back from nyc; wish I had more knitting content

I had a busy weekend in NYC, concentrated on food and friends, but I did manage to squeeze in some knitting-related activities.

My knitting was woefully ignored on the train ride up; I opted instead to do some puzzles. I did finish the heel flap on my second pair of pomatomus, however, on the train ride back.

Special thanks to Laura for directing me to Valerie‘s blog, in which she listed knitting stores in NYC along with her own reviews. I don’t know Valerie yet (that’s “know” in the blogger sense), but I took her opinions as gospel and, combined with some geographic limitations, decided to go to Purl and the Point. Not only are these two the ones I hear about the most, but they are strikingly near each other and both seemed very cool.

There’s some construction going on on the building that houses Purl, so I only got a shot of the storefront—no signage to be seen.

Wow, this place is overflowing with yarn despite being itty bitty. How I wish Sophie’s Yarns here in Philly could manage the same kind of selection in its far larger space. I think that if I needed something, I could go to Purl SoHo and find it. The people who worked there ignored me, which I like, and didn’t seem to care that I pawed a lot of yarn but left emtpy-handed. I even left and took a photograph of the store, and they didn’t seem to mind. I did not buy anything here, though I was tempted, mostly because I was a little overwhelmed and didn’t go in wanting something in particular.

From there we proceeded north and went to the Point:

I was really surprised at what I found. I knew it was a little coffee shop and knitting store, but I expected it to be more of a knitting store than a coffee shop, when it seemed the other way around. The yarn selection was small, all artfully arranged in baskets up the wall, which made them nice accessories but not so great for browsing. It was nice to see people knitting at the tables–I saw one couple where the guy was drinking coffee and the woman was knitting. Seemed like a really nice spot for that. I didn’t buy anything here, and wasn’t tempted to.

On Sunday, I went to Brooklyn for a picnic with friends at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and I regretted immediately not bringing knitting for the subway right from Manhattan out to Brooklyn. It’s ok though, I guess I could use some quiet time every now and then, in which I don’t do anything but sit. The botanical gardens were packed, and quite beautiful. The weather was divine, and the grass was sooo soft in my toes. It’s not often I get to sit in soft soft grass. Here’s an assortment of shots.