on board in your purse, and the yarn elsewhere in your check-in bag, this is how much sock you can knit on a transatlantic flight. 

I checked into my (free! woo-hoo) hotel which was pretty good by Manhattan standards - check out the knitting couch in the corner:

and headed straight out to do a little light shopping before meeting my friend.

First stop Kinokuniya.  It would take a long time to browse there even if I did speak Japanese.  Instead it was a matter of pulling out dozens of spine-out books to find the right ones.  Somehow I knew when I went in there that I'd only buy two books - being modest and still thinking of the luggage allowance at the start of the trip - and some stationery which doesn't count.  You know the way.

This is the embroidery book which is just too cute, suitable for all the imminent baby presents. 

Here's a detail from the bag book (ISBN 4834724840):  I never thought I liked yoyos (or Suffolk puffs as they are also known) that much but I'm very taken with this.

And the stationery has the usual charmingly translated English.

After that I went to see a friend, M,  who manages a bar on 8th Avenue.   I haven't seen her for six years and she's now married and is expecting a baby so it was great to catch up.   Mind you, it did mean that it was 4am my time by the time I got back to the hotel to bed.  This was the view from my hotel window when I got back:

Fortified by a humongous breakfast from my favourite bagel place on 3rd Avenue,

which obliterated the need for lunch,  Wednesday was the Garment District Day.   

Mainly W38th and W39th St, and most of them. (BTW Liesl's post here gives lots of addresses - I'm cheating now and not putting them in myself).

A selection of the mountains of ribbon from Daytona Trimmings.   I loved this place.  Seriously - look at the rick rack selection...

The sales assistant was laughing at me because she could see my eyes boggling when she told me the prices, as she grabbed each of my choices and unwound it by the armful ("The thin one?  That's 5 yards for a dollar," as I of course calculated it all back to my wonderful British pounds and giggled like a loon) and I thought that the prices were amazing.  Although there was one ribbon that was slightly off register in the printing but I think that was just one.

From Lin's Trimming at 256 West 38th.

From M&J trimmings:

I didn't buy as much as normal here because I'd already made so many stops on W39th.

More bits from various places.

Ok, that gets me to about 3.30 that afternoon.  But I need my bed.  So will continue tomorrow.  Well done for getting this far.

It's been a while

So just to recap a little, class....

It's been such a long time since I blogged.  All went well with Shaun the Sheep and the rest of the knitterly stuff for the Camden Green Fair.  It was really hot and Lucy baked the world's best brownies and we had a good laugh.  We may even have taught a few people to knit. 

International Knit in Public Day was on the 9th of June and we ambled along to Trafalgar Square to watch the security guards try to get all heavy with the guys from I Knit London - hilarious. 

Though we did agree that of everyone there, ironically,  Craig was definitely the person in possession of the most dangerous needles (the huge ones from Wool n Boat, he was using them to knit a curtain).  It was fun, until we decided that us three little white girls were getting burned to cinders despite the Factor 25 so we went to the National Portrait Gallery's cafe for lunch.  Or in the case of myself and Helen, for starters as we ended up having pad thai later. 

And on Sunday we went along to the Spitalfields City Farm, to the Sheep and Wool fair, where Claire was running knitting workshops.  On the way home, I stopped in to see Zoe - who made this bag - who has a stall at the Backyard Market.  She has lovely things and I think she's there for a few more Sundays - go and see.  (and if you need any other reason, I think these people are usually there too).

Now there's something else I need to tell you is, isn't there.... um.... oh yeah. Heh heh.
New York was everything I was hoping, as ever.  Now I'm sleepy and heading to bed to deal with the jet lag.  Once I clear some of the shopping off it....

More tomorrow.

Hey, if you're still waiting for swap packages, will you let me know?

The times - are they a changin'?

I may have implied in my last post that I was about to fall off the earth for a month.  Not so.  It's just that there wasn't much I wanted to blog about.

Then lots of pressies arrived in the post.

This was the surprise from the lovely Julie, which I showed you all wrapped up.... my very own Little Knitted Cupcake!  You won't be surprised to hear that the workmanship is just perfect.  Adorable.  As some of you probably know, I have a thing for cupcakes, like a lot of us do.  Knitted, sewn, and also...

in pincushion form!

From the lovely Tamy, along with lots of other goodness in my first swap package from Round 3, and Julie also donated yarn for the newbie knitters at the Picknit tomorrow (surely extremely good learner-knitting mojo must come from yarn used for Little Cotton Rabbits?)  Tamy sent beautiful bright fabrics and also something that will come in handy for tomorrow - will put pics on the Flickr group.

This is a belated birthday present from an old friend who I saw last week.  I have been thinking "I must get a milk jug" and then put it out of my mind along with notions like "I must change over to my summer wardrobe', 'My life would enriched by matching napkins", "Making a souffle sounds like fun" and so on.

But it's perfect. 

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Helene's blog: a copy of Marie Claire Idees.  Yes, I know you can allegedly buy it here, but I've never actually had my hands on a copy before.  Dangerous stuff. I could convince myself that I'm buying it just to improve my French.  Pas une mauvais idee... (zut, je dois plus practiquer - ou bien apprendre encore?) and Helene sent the most marvellous package of goodies along with it - thank you so much!

I went down to Cockpit Arts today to see Ruth - lots of lovely things on show from her.  I spent a while talking to Lissie Baldwin, who is just moving out of one of the studios there, and I completely fell in love with one of her Dolly's Dollar Pin-Up works.   Lisa Marklew's ceramics are utterly whimsical and covetable.  They can both go on the 'When I Become A Patron Of The Arts' list.

I've been thinking far too much recently - mainly because tomorrow would have been my second wedding anniversary, had we lasted that long.  I got copies of the decree nisi from the solicitor on Friday and being reminded of it again, in black and white, 'adultery with unnamed woman', 'irretrievably broken down', still hurts.  Horribly.  Actually it never goes away.  The corresponding drain on confidence which ensues - which is a lasting legacy for many women, I believe - that comes back to hit you in the teeth over and over. I actually got to the point recently where I started to think that maybe it's time to hang up the towel and move home.  Like, HOME home.  Ireland. Jesus Christ almighty.

Live in the country, like this lovely pillow from MCI. 

My mother,  bless her heart said something along the lines of 'sure, come home if you want, I just think you'd be mental to do it.'  She is almost certainly right.   I am getting the fear about buying 'my' lovely little flat but Mum tells me that it will all work out ok, so I choose to believe her.

So tomorrow I'll be in Regent's Park with a six foot knitted sheep, rather than a six foot husband.  I won't be swapping cotton gifts, I'll be knitting with it.   Swapping wedding cake for cupcakes.  Better get baking.

Bisy backson

I'll be here

and here

and here.   

So bisy, but backson. In July, probably.

PS keep swapping!  It's looking good!  Will share pics of all the postal goodness I've received - very soon...