Weekend Adventures

It officially being spring and all, I decided to have a bit of an adventure this weekend.

Finding myself in New York on Friday with a rare day off and some time to kill, I decided to take an N train out to Coney Island, a place that I have often seen on television but never visited. The weather was dreary, which lent to the whole sense of sadness surrounding the fenced off Comet and Wonder Wheel. For the record, I did not get a hot dog.

I started off at Penn Station.

We were underground for a while.

And then, above ground for a while.

At last! The Wonder Wheel. It makes me think back to my recent reading of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which I highly recommend you read.

Time to hit the beach!

Is it summer yet?

No, I don't think so. It was cold, windy, and a good time to listen to Neutral Milk Hotel.

But, here's an eternal palm tree.

Other highlights of this trip included a visit to both Purl and Purl Patchwork, where I picked up some yarn. I found Patchwork to be a little too crowded for me to really enjoy. I was also on a time crunch. We also enjoyed a great dinner of wild boar and gnocchi at Villa Mosconi on MacDougal right near Houston, and right around the corner from Purl.

I've also been knitting. Focusing my efforts on getting full garments completed. It's been a challenge since I've lost weight and find myself struggling to dress a work in progress. Speaking of progress, here's the progress I've made on Marilyn's Not So Shrunken Cardigan by Wendy over at Knit and Tonic.


I have made several Knit and Tonic patterns, and I can't recommend them enough. They're wearable, the yarn, Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed in this case, is affordable, and you can easily size and customize everything to your liking. I plan on omitting the ruffles and just adding a simple garter stitch border all around.

And now that it's back to work tomorrow I think I'll settle back in my chair, work on some more decrease rounds, watch David Copperfield on Masterpiece Classic, and enjoy my freshly made Maple Syrup Scones.

Snow Day

It snowed all day yesterday. The day before that it was so warm that I ran errands wearing a hoodie and nothing more. I spent most of yesterday sitting by my window watching flurries blow around in the sky, but never hit the ground. When I left for work, I didn't even bother donning my boots, those big yellow rubber golashes that I wear whenever there's a little moisture in the air. Mistake.

By 20:45 when we walked out of work, my ballet flats and I found ourselves traipsing about in a winter wonderland, the likes of which had me hearing Christmas carols off the in the distant corners of my mind. By the time I got off the bus, shoes filled with snow from walking through the two inches that had already settled comfortably on the ground, I sat in bed and finished up Fetching.

I had attempted to make these little mitts about 2 years ago. I'd bought a ball of the Debbie Bliss, and just didn't have enough to complete the second glove. It's been cold this winter, and I've had this extra ball of Merino Style from Knit Picks. The yarn is a bit thinner than the Cashmerino Aran, but I knit them on size 5 Crystal Palace double points, and they are just as squishy and wonderful as I'd hoped they'd be. In fact, I stayed up a little late last night finishing the second one, just so I'd be able to wear them in our chilly stock room at work today. It's been freezing back there all winter, and my knucks are looking mighty haggard these days.

Then this morning, I was woken up by a phone call informing me of an unexpected snow day. So instead of wearing my mitts at work, I can wear them at home while I finish up Foliage, another project I started a over a year ago, and had met with disastrous results. I think I first attempted this hat before I realized that I am a loose knitter, and before I really understood how to read a lace chart. Halfway through, the hat was hopelessly large and wonky. I abandoned it until a week ago.

This year I'm trying to get through as much of my stash as I can before I buy any more yarn. This was something I started to do last year, but I can honestly say I've made more progress in the past month than I did in the previous 12, including several sweaters that will appear sometime next week.

This time around I went with size 10 crystal palace DPNs for the body, and size 9 DPNs for the ribbing. The fantastic Malabrigo Chunky was purchased at Loop, though I have long forgotten the name of the colorway. As you can see, I'm all dolled up with no place to go, so I think I'll just hunker down, finish off some projects, and listen to the scrape of shovels against the sidewalk.