Exactly this time last year Mark, Ali and I were in New York. It was the first visit for all of us and we loved exploring the city, seeing places that were strangely familiar from TV and movies but new at the same time, and eating amazing food. Because Ali had just turned 2 there was more time in parks and playgrounds and less in shops and museums than there would have been if I was there by myself, but one of the places I was determined to visit was Purl in Soho.
When we were there Purl was still based in two little shops on Spring Street, (they've since moved to a bigger, combined premises nearby). Mark took Ali down the road to a playground while I oohed and ahhed at all the different yarns that I'd read about online but never seen in person before. I didn't have any particular projects in mind or much time to procrastinate, so I chose a couple of skeins of Manos Silk and a couple of Koigu Painter's Palette, because both were pretty and I knew they were difficult to buy in Australia.
BUT the problem with beautiful, hard-to-find yarn is that it's tempting just to keep it in the drawer, taking it out to pat and admire occasionally (please tell me I'm not the only person who does this). I'd decided to take a break from baby knitting after finishing the last cardigan because I really should be doing other, less fun, pre-baby jobs like cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs, but when I realised that the Koigu had been languishing for a whole year it seemed like a good excuse to cast something else on. I enjoyed making the Baby Surprise Jacket so much that I decided to to do another Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern, this time the February Baby Sweater from the Knitter's Almanac. Having made the adult version last year, it's been easy and the wool is knitting up beautifully. When it was in skeins it looked mostly pink, grey and lilac, but now I'm knitting with it I'm finding there's actually a lot of yellow, green and blue too - so it's turning out like a sherberty rainbow. Hopefully when it's finished it will get lots of wear, and will be a reminder of our week in New York.
