Now I didn’t really think to be ‘super’ organised with an itinerary as such until I saw Jen’s from her recent time in the city… that made me reassess my planning process. Of the time I have in ny, the first 5 days are solo, then the remainder of the time I’ll mostly spend touring with Damian. Which means, I need to see and do all the things i.e. yarn stores before that time.

The other helpful tip Jen gave me, was a warning and a heads up on the metro system. Let’s just say, the time I spent finding the correct train stations I could have walked to my destination. Hey, you don’t really know who you are until you get lost in ny!

In saying that I have felt pretty safe so far in the city, despite spotting a billboard on my taxi ride from the airport yesterday title ‘Cop-shot’, 10k reward for information about anyone shooting a cop. Any cop? Oh my, that must happen a lot here. There are a ton of police in the city, it certainly keeps everyone in line, but there’s still a lot of grumpy tooting drivers out there though!

So. My itinerary for Day 1 was as follows:

Breakfast at Katz’s Deli, you know the one featured in When Harry met Sally, when Meg has that moment.

I ordered a lox and onion omelette, and I got this! I guess there is no need for lunch then.
It was delicious, perhaps I’ll just have a lox bagel next time.

I then headed down to Century21 (this was a lot harder than it sounds in real life). Century21, is a discount department store chain which has big brands at greatly reduced prices. I bought a few pairs of shoes.

I would have taken them back to the hotel immediately if it were not for Seaport yarns being so close and all. The owner’s husband apologised for the mess in the store, I replied ‘I don’t know what you mean, I see yarn!’ ~ it pretty much looks like my yarn shelf…

And then I attempted to get back to the hotel. Well, lucky breakfast was big, because by the time I had dropped off my purchases it was 4pm! (train stops may have had something to do with it) I still had 4 more things on my list to do for the day, thankfully all those places were within walking distance from the hotel.

Next I visited my kitten’s namesake Purl Soho. It was lovely. The store is presented so beautifully, I’ve heard people say how small it is, so I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t a shoebox. There were a few things I hadn’t seen before but I had heard about. I picked out some Spud & Chloe fine sock. 80% super wash wool 20% silk hello. I chose two colours to make striped socks, but you’ve probably already guessed that. I’ve been obsessed with pink and grey since Katie made that sweater last year; it reminds me of a dress I had when I was in primary school. I also got some koigu, it has happy sf memories associated with it and now it’s a souvenir of ny.

Next was Kate’s paperie. A nice paper shop, but not really different from visiting Zetta Florence in Melbourne. I also past by a couple of other paper stores in soho that I thought were on par with Kate’s and I wondered why the guidebooks only mention this one?

Lastly I visited Loopy Mango. Now I hadn’t heard of this place until I read Jen’s itinerary. I’m so glad I went. As well as having yarn (which was good yarn, but you have to blow my socks off these days for me to buy), they had beautiful items of homewares and crafts and argyle cashmere socks… hem hemm. I may have to go back and visit this place again, I don’t think the jet-lag and the ‘late in the day’ visit did it justice.

At 6 pm I called it a day. I didn’t manage to get to the last yarn store on my list, but I think I may be able to squeeze it in tomorrow.

Tomorrow and Wednesday is meant to be colder, I might have to do some switching around for the things planned, can’t have me shivering at the top of the empire state building now can we.