50 lashes with a wet noodle ...

... for myself. Seriously, I hadn't logged into blogger since forever ago and discovered a handful of comments that needed to be moderated. The e-mails about them must've been deleted when I checked my e-mail after my trip to New York. Whoops. I've been neglectful of this poor little blog lately ... but it's about time for an update.

The trip to New York City was fabulous. We had overcast, spitting rainy weather on our ferry rides to and from Manhattan, which was quite moody. But while we were in the city, we had two lovely sunny days. I even got sunburned one morning! My complete set of pictures can be found here. We had great food everywhere we went (I wish I had been brave enough/competent enough with my camera to take some pictures of it): a huge pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli (the restaurant made famous by Sally's fake O in "When Harry Met Sally"), yummy pasta in Little Italy, scones from Josh's favorite cafe in Brooklyn Heights, and awesome steaks at Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain's restaurant. Seriously good food at a good price.

And now, about the yarny pursuits in the city ... the first store I went to was Seaport Yarn in the Financial District. This was literally around the corner from our hotel (and no, I didn't plan that!). I knew from reading online that it was on the fifth floor of a building, and I arrived right as the store opened. For some reason, the elevator didn't work, so I relucantly climbed four flights of dingy stairs (the things we do for yarn, huh?). I got there, huffing and puffing, and a English girl who worked at the shop let me in. It was cheerfully packed (but organized) - yarn everywhere, much of it in clear plastic bags. Knowing I was headed to several more yarn stores, I bought only this Noro Silk Garden Sock:



I had heard how pretty Purl was, and it definitely didn't disappoint. They had so ... much ... Koigu. I didn't even look at anything else. However, the store was so, so, tiny (seriously, maybe 15 feet wide), and with several other shoppers, I felt like I should hurry up and get outta there. I ended up with two skeins of this lovely Koigu:



Doesn't it look like a Monet painting? Sigh. I love it. The final store we visited (and god love Josh for seeking out these stores with me! he's the best) was Knitty City on the Upper West Side. (Yeah we really got around that day. Although we took the subway a lot, we must've walked seven or eight miles that day!) I think this might've been my favorite store. It was really roomy, had a 'waiting area' (where Josh sat down and started reading "Crochet for Dummies") and had the best selection of yarn I had seen. They had Madeline Tosh and Malabrigo Sock, neither of which I had seen at a store before. I wanted to get so many things, but I was really mindful of my money all weekend. So I ended up with something I really, really love:



two skeins of Malabrigo Sock in Solis. I have been thinking about this yarn since I bought it, no joke. I can't wait to wind it and cast on. But first, I am trying to finish my Clapotis. I'm nearly done with the first skein, so I'm about halfway there ...

Oh, one more unrelated note: If you're a fiber artist and you're interested in copyright/fair use issues, check out a post by Pam (Flint Knits), who tweaked Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater and came up with the February Lady Sweater. It's a thought-provoking post, and all I will say is this problem wouldn't exist if people just did the right thing. Le sigh.