Inspiration
A Quick Trip and a Quick Free Cowl Pattern
Dear Kay,
While packing for a recent trip to New York, I discovered I didn’t have a project that was the right size to tote.
In a fog, I grabbed two skeins of Lana Plantae Rambouillet, the marvelous yarn straight outta Buxton, Maine, and the dyepots of Marcia McDonald.
Madder and Cochineal. Orange and pink. Worsted weight. I threw a size 9 needle into my stalwart companion, my Knitter’s Tote, and off we went. No pattern.
(Nashville airport carpet is gaining on Portland airport carpet, just sayin.)
I freestyled a cowl.
The unblocked cowl is up top. You can see the mighty redemptive power of blocking here.
The orange and pink are so close that sometimes I couldn’t quite tell what was going on. But I was mesmerized by the blips and blurps that turn up when dyeing yarn in small batches, using plant and bug extracts.
It was great for travel knitting.
Here’s a free pattern. Clip ’n’ save!
Bright Cowl
2 colors Lana Plantae Rambouillet Worsted
Size 9 circular needle
Using Color A, cast on 225 stitches. Place marker to mark beginning of round. Work in the round—taking care not to twist the stitches when joining the round.
Work 5 rounds of k2, p1.
Adding Color B, *k2 A, k1 B. Repeat from *. Work 7 rounds.
*k2 B, k1 A. Repeat from *. Work 7 rounds.
*k2 A, k1 B. Repeat from *. Work 7 rounds.
*k2 B, k1 A. Repeat from *. Work 7 rounds.
Using B, work 5 rounds of k2, p1. Bind off.
Wear it when you’re back home missing your lad.
Alt idea: working all the k1 stitches as p1 would make this a corrugated ribbing texture fest. Highly recommended.
What We Did
In case you’re looking for something to do in New York right now.
Saw McQueen, the new documentary about the celebrated clothing designer Alexander McQueen who died in 2010. Supersuper dark. I was genuinely upset by the arc of his life.
Ate a shocking number of dumplings at Golden Panda? Golden Walrus? Golden Phoenix? Golden Unicorn. Get there by 10:15 and you waltz in. When you leave, you waltz out past 40 people lined up to get in.
Walked to my old neighborhood in Brooklyn Heights.
Hubbo and I stirred up tender memories of 168 State Street, which is where we decided to get married, back in 1989 wow.
(I checked: the wee studio I rented for the princely sum of $700/month—half my salary!—now rents for $1,999.)
Saw Three Identical Strangers, another documentary with one of the darkest twists I’ve seen in a movie, in a long time. You have to see it to believe it.
Slurped beautiful soba at Cocoron in the East Village. We loved their menu, which seems to want us to enjoy good health. Thanks, Cocoron! We’re trying!
Saw the exhibit “Where We Are” at the Whitney. Five stars, very moving, a lot of familiar paintings curated into an exhibition all about today. At the beginning, there’s this poem by W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939.”
And we spent a good deal of time sitting on park benches, eating Joe’s Pizza, talking about whatever.
Washington Square Park at dusk.
And yes, sometimes a bit of knitting makes for a good souvenir.
Love,
Ann
PS Always on the hunt for my pied a terre in the Village. Here it is, on West 4th.
Thanks for the Cowl pattern, it looks fantastic!
I simply adore your writing. That is all.
Wonderful travelogue. Headed there in 2 weeks. I’ll pack the febreeze
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful trip. Glad to know you can go “home” again, and that you can sometimes make your “younger humans” sit still long enough for a photo and a visit!
Sounds like the perfect weekend. We visited 2 weeks ago for the Heavenly Bodies exhibit at the Metropolitan. Hoping to see the other part of the exhibit at the Cloisters before it leaves. Maybe combine it with lunch at the Unicorn! Three Identical Strangers was amazing! It felt close to home because of the location and them being close to my age.
Thanks for your mini-tour of NYC adventures. Sounds exciting!
Lovely. Simply lovely. Thanks for the sensitive sharing. (The cowl is very nice, too. Love the color combo.)
Love New York. Love your Cowl. And I don’t know about all of Nashville airport but passed through the Southwest wing just yesterday and it was pretty spanking slick, New, maybe?
