When you get caught between the moon and New York City...

... Arthur's Theme is totally one of my favorite songs.

NEW YORK!

What a freakin' trip. It was super fun and totally exhausting and I would do it again next weekend if I had the money and another pair of boots (since mine now have holes in them from all the walking. NOT CITY SHOES.) First of all, I have to give a shout out to my girl Carolyn, who sent me her recommendations for restaurants, and not one of them disappointed. I tried so many kinds of food I'd never had before: Vietnamese, Malaysian, Brazilian, crazy Tex-Mex-Asian-fusion. yumyumyum. The food was my second favorite part of the trip.

My first favorite part was, of course, the people. And the yarn. Ohhhhh, the yarn.

At the subway stop in Queens.

The extremely long and photo heavy play-by-play is in the extended entry. You have been warned about the length. And the photo heaviness...

Thursday morning:

So excited about New York.

Arrived at my sister's hotel to find her extremely ill with a fever and horrible hacking cough. Poor schmoo. It was pretty nice outside, about mid-50s to 60s - I didn't even need a jacket! Fears of freezing temperatures fled my mind. (Ominous foreshadowing here). Me and Sicky hit the subway, had lunch with her colleagues, and headed back to the hotel for a nap and relaxation. Got to walk around Columbia University a little - so many beautiful buildings! I had a glass of wine at 1:00pm. Wooo-hooo Spring Break! I headed over to my hotel around 3:00 to meet Frecklegirl Jess and check in. Our room was on the 21st floor. SO HIGH UP. Our room was also extremely tiny, but clean. Hooray. We decided to try the Malaysian restaurant for dinner - Nyonya. We got the mango chicken, a yummy beef dish, and roti canai for an appetizer. Jess ordered 4 drinks, and one of them was a whole coconut with a straw in it:

Coconut juice.

The food was excellent, and we totally saw Alan Arkin there. I may have accidentally stared at him when he sat at the table next to us. And he may have then requested to be moved to another table. I'm sorry I scared you, Alan Arkin. I wasn't going to accost you. I PROMISE.

It started to rain pretty hard while we were eating, but it still wasn't super cold out. We managed to get home in time to watch Grey's Anatomy and research the yarn store situation. Here's Jess planning our strategy:

Plan of attack.

Watched the news - they were predicting a snowstorm. hahahahahaha. I decide that the weather men are exaggerating and it will all be fine tomorrow.

Friday: We slept really, really late. So exhausted. We finally woke up and checked out of our hotel, and moved to my sister's hotel. IT IS FREEZING OUTSIDE. And also SNOWING. For once, the weather men were telling the truth. Truth = pelting icy snowflakes on my face. We managed to make it to the hotel and we find Cathy there, still sick as a dog. My poor sister didn't get to do much of anything in New York except cough and lay in the hotel room -- that was the only real bummer of the trip. (Which, of course, means we have to go back.) Here's our plan for the day: lunch and knitting at the Point NYC. After that, we plan to hit Purl and Seaport Yarns. We'll end the day at School Products, which is very close to our hotel. Yarnyarnyarn.

So, we ventured out in the snow to head to the Point NYC.

[ Subway stop we used: Houston Street, on the 1. Note to Southerners: that's pronounced HOW-stun, not Hyoo-stun.]

The Point had JUST what we needed: yummy quiche, yummy coffee and tea, and great company. And of course, yarnyarnyarn. We met up with Michelle, Jackie, Jenn, Valentina, Mindy and I stupidly didn't take any pictures. I actually didn't buy any yarn either - I bought BUTTONS.

Yay pretty buttons.

I think I'll use the wooden ones for my nephew's Trellis. The other ones, for something fabulous for me. Sometime in the future.

So, after the Point, Jackie and Valentina offered to walk us over to Purl. We passed Purl Patchwork on the way - the fabrics are so yummy delicious in there. I *almost* bought some fat quarters, but I resisted temptation because I knew there was Koigu at Purl. And there was so much Koigu at Purl...

See? KOIGU.

So fun!

I also bought The Knitter's Almanac because it was just sitting on the table, begging to be purchased. After our lengthy visit at Purl, we started our walk back to the subway (did I mention the snow? and the pelting of the face?) and I snapped a picture of the snowiness:

There was lot of it.

On our way back to the subway, we stopped in a vintage toy store called Alphaville, which had slap bracelets, Smurf figurines, and robots, among other things. I bought The Pants his own mechanical robot. It has a wind-up key, and it walks.

Now. Off to Seaport Yarns, except that I wrote the address down wrong, and we actually ended up NOT NEAR Seaport Yarns. (Note to self: CHECK THE ADDRESS, especially when walking in ice and snow.) We called -- they were about to close -- so, we decided to hit Seaport on Saturday and we ducked into the closest pub, the Irish Punt. St. Patrick's Day was only a day away, so there was lot of drunk people and bagpipe playing going on. We both had a beer and some delicious potato-scallion soup, and then we headed back to the hotel.

