cosmicpluto knits!

May 1-3: Edinburgh

After all the leadup and talking about traveling and planning and everything, I’m finally here! I’ll admit I had a slight freakout just before I left home, second guessing myself for planning such a big trip for just me.

I got a ride to the airport with my parents, and did the usual waiting around thing (no hassles at the airport, straight through security in under 15 minutes), and was glad that YYZ finally has free wifi. The flight was fine, although there was a fair amount of turbulence that kept stopping the drink service, which in turn delayed the meal – we left at 8:30pm and dinner was finally served around 10:30. It’s an odd time change, because you lose an entire night to a flight that’s only 6.5 hours; we landed at 8am British time and I pretty much hadn’t slept a wink. I even had a bit of a panic attack about halfway through, ugh.

Once I landed in sunny Glasgow I took a cab to the train station then the train to Edinburgh. After being cramped on a plane for the night, the quiet train ride was relaxing. Train travel is so civilized. I knit a little on the train, which I didn’t do at all on the plane – I just didn’t feel up to it.

I’ve been to Edinburgh a few times, so it was nice to make my way over to ysolda’s flat, though my backpack and carry on bag were awfully heavy! It would’ve been much better and quicker if I’d say, had a map. Oops. The walk from the train station really isn’t that long, but it’s longer if you keep having to backtrack! After a few hours’ sleep, I headed out for a short walk around the neighbourhood and picked up a bit of food from Tesco to cook for dinner. It really is awfully nice to have the option to just cooking some comfort food for myself – something I’m sure to miss when I’m staying in hotels further along in my trip.

I didn’t really do anything in the evening, just relaxed and watched Doctor Who, and did some thinking about what I want to do the rest of this week. I’m pretty much on my own the whole time, which I’ve never had in Edinburgh because every time I’ve come, ysolda’s been here! The time zone change really kicked my ass this time – I couldn’t fall asleep for hours, then slept the morning away. Luckily all I had planned today was a bit of wandering around the city centre and shopping.

I walked through the Meadows and stopped off for a wee knitting break in the sunshine.

Had some delicious soup at Hula near k1 yarns on Victoria street, and bought some yarn and whisky!

Walked through Princes St Gardens, along Princes St then back along George St with a stop at one of my favourite fancy clothing shops, Jigsaw

A bit of a wander down an alley set me atop Victoria St, which is a very cool view. The sun sets really slowly here – it doesn’t just disappear. The light sticks around until nice and late – it’s still a wee bit light at 9pm so far, which will continue to get later through the summer!

After taking this photo (it was brighter than it looks in the photo though) I stopped off at Mums for a dinner of mushroom wellington, then headed back to the flat – and it was still light! It wasn’t the longest day of activity ever, but I figure I need a bit of time to get into the swing of exploring on my own, and rebuilding the stamina for going around all day. I really love having such a comfortingly familiar place to stay here, it’s perfect for helping ease me into feeling more comfortable for the trip ahead.

snowy spring sunday

It’s not like it stuck around or anything, but yes, snow was seen falling from the sky today! Hopefully that’ll be the last of it for this winter, but we’ll see – there’s always a few surprises in spring weather.

The other day I was looking through one of my “assorted projects and yarns” bins and came across a long, long neglected sweater – I think I started this several years ago and for some reason, I just didn’t finish knitting it! It only had one sleeve left to go! Since it’s been so long, it’s almost like I got to knit a new sweater and finish it up in 2 days. The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah – it needs a good bath before its debut. Might be a good one to take with me to the UK too.

More brown – I started this shawl a few weeks ago, and although I don’t get to work on it much, I do think it’s fun! It’s a triangle, worked from the bottom up. So the cast on is very long (over 300 sts) but you start decreasing right away. I’m using Spud & Chloe Fine, and there will be more colours than just these two. I love this yarn, and especially in this stitch pattern it’s really springy and squishy!

I still have so much to do before my trip – thanks to everyone for their suggestions of things to do! There will be a couple of yarn store appearances along the way I think, and I’ll let you know more about those soon! I’m getting really excited. I have most of my packing list sorted, except for the hardest items -

What knitting do I bring?!

the hive mind

So I need your help! I’m very shortly embarking on a month long trip to the UK and Ireland in May – and yes, I just realized that that is very, very soon. I haven’t done much planning other than buying my ticket there, and since you were all so helpful for my trip to NYC I’m hoping you can help me out on my trip planning.

