Mmm, yarn!

While most of my trip to New York was spent doing non-yarn-related activities, this post ignores all of those things.


Here we see how much sock one can knit when one's outgoing flight is delayed by three hours, one has lengthy layovers, and one makes time to knit while on vacation. Lexington to New York and back=about 2/3 sock. This is from the pattern I learned from Robyn at ReBelle, using the OnLine Supersocke Julie sent me. (I was tempted to haul it around and take pictures with it, à la Yarn Harlot, but on further consideration that seemed creepy and stalkerish, not to mention too copycat for my taste.)

The first yarn store we hit was Purl, in Soho. I tried to rein in the geekiness a bit, since Kelly's boyfriend was along--but I admit, I spent a decent amount of time fondling the yarn before I settled on my purchase:


That's 3 balls of sportweight yarn, 50% alpaca and 50% silk. (I don't have the label with me at the moment, but I think it's this.) Destined to be the most luxurious, most decadent pair of socks I can imagine. This picture doesn't capture the sheen on this yarn--it's amazing. I'm so glad I was on vacation when I found it, because I would never have been able to rationalize the price at home! (When I asked the nice woman at Purl to wind it for me, she cautioned that I wouldn't be able to return it after it was wound. Return it--ha!)

The second (and, sadly, last) yarn store we went to was The Point. It had a totally different feel than Purl did--very open and breezy, in contrast to Purl's coziness. Both fabulous. At The Point, we sat down at one of the tables with our beverages (coffee for me, TeaNY for Kelly) and played with our yarn. I worked on my sock, and Kelly frogged a shrug she had been making for her sister, then re-balled the yarn. (She decided her sister would like a bag better.) We each stopped periodically to get up and fondle yarn in the baskets hanging from the walls.

Then I bought this:

(100% wool, dk weight--again, I don't have the label with me.) And Kelly bought some, too, and we each got a crochet hook, and I set about teaching her to crochet. Never having taught anyone to crochet before, I think I did pretty well. Of course, her inherent craftiness helped, too! In no time at all she had a nice rectangle of single crochet going. Yay, Kelly! I ripped out what I had crocheted; for some reason, this yarn says "striped scarf" to me, but I want to look around for the right pattern before I really get into it.

I got home Wednesday evening, but I didn't come back to work until today. So I spent yesterday sitting on my backside, recovering from vacation! I also found time in the evening to do a little crocheting:

I did just the black edging yesterday; the hexagons themselves were already done. You can see that I didn't weave in the ends, though, if you look closely. There's a limit to my motivation!

*****

Yikes, I wrote this at lunchtime, and here it is, almost quitting time, and I haven't managed to hit the "publish post" button yet! I'd better do that, and get ready to go home. Happy weekend, everyone!