Over the border!

Nipped over the border into France today, for a look around Lille. Look where I spent a happy hour this morning! Best of all, the shop was completely empty - a real bonus, as anyone who has spent an hour or two in the Paris queue will confirm.

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)

Too clever by half?

About this time yesterday, with a Saturday afternoon at home stretching out in front of me, it seemed the perfect time to begin a new challenge. After lunch I sat down and began to cast on 375 stitches, using yarn bought whilst in Luzern recently. Only half way along did I check the pattern and notice that I ought to be using two strands of yarn so, being too lazy to go and fetch a second ball of yarn*, I thought I'd be really clever and use the end from the centre and the end from the outside.

*the building work continues on our studio and my stash is still in the garage, "filed" in some kind of order, but nevertheless making retrieval challenging!

I'm sure there are experienced knitters out there, shaking their heads in the knowledge that using both ends was not as good an idea as it might have seemed. Indeed, some hours later, with more tangles and twists than enough, I almost conceded defeat and pulled the whole thing out for a second time. However, the spirit of the ace-untangler, inherited from my Mum, persuaded me to be patient, to take it gently and eventually, almost twelve hours since I began, Ene is finally on the needles!

Jaywalkers 3 are progressing nicely, thanks to a couple of hours sitting in Mark's concert rehearsal last night.

I'm going to another concert later, to see my four-year-old friend, Rosie-Jane dance. I'm rather looking forward to it, since pink tutus and ballet shoes didn't feature much in Edward's upbringing!

Socks done!

Have finished my socks! Contrary to everything I said about Jaywalkers, I thought the Fleece Artist yarn (SuperMerino, Cosmic Dawn)was so well suited to such a pattern and will admit to finding it much, much easier than before. In fact, it was a good indicator of how much more knitting experience I have than the last time I knit them!

I even had the confidence to adjust the heel slightly, for ever since I got Charlene Schurch's Sensational Socks book, I've found her heel instructions to be second to none. Next time I do the Jaywalkers, however, I'll follow Charlene's heel instructions to the letter, for Grumperina's heel flap is slightly too short for my high instep and I find them a little tight to get on and off. Of course, not only is this the most obvious adjustment to make, it's also a pretty easy one too. Quite why I didn't do that this time around is a mystery - guess I'm still not that confident to muck about with patterns!!

I've cast on another pair of socks for my "mindless" knitting project (Mark's turn) and I'm mulling over my next "challenge". I guess I'm a convert, too - it's another pair of Jaywalkers!