knitting neels

Greetings from the Big Apple! Today I ventured out of jet-lag and into the world of Manhattan. There was alot of getting lost because even though New York is very easy to navigate due to its grid system, you’d really need a compass to know which way was up when you come out of a subway station. I probably walked about double more than I needed to. I first went for a go on the Staten Island ferry. It is a free service between Staten Is and Manhattan and offers the best views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty. The weather was great and I wanted to get some good photos – there is rain promised for Wednesday which is my next day of tourist stuff.

On the way back into the very centre, I got off a few stops early to find Gotta Knit. Warm and friendly environment, my ass. This place was almost as bad as Hickey’s – and that’s really saying something! Their stock was really poor and the woman there was helpful in a really sour way, to the point where I just had to leave. Anyway! From there I walked through Times Square and on to Rockefeller Centre. This is a real suit-people part of town and I enjoyed watching everybody. They, too, enjoyed watching me as I squatted to take photos of this…

Found the Museum of Modern Art without much of a problem, but it was really crowded and not terribly good. It’s such a shame that the Contemporary Art Museum we saw in Prague was so good: everything else isn’t nearly as good. However, they had two beautiful Van Goghs – this one and this one. I saw this one in Prague and it literally changed my life. It is so beautiful in real life. It looks crumby on the computer. Similarly, the starry night one is just breathtaking. They also had some Dali paintings, which are tiny (smaller than 10×8) but exquisitely detailed, lots of Miro and lots of Picasso. Most of the Picasso was from his Pink Period. I was glad to see them because the day we visited the Picasso museum in Barcelona, I was literally dying from tonsillitis and have no recollection of ANYTHING except a bloody mousemat I considered buying in the tourist tack shop. The rest of the museum was so-so. The Klimt was good. Couldn’t find Strudel. There was a specialist exhibition of an artist called Bryce Marsden. I went into the first room and it consisted of ten canvases painted different shades of grey. I had to leave. I got two prints of the Van Gogh paintings though – totally worth $15.

I hit another yarn store before I wended my way back to the train station: School Products somewhere on Broadway. This part of the city is known as Little Korea and there were loads of people just hanging around on the street in groups. I found the shop ok and everything I read about it was true. There was a fantastic selection of yarn. The funny thing is, I just want regular yarn. You know, Lamb’s Pride and Lion Brand. Here, it was Egyptian Goat hair this and Super Yak fur that. All I want is a plain worsted weight yarn in six matching colours for my Fair Isle. I’m not that worried about how much Super Yak is in it. In the end, all I bought were some back issues of Knit 1, the Spring 06 IK and Adorn, a new magazine out about embellishing and making jewellery.On the way back to the station, I finally found a book shop and they had a good knitting section. I picked up Weekend Knitting, after being sorely tempted by it at This is Knit and Jenny Hart’s, of Sublime Stitching fame, newish book. It has lots of extra patterns and loads of inspirational photos. I also crossed off most of the books on my shopping list having had the opportunity to look through them.

Phew! Getting around Manhattan is expensive. I won’t be doing tourist stuff every day, though. Before I came over, my sister picked me up some mohair at Michael’s because it was on sale. Michael’s is a general art and craft shop. I have my eye on a sleeveless hoody from the Rebecca Mohair special I got whilst in Berlin. I really like the red stuff, I’m going to use it as the contrasting trim.

And whilst in Michael’s myself yesterday, I got some blue mohair and the Sugar and Creme. I have never come across cotton this rough before. I think it will make a great shower mitt: think crocheted bobbles! The label also has a pattern for a tea-cozy on it 🙂

Tomorrow, Soho. Wednesday, Chinatown. Thursday, LYS in New Jersey and Guggenheim. Friday, Natural History Museum with nephew. Saturday, collapse on plane home. Stay tuned! I’ll probably end up posting some pictures of me blowing myself up with bangers in Chinatown.