Elephant parade

Walking across the Astridplein to our hotel here in Antwerp, we came across the sight of a herd of elephants crossing the front of the station, heading for the zoo gates. There are nine in the herd, three adults and an assortment of youngsters - all constructed from wood and metal, their path being eased by a bed of soft sand. We love them!

The view from our hotel window: The little parade is in front of the station. It's a gloomy afternoon, though, as you can see.

 

I have been on an adventure!

Travelling with a group of seven amazing women during the last week has been such an enriching experience.

The sun has shone every day and the English countryside could have not looked better.

Gloucestershire was green and gorgeous as ever.

Yorkshire was full of lambs enjoying the lush green pastures.

We visited the most fascinating of places and delighted in so many shared interests.

As for what else we got up to....well, perhaps you'll have to use your imagination!

The Loot

One of the delights of travelling to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean is going shopping. It's not always that I need to buy stuff...but it's such fun looking! Thing is, with such a good exchange rate right now, some things are very tempting. As usual I had a list, built up over several months with things seen in magazines, favourite products simply not available here (why can't we buy Ziplock bags? Different flavoured toothpaste? Altoids?) and there's always a few other bits and pieces which are more easily obtained in a city than a small Cotswold village!

I began with white Sharpies - which seem to be the only reliable pens to work on every dark surface. I thought I'd get an assortment whilst I could.

Visiting Jordi is fraught with danger, however, because en route to her apartment there is an enormous Barnes and Noble we simply have to visit. I am envious of having such a great resource on her doorstep and yet....our new bookshelves are not never-ending!
I haven't really had chance to look closely at either of these yet - the Bracketologist book was one I thought Edward might find amusing (he did) and Kaleidoscope was one of those titles I stumbled upon and which looked interesting at the time. I left others on the shelf, having noted their titles for my next Amazon order. Whilst there, I also came across a copy of Eat, Pray, Love and commented that I fancied reading it - generous soul that she is, Jordi passed her copy to me immediately. I'm looking forward to starting it soon.

Next was to Purl. I've already revealed the yarn haul, so there's only one small thing remaining - the Weavette book. I bought the looms last year and am looking forward to playing around with them a little more, now I have some patterns.


Staying where we do has the added advantage of being close to all manner of bead and button stores, and amongst them is one particular store selling amazingly cheap tat - sorry, costume jewellery! I quite liked these shell bracelets and thought they were made to an interesting design. They're elasticated, so easy to wear.


Also nearby is Tinsel Trading which is where I found some unusual sequins to share with a good friend who will no doubt do something very creative with them. Either that, or like me, she'll tuck them away somewhere and enjoy looking at them from time to time! I have tried very hard to photograph them more closely but sadly, my skills just don't stretch that far. I will have to ask my photographer buddy Helen for advice! Here they are with a copy of Vogue Knitting magazine and they are on Tinsel Trading's website here too.


Finally, whilst in The Ink Pad (in search of Sharpies) I spotted this rubber stamp. How could I not bring it home with me?

Getting it all done

Today was all about checking off the last things on the list, revisiting favourite places and generally tieing up loose ends. Chicos and Eileen Fisher had featured on my list from the beginning, but due to their location were amongst the last calls - no less successful for that. It gave us an opportunity to go via Grand Central Station, one of the truly magnificent buildings in the city and one which always bears a repeat visit.

 

Eileen Fisher had quite a few things to tempt us. As always it's the luscious fabrics and clear, clean colours which make all the difference.

 

 

Finally, we simply had to have the last supper of our trip at our favourite Bright Foods - having begun our gastronomic tour of New York there on Friday night, it seemed appropriate to end our journey there too.

It was completely empty when we arrived - we have a very early start in the morning (4am call) so we felt we should begin to get our bodies back on track by eating early. No matter that we were the only ones in the place, for the welcome was as warm as ever and the menu had plenty to tempt. Mark and Jordi went for burgers, but in this bread-free place, they came wrapped in tortillas. Bettine chose trout, served with a tortilla crumb and sweet Thai basil and I had the quesadillas...yummy!!

Having oooohed and aaaaahed our way through a few margaritas as well, we struggled to manage dessert...but manage, we did and the clean plates were testimony to a terrific meal.

 

All the better, then, to have the opportunity to tell the owners of Bright Foods how very much we love their restaurant! Yes please, open a branch of this best of all NYC restaurants in England - preferably somewhere accessible to us - and we'll be there!!

Oh, and having revealed the contents of my friend's shopping bag, I felt I should reveal my own stash. Some Nashua Yarns Ecologie cotton, the Habu paper yarn, some Koigu (because I can never resist it when I see it up close) and some Blue Sky Alpaca. Yes, you can see an Addi Lace circular needle and a FiberTrends felted clog pattern. Finally, there's a little bundle of neat braids, bought at one of the 6th Avenue stores. That's not really the complete bag, but it'll do for now. Will reveal all when we're home, I promise.

Buy yarn! Buy Fabric!

Those little voices just had to be obeyed...
 

We were drawn into fabric shops and succumbed to the bargains which were waiting. From such humble beginnings are masterpieces created... (not by me...)

Habu was a little disorganised today but the yarn for the paper bag on knitty.com was in stock and is now in my stash. Not only that, but it's wound and ready to go because the offer of Jordi's swift was too good to turn down....it's a rather wild yarn! Got handles too, so no excuses.

Purl Patchwork window always looks so attractive, especially today in the spring sunshine.

And of course, we had someone else's money to spend...hope she approves of the choices we made for her!

Terracotta: O-wool (50% organic cotton, 50% organic wool blend), Purple: Blue Sky Alpaca Melange, Stripy: Cascade Fixation elastic sock yarn, Pale Grey: Natural Focus cotton (Ecologie cotton)