Amy and Jillian did New York

And it's still there. We left some for other people.

When two friends who are writing a knitting book together go to New York, you would expect them to buy yarn. We did.

We hit School Products, Habu, Purl [where we finally got to meet Joelle], the Point and Brooklyn General. We bought yarn in each [except Habu - circumstances prevented us from buying there].
We ate soup dumplings and a lot of cold sesame noodles.
There was bubble tea.
There was a St Anthony parade in Little Italy.
There were 5-dolla DVDs [bootleg, of course] and more fake Prada and Spade and Vuitton than you can imagine.
There was walking and indulgence at Pearl River [twice].
There was a xxx-load of Starbucks daily, to keep our brains fluid.
There were metrocards and a lot of stinky subway stairwells and some blissfully air-conditioned 6 trains. We were ON THE SIX, baby. J Lo, take that!
We saw no celebrities, but were likely in proximity of Russell Crowe, just before he got busted. Seriously.
We found Macy's unbelievably skanky. When did that happen?
We fell in LOVE with Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore.
We finally got to meet the folk at Quirk Packaging, who are doing this book with us.
We also got to meet some very important people [a conference-room-ful] at our publisher's office, where passports were inspected before we were allowed entry, and the lobby is lined with glass cabinets filled with first editions.
We took an elevator to the penthouse of an unassuming building where they'd hidden a tiny perfect NY bar. There were cocktails.
We ate and also had a few nibbles.
We had two days of onsite photoshoot for Big Girl Knits, which we thought went very well.
We love our photographer. He's from Scarborough [aka my neighborhood]. He's insanely famous and very good at his job.
[He took our headshot! We look cute!]
We had the best burger at Pit Stop -- blue cheese. Go there just to hear the owner/chef speak with his delicious French accent. I would have. I will again, actually.
There was cake. There were books. There was more yarn.

And then we went home.

We don't have pics from every stop, and there were many, but here are a few juicy ones from the Point...which we LOVED.


J likes her Colinette.


We took over the whole place soon enough. Knitters everywhere! Food! Clapotises akimbo!


Ms Cooknknit from the knittyboards just popped in to escape a design-crazed husband and left with some Noro.


Em, I am NOT taking this down. You are adorable.


John, fab designer and Helane, the owner. NICE people, I tell you.


And mr John -- he whipped this little baby up and (blush) named it after me. I luuuuuuv this scarf, John, even if it is crochet. :-)


Look -- this is her first finished sweater! It's gorgeous! Why haven't I knit Kyoto yet? That's it. I'm knitting Kyoto.


Here is Regina. Here is Regina's yarn. We like Regina, even if she thinks she smells like a goat [which she doesn't].


J and I each had one and they WERE the best.


We had so much fun meeting all the Sara[h]s and Cassies and Cari and Valentina and Em and Jackie and Anne and more names that i'm sorry I can't remember. Special thanks to Cassie of the long braids who got us the address to Gourmet Garage and Regina who verbally held our hand until we realized how close everything was and just popped over there.

So now, back to real life. We have a book to finish [and a summer issue to publish, too]. Heads down. See ya later.