I'm still here!

But we have no internet access in New York (and it's difficult to shlep your child and laptop to an internet cafe - she's just not that into lattes) thanks to the brilliant contractors who renovated the apartment. They neglected to connect the inside wiring to the building wiring.

Anyway, things are going well so far. It's actually been somewhat freeing to be internet-less for a few weeks, though it's put a hitch in the job search. I've been knitting a bit, though I must ask *the* question: If a knitblogger knits when she is temporarily blogless, does it count? Hehe. Of course!

I finished up another one of those Alpaca Silk berets by the lovely Kat Coyle from Greetings from Knit Cafe. My only issue is that I used up every scrap of that skein to make the hat and had to increase the rate of decrease at the top, and I used a smaller needle for the cast-on and ribbing. Guess I should recheck my gauge on that. But it came out nicely in a rich chocolate brown. And I wear the one I made for myself in blue leftover from the Mermaid Hourglass Sweater this spring all the time (partly because I haven't knit myself a new winter hat yet, which I need to do).

I also knit up another of those adorable cabled baby sweaters from Knitting for Baby in grey Encore Worsted for my best friend's baby boy, Christopher Matthew, who joined the world on 12 November. There will be pictures at some point, though I made the six-month size, so it may be a little while before he sports it. He slept the entire time I held him (over an hour), so we got along like gangbusters. We'll see how things go next time.

I'm about halfway through the first of Eunny's Endpaper Mitts with leftover Clapotis yarn (Koigu) and a skein of brown Koigu. I did a long-tail cast-on because I didn't have the instructions with me for the better Tubular version. Seems fine, so far. I'm wrangling the two yarns fairly well, I think, though my Continental knitting needs some work. Tensioning the yarn in my left hand is the challenge.

And before we moved to New York I whipped up some mittens and a beret for Isobel in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino with help from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns. She looks very cute, if I do say so myself, and I'll have to snap some shots of her. She'll need a warmer hat and mittens for real winter, but I'll wait until we get her a new parka to decide on yarn for that. She says she's keen for me to make her a new sweater for Christmas, so we'll have to survey the stash in Manhattan when we return on Monday.

In my NYC adventures I've been to Purl Soho, which is much smaller than I would have thought, though very cute, and the staff were young and cool and interesting to chat with - they were putting out the new Manos del Uruguay wool/silk DK yarn, and we all fondled it and compared it to Sheep 3 from Sheep Shop Yarn Company. The main difference (besides colorways) is that the Manos is a single ply, while I believe Sheep 3 is three-ply. I may have bought some Blue Sky Alpacas Royal to possibly make something like a scarf for someone special. Maybe. Ahem. I believe the color is Cafe au Lait, but this skein didn't have a tag. As Isobel often says "That's O.K. Things happen."

I also checked out The Yarn Co., which was very busy when I was there on a weekday afternoon (my sweetie pretty much kicked me out of the apartment for the afternoon). Somehow I came home without five sale skeins of Noro Cash Iroha in a pretty pool color because I couldn't figure out what to do with it and didn't want to have to go on the hunt for dyelot matches. They had a huge selection of Manos and a good variety of yarn, there were quite a few staff members helping people out and a busy communal work table, but I didn't quite feel at home.

You know where I did feel at home? Yarns in the Farms, when I stopped by for a few minutes the weekend before Thanksgiving. Nick had a conference in Providence, so we drove up on Sunday to get kitty Riley and some of Isobel's toys (and my toys: YARN) from the house. Even though it was past Isobel's naptime, and we still hadn't eaten lunch, I couldn't be in the 'hood without stopping my MY LYS. There is another yarn shop I need to check out near Columbia that may work. It's not far from the apartment and has a knit night. I'll let you all know how Yarntopia works out. Well, once we have internet access or Isobel expresses an interest in hanging out at a cafe.