As of now it’s just a pleasure trip, but I’m open to talks or teaching at any LYS if you’ll have me. Let me know by email (cosmicpluto@cosmicpluto.com) if you have an LYS or guild that would like me to stop by!

I’m still working on my itinerary, but here’s where I’m thinking of going:
Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool or Manchester, London, Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, and the Scottish Highlands.

I’m looking for things to do, places to stay (would you like to have a visitor for a few days? I bake!), or pretty much any other advice you have! I’m really excited, although freaking out a bit since I have so much to get done here before I go, and the time is just flying by.

Somewhat relatedly, spring cleaning of my apartment has also resulted in the intense desire to pare down my stash a bit – so I’m having a stash sale. Check out my Flickr set by clicking on the photo below. If you’re interested in anything, email me at cosmicpluto at cosmicpluto dot com.

Maybe you can help me out with that too?

the yarn, the yarn!

I went to a total of 3 yarn stores in the 6 days I was in NYC, and I just bought a wee bit of yarn. From School Products, some interesting fingering weight marled merino from Italy – they had a knit sample up and it felt and looked great.

Also from School Products, some lovely cashmere tweed. I don’t normally buy yarns like this (it’s very loosely plied and kinda lumpy-bumpy) but it’s just so soft. I wish I could’ve bought a sweater’s worth!

At Purl Soho, I found most of the yarns were ones that I could get elsewhere easily, and I certainly couldn’t buy Koigu! (They’re from Ontario, a few hours away from me.) So what does that leave? Shelter, of course!

It was tough to narrow down to a couple of colours, but I think these will make a great scarf or big cowl.

I didn’t get much knitting done while I away since I was just walking around all the time (or eating, heh). But on the plane and while waiting I started a simple cowl, out of some Socks that Rock Silkie from the stash. The colourway is “Walking on the Wild Tide” and it was a sock club yarn from a few years ago. This is knitting purely for the knitting, which I don’t get to do that much these days! It’s just a simple yo, ssk pattern that spirals around. I think this is going in the basket of knitted gifts for birthdays and even Christmas this year. Preplanning!

Stay tuned, this week I have a new pattern and a stash sale coming up!

nyc, part 3

Monday and Tuesday in NYC I was on my own, so I wasn’t really sure what to do! After several days of intense food-ing I needed a bit of a breather, so I just snacked a bit for breakfast in the hotel before heading over to the Tenement Museum. From the magic of Twitter I found out that Jennie the Potter was also in town, and also headed to the Tenement Museum! My tour actually wasn’t until the afternoon, but I headed over anyway to say hi – the museum was super close to the hotel. Yes, a lot of things were super close to the hotel, which was awesome.

Hi Jennie!

I bought my ticket for the “Piecing it Together” tour, which focused on several families of garment makers that lived in the tenement. For those not familiar with the museum (I hadn’t heard of it before I started planning my trip), the museum is a tenement building on Orchard St that was built in 1863, and occupied until the 1930′s when it was condemned by the city and boarded up. The museum was founded in the late 80′s, and consists of apartments in various states of recovery and restoration. I couldn’t take photos inside, but it was super interesting and definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area! The museum’s about page has lots of great info, and there are photos and stories on their website as well. After the tour I bought a copy of 97 Orchard, which I’m excited to read!

Since the tour actually wasn’t until later in the day, after I said hi to Jennie I decided to do a bit of shopping. I hit up All Saints, Anthropologie and Purl Soho and got some great clothes and some Shelter yarn. Purl was really lovely, sadly I had a bit of camnesia and didn’t take any photos!

After the tenement tour and dropping off my purchases at the hotel, I went to Momofuku Noodle Bar for a late lunch – the ginger scallion noodles are veg, and really hit the spot. I loved the roasted rice cakes as well, and I’m hoping to try my hand at a similar dish here at home.

I decided to check out Habu since everyone said it shouldn’t be missed – I didn’t take any photos, and I didn’t buy anything, but it was really interesting to see all the yarns. It’s such a funny space in an office building, almost feels just like someone’s stash or something. I went to the Avril/Habu store in Tokyo when I was there a few years ago, so it was nice to check out their yarns in person again.

