NYC: Knitty City and Purl Soho

As my children grow older and have part time jobs it has been harder and harder to have some family time, with all four of us together.  We celebrated Family Day on Monday a couple weeks ago so my husband and I decided to whisk away the family to New York for the long weekend.  We had a blast creating many new family memories.

We learned very quickly to never arrive in New York on Valentine's Day evening.  We ended up lining up for 1.5 hours waiting for a cab.  Since business is so brisk on Valentine's Day taxi drivers have no motivation to drive to the airport.  Despite that small glitch in our plans everything else went smoothly.  We decided that each family member could pick out at least one activity to do.  My son decided on the MET as he is an ancient civilization fan.  He had a great time poking around the museum, teaching his parents some of what he has learned in university.

My husband wanted to go to a basketball game in Madison Square Gardens and we saw a great game between two university levels teams:  St. John's vs Georgetown.  The crowd was a lot of fun as there were so many cheerleaders and band members keeping everyone's spirits high.

My daughter wanted to go to the Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken from the Cake Boss show.  What a cute bakery and the treats she picked out were delicious.

And as for me....well you can probably guess, I wanted to go to some NY yarn stores that I had always admired online.  One store is Purl Soho and the other one I got to visit was Knitty City.  Both yarn stores are very different.  Purl Soho is simply beautiful to browse through. The yarn is displayed in such an elegant way.

Store Window at Purl Soho

 The staff there was very helpful and I made a few purchases.  I picked out some yarn for a crewel project (Appleton yarn).

A few skeins of my Appelton Crewel yarn

After I found the Appleton yarn I have to admit I got overwhelmed.  I had a few ideas for yarn I wanted in specific colours.  The colour I wanted was not available in as many skeins as I needed.  So then I had to go to Plan B.  Unfortunately, I didn't really have a Plan B but I didn't want to leave empty handed.  So I ended up making some impulse purchases.  One yarn I had to buy after touching was the incredibly soft Purl Soho's Super Soft Merino Wool.

Purl Soho Super Soft Merino

I bought some Purl Soho Line Weight yarn, a fingering 100% merino wool.

Purl Soho Line Weight

Then I got some Brooklyn Tweed Shelter to make a shawl in Plume.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Plume

My husband suprised me on the Sunday by suggesting we go to Knitty City.  While my family was enjoying browsing through a Barnes and Noble bookstore I went to Knitty City for the first time.  How I wish this yarn store was in my neighbourhood.  I could have easily browsed through this store for hours.  Knitty City was not as classy looking as Purl Soho but the yarn selection was incredible and it had such a wonderful welcoming feeling.  The owner stocked so many yarns I had only ever read about.  The incredible assortment included yarns from Malabrigo to Fibre Company to Madelinetosh (the best assortment of colours I have ever seen), and Blue Sky Alpacas to name just a few.  The owner even carried some Canadian dyers such as a Sweet Georgia Yarns and a Quebec dyer named Julie Asselin. She had a huge selection of both.

Julie Asselin yarn

Blue Sky Alpacas

Many comfy areas to sit and knit

The staff were so helpful and the selection was incredible.  Here are just a couple skeins I bought:

d

Madelinetosh Dk in Espadrilles 

Celaphod Yarns Skinny Bugga in Blue Tailed Damselfly

Celaphod Yarns Bugga in Flourescent Millipede

We had a great weekend and I appreciate my husband supporting my knitting habit!  He even carried my knitting purchases for me...what a great husband.  : )   I look forward to knitting with all these incredible yarns.

My husband carrying my Knitty City bag through Times Square.