Lovely cowl! What a fun NYC adventure you had. Many, many years ago, my dad lived on the Chinatown/LES border. A few years ago, he and my brother stopped by and took a picture in front of his old building. It was the first time my dad had been back since he moved out. It gets very emotional, thinking about how our lives change over the years.
Your cow fabricl looks like a very pretty version of the carpet at the airport.
That terre looks just perfect for your pieds.
Great photos! I absolutely ADORE the pink/orange combo. Thank you for the pattern!
Your post has made me wistful for New York (although not the aromatics)! I lived in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn (159 Warren St.) from 1988-1991 before moving to Oklahoma City. I paid $750/month for a 4-room floor-thru with no air-conditioning on the parlor floor. I loved it.
Thank you for sharing your travels, especially the exhibit featuring the poetry by Auden. A real shape-shifter to me.
Oh, that poem! It perfectly captures all the swirling sin my own head these past days. I’m fiercely hanging onto “We must love each other or we die.”
What a lovely missal about going home you’ve shared with us!
The PDX airport carpet reigns supreme, my dear. Nashville will always gnash its teeth. (See what I see did there?) Otherwise, a lovely trip! 🙂
That’s exactly what I was thinking! I just got home to Portland from NYC last night. There’s no place like home.
In my Uptown biased opinion, the Heavenly Bodies exhibit at the Cloisters is way more effective (and not as crowded). Plus there’s the lovely medieval garden and great views of the Hudson River.
Thanks for the cowl pattern. Enjoyed reading about your New York weekend.
Gorgeous Cowl! In defense of my home town — some ‘hoods and avenues are more aromified than others… eg, if you’d been at Kay’s….
(Full disclose I used to have a love-hate relationship w NY, now it’s more like hate-mostly tolerate-sometimes like.)
I know Clif will have a grand ole time!! And hey, he might even go to class, too.
Thanks for the great cowl pattern!
I have not seen Three Identical Strangers yet, but I recently saw the story 20/20 (ABC) did about the movie, and they interviewed other people affected by the (SPOILER ALERT) adoption program in question. I recommend catching it on demand. I don’t know if the movie included all those people too. So disturbing. I remember when those three brothers were all over the TV news and talk shows 35 years ago.
Thanks for the Cowl pattern. And with your taste, you could work wonders on that place on W. 4th to make it fabulous.
You and Hubbo have made a handsome young human there! How is it that you all three have the same twinkle in the eye? Lovely family photo!
Thanks for reminding a native New Yorker of all there is to do here!
My running ‘joke’ since working in the City in my (ahem) youth: when I win the lottery, I am buying an entire brownstone on the UWS. Sigh. When I worked in Murray Hill, there was this charming semi-circle of Mews … a girl can dream, at any age. (now I walk by a brownstone in Chelsea leaving work that has a driveway and a garage. In the City!)
In my youth, the subway token cost 35 cents when I was in college, then 50, now I don’t even blink as I put $40 at a time on my Metrocard. I fully admit that if I were to move away, I would miss the City, even though I live in NJ (and the Met won’t let me ‘pay what I wish” anymore).
Hey, we were bridge-and-tunnel people at the same time! We were in Queens, 1986-1995. The scent of NY summer, oy.
PDX has some vintage carpet, and lots of new carpet. I think BNA has some music themed carpet in one of their terminals, and it’s good looking. I think I was flying American that time? Not sure.
Thanks for the quick tour of NY, and for waxing rhapsodic about setting eyes on the offspring. I had my kids over for impromptu dinner tonight; I was missing them. Even though they live in town!
I’m counting the years until I am allowed to return to the city. Have committed to letting the kids finish high school where we are now, in semi-rural PA.
THANK YOU for the shot of the finished cowl. It is so much more informative about the true nature of the object. I may adapt for some fingering I’m dying to use. At least for swatching.
TBD… Will be sure to send a pic/post to ravelry.
Watched the McQueen trailer, it looks really good. Have booked my ticket to see it this weekend, looking forward to it.
Lovely post! When I worked in NYC (Hudson/King Street, just south of Houston), my coworker and I would stroll over to that exact Joe’s for pizza. Sigh. So yummy! And we would sometimes treat ourselves to delivery from Hunan Pan (funny how I remember after almost 20 years!). Ah, they had the best szechuan tofu!!
And that pied a terre is fabu!!