Amidst my wanderings I ended up outside the Rockefeller centre, and though I hadn’t been planning on it, went up to the observation deck (Top of the Rock). It was just after sunset, so it was quite cold and windy but the city lights were lovely. I ended the night by grabbing take out from S’mac (macaroni and cheese! mine had broccoli and cauliflower in it) and turning in early.

Tuesday was my last day in the city, so I decided I would check out a museum or two before I had to head to the airport in the late afternoon. I went to the MOMA only to find out they were closed on Tuesdays! Way to research, self. There were plenty of other people milling around outside who’d clearly made the same mistake, so I didn’t feel too bad. I guess it’s like the Louvre. Instead, I went next door to the American Folk Art Museum and looked around there – they have two floors of quilts amongst other exhibitions, and they were lovely to look at.

I’m glad everything ended up the way it did, because by going to the Folk Art Museum I was reminded about the Infinite Variety quilt exhibition that was going on over the weekend, put on by the museum at the Park Avenue Armory. I hustled over on the subway to see it, and I can’t even tell you how glad I was that I made it there!

On display were 650 red and white quilts collected by Joanna S. Rose, hung as if suspended in midair. I can’t really describe how incredibly awesome, gorgeous, and humbling this was.

It was spectacular. I just don’t know what else to say about it!

Every time you looked, there was something different that you had missed, some amazing shape or texture or entire quilt you hadn’t noticed before. There were lots of people there, and you could just feel the amazement of the whole crowd. There’s so much history, so many stories in these everyday quilts. I would say it was one of the most inspiring and beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

I made this panorama out of several photos stitched together in Photoshop. I know it’s small here because it’s so much wider than it is tall, but I hope it gives you a bit of a sense of the layout – this was only half of the room! If you want to see it bigger, click here! This version is 2000 px wide, and I hope it helps you imagine what it was like to be there. I can’t wait for the catalogue to come out, because I’ll be picking it up for sure.

For my last meal in NYC I went to Motorino again and had the lunch special, a salad and and a margherita pizza. It was delicious. And then despite some mishaps with NJ transit, I got to the airport early enough that the airline put me on an earlier flight home and I got home 2 hours early. And that was my trip to New York! I had so much fun. I can’t wait to go again…maybe in the summer!

nyc, part 2

Saturday and Sunday were pretty low-key – I really saw a lot on Friday! Saturday morning breakfast was at Cafe Gitane, a lovely little French cafe near the hotel, on Mott St. I had the baked eggs – yum.

After breakfast, we took the subway up to the Upper East Side and walked around a bit before going to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. They’re under renovation so they only had 2 exhibitions on – Set In Style featured really gorgeous and shiny! jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels. One thing that was particularly interesting to me was the great iPad integration…no more audiosets, but an iPad and headphones for closeups, videos and details about selected pieces. The other exhibit on was Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay, which I found really inspiring and interesting.

Afterwards it was lunch at Hummus Kitchen – not a particularly amazing meal compared to the others, but I was hungry and Really Had to Eat, so it fit the bill perfectly. The mint lemonade slushie was yummy!

And what trip to NYC would be complete without some Central Park action? I bought a piece of cheesecake from Lady M bakery and ate it in the park. It was really too cold to do that for long (which I was sad about), so more walking, walking, walking including checking out FAO Schwartz (crazy busy!), Times Square (whoa – so not my thing) and basically checking out touristy areas really quickly and moving on.

That evening was spent walking around Williamsburg and having actual green vegetables at M Noodle Shop. Their veggie dumplings were really good, and I liked the sesame pancake with veggies too.

Hmmmm I just realized I don’t have a single photo from Sunday! It was a fitting lazy Sunday – lined up at Doughnut Plant for a Valhrona Chocolate and a cinnamon bun, got bagels from Kossar’s Bialys and ate many carbs sitting in the pedestrian park on Allen St. Walked around Chinatown and Little Italy, checked out Dean and Deluca (i love grocery stores!) and I got my black & white cookie from Donut Pub – man those things are huge. After dinner at Angelica’s Kitchen (a great vegetarian place), my companion headed back to Boston so I went to the movies and watched Jane Eyre. I only recently read it so watching the movie was fun (though a bit lonely).

And so I have another photo, a preview of what I did on Tuesday!