Coleen and Erin's Excellent NYC Adventure!!


I had SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Erin and I escaped Maryland yesterday for a quick and AMAZING trip to the Big Apple. We left Columbia at the very scary hour of 6:30 a.m. I'm not normally acquainted with this hour of the day and I must say - I'm not a fan. But just 3 short hours later, our trusty bus driver dropped us off in the middle of Manhattan.


And thus began our rainy adventure! We jumped over the puddles, we dodged the rain drops and said "damn you Hurricane Ernesto!" We had only one agenda - YARN.

First stop: School Products.


This family run shop was a delight. We had a great time checking out all the different yarns. And had a nice time chatting with the owner. He said that they will have a booth at Stitches East in Baltimore in November, so hopefully we'll see him again then! They had a great selection and I put a very large dent in my NYC yarn budget.


The cone is a silk/cotton blend in a gorgeous copper color (more orangy than the picture may suggest.)

As for the plum colored yarn:

Oh yeah - that's cashmere baby! I got three skeins. There are only two in the picture above because I'm in the process of winding the other skein by hand. I love it. I keep petting it repeatedly. I had IK's Icarus Shawl in mind when I bought this, but now I'm kind of torn between this and the copper yarn for the project. I'm having one of those knitter moments where you wish you had more hands and could knit many projects at the same time!

At School Products, we met up with the wonderful Marie of Brooklyn Handspun. I met Marie briefly at MD Sheep and Wool. (We shared fried oreo cookies.) It was such a treat to be able to spend the day with her and get to know her better. She was great fun and a big help because she knows her way around the city!

After School Products, we hopped on the subway (My first NYC subway trip!) and headed to Marie's LYS The Point.


The Point was a great combination of yarn store and cafe. We checked out all the yummy yarns and then settled down for yummy snacks and some knitting.

I really wish we had a place like this here in Maryland. Yarn and coffee in the same place. Heaven! Though Erin and I both thought that someone needs to open a yarn shop that serves alcohol too!


At The Point, we gained another addition to the party.


This is Erin's good friend Arnold. He was a lot of fun. He told great stories and was an incredibly good sport about hanging out in a yarn store with a bunch of girls. Such a good sport in fact, that he offered to drive us to our next destination Downtown Yarns.


I was on a mission at Downtown Yarns. See... I have been coveting Handmaiden's Sea Silk. I want some...bad! I had done my pre-NYC research and found that Downtown Yarns carries Handmaiden. But NOOOOOO! They were all out! Sad!!! They did have some in a worsted weight, and it was gorgeous. But I had my heart set on a lace weight. Well, a girl has to console herself somehow, so I found other things to spend money on.


I have wanted some Trekking in color 100 for quite some time. I love how it looks knit up. As for the Jagger Spun... what can I say, I loved the color!



I really liked Downtown Yarns, despite the sad lack of Sea Silk. It had a very cozy, warm vibe to it. The woman working there was really nice. (and let me take pictures!) I would definitely love go back there sometime. Especially when they get more Sea Silk in stock! They also had this very cool knitted/crocheted web in the front window.


We had one more destination on our Yarn Crawl. The ever patient Arnold drove us over to Knit NY.



This was also a cafe/yarn shop. So of course we had to get coffee and pull out our knitting again! And I had to pull out my wallet again. I found that I was wandering the store with some Misty Alpaca in my hand. I just couldn't seem to put it down!


It is deliciously soft. Again... I want more hands so I can knit all of my NYC haul at the same time!

Sadly, Arnold had to leave us at Knit NY. So we said our goodbyes and hopped back on the subway. Marie was going to take us to another yarn shop (hmmm... can't remember the name of it.) but it was closed.

We had intended to go to Serendipity 3 to get Frozen Hot Chocolates.

I have always wanted to go there, but this was not to be. There was a two hour wait to get a table. This place is hugely popular. Even at 4:00 in the afternoon in the middle of a hurricane. Grrrr!

So, we headed to nearby California Pizza Kitchen for a delicious dinner and some raspberry mojitos. The alcohol made Erin and I a little loopy! (yes, it was me singing showtunes in the rain!)

After dinner, we went to Dylan's Candy Bar and bought chocolate to make up for not getting our frozen hot chocolates. My favorite thing about Dylan's candy bar was that they had candy steps.



It was getting late, so we said goodbye to Marie and made the very soggy rainy walk back to the bus.

The rain didn't bother this guy.

If you look closely, you will see that he is carrying an umbrella frame. No fabric covering, just an umbrella skeleton. It was pure NYC magic!

I had the best time. Many many thanks to Erin, Marie and Arnold for making it a perfect day. Must go back again! I'm sure there are many more yarn shops to explore!!

On the bus ride, I finished LL's birthday Jaywalkers. I leave you with a picture of them...



Also... If you care to see more NYC pictures click here!