For dinner, we headed to Bright Food Shop in Chelsea. (Now, we could've taken the subway, but by then it was SUPER EXTREMELY FREEZING and still snowing really hard so we took a cab. SO WORTH IT.) I think Bright Food was my favorite restaurant of this trip. It's Mexican-Asian fusion, and it was so freaking good. We got chips and dip (the dip came with three different dips: green salsa (spicy!), hummus, and fresh chopped salsa), and I had one catfish taco and one chicken taco for dinner. Jess ordered the veggie spring rolls which were also good (although she liked mine better!). We also got dessert: I got a key lime tart which was delicious. Super nice service, and nice drink selection. It's not super cheap, but I thought it was worth every damn penny. We also took some chicken stew home to Sicky McGee and her friend in the hotel room, and they LOVED it. (Quote: "This soup just made me feel human again.") Ahhhh, Bright Food.

Saturday: Sicky Cathy managed to get a flight home at noon on Saturday. Poor schmoo. She had to throw herself on the mercy of Airtran, but it was successful. All attempts by me and Jess to wake up early were thwarted. I think we got up like 20 minutes earlier than we did on Saturday. (Dear New York: All that walking makes me really tired, but you are worth it. Love, LazyPants) We stopped to get coffee and breakfast across from the hotel, and then headed for Seaport Yarns -- this time, armed with the correct address and the subway stop.

[Subway stop we used: Fulton Street on the 2-3. Note to subway newbies like myself: NOT THE 1. The 2-3. Yes, I know they are all red. But trust me.]

Seaport is insane. There is no other way to describe it. You go to this office building, go up to the fifth floor, and then go into this door that looks like an office. And it is an office, except that EVERY ROOM IN THE OFFICE IS FULL OF YARN. So. Much. Yarn. And one huge wall of books and mags - I'm talking Rowan mags, tons of older knitting books, beautiful Debbie Bliss books. I'd never seen or heard of some of the Noro yarns they had there -- and some really interesting and beautiful Japanese yarns.

Overwhelmed at Seaport.

Seaport is not for the faint of heart - it's a little overwhelming - but it's so worth the trip if you want to see lots of different brands of yarns and see some unusual colorways in person. I bought three skeins of Noro Silk Garden Lite in an amazing orangey pink colorway (I'll put a picture up later -- I can't find the colorway online anywhere). I started knitting an opera scarf last night with it, but I'm still not sure that's what I want to do with it. LOVE IT.

After Seaport, we tried to hit School Products, but they close at 3:30 on Saturdays and we didn't make it in time. Gah. We returned to the hotel to change for the evening, and during the short stop, our bathtub backed up and poo spewed into our tub. SOMEONE ELSE'S POO. For shame, Hotel Pennsylvania. We got the hell outta there and headed to Queens.

We met the girls for Jenn's birthday celebration at a Brazilian restaurant: Malagueta. Yummy yummy food - my favorite part was my appetizer, a goat cheese and lentil salad. SO. GOOD. And of course, hanging out with the knitters:

Michelle, me, Jackie.

After we ate, we headed back to Jenn's awesome apartment, where the drinking continued and everyone brought out their knitting. I had such a good time! And I learned about two new drinks: Fat Angel beer (yummy delicious) and something called lambic, which was tasty and sweet. We stayed until everyone realized how late it was and we all headed to the subway:

This might be my favorite picture from the trip. Hee.

Good. Times. Jess and I laughed for a while in the room before finally falling asleep...

Yes, there was subway knitting.

Sunday morning, we actually did get up early so Jess could head out. I checked out of the hotel and headed to Brooklyn for brunch with Michelle. I was really, really late because the subway was running on some sort of crazy weekend schedule and the posted signs were written in a special code that only New Yorkers understand. After I finally got onto the right train, I got to see Michelle's adorable place and meet Scout, one of the nicest kitties I know. (He actually We had a lovely brunch and then headed to Valentina's place for more knitting and good times. (Note: it was still v. cold, and there was a lot of snow on the ground, but no more icy pelting freezing snow chunks in the face. Hooray!)

Two tired schmoos.

Valentina was a completely gracious host and there was more coffee, sweets and chocolate than you can imagine. I was so zonked from all the walking that I spent a lot of time leaning my head on the couch and watching everyone knit. It was so relaxing...

Eventually, me and Jenn dragged our tired butts to the subway and headed to her place, where she called me a car and got me to Laguardia (thanks again, Jenn!) just in time to learn that my flight was delayed. For a while. Oh, Laguardia. I sat and knitted and people watched until we finally got on a plane, and then I passed out and slept the entire way home.

I had so much fun. I wish my sister had been well enough to leave the hotel room, and I wish it hadn't been SO COLD, but the people and the yarn and the food and the subway were all very good indeed. I actually got to spend some quality time with some bloggy friends, which doesn't always happen at the festivals. It was fabulous.

Knitting update: I started and am halfway done with a Morehouse shawl. And I didn't bring Forecast to NY because it was too damn heavy! It will be finished. Soon. Any suggestions on a good scarfy-shawly pattern for 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Lite?

Posted by Carrieoke on March 20, 2007 11:32 AM | Permalink