I went with workmates to see the ENO’s much feted performance of “On the Town” last night. What a show! If you get the chance to see it before the current run ends next Friday, you must go. I haven’t seen the film, but I fail to see how this production could be bettered: by filling out the cast with opera singers in addition to West End/Broadway performers, as Bernstein originally intended the work be performed, the musical took on a much richer quality. The cast were completely on point – a mix of English, Australian and American actors, all with pitch-perfect Noo Yawk accents and gorgeous voices. It made me incredibly nostalgic for the city, which we visited last March for a short weekend.
What has this to do with knitting, you ask? Well, by happy coincidence, Bobbi, my SP10 hostess, asked us to blog about what knitting project we would take on holiday with us, and where would we go on our ideal knitting holiday? Fortuitously, I happen to be doing both in a fortnight! Yup, I’m off to the Big Apple, folks!
First, though, I have two weeks in Washington D.C. working in the U.S. office of our company, leaving Gatwick on Sunday. Now that the TSA are allowing needles on planes, I am hoping to get at least the leg of one sock done (I’m flying Continental, they have one movie for a seven hour flight, so I will probably read for the rest of the flight). I know these things are discretionary though, so I am going to take a few balls of the DB alpaca silk I bought from the Knit Happens sale (yup, both of the boxes o’ yarn I ordered got here intact) and a plastic crochet hook to start on my ripple blanket (bandwagon-jumper that I am). I’m also taking a second load of sock yarn that Meshell had sent to me from Laughing Rat Studio as part of a swap we are doing – thanks, Meshell!
Onto the good stuff: New York. I am going for four days and staying at the Greenpoint YMCA in Brooklyn, so I will definitely be hitting up Brooklyn General and the Yarn Tree on Day One. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be getting to go to Purl and Habu (I know Alison was a bit disappointed with her trip to the latter, so I am trying to keep expectations low, but I do see a whole bunch of reasonably priced silk shawls in my future). Also on my list are Seaport Yarn, Knitty City, String (just for eine kleine cashmere fondling, even with the strong pound these prices are insane. Although how wonderful would a pair of socks in KPPPC be?!), Downtown Yarns, and School Products.
I am also rather excited by the prospect of some knitting/eating/lounging combo fun, and plan to hit up both The Point and Knit New York.
And what will I be buying? Well, you will have to wait and see, my lovelies, but I do have my beady eye on the Alchemy Migration at Purl (Meadowlark = heaven), and perhaps a few extra balls of Nature Wool from Seaport for a major winter project, and sock yarn, of course, in addition to goodies for some other lucky knitters…
Anyway, I shall blog as and when I can. Otherwise I will have heaps of catching up to do when I get back. But before I go, may I just say that if I don’t see a bucketload of dancing sailors when I get to Manhattan, I shall be sorely disappointed.
*Works best if you’re British/watched ‘Blind Date’.
