James Has Arrived!
James has been my virtual friend for nearly 4 years. I met him on the very first day he started his Typepad blog. I happened to be logging onto my Typepad account and saw the name of his blog - Fibre Alive - pop up in the "recently updated" section and thought to myself "Self, that sounds like a fascinating blog if ever I heard one." So I hopped on over and said hello. James tells me I was the very first person to comment on his blog. A friendship between a Kiwi and a Nutmeg was formed. James arrived late Tuesday night from New Zealand (via England, Ireland and Germany) and our virtual friendship became a real one.
This morning, we hopped a train from Westport into the city. Of course, we each knit socks the entire ride. I even equipped James with the necessary Go Knits pouch in green (his favorite color).
When we got to Grand Central, we took the obligatory picture by the information booth before heading to the whispering wall in front of the Oyster Bar.
Then we took the subway downtown and saw the base of the American Way... the New York Stock Exchange.
We walked to Ground Zero and spent some silent time there followed by a walk down to Battery Park to gaze at Liberty. This was followed by an obligatory New York City street vendor hot dog -- otherwise known as a Dirty Water Dog. Yum!
After our quick bite, we took a taxi ride (James - DON'T LOOK!) to the front door of the lovely Purl in Soho. Purl is a lovely store and is everything a knitting store in a huge metropolitan area ought to be. It's small and packed beyond the safety limits with people elbowing to get to their bit of Koigu or cashmere first. The yarn is expertly displayed from floor to ceiling (literally). There are nothing but natural exquisite fibers and a friendly helpful staff. It is small. There is hardly any room to move about the store. But it is a must-see stop on your NYC yarn crawl. After that, we had grabbed a quick bite to eat at Le Pain Cotidien. Re-energized with some substenance, we walked past NYU and Washington Square Park before hailing another taxi to deposit us at in the garment district as we found our way to Habu Textiles. If you've never been to a wholesale store in the garment district, you need to be prepared. This is not a normal shop. They are focused on the wholesale buyer, but lucky for us, also sell retail. This is their display. Lantern Moon baskets in the center of the room with samples of yarn in interesting Japanese fibers - soy, silk, raffia, cashmere, wool, steel, and the list goes on and on.
It was an experience and I bought some nice soy and even 2 grab bags. Here is a close-up of the baskets of yarn. Ooooh.
After Habu, we took a taxi to Central Park with the intention of going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Time somehow slipped away from us and we didn't really have enough time to do any of the Met justice, so we opted to stroll through Central Park and see John Lennon's memorial at Strawberry Fields. We ended our Manhattan day with a rickshaw ride back to Grand Central.
We went downstairs in the food court at Grand Central and made a beeline for The Little Pie Company for a chocolate walnut brownie and a coffee to rest before our train and a chocolate cake to take home before we met BF, Angel and Erik for our ride home. It was a great day.
