Duh

Not only have I misplaced my knitting mojo, I appear to have also lost my common sense.  My apologies to my friends who've left comments recently, which I seem to have inadvertently deleted irreversibly.

Now who's feeling pleased with herself?  Not me.

Today

I am aware that I’ve misplaced my knitting mojo. In an attempt to find it, I started a dishcloth.

 

Spotting the Toho bag on my worktable, I got the things together and replaced the “diamonds” in my pendant.

Whilst I was upstairs fetching my pendant, I spotted a freebie bag I was throwing away and decided to repurpose the frame.  Took a while but I managed to remove it cleanly and sometime soon, I’ll use it for a new bag.

Now, leaving a trail of half completed, works in progress, I’ll go off to a meeting which will last most of the afternoon.  When I come home, I’ll probably move right along from those three impetuous enthusiasms and do something altogether different.

One day, I’ll learn to focus.

My season

I could have guessed, the minute I went into the bathroom this morning and found the radiator on for the first time in months.

There might be a bright blue sky outside, the sun might be shining brightly but there is a distinct chill in the air and it actually felt rather cold when I left to do the shopping this morning.

Everything looks so lovely though.  It’s a great day for a wedding and I hope things are similarly bright and sunny up there in Scotland.

One last tiny strawberry remains on the plant which I think I’ll leave for a beady eyed creature.

My reward is to see this glorious colour clump in an otherwise dark and rather dreary flowerbed.

I’m an autumn girl, born when the days are getting shorter and when the sunshine warms my soul yet doesn’t burn my skin.

I was glad to put on another layer as I went out and enjoyed the fresh morning air. I’m ready to wrap up a little more, to put away the sandals and flowery tops in favour of cardigans and scarves.

I’m not the only one who’s noticed the change in the seasons.  Empty shelves in the supermarket revealed a run on porridge oats, on butterbeans and custard and it looked as though the sudden cold weather has caught them on the hop.  For once, the food buyers are not ahead of us where the seasons are concerned.

Though they were emptying the shelves for “Seasonal Stock” coming tomorrow, I was told.

Less structure – or more?

I’m thinking here about the Big Bambu which we saw yesterday morning…

Our last breakfast of the trip savoured and off we went again, enjoying another great late summer morning in the city.  Our hotel on 44th is ideally placed for everything and a short step to the bus stop, a ride uptown on the M2 and we were there at the Met in no time.

We’ve been so lucky with the weather this time.  It doesn’t really stop us from doing what we want, but being here under blue skies lifts the spirits so.

We had just a few hours so Edward zoomed off in the direction of his favourite Byzantine and Classical rooms, Mark and I made our way to the American Wing.

I can’t visit the Met without seeing the Tiffany windows

taking a close look at his drawings

and designs on furniture.

We spent a while in the room sets – this one from Richmond, VA.

However, it’s the stained glass windows which really make the heart sing.

The colours and textures within each small piece of glass are altogether breathtaking.

There were not too many people around, either, so we were lucky to have time and space to enjoy all the treasures as we wanted.

Time to admire the gorgeous arts and crafts era ceramics.

To savour those beautiful shapes and lustrous glazes.

After which we were meeting Edward up on the roof, firstly to admire the view, but then…

The Big Bambu!

The brothers are still working on this amazing structure and though we had no time to book a place on one of the tours, we could still walk amongst it, beneath the walkway where a guided tour was taking place.

Altogether an extraordinary installation, it soared above our heads, our beyond the parapet of the building and was growing outwards as more lengths of bamboo were being prepared and tied onto the framework.

Securely held together with polypropylene cord of varying thickness, it brought pictures of Asian scaffolding to mind, of building sites in Hong Kong where skyscrapers were constructed using this very technique.  The whole installation had an elegance and lightness and I regretted the fact that I couldn’t hover above it to get a glimpse of the whole assemblage.

Before we left, there was time for more conventional art.  The European galleries were more crowded by now, but there’s always time and space for  a little Van Gogh.

Some found it too much though, and curled up for a snooze!

For us, it was time to leave.  To make our way through the traffic jams created by the UN Assembly, under the watchful eye of New York’s Finest.

On arriving at JFK in plenty of time for our 10pm flight home, I half-seriously asked if there might be three seats on an earlier flight.  “Seven pm suit you?” was the reply.  So, after a speedy snack in the lounge we were away and six hours later woke to find ourselves about to land at Heathrow ahead of schedule.

Bless British Airways!

The Bead Crawl

(aptly named…) 

Our first stop was a familiar haunt, Tinsel Trading.  Full of bits and bobs, artfully arranged and presented, we soon got into the groove!

Had I not already got more than my fair share of heavy books and magazines in my suitcase, this beautifully photographed book would have found its way home with me.

Leaving it in place, we crossed 37th St to our next port of call, York Beads.

This was interesting.  I must have walked up and down this street many times, been into Tinsel Trading and walked straight past this incredible bead shop.

Not any more.  A great stock of all kinds of interesting beads at very reasonable prices.  Good place!

Back across the road was City Beads, another treasure trove of all kinds of Delicas, seed beads and crystals.  Surely, I couldn’t have walked past this shop front without noticing it?  Perhaps these stores have all spruced up their shop windows recently, to attract more attention?

Final store along 37th was Margola, where there was a fine selection of cut stones alongside the cheapest seed beads I’ve seen, in every colour imaginable.

Thank you, Bad Cat Designs for a few more additions to my NYC address book!

Our next stop was an old favourite, Toho beads on 6th Avenue.  I had bought a cheapish pendant which had a few “diamonds” in the design.  As soon as I wore it, a couple dropped out, so I was in search of replacements.  The assistants in Toho are excellent and sure enough, I left with exactly what I was looking for.

Hoping that this lady, dressed as a Hershey’s Kiss wasn’t being abducted by the two gentlemen marching her across 7th Avenue, we left the bead stores behind and headed for Mood.  Never an easy place to find, because it doesn’t have a shop front, we joined a crowd of fashionable types and waited for the cranky metal lift to take us to the 3rd floor heaven.

Busy as always, what we were looking for was right in front of us. 

But oh my goodness, there was so much more…

and more.  Rows and rows of rolls of fabric like this, every colour, fibre imaginable.  We bought what we needed and worked our weary way back to the hotel.

We had dinner to look forward to!